USS Enterprise and other ST content cleanup

[Monsieur_E]

I've been noticing the lack of content about some articles, specially the starships

edit: I also noticed a lot of the feats of different configurations of the the Enterprise being mixed

 

[Idazmi]

I've been noticing the lack of content about some articles, specially the starships

That's true. Most articles on the ships are pretty anemic.

edit: I also noticed a lot of the feats of different configurations of the the Enterprise being mixed

Not sure what you mean there. Your topic for this thread is the original Starship Enterprise, which is actually in good condition compared to other pages. All of the feats listed there were, in fact, achieved by the original ship, even in cases where a feat from the refit is discussed instead. This was done for clarity.

For example, you may have noticed that the refitted enterprise was able to accidentally create a time-distorting wormhole by a Warp Engine malfunction, thanks to the new engines being untested. However, even before the refit, the old Warp Engines were able to intentionally drive the ship through interspace - a zone between parallel realities in space and time. That feat that is somewhat harder to explain, but essentially amounts to the same ability done on purpose instead of by accident. In comparison to the older configuration, the refitted Enterprise is merely more efficient - it's somewhat faster, has more phaser power to work with, and has better weapon coverage - but not enough to justify any substantial tier changes.

If you want more context for the interspace feat, there's a transcript of the episode The Tholian Web at this link. That's the episode where the feat occurred.

 

[Monsieur_E]

There's also a thing about the phasers in the refit configuration being powered directly from the warp core instead of batteries and the use of higher yield photon torpedoes.

 

[Idazmi]

There's also a thing about the phasers in the refit configuration being powered directly from the warp core instead of batteries and the use of higher yield photon torpedoes.

Actually, on Spock's orders, Montgomery Scott rewired the Enterprise's phasers to draw energy directly from the warp core in The Paradise Syndrome, which was during the five-year mission (transcript of the episode at this link), the refit only standardized that change, making it the default configuration of the ship. That fact is directly addressed in the article as-is.

As for the torpedoes, there is nothing in the movies that suggests any change in the torpedo yields substantial enough to justify a whole tier change.

 

[Idazmi]

Thanks for adding pictures of the other Enterprise variants to the page for the original USS Enterprise. However, I wanted you to know that I removed the pictures related to the Star Trek: Discovery version of the ship. The note at the bottom of that page clarifies that it only covers the original USS Enterprise from "TOS" (Star Trek: The Original Series), not the lettered models, the alternate reality versions, the reboot movie version or anything else.

While it's true that officially, the Starship Enterprise we see in Star Trek: Discovery is the exact same Starship we see in the original Star Trek (just in an earlier configuration), the problem is the actual capabilities of the Discovery version are grossly different from the original Enterprise in ways that go far, far beyond anything that can be explained by a simple refit in spacedock. For example: take a look at the difference in how many shuttles the Enterprise can carry:


Star Trek - The Galileo Seven - visual effects compariso

53 seconds in, the Enterprise launches the Galileo 7 from the shuttlebay. Note the size of the bay and the number of shuttles that are inside it. Year, 2266.


The Battle Against Control in Star Trek Discovery (2017-) (1 3)

54 seconds in, the Enterprise is launching literally dozens of fighters out of supposedly the same shuttlebay... which is somehow a lot bigger. Year, 2254.

As you can see, that's more than just a discrepancy. Furthermore, that can't be explained by an upgrade to the visual effects. To have the capabilities seen in Discovery, the Enterprise would need to be a different ship entirely: there isn't enough physical space on the original ship to store or launch that many shuttles, or fighters, or anything.

That's just the tip of the iceberg: the handheld weapons are just as wildly different.


Star Trek - Captain Pike's Fate

At 1:07, the landing party briefly attempts to pry open a camouflaged door before using their sidearms to blast through it instead - the weapons generate a continuous laser beam that scatters at it hits the target. Note the size of the door and the power the weapons demonstrate, blasting apart a sizable amount of rock.


Star Trek - Absolute Power

7 seconds in: the rifle version, seen in the very next episode, has exactly the same effect as the sidearms: a continuous laser beam and notable scattering as the beam hits the target (who is psychically shielded).


Star Trek Discovery - Deadly Phaser Battle

At 1:03 in this video, a close-quarters gunfight occurs, and the new rifles are clearly firing bullet-like projectiles (like Star Wars' blasters) instead of continuous laser beams. In addition, they are nowhere near as powerful, and cause no notable secondary effects like scattering or blast fragmentation.

In the new series, every technology performs utterly differently from it's original counterpart in every area regardless of the show's canonical status.

For the purposes of this wiki (comparing combat abilities) it makes way more sense to keep the profiles for the original Star Trek completely separate from content related to Star Trek: Discovery to avoid serious confusion in the profiles.

 

[ByAsura]

For example, you may have noticed that the refitted enterprise was able to accidentally create a time-distorting wormhole by a Warp Engine malfunction, thanks to the new engines being untested. However, even before the refit, the old Warp Engines were able to intentionally drive the ship through interspace - a zone between parallel realities in space and time. That feat that is somewhat harder to explain, but essentially amounts to the same ability done on purpose instead of by accident.

There's also other times the ship does this kind of thing. In The Naked Time—the fourth episode to air—they use a controlled matter-antimatter explosion to travel back in time.

Speaking of this, isn't the justification here wrong; "Gravity Manipulation (Warp Engines work this way, and are sufficiently powerful to distort time and space and unintentionally create black holes)." I'm not saying they don't warp gravity, just that it's more space-time base, and they actually produce wormholes unintentionally. They even portray gravity manipulation as its own thing in Obsessio.

 

[Idazmi]

Speaking of this, isn't the justification here wrong; "Gravity Manipulation (Warp Engines work this way, and are sufficiently powerful to distort time and space and unintentionally create black holes)." I'm not saying they don't warp gravity, just that it's more space-time base, and they actually produce wormholes unintentionally. They even portray gravity manipulation as its own thing in Obsessio.

In reality, which Star Trek is based on (albeit loosely), gravity is literally a space/time warp. Scientifically there isn't a distinction between the two, like "water" and "dihydrogen monoxide". The unintentional wormholes generated by the Warp Drive are actually proof that this is the case: a wormhole is essentially a gravity tunnel if you oversimplify it.

With that in mind: http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/47.htm <- This is a link to a Transcript of Obsessio. The Dikironium cloud was stated to be moving at Warp Speeds using it's gravity manipulation, which - similar to Enterprise's time-travel feats already listed - also allowed it to de-sync with time to avoid weapons fire. The problem was, the Dikironium cloud is a creature, and can phase itself far more easily than a Starship like Enterprise can. The instant it saw a threat, it would shift out of time-sync to dodge the attack.

 

[ByAsura]

Ok, that makes sense.