The ship that parked in the saucer section of the E-E is what I'm talking about (INS). It looks like it has warp nacelles. Any idea how fast this little bugger can go warp-wise (max and cruise) ???
The Captain's Yacht
- Thread starter c0rnedfr0g
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She's bigger than a runabout, with somewhat bigger engines, so there might be a correlation there. Warp 5 or 6, perhaps? Certainly much faster than any of the shuttles. Unless those big engines are configured for, say, payload instead of speed. But why would a VIP yacht be optimized for high cargo mass?
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
maybe each captain can kind of modify it to their tastes, either as like a "sports car" or a big luxury "cadillac"
since it IS the captain's yacht, afterall, i'd like to think it could nearly push Warp 7....
unless picard is more of a luxury guy, then it'd more probably be a warp 5 vehicle
since it IS the captain's yacht, afterall, i'd like to think it could nearly push Warp 7....
unless picard is more of a luxury guy, then it'd more probably be a warp 5 vehicle
Yeah, that is as far as I know about right.... it can be configured to taste, much like the Ready Room.
Indeed, I think Picard was the one who named it 'Calypso'. Yeah, it's personal to him!
i thought it was named Cousteau
Constitution-class had no special ships for the captain? Even after refit? What was the earliest class ship to have these?
We don't know that one of Kirk's TOS shuttles wouldn't have been configured to specifically be Kirk's shuttle, with reclining seats, dimmed lights, tasteful background music and all. And the hangar below the landing bay could have held a special fast cutter for Captain's Joyrides, or a posh barge optimized for making grand entrances.
Apart from that, the first time I saw it suggested that there might be a special yacht or gig or barge for the top officer was in Ships of the Star Fleet, which speculated on the role of a saucertop shuttlebay as once sketched during the process of turning the TOS ship into the Phase II and ultimately TMP ship. I think this feature was given to the Tikopai class, which was the book's tribute to the penultimate TMP design - but it could also have been on the Constitution (II) class, which was the tribute to the Phase II design. The special craft that would have resided in that saucertop bay was not depicted.
The first time we get a "parasite yacht" dangling on the exterior would probably still be Probert's definitive E-D...
Timo Saloniemi
Apart from that, the first time I saw it suggested that there might be a special yacht or gig or barge for the top officer was in Ships of the Star Fleet, which speculated on the role of a saucertop shuttlebay as once sketched during the process of turning the TOS ship into the Phase II and ultimately TMP ship. I think this feature was given to the Tikopai class, which was the book's tribute to the penultimate TMP design - but it could also have been on the Constitution (II) class, which was the tribute to the Phase II design. The special craft that would have resided in that saucertop bay was not depicted.
The first time we get a "parasite yacht" dangling on the exterior would probably still be Probert's definitive E-D...
Timo Saloniemi
Indeed, there were plenty of times it would have made a lot more sense for Picard to use the yacht instead of a shuttle, too. I would have loved to have seen that thing in action. The aeroshuttle from Voyager would have been nice, too, but I guess they solved that problem with the Delta Flyer.
However, if the yacht of the E-D was not a "souped-up shuttlecraft", then its disuse would be excusable.
As the Tech Manual has it, the E-D yacht didn't have warp drive, and probaby wasn't much of an impulse performer, either. Inferior, then, to any standard shuttle if the task was to carry the Captain swiftly to an important meeting - and perhaps extricate him from there if things went badly.
But the yacht seems very spacious, is at home within atmospheres, and would look pretty stylish squatting on the ground. Perhaps its main role would have been to serve as a slightly mobile consulate? It could have been left behind to represent the Federation when the rest of the ship left for more pressing assignments. That's what many luxury yachts do today for a living, really: their ability to move through water is quite secondary to their ability to sit securely at the pier and host a wild party.
Timo Saloniemi
As the Tech Manual has it, the E-D yacht didn't have warp drive, and probaby wasn't much of an impulse performer, either. Inferior, then, to any standard shuttle if the task was to carry the Captain swiftly to an important meeting - and perhaps extricate him from there if things went badly.
But the yacht seems very spacious, is at home within atmospheres, and would look pretty stylish squatting on the ground. Perhaps its main role would have been to serve as a slightly mobile consulate? It could have been left behind to represent the Federation when the rest of the ship left for more pressing assignments. That's what many luxury yachts do today for a living, really: their ability to move through water is quite secondary to their ability to sit securely at the pier and host a wild party.
Timo Saloniemi
Works for me!
The intent, I believe, was just to give the captain a vehicle to go between ship-in-orbit and planet when on important diplomatic missions.
Sort of a flying VIP lounge, if you will.
Arguably shuttlecraft weren't warp-capable until being retconned as such during TNG. For example In TNG's "Samaritan Snare," Picard and Wesley amble to a starbase in one of the Probert-designed shuttles. Wesley says something to the effect of, "This isn't exactly warp drive." As I recall the TNG Tech Manual and TNG's "The Outcast" were the first direct references to any shuttlecraft having warp capabilities.
I suspect that, had the Enterprise-D's captain's yacht seen any significant use, it would have been retconned to have warp capabilities.
EDIT: I'm not arguing that the captain's yacht "should" have warp capabilities. I'm simply arguing that Trek devices have a way of acquiring capabilities based on story need. I doubt that this would be much different for the captain's yacht, had it been featured on TNG.
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Yeah, which is especially odd considering those warp nacelles, which look exactly like those of its mothership, on that shuttle:
http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s2/2x17/samaritansnare081.jpg
And, of course, when you have a starship capable of Warp 9.8, what the hell would be the point of kicking the captain out the (shuttlebay) door to head for a starbase in a sublight craft?
This is, though, the same script that has Wesley ask: "Is this before the Klingons joined the Federation?" And Picard says yes. Now, I know that was the original idea for TNG, but this is the late second season already... Was the writer, Robert McCullough, working from an old Writers' Bible or what? He only wrote this and "The Icarus Factor" for TNG.
More like the Delta Flyer is the solution to a problem that didn´t exist in the first place.
Why, the Korolev-Class of course! *shifty eyed look*
It wouldnt' be difficult to think up an explanation for the tendency to send shuttlecraft instead of whole starships into silly conferences. We could simply assume that the starship drops the shuttle off at very close range, usually only requiring impulse propulsion which is in any case preferred for insystem operations, and then goes her merry way. That allows the ship to avoid port formalities, skip the rush hour in the star system, circumvent the local speed limits - and steer clear of the possible adverse weather in the subspace shallows that sometimes forces even starships on missions of extreme urgency to avoid warp travel near stars...
On that basis, I want to argue that all the TNG shuttlecraft had warp drive, up to warp 2 or so as suggested in the Tech Manual. And the E-D Yacht, in Probert's last year artwork at least, has certain blue-glowing areas that could be retconned as warp engines if need be.
The interesting issue is whether the TNG shuttlepods should have warp drive. They do have nacelles, but they don't have blue glow; they are really tiny, but so is the Type 18 Defiant shuttlepod that presumably can do warp in "The Search"; they never cross significant distances on screen, at least not ones explainable by the "starship drop at system edge" model, but we do need to explain how the pod from the Aries reached Tarchannen in "Identity Crisis".
Timo Saloniemi
On that basis, I want to argue that all the TNG shuttlecraft had warp drive, up to warp 2 or so as suggested in the Tech Manual. And the E-D Yacht, in Probert's last year artwork at least, has certain blue-glowing areas that could be retconned as warp engines if need be.
The interesting issue is whether the TNG shuttlepods should have warp drive. They do have nacelles, but they don't have blue glow; they are really tiny, but so is the Type 18 Defiant shuttlepod that presumably can do warp in "The Search"; they never cross significant distances on screen, at least not ones explainable by the "starship drop at system edge" model, but we do need to explain how the pod from the Aries reached Tarchannen in "Identity Crisis".
Timo Saloniemi
