The Motion Picture

[Mark]

I equate that move with this..........

An enemy tank is rolling up main street. It has already rolled right through the National Guard. In desperation, the Police turn out to try and stop it using assault rifles, shotguns, and various other tricks and weapons. Would one more man, armed with a pistol, REALLY make ANY difference in the outcome? Or would you be putting him unnessessarily in harms way when he REALLY could do no good there?

That's not really that analogous.

A better example would be a battleship going up against a group of smaller, weaker ships during WW2. The commander in charge of the fleet of small ships figures that beating the battleship will be difficult, so he starts conscripting armed merchantmen into the fight to help them. The merchentmen won't be that much use, but they'll still be able to do something, as they still have guns that can harm the battleship.

But if a Galaxy class type X phaser bank is useless against the Borg cube, an Oberth's comparative BB gun would be able to do what exactly? If that ship was sent in with any expectation that it could survive, then someone is SERIOUSLY screwed up.

[Captain Seafort]

Small ships can be very useful as distractions. At the Battle of the Barents Sea, a bunch of obsolete destroyers held off two German heavy cruisers and several destroyers for several hours, and held their attention so that the first they knew of any other ships in the area was when 6" shells started punching holes in the boilers

[Sionnach Glic]

Exactly, if the Borg blow the Oberth up instead of a warship, you still have a warship to fight with.

[Mark]

If the Oberth can distract the Borg for that length of time, fine, it's an acceptable loss. But how long did the battle at Wolf 359 go on for? And from what we've seen, it really doesn't take the Borg long to blow up a larger Starship, much less than an Oberth. With Picard's knowledge, they likely would have just ignored the Oberth anyway, until later.

[Johnny Starfleet]

Only one thing is for sure. There was a ship capable of conquering Earth headed straight for it. Not only do we know that there are at least billions of people on Earth, but we have seen it treated as very important to both SF and the Federation. In many cases when we see Earth threatened the implication is that if Earth is lost, the entire Federation is in danger.

Therefore, SF sends anything with a warp core that can be there in time to the battle. Losing an Oberth crew in a desperation fight the ship was never intended for seems senseless, out of context. In context, the fleet needs every chance, and every moment each ship can buy, to do anything to stop the BC from getting to Earth. If they succeed, Earth is safe. If they fail, and Earth is assimilated, the blow against the Federation and SF would be so great that a stray Oberth, or a GCS for that matter, would be of little use. We get a glimpse of such a situation in Parallels, where an alternate D didn't stop the Borg at earth and were willing to go to any length NOT to go back to their time line. Sounds like the Oberth at 359 was a case of taking every available chance, no matter how slim, while you still have the opportunity to take it.

[Mikey]

That's the size of it. Every ship in range was recalled to deal with the threat, and I'd hope that there wouldn't be a captain in Starfleet who would say, "Maybe we shouldn't go try to help save Earth - we're only an Oberth-class, after all."

[Mithrandir]

That's the size of it. Every ship in range was recalled to deal with the threat, and I'd hope that there wouldn't be a captain in Starfleet who would say, "Maybe we shouldn't go try to help save Earth - we're only an Oberth-class, after all."

Yeah, but I also hope the Oberth's captain would say: "It isn't very likely for us to survive, so we only keep a skeleton crew on board." Would make more sense than sending JAKE SISKO (!!!) (what ship did Ben Sisko serve on?) in the battle.

[Sionnach Glic]

I'd imagine they'd drop all the non-combatants off before rushing into a suicidal battle.

[Mikey]

I'd hope against hope they'd drop all the non-combatants off before rushing into a suicidal battle.

fixed.

[Captain Seafort]

I'd hope against hope and against all evidence they'd drop all the non-combatants off before rushing into a suicidal battle.

fixed.

Fixed properly

[Sionnach Glic]

Thanks.

[Mikey]

[kostmayer]

I'd imagine they'd drop all the non-combatants off before rushing into a suicidal battle.

Why bother stopping to drop them off - just pile them all into escape pods.

[Sionnach Glic]

Because the actual crews may need those escape pods later.

[kostmayer]

But presumably theres enough room on the escape pods for everyone - couldn't they use half now to get the families off?