posted
The landing pads would be quite useful in landings on airless planets, now wouldn't they?
Why land on a planet where Paramount can't film you because of the extra costs of sets and effects? For one, the ship could hide on the surface, just like the Ferengi hid in that crater in the Battle of Maxia. Some repairs could be more easily carried out if the ship could land next to the raw materials, instead of having to use transporters or shuttles to haul the stuff up for orbital repairs. Starfleet could have outposts set up on airless planetoids, and the ships could be expected to land there for tanking and repairs and reloads.
Save for the humungous Sovereigns, every modern ship class seems to have landing paws. Perhaps there has been a breakthrough in materials technology, making ships lighter? Or in antigrav tech?
Or perhaps the pads are there for emergency crash-landings, just like the pads on the Constitution saucers. The Defiants or Intrepids or Prometheii or Novas do not have saucers to separate, so their actual main bodies have to feature these pads (although their worth in a crash landing seems suspect).
posted
When was it ever said in the show that the Defiant can't land on a normal planet? In "Starship Down" Sisko said something like "I know she (the Defiant) wasn't meant for it" before they entered that planets atmosphere. The thing is, that planet had incredible gravity and powerful atmospheric currents like Jupiter. My point, you ask? Just because a ship can't land on Jupiter doesn't mean it can't land on Earth.
------------------ "Forgive me if I don't share your euphoria!" (Weyoun to Dukat, Tears of the Prophets) Dax's Ships of STAR TREK
posted
I agree. The fact that the Defiant actually survived that atmosphere to me is enough proof that the Defiant can land on at least M-Class planets. Why else would the ship have landing struts??
------------------ Meddle not in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!
Jim Phelps
watches Voyager AFTER 51030
Member # 102
posted
Ron Moore (who more or less created the ship) didn't know about the landing pads/capability from the MSD when asked online. Fortunately, it is not clear from the script whether the Defiant was not meant for landing at all, or just in this particular atmosphere.
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