Deflector dishes

[Lazar]

Basically two questions:

1. What do ships use if they don't have a visible deflector dish?

2. Why does the Federation appear to be the only group that uses visible deflector dishes?

[stitch626]

1) a non visible deflector dish.
2) because they look cool and the hero ships need to look cooler.

[Captain Seafort]

1. What do ships use if they don't have a visible deflector dish?

Based on the TNG TM, static deflectors, without the main beam. Probably backed up with phasers and dodging.

2. Why does the Federation appear to be the only group that uses visible deflector dishes?

It's a big vulnerable target, which will apparently blow up and take half the ship with it if you hit it with weapons fire. Don't forget that most other ships we see are dedicated warships, whereas Fed ships aren't..

[Nickswitz]

Wow, Stitch just answered both of your questions in 17 words, lol... and both answers make sense too, the second one isn't good for IU though Stitch, so, try again...

[Captain Seafort]

In fact, this should be in Trek, not Other. *punt*

[Lazar]

In fact, this should be in Trek, not Other. *punt*

Oops, I thought I was putting it in "Books, Games & General", but I guess I clicked the wrong button.

[stitch626]

I was about to mention that.
And Seafort makes a good point about the deflectors.... disadvantage. Perhaps it is more efficient externally, but it also creates a liability. And seeing how the Feds like cruise ships above warships, they would probably go for efficiency.

[Atekimogus]

Well I guess a good solid main deflector is the swiss army knife of the 24 century considering that they virtually use it for everything which consists of technobabble. Its a sensor, a deflector, a weapon and I bet you could tweak it a little to use it for a mega-imax-holocinema.

[Tyyr]

Stitch and then Seafort got it right.

Non-visible, since apparently shields don't require any immediately obvious external bits. Or they rely on normal shields, weapons, and dodging to get by.

[Mark]

You know, I've always assumed that deflector dishes were somehow more effective or efficient, but were a trade off in vulnerability. But that doesn't hold true. Look at the Miranda class.....


Maybe in modern Starfleet for higher speeds a deflector dish is nessessary. Each species has it's own "quirks" after all

[stitch626]

What about the Miranda class?

[Mark]

It had a long and distinguished career beginning in the previous generation, but we never saw anything that she was capable of being upgraded to the kind of speeds the "modern" fleet was. Granted, the design was a hundred years old, and the space frame doubtfully could ever handle the new warp scales upper levels but off the top of my head I'm not remembering any other fed ships w\o deflecter dishes from TNG era design and beyond. I could be wrong though, I'm still half asleep.

[Captain Seafort]

And? It's simply a rare example of a Fed ship following the same design principle as every other major power. You originally said:

You know, I've always assumed that deflector dishes were somehow more effective or efficient, but were a trade off in vulnerability. But that doesn't hold true. Look at the Miranda class...

I don't see how the Miranda is a counter example to the lack of a deflector dish being a case of trading efficiency for less vulnerability.

[Mark]

In the TOS warp scale.

I was thinking that perhaps the reason they didn't duplicate the tech of the "internal" deflector of the Miranda had something to do with the new "higher" speeds of the "newer" warp tech.

[stitch626]

But then there's the Constellation and the Cheyenne, and the Danube.