quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: My point is that they could have been taking pot shots at the KBOP with their energy weapons (the ones that cover ther entire ship) instead of their relativly slow torpedos that they fired only after they knew exactly where the enemy was.
Couldnt they have set the torpedos to detonate near the KBP's last known position? Even such "depth charge" tactics beat nothing at all.
They address that in the novelisation (and for all I know, the original script). Spock mentions that by the time they track where the torpedo came from and return fire, the BOP will almost certainly have moved, so it would be pointless.
And since when does the Enterprise-A have energy weapons covering the entire ship? At last glance, it only had them on the saucer.
And, finally, do you realise how big space actually is? The chances of hitting the BOP with random weapons fire would have been astronomical. All that would happen is that the Enterprise would wear down it's energy stores without any benefit.
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Registered: Mar 1999
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The Enterprise has phaser banks at the very bottom of the secondary hull and above the shuttlebay as well: the whole ship's weapon's arcs are covered by at least two emitters.
I know all about space being...well, astronomically large, I just figured they could- via those supposedly super computers, track a torpedo's point of origin and fire in the immeadeate space around that point. It's what Enterprise E does in Nemesis to greater effect (due to the Sovvie having more phaser banks). Even a glancing shot with phaserswould have critically damaged the KBOP as it was running without shields.
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Registered: Aug 2002
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I tend to think that phasers are completely pointless against shields.
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Registered: Nov 2002
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Normally though the computers don't need to track where a weapon was fired from, as the ship itself is on sensors. Given that the photon torpedoes might take a few microseconds to appear on the sensors, coupled with the fact that the ship is hit by them shortly afterwards, probably makes tracking their origin point nigh-impossible.
See, the difference in our reasoning is that you assume that Kirk (or the writers) never thought of these things, whereas I think that he (or they) did, and they just didn't bother talking us through the stages step by step.
And does it have phaser banks on the bottom of the secondary hull and above the shuttle bay? I've never seen them. Granted, I'm going by not-overly-clear memories of the movies, along with the AMT model, but I'm not remembering any.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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It's not that I think the writers didint think of such things, it's that I think they decided to go with torpedos only for dramatic effect (regardless of it making a lot of sense).
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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