How Was U.S.S. Hood Damaged?-The Ulimate Computer

[Dayton3]

I might've mispelled the ship name.

But in The Ulimate Computer how does the U.S.S. Hood get damaged?

We see and hear in dialogue, the U.S.S. Lexington get hit by Enterprise phaser fire twice, killing 53 crewman.

U.S.S. Excalibur is likewise hit by Enterprise phaser fire twice, being rendered uninhabitable (while the entire crew might've been killed, more likely it was severely damaged and then abandoned by the time the M-5 computer scanned it and announced "No Life").

As the surviving three ships retreat, Sulu announces "Bearing on the Potemkin", we hear phaser fire and Sulu announce "A hit!"

So that is Lexington, Excalibur and Potemkin we know of being hit by Enterprise phaser fire.

Yet when Uhura taps into Commodore Wesley's message to Starfleet Command he says "All ships damaged in unprovoked attack".

So how was the U.S.S. Hood damaged?

 

[Lonestar]

Hit by derbis from one of the other Connies?

 

[Dayton3]

Lonestar said:
Hit by derbis from one of the other Connies?

None of the Constitutions broke up.

Even the "destroyed" Excalibur looks physically intact.

 

[AC84]

I haven't seen the edited-for-syndication Remastered episode yet, but I always assumed the Enterprise fired on the Hood during cutaway shots of the Lexington bridge and in some space shots of the Enterprise firing blindly (blindly to us). If I recall correctly, in some of those space shots we don't know who the Enterprise is firing on.

 

[cooleddie74]

I guess the Hood was hit while we weren't looking. Off-screen when no effects were showing the ship getting attacked. Most of the wargame hits in this episode both original and Remastered occur when we're not looking.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Maybe the Hood was behind one of the other ships, and when one was hit by one phaser beam, the other beam went right on by and hit the Hood.

It could happen....

 

[ancient]

It Spammed the Hood.

 

[Stag]

Scanned it and thought it was trolling, and well it banned it without prejudice and with extreme sanction.

 

[Wil has a posse]

Dayton3 said:

Lonestar said:
Hit by derbis from one of the other Connies?

Even the "destroyed" Excalibur looks physically intact.

...which really bugged me.

 

[Plecostomus]

I like to think the Excalibur wasn't really destroyed or it's entire crew killed, they just managed to trick the M5 into thinking it was. Perhaps someone aboard managed to send a false sensor signal like Worf did in Peak Performance.

No doubt the ship was hit hard and there was major damage done... but these ARE Starfleet officers, gimmicks like this come second-nature to them.

Of course the above it TOTALLY non-canon and is my own invention.

 

[MANT!]

Well perhaps 'Captian Coward" commanding the USS Hood gave out a false report of damages so he could "Bravely turn and flee!!"

 

[TIN_MAN]

This would have been a perfect oppurtunity for CBS/D to be creative and give us a shot of Enterprise phasers blasting the Hood, in a way in which we could see that it was definatly the Hood that was hit, thus solving a forty year old mystery.

 

[General Kang]

This is yet another example of what I don't understand about fans - just because we don't hear the bridge crew reporting the firing on the Hood doesn't mean it didn't happen - what do you think M-5 was doing during all that chatting with Daystrom during the engagement? Probably firing on the ships...

 

[Dayton3]

General Kang said:
This is yet another example of what I don't understand about fans - just because we don't hear the bridge crew reporting the firing on the Hood doesn't mean it didn't happen - what do you think M-5 was doing during all that chatting with Daystrom during the engagement? Probably firing on the ships...

No.

Because it has been well established in Star Trek that when the phasers are fired you can hear them being fired on the bridge.

Same with torpedos.

I made a list of suggestions for improving the effects on the Original Series once.

I suggeeted when the hear Sula say "Bearing on the Potemkim" and we here the phasers fire, that they cut away to an effects shot of the phasers striking the rear of the Potemkin as it flees.

Then add a photon torpedo launched by M-5 hitting the rear of the Hood.

We know Captain Harris of the Excalibur and his first officer were both killed.

Wesley in his report to Starfleet during the lull in the Battle mentions this along with "many casualities" regarding the Excalibur.

This comment " many casualties" is what leads me to believe that the entire crew of the Excalibur wasn't dead. Just a majority of them and that the survivors had to abandon ship.

I would think that the fact of "entire starship crew killed" would merit its own special place in a report to Starfleet.

 

[Candlelight]

It stood there yelling "don't phase me bro" to the Enterprise at which point the Enterprise shot her.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Plecostomus said:
I like to think the Excalibur wasn't really destroyed or it's entire crew killed,

Oh yes they were.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra_z3xhiKVI

 

[Timo]

Because it has been well established in Star Trek that when the phasers are fired you can hear them being fired on the bridge.

Which cuts two ways, something sometimes forgotten: for example in ST:Generations, the E-D does fire a lot, even if we don't see the VFX. Instead, we hear the associated bridge sounds.

It has to be admitted, though, that the sounds in TNG are likely to be some sort of artificial markers for firing, and not the actual noises of the machinery. The smaller E-nil might echo with the actual weaponry sounds. Or then not. And M-5 might turn off the firing noises if it felt remorse or embarrassment about what it was doing, or if it had a devious plan of keeping its actions secret from the crew.

Personally, I'm perfectly happy with the idea that the Hood was hurt when the action cut to Wesley's bridge.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[General Kang]

Dayton3 said:

General Kang said:
This is yet another example of what I don't understand about fans - just because we don't hear the bridge crew reporting the firing on the Hood doesn't mean it didn't happen - what do you think M-5 was doing during all that chatting with Daystrom during the engagement? Probably firing on the ships...

No.

Because it has been well established in Star Trek that when the phasers are fired you can hear them being fired on the bridge.

Same with torpedos.

I made a list of suggestions for improving the effects on the Original Series once.

I suggeeted when the hear Sula say "Bearing on the Potemkim" and we here the phasers fire, that they cut away to an effects shot of the phasers striking the rear of the Potemkin as it flees.

Then add a photon torpedo launched by M-5 hitting the rear of the Hood.

We know Captain Harris of the Excalibur and his first officer were both killed.

Wesley in his report to Starfleet during the lull in the Battle mentions this along with "many casualities" regarding the Excalibur.

This comment " many casualties" is what leads me to believe that the entire crew of the Excalibur wasn't dead. Just a majority of them and that the survivors had to abandon ship.

I would think that the fact of "entire starship crew killed" would merit its own special place in a report to Starfleet.

Your comments only prove my point that there is action going on that we are not seeing and hearing...

Take Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade for example... when Indy is hanging on for dear life at the end of the movie, while trying to reach down to get the cup, and the sound is deafening, but then, when Indy's dad talks calmly to him, it gets all quiet... do you REALLY think things got all quiet, or do you think that the action in the background was merely 'quieted down' so that we could hear what was going on?

Of course, the answer is obvious... that things are still happening - and that is clearly the case in The Ultimate Computer. M-5 is still going about its deadly work while Kirk and Spock are talking to Daystrom and to the M-5... why wouldn't it keep attacking, just because it is talking to Daystrom? It being an efficient computer, it can multitask.

More importantly, my interepretation of the episode (that things continue to go on even if you don't hear phasers firing) fits with how the story develops - the Hood getting hit, even if we don't hear it - the Excalibur going from damaged w/casualties to all hands lost - better than yours does (that we would have heard the phasers fire or Sulu calling out updates as they happened).

You are clearly falling victim to the fact that this is a DRAMATIC TV SERIES, rather than an actual recreation of events... which, in this case, didn't actually happen.

 

[cooleddie74]

Too much of the action in the new Remastered effects takes place at a distance and long-range. We see almost no visual damage to the other starships save for the Excalibur drifting and spinning powerless after the Enterprise and M-5 deliver the death blow to the ship.

 

[NiteTrek]

Dayton3 said:
I might've mispelled the ship name.

But in The Ulimate Computer how does the U.S.S. Hood get damaged?

You might have misspelled "Hood?" Man, it doesn't get any easier than that.