posted
[potential spoilers for various Trek shows]
I'm just trying to think of how many "Death Star" type weapons we've seen in Trek - weapons capable of destroyiong a planet completely. Can't think of too many off hand; let's see what we can come up with.
-Xindi sphere
-Species 8472 super bioweapon (surprisingly similar to the Xindi Death Star)
-Dominion protomatter bomb (indirectly, but same result)
posted
I'm talking about weapons that can utterly destroy a planet - so the Genesis Device, the chronoship and whale probe are pretty much out. Soran's trilithium weapon and the TOS planetkiller are in, and I guess V'Ger counts... What would those thing have done? Digitized the planet like it did the Klingons and Epsilon IX?
quote:Originally posted by Mark Nguyen: I'm talking about weapons that can utterly destroy a planet - so the Genesis Device, the chronoship and whale probe are pretty much out. Soran's trilithium weapon and the TOS planetkiller are in, and I guess V'Ger counts... What would those thing have done? Digitized the planet like it did the Klingons and Epsilon IX?
Mark
Given that in one line of dialogue (in the Special Longer Version of TMP) about V'ger is...
SPOCK: Fascinating. That vessel is generating a forcefield greater than the radiation of Earth's sun.
...I'd guess V'ger could blow the crap out of Earth if it had wanted to. Hell in the original cut, its powerfield was described as over 82AUs in diameter, which is larger than the orbit of Pluto! That's a lotta power.
-------------------- "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
Hmmmm. IIRC, didn't the Genesis device create a planet from a nebula, then the planet essentially self-destructed because it used protomatter or some such? Thus, one would expect that its effect on a pre-existing solar system would be less than beneficial.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:-Dominion protomatter bomb (indirectly, but same result)
Uh...the fuck!?!
Is that from a book or video game?
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Regarding Gensis: they were looking for a planet to test it on. It was basically an instant terraformation device. The effect is supposed to rush across the entire surface of the planet, destroy everything, and rebuild it all according to its programming.
So, it would destroy everything on the planet, but the actual chunk of rock constituting the planet itself would stay intact.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Genesis would have to re-order the planet's crust on a molecular level to support life. That's only about 100,000th of the planet's overall thickness, but it's still a hell of a lot.
Billions of kilometers of surface area, if nothing else.
If Starfleet could develop a Genesis device with no re-programing of matter, just the power to destroy the existing structure, they'd have nothing to fear from the Borg (or anyone else asde from Q!).
...sure to create massive subspace and gravitational disturbances though.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Don't forget the "The Die is Cast" fleet. They intended to leave a naked core, but had they wanted to get after that as well (i.e. if they'd had more than six hours), they could've whacked the whole planet.
Total time it would take by volume would be perhaps 12 hours (I've run the numbers before, but I forget). I usually estimate a full day, just to be conservative.
-------------------- . . . ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
posted
The extragalactic cloud creature from "One of Our Planets is Missing" (TAS) literally ate planets. Not really a weapon at all though. Besides, Spock showed the creature that eating planets was rather rude, and it probably left this galaxy after that.
In "Inheritance" (TNG), the E-D used 'ferroplasmic infusion' to reliquefy Atrea IV's core. I guess this method could be used in a less friendly manner.
quote:-Dominion protomatter bomb (indirectly, but same result)
Uh...the fuck!?!
Is that from a book or video game?
Dude - DS9 "By Inferno's Light". You know, Bashir-esque Changeling wanna pilot runabout into Bajor's sun, go boom with protomatter-trilithium bomb...
Mark
Oh! The Trilithium sun-buster weapon! I thought you were talking about some protomatter bomb to be used to blow up a planet.
I wonder if the changlings had read the report on Dr. Sauron's Trilithium sun buster weapon. After all, the Founders were deep into Starfleet HQ for a while before Homefront and could have said "Here's an idea!"....
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Did the giant space amoeba from "The Immunity Syndrome" destroy planets, or just digest everything on them? And then there's Nomad, although I think that also just eradictaed life from the planets.
posted
Well...the Romulans could always make dozens of Nomads from their old cloaking devices.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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