Huh, that's pretty neat. Certainly seems like it shares some characteristics with Enterprise's polarized hull-plating.
Posted by EdipisReks (Member # 510) on :
i always thought of enterprises polarized plating as being like a heavy duty SIF. by the way, that electric tank armor is friggin sweet.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
SIF?
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
Yes, SIF.
Posted by EdipisReks (Member # 510) on :
no, SIF. you'll have to scroll down a little bit.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Hey, that's pretty interesting!
I don't know exactly where I read about it -- maybe Bernd's interview with Doug Drexler -- but the principle of polarized hull plating is that an electric current is channeled through this plating, and it hardens the plating to the point where it can sustain more damage from weaponry and other potential dangers. It's hardly perfect, of course, and the principle used for the tanks probably wouldn't translate directly to defense against energy beams, but the basic idea is the same. In fact, I'd bet that the tech guys on the staff originally came up with the idea based on reports of the real-world advances in the first place.
Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
The idea of hardening the material by applying a voltage comes from Andre Bormanis. I'm skeptical about this suggestion, for hardening would not really help against a beam or particle weapon which would burn the hull, rather than punch through it.
Posted by Nimpim (Member # 205) on :
Then the Enterprise's hull in "The Undiscovered Country" must be Shit-worthless, not to mention its shields, to have a klingon torpedo pass its saucer section intact. Ha!
Of course, given that the initial torpedo-hit on Excelsior, who had fresh shields, made half the bridge-crew fly shrieking across the room, suggests the BoP had some sort of super-torpedos that could increase its mass and gravity a hundredfold upon impact, making for small battlerams. Howsaboutit? A theory, at least.
Posted by The Mike Who Would Be Captain (Member # 709) on :
I think the problem was that some of the shielding needs a recognizable soure of fire to defend itself from. Basically, if they couldve seen the ship, thecrew or the ship's systems wouldve been able to shore up the danger area, provided it was at maximum efficiency. With the torpedoes coming unexpectedly from and unknown source, the automation and the crew weren't defending the hull. The Excelsior had full shields, but the ship couldn't compensate at all since it was a low blow.
Posted by Bernd (Member # 6) on :
Sounds like a reasonable explanation that the shields would normally be enforced in a certain area from which a blow is expected.
But back to the "punch through" issue, I always thought that this scene from ST VI (as impressive as it looked) was never a realistic effect a torpedo should have. It should have exploded at the moment of the impact and should have torn apart half of the saucer. That torpedo was a dud.
Oh yes, and there was another scene, when the superphaser of the Enterprise-D went straight through the hulls of the Klingon ships. But that was just its superior power.
Posted by Ryan McReynolds (Member # 28) on :
As long as we're being realistic, he STVI torpedo should have blown way more than half the saucer... they're in the 50 megaton range. That's more than enough to level a small city, and no hull metal (even super, undiscovered metal) could withstand it. The only possible explanation is that the SIF is capable of not only reinforcing the hull, but of actually serving as a last-ditch gamma radiation shunt that absorbs the radiation and redirects it away... much like the shields, only weaker. Presumably it's just efficient enough to prevent total vaporization while letting some excess seep through to blow out the other side of the saucer. I submit that another hit or two would have destroyed the ship outright.
Posted by Mark Nguyen (Member # 469) on :
I was under the impression that Chang had deliberately reduced the yield in his torpedoes so he could torment Kirk and blather on with his quotations. He was super-confident in the ability of his fancy cloaking device, so why not have some fun while on your way to an all-out war?
Mark
Posted by The Mike Who Would Be Captain (Member # 709) on :
i do it all the time on StarCraft.
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
Toying with one's opponent doesn't seem to be a new thing with cocky Klingons. In Generations, Lursa and Be'tor seemed to take their sweet time before deciding to cripple the Enterprise-D by targeting the main bridge. The shots before that point seemed to be aimed at tormenting the Enterprise crew and at keeping the ship from running away. The novelization is more explicit in this matter.
Posted by Colorful Cartman (Member # 256) on :
I always assumed L&B were *very* lousy shots, considering the E-D was pretty much a gigantic floating target with two extremely vulnerable areas (main bridge / deflector array).
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
quote: The only possible explanation is that the SIF is capable of not only reinforcing the hull, but of actually serving as a last-ditch gamma radiation shunt that absorbs the radiation and redirects it away... much like the shields, only weaker.
I seam to recall Saavik mentioning defence fields being energised in TWoK, before the shields proper went up.
quote: But back to the "punch through" issue, I always thought that this scene from ST VI (as impressive as it looked) was never a realistic effect a torpedo should have. It should have exploded at the moment of the impact and should have torn apart half of the saucer. That torpedo was a dud.
Wouldn't it be possible to configure a torpedo to produce a shaped explosion that focuses most of the energy forwards, rather than wasting the energy by letting most of it be deflected back into space with a standard spherical explosion? This would be by far, a more tactically useful weapon, especially if your going for a kill shot. Imagine the effect if such a hit blew clean through the secondary hull, it'd take out the cargo bay for a start and do some serious damage to the warp reactor system, maybe even take out the warp core itself.
It would be sort of like detonating a nuke at a specific altitude to get the maximum amount of destruction.