Transporters - Confirmed as intended mainly for cargo at this stage. Barring laziness (which of course is a constant sword of Damocles that we can expect to fall on Enterprise) they won't fill the same role as they did in latter series at all. Shuttle-lovers unite!
Phasers - The pilot sees "Phase Pistols" introduced as fresh-out-of-the-labs tech. The good: They're not phasers proper, so we can at least be thankful that "A Matter of Time" and the TNGTM were adhered-to. The bad: Makes the use of lasers in "The Cage" a little more niggly. <apologist>Perhaps the two weapons systems were developed in parallel with eventually the phase-pistol-based "phaser" triumphing and becoming the mainstream hand weapon.</apologist>
Photon Torpedoes - Out. Enterprise has funkarific missiles of some nature. I imagine specific details will be forthcoming when a full transcript of this media night go public.
Shields - Out.
Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on :
Well, as the resident small arms expert, I've never really gone for the status of the "Cage/Menagerie" handweapons as lasers anyway. Sure, they night have been called that, but let's face it, amplified light really isn't going to do what you saw the emitted beams do in that episode.
I'm also encouraged by the name "Phase Pistol." I hope it will have some sort of pistol-grip; if it's a blatant rip-off of the post-TNG "no weapons that look like guns" policy then I'll be annoyed.
And where the hell am I going to put them on my site?
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
On the transporters, yep, need to be careful about laziness. It was bad enough that TNG, DS9, and Voyager started giving the transporters magical abilities (yes, I'm am aware of what I'm saying! ), but to have that spread to Enterprise would be too much. I'd also like to see more use of shuttles, so I'm quite pleased by this tidbit of news.
On phasters, I'm with Lee on this: make them look like actual weaponry instead of mini-Dust Busters. Modeling the phase pistols on the guns from the old Lazer Tag game would be a good idea. Of course, I'm aware any and all props have been designed at this point.
On the photon torpedoes, I'm glad they're out. It also seemed to me that the torpedoes were relatively new technology in the TOS era.
On the shields, I wonder if the ship will have navigational deflector shields or not.
Posted by Stingray (Member # 621) on :
It has to Sig. A good micron-sized chunk of stray asteroid coming at the good Akiraprize at multiple times the speed of light. Well, maybe with its fancy nuke-repelling armor she might make it, but I'm betting on nav deflectors.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
No shields! Interesting. Maybe even cool.
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
I'm only wondering about the shields since, to my mind, it seems the navigational shields are off-shoots of the deflector shields. Notice that this is my opinion and your mileage may vary. I'm pretty sure there may be a small deflector beam or two, however.
Posted by The_Tom (Member # 38) on :
Of course, this raises the old question of whether the navigational deflector (along with inertial dampners, but that's another debate) should actually be needed for warp travel. Flying debris taking chunks out the windshield are certainly an issue at high velocity impulse, but if a ship is warping space around it, pulling the substance of the universe closer on one side and pushing it away on the other, one must wonder if it'd essentially be phased out of conventional spacetime altogether. From most of the fragments of warp theory we've heard on the show, in the TNGTM and in real life today, there may be grounds to assume that debris would be bent around the ship's warp bubble and pass by it unnoticed. Of course, that would also make ships at warp essentially invincible to projectile weapons, too, but unless the warping effect created by warp engines is substantially different to the warps naturally found in our universe, than this would have to be the case, no?
Posted by Treknophyle (Member # 509) on :
I don't think so.
The analogy I use is of a ripple in a carpet moving down a corridor - and a small model ship "riding" the ripple's crest. If there is a small rock sitting on the rug, the ship will whack into it as the ripple passes the rock - )while raising it up).
Posted by Stingray (Member # 621) on :
I always figured combat shields came as an offshoot of nav. Wasn't there a thread awhile back dealing with the bare neccessity of accompaning tech that Cochrane needed for the warp flight? Really, with Treknophyle's analogy, nav deflectors are required. And then, power supplies, weapons/power of weapons, etc. led to the development of superpowerful forcefields that became shields. That would be a good proto-tech for Akiraprize.
Posted by Brown_supahero (Member # 83) on :
sub light drive
Should the enterprise have impulse.
Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on :
Well, since "impulse drive" can be considered a generic term for any space drive that uses forceto propel the ship forward - chemical, nuclear, whatever - I'd say Enterprise will have an impulse drive.
), but to have that spread to Enterprise would be too much. I'd also like to see more use of shuttles, so I'm quite pleased by this tidbit of news.