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"Remember how it goes:
You throw a rock, I throw a spear. You throw a spear, I fire a laser. You fire a laser, I personally beam onto the bridge and single handedly kill your crew.
Understood?"
Yes Dr. Ms.The Monarch
Something that I started wondering, when I watched that TNG episode where someone tries pointing lasers at the Enterprise, is if they could still be a viable weapon in the star trek universe if you put enough energy into one. Like, barely-space-capable species laser weapons might barely be noticable to the shields, but if you had like, a laser with a significant fraction of a star’s energy output pumped into it, or just a billion of those primitive laser-wielding ships, surely the shields have got to give eventually
I see we are going with the 40K “flashlight theory”
XKCD has the prototype
According to Memory Alpha, the borgs in TNG use lasers to cut through hulls of ships and even planet rocks
Theoretically you can put any amount of energy into a laser, as long as you can redirect and synchronise waves. And as several stars and black holes have gravities and stuff that can affect the starships, it seems evident you should be able to charge a laser enough to damage any USS starship.
And as the phase cannons seem to output 80-500 GJ, you should be able to match that fairly easily with 10 grams of matter annihilation or a second of about 10e-15 of the energy output of a sun type star.
Interestingly enough, phase modulation of a laser weapon makes more sense than of a particle beam (which the phaser weapons are), and also you don’t suffer from recoil like from phasers.
Polarize the hull plating!
Fun fact: all starfleet ship’s hulls are now constantly polarized, mostly to deflect random space dust, debris, etc. while traveling at sub-light. Not sure if it’s stated in canon when they started doing this, but in a few episodes, before walking on/working with the hull, it gets mentioned that they have to depolarize it first.
Edit: just because the guy below wants to launch an inquisition over the origin of this detail, it shouldn’t ruin everyone else’s fun here.
Not sure if it’s stated in canon when they started doing this
2150s. No, seriously. That’s been a thing since Archer. Hull polarization actually started as the first line of defense before shields became common place and much stronger. The NX Class and the Shuttlepod both had polarized hulls. They even make a mention in one of the episodes that while they’ve been away from Earth for months that Earths polarization tech has improved efficiency by 12%. But when shields started gaining more ground and traction, hull polarization wasn’t needed as much so it slowly slid to the background and was only used when necessary like when Voyager needed more stability or when the Delta Flyer was trying to be located. I remember something else about using it to modulate against a tractor beam too somewhere in DS9.
That being said, I’m not sure where you’re getting the information about constant polarization and deflecting space dust. Typically that’s what the deflector array was for. I’m not saying you’re wrong or anything, it’s Star Trek. There’s tons of inconsistencies and backups and redundancies. I’m just curious so I can add it to my giant folder of useless Star Trek info that’s buried in the back of my brain.
Edit: There is zero source material to back up the claim that the hull polarization reflects space dust and this guy seems to be acting on bad faith. I’m just going to go ahead and take everything he said here with a grain of salt the size of a D’Deridex.
I’m aware of when hull polarization began being used, but one can infer from more recent dialog that it’s now a “constantly-on” feature.
Also, the deflectors are typically for use at warp speed as they project forward from the deflector dish. A polarized hull is useful at sub-light.
The deflectors are vital at warp speed but they’re still on at sublight speed. I also cannot find a single mention of polarized hull ever being used to repel dust/dirt at any speed. That’s why I asked. Memory Alpha doesn’t address it at all and google is returning zero results. I also cannot think of any recent dialog ever mentioning something to that effect. The closest I can think of is the Cerritos but their hull wasn’t polarized, it was had magnetic shielding.
I did say “typically” used at warp, not “only”.
Okay, but again, what’s your sources for this? I cannot find a single citation to back you up. Memory Alpha doesn’t mention your use at all.
Not every line of dialogue has a memory alpha citation, and I’m not going to go rewatch almost a thousand episodes and a dozen films to figure out where I heard it just to satisfy your curiosity.
I’m sorry if that’s not good enough for you, but I think I’ve been reasonably patient with your repeated demands for a citation. This isn’t a court of law. I’m here to have a fun, casual conversation, not to be interrogated.
Wouldn’t polarizing the hull basically mean magnetizing it? That always bothered me.
I would assume it’s an optical polarizer. Like on sunglasses or LCD screens.
They’re clearly forcing the shield to be split amongst two opposing ideals.
Out the window you go!
If a big magnet protects spaceship earth from cosmic rays, a smaller magnet should protect spaceship enterprise from death rays.
But seriously, my take was always that there was something like an inner and an outer hull, and by polarizing them with opposing charges you might reinforce them so explosions are less likely to blast the outer hull off. Kind of like a magnetic lock around the entire ship.
I wish we had a spin-off series of all the incorrectly reconstructed voyager tales from that future museum this would definitely be a scene LOL
We really would come to think of it.
What a great episode too. Loved seeing Evil Tuvok and by love I mean was scared shitless by seeing him smile.
Smiling Spock in SNW channels the same energy.
You’re not wrong. It’s cute but also deeply deeply wrong.
Lets beam some photon torpedoes into their crew quarters.
swap their coffee reserves for tri-cobalt devices
Widdle waser beams
Janeway really needs to moderate that coffee addiction. I don’t drink the stuff personally, but I don’t think it’s worth some of the stuff she did for a better cuppa
She only drinks tea now.
as long as it’s not Nescafé Gold Blend. that stuff makes me want to vomit from a sip.
been finding out every week that they own some random brand I’ve been using for a while >_>
Nescafé anything is shit. Literally the worst coffee.
Jacobs gives it a run for it’s money. And a runny stool for the poor sods unfortunate enough to drink it.
agreed. sadly in my area it dominates the store shelves so I rarely find bearable coffee brands :/
Coffee Crisp pretty good tho
It wasn’t even for better coffee, just coffee.
🤔 So like, what would stop some diplomat from just bringing a suitcase nuke with them when getting beamed on board, and setting it off?
The transporter detects and disables weapons mid beam. In at least one episode, they held a diplomat in the buffer to ask what to do about their weapon.
How the fuck is that even possible even by technobabble standards?
How would they differentiate a weapon from life-saving medical equipment, and why wouldn’t some evil villain capitalize on that fact?
Or just make the crew beam down on some planet for some meeting and nuke the meeting place?
Or just pack a ship full of antimatter and ram it into the Enterprise?
The whole way war is done in Star Trek is so fucking stupid 🤦
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The computer differentiates. Not sure why this is such a leap. The system is able to perfectly rebuild you because it analyzes you as you come in. It needs to know what to rebuild so it scans every part to rebuild. The system is able to tell between a tricorder and a phaser. There is no way for a villain to capitalize on this if they’re the one beaming onto any Starfleet ship because Starfleet is in control.
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You could attack the away party and nuke the planet but it makes no sense to do so. Congrats. You’ve killed a couple people from the away team. The only thing you’ve done is guarantee you’ll be hunted down by Starfleet.
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The deflector shields prevent ships from ramming ships. The shields prevent matter from entering.
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Anti matter is insanely volatile and you’re not going to be able to casually pack the ship full of it
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Ships have been used as suicide vessels that let their warp drive go critical. They’ve done this on ships in space as well as entering space stations cloaked and then detonating.
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Nah, it is not “fucking stupid”.
See, that’s a logical and reasonable explanation and LastYearsPumpkin@feddit.ch ought to take lessons from you.
Nah, it is not “fucking stupid”
Ehh. I’m still not quite sold on that point, but I accept your explanations for the others.
Yeah I’m just going to go ahead and block you. You come into a Star Trek community throwing a fit about Star Trek, insulting it all based off of your own complete ignorance on the situation, and then have the fucking nerve to insult everyone else?
Some repugnant ass behavior. I’m sorry to @LastYearsPumpkin@feddit.ch. Just ignore this jerk.
∆∆ Yeah, I figured they would react like that even with positive acknowledgement of anything logical they had to say, because surprise-surprise, they weren’t actually speaking in good faith, they were just angry someone pointed out plot holes in some dumb TV show that their own friend even acknowledged is just fiction and doesn’t matter.
You all are highly highly oversensitive and you need to grow up. If it’s just fiction don’t throw temper tantrums when people point out plot holes because you can’t tolerate any sort of criticism toward a TV show of all things.
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Even crazier, they can filter out disease in the transporter. That’s how they don’t bring plagues back onto the ship after going on away missions.
How do they tell what’s a natural microbiome vs. crazy alien bacteria? Who knows, it’s a fantasy space show. Just sit back and relax.
That’s just a weak-ass cop-out and you and I know it.
Why even have plots if they have magic machines that can make any problem go away with arbitrary explanations of how they work that are neither consistent or logical within the rules of its universe?
It’s stupid. And I can bet you’re just going to respond “Well, I like it anyway so I don’t care” in which case why even bother responding?
