# When did the trope of spacecraft having shields start?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 22, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693 "2010-09-22T19:59:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/1 "2010-09-22T19:59:51Z")
It’s a commonplace in Sci Fi, particularly movies and TV, that spacecraft have shields. What exactly these shields are is never explained - they’re invisible, and often prone to failure. When did this start?
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/2 "2010-09-22T20:09:31Z")
They propably appeared earlier, but I suspect Star Trek popularized them.
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### Author:  [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/3 "2010-09-22T20:09:43Z")
I saw this discussed recently on another forum. The earliest example of ships with shields they came up with was from E.E. “Doc” Smith of Lensmen & Skylark fame, from the 1930s. The earliest example of a “shield” they could find was from a 1912 novel called [The Night Land](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Land#Plot_summary), although that wasn’t around a ship.
> [@](#):
>
> The last few millions of the human race are gathered together in a gigantic metal pyramid, the Last Redoubt, under siege from unknown forces and Powers outside in the dark. These are held back by a Circle of energy, known as the “air clog,” powered from a subterranean energy source called the “Earth Current”. For millennia, vast living shapes—the Watchers—have waited in the darkness near the pyramid. It is thought they are waiting for the inevitable time when the Circle’s power finally weakens and dies.
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### Author:  [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2010, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/4 "2010-09-22T20:17:51Z")
On _Forbidden Planet_, while the ship was grounded, the crew set up an energy fence to protect it from ground bound intruders.
Similar concept, if not as portable.
[Force field - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_field) mentions Der Trihs’ book, as well.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/5 "2010-09-22T20:38:52Z")
Seconding **Trihs** , I think they were popularized by “Doc” Smith. Both the Skylark series and the Lensman series are rife with shields, both ship sized and personal.
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/6 "2010-09-23T04:23:38Z")
It drives me crazy when they’re in space battles, somebody take a hit, and then orders “all power to front deflector shields,” or something like that.
1. They are obviously not putting _all_ the ship’s power into their shields, because all kinds of other systems continue to operate. Yet,
2. If they just mean all _available_ power, why weren’t the shields already receiving that? They’re in a space battle!
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/7 "2010-09-23T05:03:41Z")
Um, because it was evenly distributed around the ship until they had, ya know, a reason to concentrate it? If you had the technology why _wouldn’t_ you built a system that could be adaptable to changing conditions?
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### Author:  [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/8 "2010-09-23T05:04:56Z")
I noticed in a lot of sci fi (particularly Star Trek) shields seem to function much like batteries- they have a ‘capacity’ that gets depleted through damage. So ordering maximum power to foward shields would be diverting as much energy toward keeping that arc at maximum power as much as possibly, instead of trying to do so in every direction.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/9 "2010-09-23T05:16:51Z")
Ordering all [available] power to front shields probably also diminishes the amount of power available for offensive weapons systems.
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### Author:  [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/10 "2010-09-23T05:42:22Z")
> [@outlierrn](#):
>
> Um, because it was evenly distributed around the ship until they had, ya know, a reason to concentrate it? If you had the technology why _wouldn’t_ you built a system that could be adaptable to changing conditions?
Duh. 😉 I’m saying, given such a system, and given that they were in battle, shouldn’t they already be putting all available power (less propulsion, life support, own weapons systems, whatever) to shields?
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> Ordering all [available] power to front shields probably also diminishes the amount of power available for offensive weapons systems.
Reasonable concept, though I don’t recall that ever being a stated factor. I think the Enterprise, etc., blazed away equally (sometimes in-) effectively before and after.
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### Author:  [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/11 "2010-09-23T09:03:49Z")
> [@spark240](#):
>
> > [@outlierrn](#):
> >
> > Um, because it was evenly distributed around the ship until they had, ya know, a reason to concentrate it? If you had the technology why _wouldn’t_ you built a system that could be adaptable to changing conditions?
>
> Duh. 😉 I’m saying, given such a system, and given that they were in battle, shouldn’t they already be putting all available power (less propulsion, life support, own weapons systems, whatever) to shields?
I think you missed my point, I meant that the _shield energy_ was evenly distributed. Since you don’t always know where the attack is coming from, I would probably have that as the default setting, concentrating it by command as a response to damage or a focused attack.
I could also see a short term overide that would cut power to some systems like life support briefly, like afterburner.
Always assuming a lot of parameters that seem to be for dramatic purposes actually turned to to apply to the physics of shields. 😃
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### Author:  [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/12 "2010-09-23T12:31:53Z")
Most shields are hooked directly into the plot device, which can override any system.
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### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/13 "2010-09-23T12:53:13Z")
Of course, the idea of the main protection for the vessel being some sort of force-field is sensible in the context, as it frees you from having to have your spaceship massively armored; of course, this is all based upon the usual Pulp-SF presumption of a preposterous power-ratio in whatever’s your energy source (up until the plot requires you to run out of power at [in]convenient times, of course…).
As to shield degradation, besides being dramatically useful it injects an element of conservation of energy – the shield-field absorbs/redirects the radiant or kinetic energy of the incoming. Once you exceed the capacity to store/redissipate that energy quickly, the shield system becomes less effective, and if outright overloaded it just goes down.
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### Author:  [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/14 "2010-09-23T13:50:20Z")
In Star Trek Online, when a single ship attacks you, they can only attack one side at a time. They have to wear out the shield on that side. When your forward shields start to get weak, you can redistribute power from the other shields to compensate. When you move all available power to the front shields, you weaken or almost remove the rear shield. I think the shields also wear out faster if your ship is going faster. I’m not positive about that, but it seems like the shields are a lot stronger when I’m going half impulse instead of faster. If that’s true, it means engines and shields draw from the same power source and you have to choose what is more important at that time.
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/15 "2010-09-23T14:43:39Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#):
>
> Most shields are hooked directly into the plot device, which can override any system.
Well yes, that’s usually a given. 😃
**Der Trihs** seems to have come up with the earliest example - and after only 10 mins! I love the Dope!
That said, I find the concept of shields a bit off. One of the things I liked about BSG - in either incarnation - was that there were no magical shields.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/16 "2010-09-23T14:49:20Z")
But really, if you accept the speeds that they travel at, some sort of shielding is a given. Even a dust mote could be deadly at Warp 3. The Enterprise always has “navigational shields” deployed at the very least.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/17 "2010-09-23T14:58:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> But really, if you accept the speeds that they travel at, some sort of shielding is a given. Even a dust mote could be deadly at Warp 3. The Enterprise always has “navigational shields” deployed at the very least.
In Arthur C. Clarke’s _Songs of Distant Earth_ the ships moving at relativistic speeds used “shields” made of ice to intercept interstellar matter. Magical _shields_ aren’t required.
I saw this too late to jump in, as others had already made the suggestion of E.E. Smith, who first came to mind. I hadn’t heard of _The Night Land_, although it’s in the Wikipedia entry on force fields. I woulda thought that Edmund Hamilton (who popularized and often invented many SF concepts) would be a major user of these, but from what I see, he only started using them after they had already been established. Certainly by the 1940s Force Fields were part of the common stock of SF props. _Star Trek_ was the first place I recall hearing ship-protecting force fields called “shields”, and I’m sure they did more to introduce the concept to the wider public than anything else. Before that, space battles in movies\* consisted of ships shooting and dodging
\*_This Island Earth_, for instance. Or _the Phantom Planet_.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/18 "2010-09-23T16:44:56Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Seconding **Trihs** , I think they were popularized by “Doc” Smith. Both the Skylark series and the Lensman series are rife with shields, both ship sized and personal.
I’ve been using my personal shield since before the 2nd Dexitroboper Dynasty…
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### Author:  [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/19 "2010-09-23T17:02:58Z")
I guess the Romulans can’t invent a torpedo or something that goes around and attacks the Enterprise from the other side at the same time.
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### Author:  [@thirdname](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdname)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2010, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-trope-of-spacecraft-having-shields-start/554693/20 "2010-09-23T18:50:16Z")
> [@spark240](#):
>
> Duh. 😉 I’m saying, given such a system, and given that they were in battle, shouldn’t they already be putting all available power (less propulsion, life support, own weapons systems, whatever) to shields?
Yeah, and you would think that they would be quicker to put up shields in the first place. You would think they would authorize the the bridge crew to go ahead and raise shields if, say, a Borg cube appears, instead of waiting for the captain to say “shields up.” Or they would program the computer to do it.
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