Shields - how?

[Mikey]

Yeah, I know... I'm not trying to knock down the idea, I'm jsut curious, as the TM's aren't canon.

[Sonic Glitch]

Yeah, I know... I'm not trying to knock down the idea, I'm jsut curious, as the TM's aren't canon.

I would say in the absense of any "hard" techinical date form the serious, they are just as good as canon. Despite the fact that the studio has never made them canon. They were worked on by people who worked on the show, so they might as well be.

[Mikey]

I get the idea, but since they technically aren't canon, I would say that any other idea (like one presented here) that could be justified by evidence and logic would hold just as much water.

[Monroe]

Just started reading this thread, only done with page 1 but the idea of warping space time to form a force field is a great idea... for future Trek technologies. But where Trek left off at I still think its too high tech. Something simpilier like sending electricty in a stable wall at a low ampage seems more realistic, at least for the onboard force fields.

[Mikey]

Just started reading this thread, only done with page 1 but the idea of warping space time to form a force field is a great idea... for future Trek technologies. But where Trek left off at I still think its too high tech. Something simpilier like sending electricty in a stable wall at a low ampage seems more realistic, at least for the onboard force fields.

If they are in fact graviton-based, the effect would actually be that of warping space-time.

[Monroe]

I belive its the tractor beam and the laser.

I'll reiterate that the tractor beam is not a weapon. It is a system designed to hold a ship in place, or tow it along. Even if they did use a tractor beam (which I doubt), then that would have no bearing on the effectiveness of the actual weapon itself.

I thought Borg tractor beams had a draining ability.

edit: Already mentioned sorry >.>

[Teaos]

Is that just a borg trait? I thought it was just the strain on the shields draining there power. Any tractor beam could do the same if it was powerful enough.

[Monroe]

Is that just a borg trait? I thought it was just the strain on the shields draining there power. Any tractor beam could do the same if it was powerful enough.

I think it was just the Borg. The Federation seemed surprised by the ability if I recall correctly. Must be a weapon that no one else the Federation have met has.

[ultron2099]

Is that just a borg trait? I thought it was just the strain on the shields draining there power. Any tractor beam could do the same if it was powerful enough.

I think it was just the Borg. The Federation seemed surprised by the ability if I recall correctly. Must be a weapon that no one else the Federation have met has.

Well, if you combine it with my particle shield theory, then the tractor beam would likely be doing 1 of 2 things. (1) Drawing away the particles from the stabilized field thus draining the shield of its effectiveness (2) Somehow converting the particles to energy or effecting them in such a way that they escape from the modulation field containing them.


NOw, as for using gravitons as their particle of choice, i believe it has precedence. a) the federation obviously has long mastered anti-gravity, which may also be a contributing factor to their inertial dampners (b) when they opened up a transwarp conduit to follow the borg after they kidnapped data, thus used graviton particles (c) when possed by the alien probe and having taken over the enterprise, a graviton particle stream was used to create a warp in space which propelled the crew to the probes creators, who were themselves explorers who brought others to their planet rather then exploring themselves.

[Mikey]

Yep - graviton-based is what we've been saying. And it was in "Q Who" that the crew showed a bit of surprise that the Borg tractor beam was specifically and purposefully draining their shields.

[stitch626]

Is that just a borg trait? I thought it was just the strain on the shields draining there power. Any tractor beam could do the same if it was powerful enough.

I think it was just the Borg. The Federation seemed surprised by the ability if I recall correctly. Must be a weapon that no one else the Federation have met has.

Perhaps the Federation was surprised at the rate that the shield were drained.

[Captain Seafort]

Perhaps the Federation was surprised at the rate that the shield were drained.

They were also surprised that the Borg tractor beam was able to lock onto them - since both shields and tractor beams are based on gravity in some way, it seems likely that shields are usually powerful enough to cancel out the tractor and prevent it from locking on. Since Borg ships are far more powerful than any other vessel the reverse is true of them.

[Monroe]

So if shields are stronger than the beam the shield will weaken the tractor beam if one strong enough to latch onto but not hold a ship hit them. And since the tractor beam was more powerful than the Enterprise by an order of a magnitude it weakened the shields. Seems possible.

[Captain Seafort]

More a case of the tractor beam simply wouldn't have any effect. For example, think of the tractor beam as a diver's speargun, with a barbed tip - it would just bounce of a sheet of steel. Then think of a Borg tractor as something more akin to a modern whaling ship's harpoon - it'd be able to punch through the steel and the barbs would ensure it stayed connected. If shields are a wall of particles of smoe type, held in place by some means, the Borg tractor would work by draining away those particles.

[Teaos]

I would imagin anything pulling on shields would drain them. The Borg just did it really fast.