Enterprise 1/28/05

[Viking Bastard]

I'm not sure if the identity of the VR pilot will be the revelation, but I can feel it in my bones that there will be a twist.

 

[Raven Crowking]

And remote control? Faster than light communication? How they gonna explain that away?

That's a joke, right?

Every time any starship has received a communication from Starfleet, it has used FTL communication.


RC

 

[DaveMage]

I liked the episode, but I really hate the continuity error with the Romulans.

So, in 100 years (TOS "Balance of Terror") the Romulans will not have warp technology, but somehow they have it now.

(For those of you who need a refresher, Scotty mentions that the Romulans travel by simple Impluse.)

*sigh*

I liked "Minefield," but a hate it that they've made the Romulans more capable than they probably should be.

 

[Planesdragon]

How come they didn't have the ship go to warp and squish the intruders? I think the warp drive is malfunctioning but maybe not.

Because they can only accellerate so fast before they bust their ship.

That, and warp speed doesn't have a great amount of inertia tied to it, since the ship actually folds space around it to move so fast.

(The tech geeks among us will get all kinds of interesting theories about how intertial dampeners slow down ships due to power requirements and physics, and of course there's going to be a heck of a time arguing why all Romulan ships aren't remote controlled until someone remembers relativity, which of course explains why the controller is cybernetically wired in...)

 

[Orius]

I'm pretty sure there's gonna be some revelation about the
controller guy in the helmet.

$20 says it's a Vulcan.

Yeah, I thought the same thing myself, the pilot is a Vulcan, and the remote control stuff has something to do with Vulcan telepathy.

 

[mojo1701]

That's a joke, right?

Every time any starship has received a communication from Starfleet, it has used FTL communication.


RC

And it was who-knows-how many times faster than max warp. I was reading warp charts, and when compared to Voyager (which has max warp 9.7 or so), subspace radio was warp 9.9997 or something like that.

Of course, they never said so in the show.

 

[Wycen]

And it was who-knows-how many times faster than max warp. I was reading warp charts, and when compared to Voyager (which has max warp 9.7 or so), subspace radio was warp 9.9997 or something like that.

Of course, they never said so in the show.

I guess what I'm really wondering is why most ships aren't VR in the future. If it only takes 1 person to control, why have huge ships filled with dozens of people who can be hurt when all you need is 1 person in harms way? Feedback might make "good" races flinch at the idea, but I'm not considering Romulan's as "good".

 

[Raven Crowking]

I liked the episode, but I really hate the continuity error with the Romulans.

So, in 100 years (TOS "Balance of Terror") the Romulans will not have warp technology, but somehow they have it now.

(For those of you who need a refresher, Scotty mentions that the Romulans travel by simple Impluse.)

If we assume for a moment that there is some continuity in Star Trek history, then the biggest question must be related to the "cloaking device." The cloaking devices (Suliban and Romulan) seen in Enterprise must be irrelevant to better sensors, or Kirk and Spock would not be surprised to discover that the Romulans have a cloaking device in Balance of Terror

Another question would be why the Romulans fought the Romulan War using primitive nuclear weapons, when it is clear that they have better weapons capability. Hopefully, we will see in future episodes that nuclear weapons are, in fact, what they have stockpiled. This would make Earth technology in some ways superior to Romulan standard fare....but it would also make Archer pretty hot to aquire shields from his allies.

As far as warp technology goes, though, TOS made it fairly obvious that the Romulans had warp technology, but that their current cloaking device did not work at warp speeds, quite likely because of its energy requirements. Scotty said that the Romulans were relying on impulse power; to my recollection he did not say that the Romulans were limited to impulse power. The simple facts that

(1) The Vulcans had warp drive when they encountered Zephram Cochrane, and
(2) The Romulans were capable of moving from Vulcan to Romulus

implies that the Romulans had warp capability long before humans were players in the galactic scene.

Far easier to assume that the cloaking technology we are seeing in Enterprise is Mark I technology, which is made obsolete long before TOS (we ought to be seeing Reed making weapons systems modifications that allow "cloaked" Romulan ships to be targetted -- they have the Suliban shuttle; they currently have the ability to examine a Romulan ship from the inside....how much information does it require?). Mark II cloaking technology requires a greater energy output, and prevents using a warp core at the same time. Mark III cloaking technology is seen in the Orginal Series movies. Mark IV allows you to fire while cloaked.

This is actually a fairly easy problem to retcon.


RC

 

[Raven Crowking]

I guess what I'm really wondering is why most ships aren't VR in the future. If it only takes 1 person to control, why have huge ships filled with dozens of people who can be hurt when all you need is 1 person in harms way? Feedback might make "good" races flinch at the idea, but I'm not considering Romulan's as "good".

If the Romulans are never seen during the Romulan War, there is actually a fairly good chance that this is because no Romulans are aboard the ships used.

On the other hand, having personnel aboard ships allows you to land, move cargo, conduct negotiations, etc.


RC

 

[drothgery]

Far easier to assume that the cloaking technology we are seeing in Enterprise is Mark I technology, which is made obsolete long before TOS (we ought to be seeing Reed making weapons systems modifications that allow "cloaked" Romulan ships to be targetted -- they have the Suliban shuttle; they currently have the ability to examine a Romulan ship from the inside....how much information does it require?). Mark II cloaking technology requires a greater energy output, and prevents using a warp core at the same time. Mark III cloaking technology is seen in the Orginal Series movies. Mark IV allows you to fire while cloaked.

... and was obsoleted sometime between TOS and TNG (probably because the Federation got its hands on the technology via the Klingon-Federation alliance). Both the Klingons and Romulans later developed Mark V cloaking technology (possibly independently), which is seen in TNG, DS9, and the TNG movies, and, IIRC, does not allow firing while cloaked.