Well, first on the torpedoes… quantum torps are the newest in Starfleet, and work along a completely different principle. They are used twice in First Contact (first against the Borg Cube, second against the Pheonix). For the laymen, quantom torps are blue, photon torps are red. Voyager doesn’t have them because it’s not meant as a warship. Go back to the early Voyager episodes… it’s clearly stated that it’s meant as an exploring ship, not a warship, such as the Enterprise E is. It just got more warlike as producers again realized that people like seeing “things blow up.”
More on Torpedoes… Quantum Torps use a zero-point energy system, which is real-life theoretical material. I have no guesses on the energy generated, of course, besides “lots.” Both systems are still used, as seen in Nemesis. (Picard specifically orders which type to use when, if you watch carefully). Three immediately obvious reasons to keep both that I can think of. First, they’ve probably got gigantic stockpiles of hundreds of thousands of photon torpedoes lying around, and it would be a shame to waste them all, right? Second, photon torpedoes are still a heck of a lot faster in firing rate. Third, quantum torpedoes are probably a heck of a lot more expensive. The US military doesn’t use million-dollar cruise missiles when unguided bombs from a B-52 will do. Why use a quantum torpedo for destroying a smaller object, when a photon torp will do the job just as well, for less? You want to save your heavy firepower for the borg cubes.
Spoofe, I too recently saw Pegasus and I can’t for the life of me figure out where you are getting your data. The Enterprise (D) is about 2/3 of a kilometer long. Unfortunately, I can find no picture from the episode that I can link to, but perhaps you remember shots of the Enterprise next to the asteroid? It is far far larger than 10 km in diameter.
Even were it a mere 10 km in diameter, you’re still assuming a perfect placement of energy. Remember that when you’re impacting something from the outside, half the energy is already directed away from your target. A lot of the rest is deflected away as well. And of course, there’s the fact that it’s already been stated that a torpedo has 1.5 kg of antimatter reacting with 1.5 kg of matter, which gives an easily calcuable amount of energy <grin>.
By the way, my apologies for skipping around randomly in subjects… I’m just writing as it occurs to me <grin>.
I don’t think we can use the “battles at long range” thing with all that much accuracy. The problem, of course, is in the filming. You you need to fit both ships on one screen, which sort of limits your options (unless you want both ships to be mere slivers in space).
On the subject of that “billion kilometer” weapon you mentioned – hey, if you want to haul in some esoteric weapon from one book, let me take your already mentioned example of the Pegasus, “true” canon material. What use are those billion kilometer weapons if the ship you’re firing at is cloaked… and intangible while it’s on, too?
A few random thoughts of my own… it’s claimed that the Death Star had shields, right? The original one, not the one under that projected shield in Jedi? If that’s so, it seems clear that these shields are worth precisely nothing. In the original trench run against the death star, there were explosions all over the surface from random laser shots (and the random fighter slamming into them). Undoubtedly, the death star, being the pride and joy of the Imperials, would be protected by the best available shields to keep the paintwork from getting damaged. (Can you imagine repainting a small moon? It would probably bankrupt most single planetary governments). Yet, somehow, every single shot fired actually creates an explosion on the surface and destroys skin or emplacements…
Your own argument about the Pegasus asteroid works against you here, Spoofe. Without those shields, the Death Star is nothing more than a moon-shaped (and moon-massed) chunk of metal. A few torpedoes (which are purely physical weapons that literally impact against a surface), and BOOM!
I see no reason why the same wouldn’t hold for the lesser “Star Destroyer” chunks of metal.
Oh, a random comment about “canon.” In the Star Wars universe, the speed of light, c, is the same as it is in our universe, right? In that case, how can the Falcon travelling at sub-light speeds make a trip between two solar systems in a matter of days, as happened in one book that I recall? Two suns that are a few light days apart are in the same solar system, even assuming he was traveling as relatavistic speeds.
That brings up one more last thought… it’s been stated that impulse engines are easily capable of accelerating a ship up to near light velocity fairly quickly. But you start encountering big relativity problems the faster you go. I think a 1/4 c speed is the usual limit for that exact reason.
-Psi Cop
