Self-Destruct not functional?

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2002-12-25 11:14pm

Remember after Picard rams the Scimitar, he tries to have the ship self-destruct, only to hear that its not functional? WTF?!? Which kind of incompetent idiot designs a ship that has a self-destruct system inoperable after battle?

Graeme Dice · Post by **Graeme Dice** » 2002-12-25 11:49pm

Auto-destruct was inoperable, not the manual destruct like we've seen in TOS.

Post by **Vympel** » 2002-12-25 11:55pm

Why didn't they use the manual?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2002-12-26 01:15am

How do we know that there's anything manual left aboard the ship? This is B&B-era Trek we're talking about here.

Captain Kruger · Post by **Captain Kruger** » 2002-12-26 01:24am

Good point. Like you've said before, when the computer is messed up, the ship is dead weight.

beyond hope · Post by **beyond hope** » 2002-12-26 07:54pm

To quote Dark Helmet from Spaceballs:

"Shit! Even in the future nothing works!"

Mel Brooks should sue.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2002-12-26 08:00pm

Graeme Dice wrote:Auto-destruct was inoperable, not the manual destruct like we've seen in TOS.

Self destruct was run thorugh the master computer in TOS, but it appeared to be a seperate system which the computer tied into. In "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", Bele burned out the self-destruct circuit, but Scotty and his engineers had the control rerouted within six minutes.

We can surmise that at the least it was a hardened system, since despite all the battle damage taken by the E-nil in TWOK and TSFS, Kirk was still able to activate it to destroy his ship over Genesis. This suggests that self-destruct was insulated from the main ship's circuitry, as you would expect in any properly designed control architecture.

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2002-12-26 08:02pm

Why didn't Geordi just go up to the warp core computer, and ask it "what is stronger, the irrestible force, or the immovable object?" That would have caused a self-destruct.

Why not just have Data install an old version of Windows ME onto the central computer? That would have caused a self-destruct.

Why not have Worf just look at the warp core funny? That would have caused a self-destruct.

There are so many options they could have used, but they never tried anything.

Baron Mordo · Post by **Baron Mordo** » 2002-12-26 08:54pm

I was under the impression that the self-destruct used a self-contained computer system. That would be the sensible thing to do.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2002-12-26 09:32pm

There are no segregated computer systems anywhere on the TNG-era Enterprise. "Contagion" demonstrated that quite clearly, with the computer virus spreading from a single point to every system on the ship.

Post by **Rob Wilson** » 2002-12-27 11:14am

Exonerate wrote:Remember after Picard rams the Scimitar, he tries to have the ship self-destruct, only to hear that its not functional? WTF?!? Which kind of incompetent idiot designs a ship that has a self-destruct system inoperable after battle?

Why didn't he order Geordi to switch of the A-M containment field, after ll that's all the self-destruct does anyway. If push comes to shove Detonate a Phaser next the containers.

Mind you, in Search for Spock, you see that the Self-destruct only destroys parts of the Saucer in the TOS days and the rest of the still intact Enterprise goes sailing past the camera. Does the TNG and beyond version do more damage?

Post by **Vympel** » 2002-12-27 12:24pm

There was a manual system on the E-D in TNG- down in Engineering. Riker and Picard needed to palm authorize or something, IIRC.

Frick can't remember the episode.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2002-12-27 12:38pm

The one with the Binars if that helps any...can't remember title though.

Post by **Rob Wilson** » 2002-12-27 02:37pm

Ghost Rider wrote:The one with the Binars if that helps any...can't remember title though.

1100110 or something like that (it was in binary anyway), if it's the one I'm thinking of.

I still think just blowing up the containment generator would have done it though. Much more my idea of Manual self-destruct.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2002-12-27 03:24pm

Sure why not given that a love tap could probably do it

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2002-12-27 04:38pm

It is quite an irony that they can't make the ship blow up on purpose, but it blows up by accident at the drop of a hat.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2002-12-27 05:30pm

Darth Wong wrote:It is quite an irony that they can't make the ship blow up on purpose, but it blows up by accident at the drop of a hat.

Lowest bidder?

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2002-12-27 05:33pm

Patrick Degan wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:It is quite an irony that they can't make the ship blow up on purpose, but it blows up by accident at the drop of a hat.
Lowest bidder?

Now we know what happened to the descendants of the people who designed the Chernobyl power plant; they became Starfleet engineers.

paladin · Post by **paladin** » 2002-12-27 06:44pm

closet sci-fi fan wrote:with such a volatile fuel source like anti-matter, it defies logic why they couldn't just shoot the damn warp core and/or anti-matter storage containers to get their self-destruct.

Good idea! If the Geordi had half a brain, he would have try to have someone destroy the antimatter containment pods to destroy the ship. Instead of "oh' well, self destruct is off-line. So, guess we can't blow the ship up."

Crazy_Vasey · Post by **Crazy_Vasey** » 2002-12-27 07:02pm

Just sneeze near the warp core, who needs a damn self destruct system?

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2002-12-28 04:46am

Darth Wong wrote:
Patrick Degan wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:It is quite an irony that they can't make the ship blow up on purpose, but it blows up by accident at the drop of a hat.
Lowest bidder?
Now we know what happened to the descendants of the people who designed the Chernobyl power plant; they became Starfleet engineers.

It took hours to disable the safety system to get Chernobyl to blow, don't insult the Russians. Even there morons are far above the idiots that design Federation starships.

There's also the question of why no one tried to launch shuttle craft for additional ramming attacks or to fire at the damaged areas of the ship, or to damage the hopelessly over engineered technobabble emitters.

Kamakazie Sith · Post by **Kamakazie Sith** » 2002-12-28 05:23am

Darth Wong wrote:It is quite an irony that they can't make the ship blow up on purpose, but it blows up by accident at the drop of a hat.

Hasn't that become a brain bug among ST vs. SW debates?

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Self-Destruct not functional?

Self-Destruct not functional?

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