posted
Another two cents on this topic. In TMP you'll notice that the dish changes color from a kind of ruddy amber when the ship is at maneuvering thruster speed to blue when at impulse and warp. It goes back to amber when the ship gets seized by V'ger's tractor beam -- even in the new DE shots -- after Kirk tells Scotty to shut down all main drive systems (albeit in one shot just before Spock kicks on his jetpack it looks bluish...but everything in that shot is bluish for some reason). It goes blue again after the ship leaves V'ger.
Whatever the gizmo is, something about it clearly changes depending on the mode of propulsion in use at the time.
Make of that what you will!
-------------------- "Well, I mean, it's generally understood that, of all of the people in the world, Mike Nelson is the best." -- ULTRA MAGNUS, steadfast in curmudgeon
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
It has always been my understanding that the dish is the deflector, and that other equipment comprises the sensor 'array.'
The dish is aimed forward because that is where its primary function lies -- FAR ahead, sweeping debris out of the ship's way as it moves through space. In TMP, it changes color with the demand being placed upon it -- the faster the ship moves, the more power flows through the system and the more 'blue' the dish appears.
The main sensors in the ship rested in the upper and lower sensor domes, the leading edge of the primary hull (in its three circumferential bands in TMP), the area surrounding the deflector dish, and other locations. These could be aimed anywhere -- at a planet below, or behind the ship, or to port and starboard, or above and below the vessel.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
I know it's a little off topic, but are "naviagtion deflectors" and "deflector shields" all the same thing? Because while the NX-01 doesn't have shields as such, surely it would have to have naviagation deflectors, otherwise the hull would quickly be pocketed with thousands of tiny holes from micrometeorites and McDonald's drink cartons.
-------------------- 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.
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capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
Member # 709
posted
i hate to be a wet blanket, but perhaps the dish is equipped to be both a sensor array and a deflector..
and yes, i believe theres always been a difference between shields and deflectors.. i think that NX-01 probably has navigational deflectors based in their dish, in addition to plarizable hull plating.. (recall later, deflectors have not only navigational but tactical use, and are referred to as 'beams' or 'screens' while shields form the bubble around the ship..)
Registered: Sep 2001
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Deflectors are like ACME packets anyway... one more function will hardly arouse suspicion. B)
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Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
A DEFLECTOR (beam) redirects objects in the ships path, away, to avoid collisions. Otherwise, at even half lightspeed, the dust and gas in space would scour the hull pretty smooth in no time.. not to mention rocks.
A DEFLECTOR SHIELD makes it harder for directed objects/beams/missiles to hit. In game terms, think of it as giving a -1 to the hit roll.
FORCE FIELDS are like armor, they absorb/reduce the damage/inertia/energy in an impact/explosion.
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Registered: Nov 2002
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posted
Except when was the last time Trek used Force Fields in that context?
-------------------- 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.
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-------------------- joH'a' 'oH wIj DevwI' jIH DIchDaq Hutlh pagh (some days it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps in the morning) The Woozle!
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quote: A DEFLECTOR SHIELD makes it harder for directed objects/beams/missiles to hit. In game terms, think of it as giving a -1 to the hit roll.
Now, apart from the fact that I love the gloriousy geeky example, your definition of a Deflector Shield sounds like an ECM system. However, in Star Trek Deflector Shields seem to be...
quote: ...like armor, they absorb/reduce the damage/inertia/energy in an impact/explosion.
Which you say are Force Fields. So those definitions are fairly useless, since that's not how Trek uses them. And we are talking about Trek.
DRAMA!
-------------------- 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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posted
'The Making of Star Trek' refers to the forward dish as a 'main sensor-deflector.' So, in the case of the TOS Enterprise at least, I'd say it's a combined unit.
In the refit ship, however, the dish has been labeled a dedicated navigational deflector.
posted
The deflector could (in theory) act as a sensor by recording what was deflected by measuring the portion of the beam used to redirect a particular object. Kinda like a sonar ping.
Deflectors do not re-direct large objects from a starship's path (derilect vessels, large asteroids etc.) so the deflector acting as a extremely long range collision sensor makes sense.
Deflector/ Navigation shields (as shown on TWOK and TNG)are low-power shields that are always on and hug the ship's hull. That's why a ship is still protected while manuvering at impulse from debris outside the deflector's projected cone. Also why ship's sometimes pass through a debris field with no damnage. Riker once mentions that laser weapons can even not penetrate the Enterprise D's navigation shields (in Connundrum to be exact). In TWOK there are not always on and are activated just prior to the main shields coming on. Mr. Scotts seems to indicate that the deflector shields are a re-enforcment to the ship's SIF as well. These shields are generated by the Deflector Grid (like on the Connie Refit- see? a reason for those damn lines!)
Shields are energy barriers that protect the ship in combat and in most cases will block both matter and energy from impacting the ship's hull. Gene used the term "shields" because "force fields" jsut sounds so gay.
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posted
Which is fair enough, although they still use it for internal force fields.
But there has been extensive muddling of the term "deflector shields" in Trek. The TNG usage seemed to have "navigation deflectors" and "deflector shields" as two different things, considering the occasional "Damage to rear deflector shield". Navigation deflectors were the "keep dust and stuff out of the way", while deflector shields were the "big blue bubble thingie".
-------------------- 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.
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posted
Shane, "The Making of Star Trek" is not a good resource on the TOS Enterprise at all.
And I happily recognize:
Deflector beams -- the long-range, forward-sweeping beams that nudge macroparticles out of the ship's path...
Navigation(al) shields -- the nested bubble shields that catch minroparticles and can't be penetrated by lasers and also slows down phasers if they're strong enough...
Deflector shields -- the conformal "energy armour" that protects the hull from the full effects of enemy weapons to varying degrees depending on shield and weapons strenths and frequencies, etc.
--Jonah
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Registered: Feb 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Peregrinus: Deflector shields -- the conformal "energy armour" that protects the hull from the full effects of enemy weapons to varying degrees depending on shield and weapons strenths and frequencies, etc.
--Jonah
If "conformal" = "skin tight", then the problem there is that the deflector shields have only been like that since DS9 series 4 (or 5). TNG used shield bubbles for deflectors, unless you are saying that all those energy weapons were stopped by navigational shields.
-------------------- 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.
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