posted
The way TFS and TNG ships are built, it IMHO makes sense to bank while turning away from the enemy. When one banks, one brings more of the phaser turrets (or a greater length of the phaser strip) to bear, since these weapons are curiously placed on the upper and lower saucer surfaces.
In fact, it would make sense for the ships to fly belly-first or back-first a lot whenever in impulse combat...
Of course, it would be even more sensible if ships were shown firing more than one emitter pair (or more than one stretch of a strip) at a time! When we finally get a two-beam scene in DS9, it's when the Galaxy in question is NOT banking at all.
posted
Yes, I too would have liked to have seen a Galaxy Class in a barrel roll shooting from ventral and dorsal phasers in a Rambo-esque scene of destruction and carnage during the Dominion War...
le sigh...
-------------------- Later, J _ _ _ _ _ ___ _ _ _ _ _ The Last Person to post in the late Voyager Forum. Bashing both Voyager, Enterprise, and "The Bun" in one glorious post.
quote:Originally posted by Timo: The way TFS and TNG ships are built, it IMHO makes sense to bank while turning away from the enemy. When one banks, one brings more of the phaser turrets (or a greater length of the phaser strip) to bear, since these weapons are curiously placed on the upper and lower saucer surfaces.
In fact, it would make sense for the ships to fly belly-first or back-first a lot whenever in impulse combat...
The problem with that is that, in doing so, they are also exposing a larger area to the enemy... Of course, that means that Starfleet's is a bad design, placing the weapons on the upper and lower surfaces instead of in the front and back. Take a look at naval warfare: in the ancient times (when guns were first introduced, I mean - I won't get into ramming maneuvres, catapults, Greek fire, archers firing from towers, etc.), ships had to turn sideways to fire their cannons at the enemy in a single broadside, then maneuver so that they would present the other side to the enemy and fire again while the first side was reloading. Then someone came up with the idea of rotating turrets, and the ships didn't have to present their sides to the enemy to fire anymore, instead they just rotated their turrets in the proper direction. Notice that the main turrets were positioned at the front and rear of the ships (with some exceptions), while AA guns were later added mainly to the sides to defend from possible attacks by torpedo planes (which have a better chance of hitting a ship on its flanks). And ships would often attempt to present the smallest area to enemy ships.
Of course, it would be even more sensible if ships were shown firing more than one emitter pair (or more than one stretch of a strip) at a time! When we finally get a two-beam scene in DS9, it's when the Galaxy in question is NOT banking at all.
Timo Saloniemi
I guess the strips idea came when they didn't want to add proper turrets but something more "exotic" to the ship designs, hence their behavior...
Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Of course, it would be even more sensible if ships were shown firing more than one emitter pair (or more than one stretch of a strip) at a time! When we finally get a two-beam scene in DS9, it's when the Galaxy in question is NOT banking at all.
You mean in "Sacrifice of Angels" when the galaxy hoses a Galor with twin beams from the same phaser strip at the same time? Love that shot.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Well, there was that Voyager episode with the old fighters and the guys in cryo. Voyager was spraying out phaser fire pretty much in all directions...not that it mattered all that much in the end.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Not that Voyager mattered all that much in the end...
-------------------- Lister: Don't give me the "Star Trek" crap! It's too early in the morning. - Red Dwarf "The Last Day"
Registered: Nov 1999
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