Trek 09 Starfleet weapons, organization, etc. [Spoilers]

[SylasGaunt]

With regards to the drill being disabled by Kirk and Sulu if you look close when they're firing into it you can see some kind of pipe whipping loose so I'm guessing they were either cutting the wiring or severing something like coolant pipes.

Didn't Nero call it something like the border defense grid or some such? Maybe if it is armed it's built for interception farther out to keep the battle out of Earth orbit where stray rounds can do unfortunate things?

Or maybe the defenses were close in and Nero used them for that instant of surprise which would be all he needed to blow seven kinds of hell out of anything that could shoot back.

[Worlds Spanner]

Later on, Kirk claimed that the Kelvin had had "advanced weaponry,"

I'm fairly sure he's referring to the Narada and its particular brand of missiles when he says 'that ship was equipped with advanced weaponry'. In fact, I'm fairly sure he follows it up with a line to the effect of 'and was never seen nor heard of again'.

I think he said "It destroyed the Kelvin, a ship with advanced weaponry and (something or other), and was never seen again." I could be wrong though.

[Bounty]

No, the "advanced weaponry" definitely referred to the Narada. I don't remember the precise phrasing but the line was unambiguous.

[Lord Revan]

btw is it just me or did the Kelvan have 800+ crew count (Pike said that George Kirk had saved 800 people and there were at least some deaths before the Shuttles left, granted Pike could have rounded the amount saved since it was a peptalk not an official document).

[Bounty]

800, yes. Less of a stretch with the new shuttles, it looks like you can get a good 20-30 people in the transport variant.

[Skylon]

btw is it just me or did the Kelvan have 800+ crew count (Pike said that George Kirk had saved 800 people and there were at least some deaths before the Shuttles left, granted Pike could have rounded the amount saved since it was a peptalk not an official document).

It apparently did. It was classified as a "survey ship". If so, that's a lot of people for a survey ship. Maybe it was going to be conducting an extensive survey of a planet, and had extra hands aboard when it ran into Nero?

[Skylon]

A little technical note, Starfleet officers in this timeline are equipped with SOMETHING that monitors their vitals and can be monitored when off ship. Injected computer chip perhaps?

Also, the transporters require their target to be somewhat stationary (or at least it's much preferred). This always seemed implied by TOS, as I don't remember anyone running ever being transported, and everybody usually made sure they were standing nice and still when beamed up. But I'm sure from TNG onward, someone was transported while running or falling.

[Coalition]

Ditto for Vulcan. Why exactly did the Romulans need to extend their drilling machine on a long, vulnerable tether that can be shot at when they could just house the thing within the ship where it could have all the benefits of the ships shields, armor, repair crew, and radiators?

Maybe it didn't properly work unless it was extended all the way? Keep in mind this was a mining ship, so the drill wasn't meant to be used as a weapon. A heavily modified mining ship, but still a mining ship.

Given that the drill affected communications and stuff for the older Federation, I wonder if it had a similar effect on Nero's ship? However, since his technology is more advanced, it is more resistant to the effect. He still has to get it away from his ship to reduce the effect. This could be due to its interaction with atmosphere though, meaning that for mining planets with no atmosphere, the drill can just be kept in the ship.

For Kirk's phaser, if I remember correctly, Kirk flipped it around from blue to red when Spock moved away. If blue is stun and red is kill, Kirk didn't plan on leaving live enemies behind him.

For the Nerada's (or whatever's Nero's ship was called) missiles, I wonder if those are more along the lines of demolition munitions modified for combat. In the future his ship is unarmed, but the sheer increase in equipment power makes them dangerous weapons in the past.

[Bounty]

For Kirk's phaser, if I remember correctly, Kirk flipped it around from blue to red when Spock moved away. If blue is stun and red is kill, Kirk didn't plan on leaving live enemies behind him.

They both had it on red ("kill") beaming in. kirk switched to blue to knock out the guard for Spock to mindmeld with, then switched back to red afterwards.

[Agent Fisher]

Speaking of the hand phasers. It brought a small smile to my face to see Kirk using a weaver grip with his phaser, nice to see shooting skills remain in the future.

[andrewgpaul]

Also, the transporters require their target to be somewhat stationary (or at least it's much preferred). This always seemed implied by TOS, as I don't remember anyone running ever being transported, and everybody usually made sure they were standing nice and still when beamed up. But I'm sure from TNG onward, someone was transported while running or falling.

Note that Chekov could get a lock on a moving target, if he had enough time to do it. It's possible that future Transporter systems get improved target lock capabilities.

[phred]

Also, the transporters require their target to be somewhat stationary (or at least it's much preferred). This always seemed implied by TOS, as I don't remember anyone running ever being transported, and everybody usually made sure they were standing nice and still when beamed up. But I'm sure from TNG onward, someone was transported while running or falling.

Note that Chekov could get a lock on a moving target, if he had enough time to do it. It's possible that future Transporter systems get improved target lock capabilities.

Or maybe Scotty's formula affects how they're built and programmed. Demonstrating the ability to beam aboard a ship at warp will probably change the outlook of the people working on them.

[Old Plympto]

A little technical note, Starfleet officers in this timeline are equipped with SOMETHING that monitors their vitals and can be monitored when off ship. Injected computer chip perhaps?

Although it's not shown onscreen I think they have those since TMP, with their perscan devices on their belt buckle. Not sure about TNG era though. Do their combadges also act like the perscans?

[Bounty]

A little technical note, Starfleet officers in this timeline are equipped with SOMETHING that monitors their vitals and can be monitored when off ship. Injected computer chip perhaps?

Although it's not shown onscreen I think they have those since TMP, with their perscan devices on their belt buckle. Not sure about TNG era though. Do their combadges also act like the perscans?

When the plot called for it.

[General Zod]

A little technical note, Starfleet officers in this timeline are equipped with SOMETHING that monitors their vitals and can be monitored when off ship. Injected computer chip perhaps?

Although it's not shown onscreen I think they have those since TMP, with their perscan devices on their belt buckle. Not sure about TNG era though. Do their combadges also act like the perscans?

They've had them since the original series. Subdermal transponder things that went right under your skin, sent a signal to the ship on where you were in case bad shit happened.

[Manus Celer Dei]

Also, the transporters require their target to be somewhat stationary (or at least it's much preferred). This always seemed implied by TOS, as I don't remember anyone running ever being transported, and everybody usually made sure they were standing nice and still when beamed up. But I'm sure from TNG onward, someone was transported while running or falling.

Note that Chekov could get a lock on a moving target, if he had enough time to do it. It's possible that future Transporter systems get improved target lock capabilities.

He mentions "correcting for gravational pull" when he's trying to get a lock, so maybe the problem was that they were accelerating, rather than just moving? When Scotty beams Spock off his ship later, he says the problem was getting a moving target onto the same pad as two non-moving targets, so a target with constant velocity might not pose too much trouble.

For the Nerada's (or whatever's Nero's ship was called) missiles, I wonder if those are more along the lines of demolition munitions modified for combat. In the future his ship is unarmed, but the sheer increase in equipment power makes them dangerous weapons in the past.

They looked to me like most of their damage came from kinetic impact, which makes sense for a mining ship; you'd want to smash rocks up rather than vapourise them. Obviously they've been a bit souped up to more than is needed for their original purpose, though.

[RedImperator]

They are capable of transporting multiple AUs and possibly multiple light years (onto a ship moving at warp, no less), yet they still frequently use shuttles for personnel transportation--even in an emergency situation when they need to scramble ships as quickly as possible. I'm not sure what that means yet--possibly that transporters are huge energy hogs, or it's impractical to transport more than half a dozen people at a time.

[Anguirus]

^ Maybe it's safety regs. After all, in TOS catastrophic transporter failure was not uncommon. And in Enterprise wasn't the transporter emergency-use only?

[Bounty]

They are capable of transporting multiple AUs and possibly multiple light years (onto a ship moving at warp, no less), yet they still frequently use shuttles for personnel transportation--even in an emergency situation when they need to scramble ships as quickly as possible. I'm not sure what that means yet--possibly that transporters are huge energy hogs, or it's impractical to transport more than half a dozen people at a time.

It felt as if the role of shuttles and transporters was reversed - while in the other Trek series shuttles are the transport of last resort, here they are the primary one with transporters for situations where shuttles aren't practical. Very Galaxy Quest, actually.

However, Nero does explicitly mention to Pike that he can't beam to Narada as if that would have been the standard way of boarding the ship.

I guess it helps that in this Trek shuttles can carry far more people in one go.

[bilateralrope]

They are capable of transporting multiple AUs and possibly multiple light years (onto a ship moving at warp, no less), yet they still frequently use shuttles for personnel transportation--even in an emergency situation when they need to scramble ships as quickly as possible. I'm not sure what that means yet--possibly that transporters are huge energy hogs, or it's impractical to transport more than half a dozen people at a time.

Weren't they only able to beam long distance because Spock brought back the equation needed to complete Scotty's transwarp beaming ?

[Junghalli]

Weren't they only able to beam long distance because Spock brought back the equation needed to complete Scotty's transwarp beaming ?

Yeah, I think it was something like that. I don't think the long range transporters were standard tech.

[NecronLord]

Yeah. Pre-transwarp transporter range was said to be 'a few hundred miles' IIRC.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Weren't they only able to beam long distance because Spock brought back the equation needed to complete Scotty's transwarp beaming ?

Yeah, I think it was something like that. I don't think the long range transporters were standard tech.

System-to-system beaming was done in only one episode in TNG, by that Ferengi guy who blamed Picard for killing his son.

[Jade Owl]

Weren't they only able to beam long distance because Spock brought back the equation needed to complete Scotty's transwarp beaming ?

Yeah, I think it was something like that. I don't think the long range transporters were standard tech.

System-to-system beaming was done in only one episode in TNG, by that Ferengi guy who blamed Picard for killing his son.

Wasn't there an case of interstellar beaming in that episode of TOS with the disembodied gambling brains? Or am I remembering that wrong?

[GuppyShark]

So, is it still procedure to bring civilians along on these ships? We didn't see any this time.

I'm hoping the tragic loss of the Kelvin taught the Federation that pregnant women and the like should probably not be deployed on starships.