Shuttlecraft Construction

[Mark]

I've often been confused about this. We know that Voyager was able to construct new shuttles as well as two Delta Flyers, with no other resources than what was on board. My question is how? In theory, they couldn't even replicate and replace their own photon torpedo stock, so how could they manage to build entirely seperate support craft complete with phasers, torpedos of their own, warp coils, and so on. How unrealistic is that? And Voyager is a pretty small ship. Where did all construction take place? Building things is not a "neat" job. Did they close down the entire shuttlebay for the final construction of these ships? How did they pull this off? Is it even possible or realistic?

[Blackstar the Chakat]

they couldn't even replicate and replace their own photon torpedo stock

They fired at least 93 out of a stock of 38...so they either replicated more torpedoes, or are horrible at math.

As far as shuttles, it seemed that the type 9's were easy to build models, and they did stop using type 8s after a few seasons. The original Delta Flyer seemed to be made up of replicated parts and spare parts. They had more time to build the second Delta Flyer

[Mikey]

How? Writer's fiat, plain and simple. There is no way within SoD that it should have been possible under those conditions, much less without the services of any professional craft designer or builder. But there were a lot of storylines that involved shuttles a/o the Delta Flyer, so we end up with the perpetual shuttle machine, plus the Delta Flyer which can be ddesigned and built from chewing gum and rubber bands twice - because they needed to deep-six it once for dramatic effect.

[katefan]

I fully agree that it is a crock. I think it would have been far more interesting if Janeway/Voyager had to:

1) constantly fret about whether or not to use her photon torpedoes.

2) actively look for an alternative weapon system to replace the torpedoes. Voyager's profile could have changed a bit with the addition of the new weapons system, perhaps a protrusion coming out of one of the torpedo bays. In fact, it would have been neat to see Voyager itself gradually change in appearance from season to season as the ship is jury-rigged (i.e. the Borg nodules added in Scorpion).

3) purchase new auxiliary craft as they went along, and use Neelix's ship more often.

[Sionnach Glic]

Indeed. They had the chance to make some great episodes centred around the lack of supplies.
Instead, we get one offhand comment about Voyager's torpedo complement being low, and one episode about the ship having a lack of power that is handily sorted out by the next episode without any explaination.

[Mikey]

In fact, they did purchase weapons. I think the element of adding low-tech (or at least, different tech) would have added a dimension to the show, as would have the constant issue of supply. In fact when they did talk about resupply, it was always an offhanded comment about "Neelix was able to get some." Well, then they must have run short of materials to barter then, didn't they?

[katefan]

In fact, they did purchase weapons. I think the element of adding low-tech (or at least, different tech) would have added a dimension to the show, as would have the constant issue of supply. In fact when they did talk about resupply, it was always an offhanded comment about "Neelix was able to get some." Well, then they must have run short of materials to barter then, didn't they?

I recall the 7 of 90-centric episode where Voyager almost purchased that badass cannon, but to my knowledge they did not buy it. If they did, they never used it in later eps.

Are you talking about purchasing photon torpedoes? Because to my knowledge the torps were comparatively unique technology.

[Blackstar the Chakat]

In fact, they did purchase weapons. I think the element of adding low-tech (or at least, different tech) would have added a dimension to the show, as would have the constant issue of supply. In fact when they did talk about resupply, it was always an offhanded comment about "Neelix was able to get some." Well, then they must have run short of materials to barter then, didn't they?

I recall the 7 of 90-centric episode where Voyager almost purchased that badass cannon, but to my knowledge they did not buy it. If they did, they never used it in later eps.

I think the sale fell through when the seller was killed. It would've been cool to see Voyager with some kick-ass custom weapons, but I guess the writers were either stupid or they couldn't afford the new CG effects for new weapons. Probably the first one.

[Mikey]

Yeah, I was talking about the big cannon, but I guess perhaps they didn't end up buying it.

[Graham Kennedy]

The shuttle thing never bothered me too much. There's very little on a shuttle that you chouldn't replicate - at most the warp coils, and how big can the warp coils on a shuttle be? About the size of a car tyre or so, right? How many could you stack in a single 20 x 20 foot room? Several hundred easily, I would guess.

For the rest it's just a matter of replicating chunks and bolting them together. A garage the size of a small home can easily assemble a car from kit parts, I don't see why assembling a shuttle should be any harder than that.

[Reliant121]

I agree with Graham.

but on the weapons and supply thing, it certainly would have been interesting to see alot more modification. lets face it, It would have been far more interesting to see the alien equivalents to torpedo weapons. perhaps aliens used missile racks? have a couple of them slung under the saucer. Phasers go down? Barter to get some medium power disrupters or energy cannons. i think there should have been alot more mixing and matching, hodge-bodging if you will of the weapons systems.

[Graham Kennedy]

Money is a limiting factor there, though. It's all very well to declare that the phasers are down and you installed a bunch of disrupter cannon turrets on the hull instead, but when you do there goes every stock footage shot you ever accumulated up to that point. You have to generate a whole new library of shots every time you change the ship, and that is really expensive.

That's what made the NX-01's visible battle damage in the last few episodes of the Xindi arc so impressive. The decision to do that probably cost them on the order of several million dollars.

[Reliant121]

well yes there is that. Perhaps then there shoud be occasions that where the phasers would require too much time to repair, then have a quick fix solution.

[Abraxas]

I'm sure over the course of their journey they bought and traded things for weapons and ammo. If they couldn't actually buy pre-built photon torpedoes they bought the compnents neccessary to build them on their own.

Ass for the warp coils, when they first built the Delta Flyer, chances are good they just canabolized them from one of their older shuttles... if it even had warp coils then anyway. IIRC, they didn't go to warp in the episode the Delat Flyer was built, so chances are good they didn't bother with them until after they got the probe.

As for the larger debate going on, I'm equally depressed the issue of "resources" was never fully addressed. They just never seemed to run out of energy to replicate extravagant gifts, food and toys - not to mention the energy needed to run the holo-deck and other extra-curicullar activities. I've been on a training ship that had to conserve fuel and water, so they banned certain devices (laptops, iPods, stereos, etc.) and would even turn off the washing and drying machines. When it got REAL bad they turned off the water except to emergency sinks...

Basically, what I'm saying is I understand we have awesome ways to generate power in the future... but C'MON. The Intrepid class was a destroyer, not a long range explorer... so why weren't resources (and lack thereof) a bigger issue?

[Mark]

The shuttle thing never bothered me too much. There's very little on a shuttle that you chouldn't replicate - at most the warp coils, and how big can the warp coils on a shuttle be? About the size of a car tyre or so, right? How many could you stack in a single 20 x 20 foot room? Several hundred easily, I would guess.

For the rest it's just a matter of replicating chunks and bolting them together. A garage the size of a small home can easily assemble a car from kit parts, I don't see why assembling a shuttle should be any harder than that.

USS Voyager was being sent into the Badlands for her first mission, not out into the great unknown, so how many replacement shuttle warp coils would she really be carrying? I'm sure, that if the warp coils are the ONLY non replicatable part of the shuttle, over time, they MIGHT be able to construct a few aboard, but to design and built not one, but two Delta Flyers? The DF is faster than an average shuttle, and it dimensions are different so wouldn't it have to use different warp coils? And where would they build these things? Granted, they could do it in something the size of a garage, but on a ship the size of Voyager, space is limited. All the cargo bays (at least I would assume) would be in use for supply storage, and I think an Intrepid class starship only has one shuttlebay (I could be wrong though, honestly I just don't remember). So, if there were constructing it there, regular shuttle flight ops would be interfered with.

Just my opinion, though

By the way, why would they ONLY equip a deep space exploration vessel with a magazine capacity of 38 photon torpedos? Seems rather low to me, considering she has four tubes.