posted
Something that a lot of people (here, anyway) noticed in the first couple of episodes of Enterprise was the sudden discontinuity between "Broken Bow," where the NX-01 made a reasonable accounting for itself firing a bunch of bolts of light that sounded like disruptor/plasma-type weapons. Then, of course, in "Fight or Flight" and "Silent Enemy," it seemed like the spatial torpedoes were the only effective armaments that the ship had. For whatever reason, this inconsistency stuck in my mind, even though I never had the opportunity to go back and watch the pilot again, and more importantly, get screencaps of my own.
I just borrowed the DVD set for ENT season 1 from a friend, and re-watched "Broken Bow" for the first time since it first aired. I got the opportunity to take a couple of screencaps and get some good slow-mo glimpses, and it's pretty much confirmed what I've believed for a while: the NX-01's weapons from the pilot were not the torpedoes, but most certainly plasma cannons. The effect sort of sounds like a torpedo launch effect, but also very much like the effect of a Klingon-type ship firing its disruptor bolts. Which makes sense, if we consider that a plasma cannon is probably a brute-force type weapon similar to, but not as powerful or effective as, a disruptor.
Also, the weapons aren't launched from the bottom, but instead the top... and now I've finally been able to go back for myself and confirm the location. It's those two circular ports just at the forward ends of the catamarans. Each of the caps below is the first frame in which the respective plasma bolt appears.
One little glitch, though, is that it seems as if there's maybe three ports... the second bolt seems like it might be coming from somewhere between the other two. But when I rapidly switch between the three caps (man, I love OS X's Preview and its browse drawer!) one could probably argue that two of the bolts just come from the same cannon.
Bernd argues in his tech assessment that there are "at least three locations"�aka cannon ports. However, the first bolt comes from too far starboard; it's almost at the edge of the catamaran. The second bolt seems to come from slightly starboard of the midline, but it's rather blurry compared to the first appearance of the first and third bolts (probably a side effect of the plasma glow mixed with the spotlight on the ship's name on the hull). I would argue that the second bolt is coming from the proper starboard-side port indicated above. And the third cap definitely comes from the port-side port. Considering all of the various effects glitches over the years, a few pixels over seems reasonable, so we can assume that there are just two plasma cannons.
(BTW, I'm not 100% certain that this has never been discussed before, but I searched for ten or fifteen minutes in S&T and ENT, and didn't find anything too relevant. Is this old news to anyone?)
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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posted
Those red 'plasma' bursts remind me that the original laser-pistols or what ever they were before Malcolm gave the Captain the new orange-beamed phase-disruptors also gave out a red beam... so maybe red colour = crappier and those red plasma bursts were superseeded?
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
posted
"...so we can assume that there are just two plasma cannons."
I'd argue that all the dirty-dozen gunports on the ship were designed to accommodate a "standard weapon module". The original intent was to drop in a phase cannon module on each, but since the ship launched ahead of schedule, some older plasma cannon modules were used instead... I'd assume there were corresponding dorsal- and/or aft-firing units in "Broken Bow".
Reed and pals would gradually alter the arsenal during the two-year mission by building phase cannon in the free berths (at least five, perhaps more, despite the original talk of three). The plasma cannon might or might not be removed or deactivated in the process (do we ever see these two dorsal ports fire before the Season Three refit?), but certainly they would fall into disuse.
And why not? It's not as if they hit anything in "Broken Bow", and similar weapons seen in "Fortunate Son" et al. seemed to score relatively little damage.
posted
IIRC, there might've been a dorsal phase cannon seen firing somewhere in the "Shockwave" two-parter. I'll check on that later...
To clarify my assertion that Timo quoted, I simply meant that there are just two plasma cannons in the dorsal, forward-facing section of the ship. There could absolutely be others elsewhere. I certainly hope there were a few others, anyway!
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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posted
They do indeed fire from the dorsal side on occasion - but from odd locations, including the dorsal ports flanking the main deflector, and the "supercharger" greeblies atop the catamaran structures. Through the first two seasons of Enterprise tech reports on Flare, I documented each instance - including a report on the apparent use of plasma weapons in "Broken Bow". However, Enterprise is riddled with weapons discontinuties, one of the many problems that came from losing the direct link between the art and VFX departments, which happens when you outsource CG work to people who don't understand the ship design. Remember the Darmok!
I'm cool with the "standardized module" approach for the weapons pods. But to keep the number of cannons down, I theorize that the phase cannons are on rails that can physically move the pods to different ports as necessary (much as has been done back in the day when old sailing ships needed an extra-spacial broadside). While Reed and company should have easily been able to build more, we did get infrequent references to the single aft phase cannon through the third season's "Damage", at least.
Mark
[ June 12, 2006, 08:23 AM: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
posted
While reading the novelization of Broken Bow the weapons are described. Here's the description taken directly from the book on page 163:
"Rapid-blast torpedoes of compressed energy made a luminous anouncement. The artillery shells spoke out across the giant's sky-bound seas and scattered through the Suliban patrol."
Hope that helps.
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posted
While reading the novelization of Broken Bow the weapons are described. Here's the description taken directly from the book on page 163:
"Rapid-blast torpedoes of compressed energy made a luminous anouncement. The artillery shells spoke out across the giant's sky-bound seas and scattered through the Suliban patrol."
Hope that helps.
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quote: I'm wondering if the plasma cannons didn't have to be partially cannibalized to build the phase cannons.
Or repairing Plasma Conduits for that matter....or anything else they'd need to scrap in the dozen or so times they patched the ship/ cobbled together some device, sensor or weapon.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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posted
Erik Njorl, son of Frothgar, leaves his home to seek Hangar the Elder at the home of Thorvald Nlodvisson, the son of Gudleif, half brother of Thorgier, the priest of Ljosa water, who took to wife Thurunn, the mother of Thorkel Braggart, the slayer of Cudround the powerful, who knew Howal, son of Geernon, son of Erik from Valdalesc, son of Arval Gristlebeard, son of Harken, who killed Bjortguaard in Sochnadale in Norway over Cudreed, daughter of Thorkel Long, the son of Kettle-Trout, the half son of Harviyoun Half-troll, father of Ingbare the Brave, who with Isenbert of Gottenberg the daughter of Hangbard the Fierce. . .
posted
Actually, the author is Diane Carey, perhaps somewhat less surprisingly...
I'm quite surprised she spoke of artillery shells, though. Cannonballs or ballista arrows would have been more her style in terms of futuristic space technology.
posted
Actually, I've changed my mind - that passage reads like it's been translated from a Japanese manual. I'm sure I've seen the phrase "luminous announcement" in relation to a warning indicator light on my Sony TV.
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However, Enterprise is riddled with weapons discontinuties, one of the many problems that came from losing the direct link between the art and VFX departments, which happens when you outsource CG work to people who don't understand the ship design. Remember the Darmok!![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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