How big SHOULD the Federation Fleet be?

[Graham Kennedy]

The fun part is when you get into everything in the ship being built to that 2x capacity/production/consumption.

The ship winds up balanced anyway. I.e. you decide to build the phasers to handle 2x the planned power to allow for future enhancements. Another engineer designs the plasma conduits for 2x the power to allow for future enhancements. A third team gets the reactor to produce 2x the regular power to provide the energy needed for future enhancements (and produces lower levels of power until the higher amount is needed). Other teams design with the 2x capacity as well.

Net result, everything on the ship now operating at its max capacity. Refits provide a new system that operates at (guesstimate) 3x original, so you still get power demands, excesses, etc.

Well no, because that negates the whole premise in the first place because then you wouldn't be able to transfer power around.

The whole point is that if you could power everything as high as it could go then you wouldn't be able to do the whole transferring power around. Since they do, then you can't. So everyone ELSE does the 2x thing, but the guy who does warp core output doesn't.

[Atekimogus]

In BoBW when the Ent-D wanted to hit the Borg Cube with their full output they had to use the Deflector.

A good point. Altough personally I don't like it much - because, honestly why don't they equip their ships with huge deflectors and nothing else, those freaking things can do ANYTHING - it happened, so there it is.

Time to rewatch BoBW I guess, but wasn't the deflector also used because some technobabble-form of energy using certain frequencies was used? Another point could be that their phaser array could handle it but would need longer to unload or that the emitters could handle it, but not the machinery behind them, similar to Enterprise NX-1 when they crank up the power by 10x and interestingly enough everthing fries except the cannon itself. So altough the deflector and the ship was deactivated for a few hours maybe it was preferable to have your main phasers permanently destroyed during a combat situation.

[stitch626]

Its also possible that the phasers could have handled it, but couldn't handle it as fast, and would take forever to dish the energy out (like a 10000V 1mA circuit, lots of volts, but takes a while to deliver them, relatively).

[Captain Seafort]

Time to rewatch BoBW I guess, but wasn't the deflector also used because some technobabble-form of energy using certain frequencies was used?

Nope, they specifically stated that the main deflector was used because it was the only component that could handle the power output.

Its also possible that the phasers could have handled it, but couldn't handle it as fast

Indeed, but that's precisely the same as saying "the phasers couldn't handle it". A 60W lightbulb delivers the same amount of energy as most bombs - it just takes longer, and is therefore harmless.

[kostmayer]

Time to rewatch BoBW I guess, but wasn't the deflector also used because some technobabble-form of energy using certain frequencies was used?

Nope, they specifically stated that the main deflector was used because it was the only component that could handle the power output.

Geordie states that the main deflector is the only component on the Enterprise designed to channel that much power at controlled frequencies.

[Graham Kennedy]

In point of fact, they wanted to hit the Borg Cube at a specific frequency that they found it was vulnerable to, and stated that the main deflector was the only component of the enterprise that could handle that much energy "at controlled frequencies".

More than the phasers or photons, sure. But I'd be stunned if the deflector could handle more energy than the warp drive.

[kostmayer]

Geordie definitely says power and not energy, but anyhoo I still reckon its a shame they didn't use the weapon when they had the chance instead of wasting time trying to increase its range to save the Enterprise from the blast. Surely it was worth seperating the saucer section and sacrificing a skeleton crew aboard the Stardrive?

[Graham Kennedy]

Enterprise wasn't going to be destroyed by the blast.

And it's not Geordi who says it, it's actually Wesley.

And I didn't put energy in quotes for a reason.

[Captain Seafort]

Enterprise wasn't going to be destroyed by the blast.

It was prior to the modifications they made:

GEORDI
If we can generate a concentrated
burst of energy with that same
frequency distribution... I mean
a lot more than anything our
phasers or photon torpedos could
provide...

RIKER
How do we do that?

WESLEY
The main deflector dish.

GEORDI
It's the only component of the
Enterprise designed to channel
that much power at controlled
frequencies.

SHELBY
Unfortunately, there is one slight
detail -- in the process, the
blast completely destroys the
Enterprise as well.

RIKER
(muses)
But if we could get far enough
away... increase the deflector
range...

[kostmayer]

Yeah, Picard was assimilated between that convo and them trying the weapon. Also, I assumed they were talking about the blast when the Ship went kaboom, not the blast when the deflector hit the cube.

[Sonic Glitch]

Geordie definitely says power and not energy, but anyhoo I still reckon its a shame they didn't use the weapon when they had the chance instead of wasting time trying to increase its range to save the Enterprise from the blast. Surely it was worth seperating the saucer section and sacrificing a skeleton crew aboard the Stardrive?

I think Riker also said something about the power from the Saucer's impulse engines being necessary as well.

[kostmayer]

I think Riker also said something about the power from the Saucer's impulse engines being necessary as well.

Yeah, didn't that related directly to the deflector dish plan though. And I know I've asked before, but presumably the ship carries enough escape pods for the entire compliment. If seperating the saucer is impractical, surely they could evacuate the families in the escape pods? Granted, shoving them all into pods and launching them out into space is less then ideal, but its surely better then keeping them aboard when you're about to go toe to toe with a big cube of deah.

[Captain Seafort]

If seperating the saucer is impractical, surely they could evacuate the families in the escape pods? Granted, shoving them all into pods and launching them out into space is less then ideal, but its surely better then keeping them aboard when you're about to go toe to toe with a big cube of deah.

Worst thing possible - not only would it be easy for the Borg to snap up lifeboats mid-battle, but unless the cube were destroyed they'd be left stranded in the middle of nowhere for God knows how long, either because the E-D was destroyed or because it was off chasing the cube, and those things are so small that their supplies of food, water and oxygen must be pretty limited. Separating the saucer would have been a better option, but as Riker pointed out, the impulse engines are powerful enough to add significantly to the ship's overall output, so separating would have weakened it at a time when they needed every advantage they could muster.

[kostmayer]

Was thinking about before they encountered the Cube. There any data available about the range of those escape pods? As you say, it can't be that great.

[Atekimogus]

Worst thing possible - not only would it be easy for the Borg to snap up lifeboats mid-battle, but unless the cube were destroyed they'd be left stranded in the middle of nowhere for God knows how long, either because the E-D was destroyed or because it was off chasing the cube, and those things are so small that their supplies of food, water and oxygen must be pretty limited.

Not necessarily, remember at that point in time the Borg were pretty specific in what they destroy or assimilate and don't just steamroll anything "....cause we are evil...." (that kind of evil only Janeway could provoke), so I guess the chance that simple, uninteresting lifeboats are completly ignored is pretty good. Borg are logical, they know if they win they can come back later if need be, tactical value of a lifeboat is nil, therefore it is ignored for the time being. Dumping the civis into space, maybe near a suitable planet if possible seems not such a bad idea. Even moreso if they had time to prepare, which they did.

Just aside, Lifeboats are obviously able to make planetfall as seen in first contact but are they able to make orbit again or are they beamed, tractored back into space?