Talk:Shields (Star Trek)

Citation?
How much of this material can be sited as being part of canon as opposed to the supposition and deduction of fans? RJFJR 04:22, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

I have no idea, but it looks like all of it. It sounds entirely a fan-made theory, not even one based off the technical manuals. I can't really see any basis in canon fact- (not that there is much canon to start with, mind you.) 69.199.80.42 06:17, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Editing
I'm going to do my best to clean this up without changing any of the core information that's here, since I'm not anywhere near enough of an expert to verify any of this. This desperately needs some headings and coherent sections. At that point, I think it will be easier for us to figure out what (and how) any of this can be cited. Zifnab966 02:18, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

I have to disagree - the article as it stand is unsalvageable. The 'information' may be fan theory or it may be a garbled recounting of parts of the Technical Manual - in either case it's pure fiction and equivalent to a fan recounting in complete detail their favourite Trek scene. I'm no uber fan - never even been to a convention - but I've seen a majority of each of the canonical forms of Trek and I've read the Technical Manual years ago so I've think I've got a reasonable sense of what is canon and what is mere speculationI'm tempted to nominate the article for deletion but as it stands I'll rewrite it as a stub if nobody has any objections.

ae7flux

Ok, I'm offering this a a starting point for a new article. I'm not sure if simply watching Trek counts as original research of if I can cite episodes as sources. I'm happy to accept any suggestions as to how to add appropriate citations. I've tried to keep the information in the article relevant to the context of science fiction in general since Wikipedia isn't and shouldn't try to be Merory Alpha.

The term shield in the Star Trek fictional universe refers to some loosely defined version of the classical science fiction force field which is used to protect ships and other structures from damage from a variety of types of weapons. Specifically Star Trek shields are depicted as being able to deflect attacks from both projectile and energy weapons. Like the shields in many other science fiction works, shields in Star Trek are depicted as decaying from the effect of an attack as when for example a character will report "shields at 80%". There is no generally accepted explanation as to why an artificially generated field should decay in this way. In reality it is merely a convenient plot device - like the legendary exploding consoles - used to depict a battle in a way that generates dramatic tension.

In the film, Star Trek Generations, another common science fiction device, shield modulation, played a major plot role. There, the villians were able to insert a video surveilance device into the atificial visual system (visor) of the Enterprise's chief engineer, Geordie La Forge, thus enabling them to discover the modulation frequency of the ship's shields. By setting their weapons to that precise frequency they were able to defeat the Enterprise in battle despite having a massively inferior vessel. Again, no explanation was given of what modulating a weapon, particulary an explosive weapon like the photon torpedo,involves; it is merely another convenient plot device

Given the length of time over which the Stark Trek franchise has been active, it is not surprising that the way shields have been represented on screen has varied greatly. Earlier representions of shield involed something like a translucent halo surounding the vessel. In later years, so called 'conformal' shields were introduced in which glow representing the shield was seen follow the outline of the vessel. In the final episode of Star Trek Voyager a system of ablative shielding was depicted which involved a vessel generating a cocoon of solid, opaque, ablative panels about itself when under threat.

The above applies to the technology used by the Federation and other regularly appearing civilizations depicted as having a similar level of technologicl advancement, such as the Klingons and Romulans. In the original Star Trek series in particular, the Enterpise encountered many highly advanced species many of whom used shield like technology, which may or may not have worked on a similar priciple to that of the Federation.

On notable instance of non-federation shielding technology is that used by the Borg. Individual Borg are depicted as having a personal shielding system which, like all Borg technology, has the capacity to rapidly adapt, in some unexplained way, to resistany attack it encounters.

ae7flux

Inconsistent information
This article seems to change its description of shields between sections: "A force field, in simple terms, is a wall of atoms, minus the atoms..." "...deflector shield creates areas of highly focused space distortion containing a field of gravitons."

Theres seems to be a lot of information that is simply made up or assumed. Almost none of this information is canon or semi-canon. I'm going to try and do a major rewrite, feel free to revert it if the old article was better. --Freyr 01:04, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
 * It's definatly the second. Gravitons are mentioned in the TNGTM, and I'm pretty sure it was mentioned on screen too. --8472 - 07:56, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Lots of made-up stuff
There is a lot of information in this article which is clearly made-up. If sources can be found in a Technical Manual, that re-add this stuff, but I really doubt that any source can ever be found for this stuff. The stuff on "skin shields" and much of the "physics" is just complete garbage. Removed content follows

The physics of a shield is extracted from the physics of a force field. A force field in simple terms is a wall of atoms, minus the atoms, leaving just the "interatomic cohesion forces" that bind matter together. Generators then project this field. These are shield generators. Force fields have the unfortunate effect of only being as hard as normal matter and equally penetrable by high speed objects and also can be disrupted by high levels of energy. To counter this the force field must be strengthened by increasing the power and thus reducing the penetrability of the force field or by multiply layering force fields to increase the density of the force field and thus repelling even smaller particles than the average single force field.

This leaves the ship two options:


 * 1) Have an incredibly high number of bulky and energy hungry generators
 * 2) Increase the power to the generators and make the shields denser.

Number two is the most common option. The problem with this is that at a certain point the interatomic cohesion forces will buckle space; large amount of forces of energy concentrated in a tiny paper-thin-to-inch-thick area of space. When space buckles the field will collapse and create a shockwave of energy that is suddenly released from its previous location.

The only way to circumvent this involves the fact that, the higher the energy and density of the force field, the shorter it lasts. So you set the force field to a sufficient strength and set it to work by the strobe method. The shield flicks on and off before it can buckle space. It can do this up to a billion times a second; this is the shield's frequency. Energy weapons can be synchronized to penetrate the shield if the frequency is known. For this reason, advanced shielding alternates its frequency.

Shields are just force fields that are bent like a graphed function, a parabolic curve, from each shield generator and which then overlap to form one solid bubble. Energy and matter impacting on the force field creates an excess of energy as the force field's interatomic cohesion forces interact with the interatomic forces of matter and energy of the weapon, object or particle. The energy produced feeds itself back to the shield generator; this reduces the capability of the shield generator and reduces the shield strength. Because shield generators are reinforced to the ship's hull, an overloaded generator inflicts physical damage to the ship.

You should never allow two force fields or shields to interact, integrate or come into contact with each other, since this is akin to a piece of incredibly dense, hard and energetic matter passing through another piece of incredibly dense, hard matter. This will cancel out the shield, as where the shields intersect the energy will be too great, and the strobe effect will not be able to counteract the buckling of space.

Electromagnetic fields can be used to deflect plasma away from the hull of a starship. This plasma could come from a nuclear explosion, or a matter-antimatter annhilation explosion. A strong electric field erected around the hull of a starship can re-ionize neutral particle beams, and thus cause them to fly apart due to space charge effects within the beam via the electrostic repulsion between the charged particles in the beam. Highly reflective mirror surfaces can reflect laser and maser beams, and minimize the absorption of energy from them by the hull of a starship. Mirrors made of beryllium can also reflect neutrons and gamma rays like a mirror. Pneumatic springs placed between multiple layered walls in a starship hull can also protect a starship's core modules from explosive shock waves of any origin.

his part is fictional, but within the scientific logic of Star Trek. Sources: The book Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda, as well as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual by Herman Zimmerman, Rick Sternbach, and Doug Drexler.

The shield creates areas of highly focused space distortion containing a field of gravitons. Nearly all shields on starships and smaller craft are shaped like a bubble, which completely surrounds the entire ship. The complete bubble is generated by a series of shield generators positioned around the ship, which provide complete coverage when all are activated. Because shield generators are attached to the ship's hull, an overloaded generator inflicts physical damage to the ship.

Skin Shields
With the movie Star Trek: Nemisis, skin shielding was introduced. The only canonly confirmed ship to have skin shielding is the USS Enterprise-E. This kind of shielding of a starship isn't layed over a ship in the shape of a bubble, but the atoms are layered on the hull with a distance in between the shields and the ship itself; it's parallel to the hull.
 * It's called conformal shielding, and was already seen before Nemesis (parts of DS9 in "Call to Arms"). And shields don't have atoms, they're energy fields. User:8472 -- 08:03, 16 August 2006 (UTC)

The first introduction isn't entirely accurate. You can plainly see "conformal" shields on the shield display close-ups in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Wrath of Khan and IIRC, The Undiscovered Country. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.92.62.105 (talk) 01:54, 15 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I was just about to query that here because it does not seem reliably backed up by evidence. You can read what you want to computer displays - they are representational rather than literal and while you may draw inferences about what they mean those inferences may not be correct.  I remember the graphics on The Wrath of Kahn distinctly: it is tempting to infer it is the shield indicated in the diagram, but the dots could equally well show the positions of active shield generators, or possibly some other meaning (purely dramatic purposes, for example ;-).  Without a canonical interpretation we have no way of knowing.  There are other problems with that paragraph - it refers to the introduction but then admits the introduction may have occurred earlier.  Also TNG era TV series invariably contradict this by showing the shields as ellipsoidal in shape when they are under stress.  I think if there is nothing there that in unquestionably reliable that entire paragraph should be cut. Flying Llamas (talk) 13:53, 17 July 2010 (UTC)

RE:
While the shields do create a a ghighly focused energy field, I would'nt go so far to call them space distortions. A warp bubble is a space distorion, not a shield.

But I do agree with the rest of it.

I have added in heading, organized the data accordingly, and added in more technology information (conformal shielding). Thank you for pointing out that it was also in DS9.

There are always possibilities... 04:48, 11 August 2008 (UTC)

Star Trek versus Star Wars?
From the article: "Example used in a sentence, 'Oh I'm afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive.'" I'm sure other sci-fi enthusiasts will recognize that quote as being spoken by Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars Episode VI, Return of the Jedi. I'm going to remove it as it adds nothing to the article anyway. Dziban303 (talk) 23:27, 4 May 2009 (UTC)

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