The First One
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed
Member # 35
posted
Shuttle is a generic term. A shuttlecraft is a shuttle. A shuttlepod is a shuttle. A runabout is, basically, a shuttle.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Alright, after watching Insurrection (in Widescreen) since I just bought the tape last weekend, I caught some dandy little tidbits about the Scout Ship and Shuttlecraft.
1) The "Shuttlecraft" is never refered to as such.
2) The shuttlecraft has no aft access ways visible from the cockpit. It appears the docking mechanism is actually built into the roof of the cockpit.
3) The Scout Ship has 2 decks (!!!). If you look at the scene where Worf enters the Cockpit, you can see he climbed up a ladder. My thought is that there is a sub-deck below the cockpit where you can store equipment and crew. The back of the ship appears to have plenty of room to fit a bunk or two. Also, the cockpit appears to be rather large, allowing it also to handle crewmembers. As I thought about it, it appeared that the scout ship might actually be the only Fed ship used (with exception of the holoship). This left me with 4 possiblities:
A) The Scout Ship carried all the Duck Blind Officers and Admiral Daughtery to the Briar Patch, where the Son'a Command Ship took over the operation
B) The Scout Ship was assigned to the holoship (since it most likely has a small shuttlebay somehwere), and Daughtery and co. came onboard here
C) The Scout Ship came in a shuttle bay of the Son'a Command Ship. This is possible, since Admiral Doughtery was always on the Son'a Ship. It's possible the Son'a Ship was the only ship there (again, with exception of the holoship)
D) The unknown and unseen "USS Ticonderoga", which was dilly dallying somewhere around, just dropped off Daughtery and co. with the Scout Ship
------------------ "The things hollow--it goes on forever--and--oh my God!--it's full of stars!" -David Bowman's last transmission back to Earth, 2001: A Space Odyssey
posted
Oh, and I don't think the shuttle has aft torpedo launchers. The Yacht might, but not the shuttle. The ship's fired tachyon bursts, but never torpedoes. Of course, i have no clue where the tachyon bursts came from...
------------------ "The things hollow--it goes on forever--and--oh my God!--it's full of stars!" -David Bowman's last transmission back to Earth, 2001: A Space Odyssey
posted
Alright, how bout this. The scout ship belongs to the Ticonderoga from which Admiral Dougherty and the Starfleet crew came from. Since it was stated that because of the nature of the Briar Patch ship travel was difficult and not recommended without certain modifications. Instead of modifying the Ticonderoga they came to the Baku planet in the scout ship instead.
------------------ Calvin: "I'm a man of few words." Hobbes: "Maybe if you read more, you'd have a larger vocabulary." Federation Starship Datalink - Starship site of the new millennium.
posted
Hobbes, I like it. Except the Ticonderoga would have to have left the area while the crew were on the surface and before the Enterprise showed up or they would have certainly been involved in the plot.
I don't like the idea that the holoship had a shuttlebay. It's just a box with a bridge and warp nacelles. I don't even think Starfleet has made more than a couple.
posted
I doubt that the "holoship" was built as one. I'd bet it was just a generic Billy-Jo class freighter with a huge hologrid installed in the cargo bay.
------------------ "I wish that everything went just as I wish everything would go." -- John Linnell
posted
And would a freighter manage without a shuttle hangar? The holoship did have planetary landing capacity (at least when empty), so it could load and offload while sitting on the ground. OTOH, sometimes it probably wouldn't be worth landing on a planet to pick up a small amount of cargo when the ship is already heavily laden - and I doubt tansporters are all that good in loading or offloading bulk cargo. It would be nice to have a barge of some sort carried aboard the holoship and related freighter designs...
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The following ships were in the Briar Patch at the beginning: - The holoship (landed and cloaked): purpose obvious - The mission scout: It's a fully operational starship, why postulate it has mad the journey in a shuttlebay? The only reasonable possibility is that the scout ship belongs to the USS Ticonderoga (thanks, Hobbes), and the NCC-75227 is the number of the latter ship. Still, the scout is bigger than any shuttle we have seen so far. The most likely purpose: serve as a courier ship between the Briar Patch and the outside world - Ru'afo's ship: I think it's most likely that this ship accommodated both the Son'a and Starfleet crew. - The collector ship: purpose obvious
------------------ "Naomi Wildman, sub-unit of Ensign Samantha Wildman, state your intentions." (VOY: "Infinite Regress") Ex Astris Scientia
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Sol: I like your explanation that the holoship was not designed as one. If they took an existing freighter design and gutted it to put in the giant holodeck, that is much more satisfying to me than the thought of them designing and building a whole new ship for just this operation or building a whole class of holoships.
Bernd: I agree with you regarding the fully operational nature of the scoutship. My guess is this: The Son'a arrived outside the Briar Patch in their ships and the Starfleet crew aboard the Ticonderoga (I haven't actually read that this ship was there, but I'll trust whoever posted that it was). Some of the SF crew transferred to the Son'a ship and some to the Scoutship which either came on its own or aboard the Ticonderoga. They go to Bak'u in these two ships and the holoship. The Tic. leaves and is never heard from throught the whole movie.
I also wonder how Data got to the planet. I doubt the Enterprise took him anywhere. It's more likely that he took a shuttle or (to return ever so briefly to the topic) a runabout.
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Well the Enterprise-D was able to carry 3 runabouts, and since we know nothing on the Ticonderoga one can assume it's large enough to be able to carry the scout ship.
------------------ Calvin: "I'm a man of few words." Hobbes: "Maybe if you read more, you'd have a larger vocabulary." Federation Starship Datalink - Starship site of the new millennium.
posted
I have to wonder why Okuda bothered listing the Ticonderoga in the Encylcopedia when it was never seen or heard of in the movie. Was it perhaps in an earlier version of the Insurrection script? Does anyone know how to contact Okuda? He should be able to solve this mystery.
------------------ "Forgive me if I don't share your euphoria!" (Weyoun to Dukat, Tears of the Prophets) Dax's Ships of STAR TREK
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Interesting theory Black Knight, although even if the Encyclopedia doesn't contradict that theory, I'll have trouble believing that until the encyclopedia comes straight out and says, "Ticonderoga, U.S.S. - Starfleet freighter turned into a holoship for use in the Briar Patch". I just think that if this were the case, it's a fairly significant point, and the book should be clear about it.
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