The Problem With Enterprise's Shuttles...

Today we take in-depth look at the various shuttlecraft that make up the Enterprise Ds coupious complement of auxilary and daughter craft. From the Iconic top of the line Type 7 Shuttlecraft. To the Humble Type 15 shuttlepods. we analyse each in how it serves and supports the overall operations of the Enterprise D in its Missions of Exploration, and ask why it had such a variety of the humble little ships?

[trevynlane]

Reminder: Enterprise D delivered DS9's initial runabout and Federation shuttle complement. Without depleting the ship's complement.

[davidjordan]

Welcome to shuttle operations, we have a saying here; transporters maybe quicker but at least a shuttle doesn't arguably kill you.

[baystated]

A great deeper dive to demonstrate that the Ent-D wasn't just bridge officers pushing buttons, getting immediate answers, and spouting technobabble.

[Blackmark]

Ambassador wasn't the first to have two shuttle bays. Miranda class had two.

[Relav]

This is super cool, cause now, we're moving away from the idea of the Enterprise as a battleship, or an aircraft carrier, to an international airport, serving the entire "galaxy" with how much goes on. When your put mind to it, Data's Day really does set the table for how *gigantic* and busy this ship really is. There's stuff going on at all hours, and dare I be so bold, Wesley may have been right when he said "it'd be hard to get bored on this ship."

Also, I finally understand why there were two shuttle bays at the back! Ones for the little pods! Sokath, his eyes opened!!!

[tullyDT]

Mr Bean's car gave me a good chuckle. I always preferred the Type 6 it struck me as a very rugged and utilitarian look to it. To me the type 7 is a car and the type 6 is a small van

[davepowers]

If I had to theorize a reason in-universe why the Type 7s didn’t show up so much is perhaps they were more work to upkeep and/or overengineered, so they decided it was more efficient to use the older, but more efficient Type 6s

[ModestNeophyte]

my favorite shuttle will always be the type 6. i was given a type 6 shuttle toy as a kid and remember having so much fun with it.

[Rohirin]

If I remember correctly, in the TNG Technical Manual, they go into detail as to how the Enterprise goes to a general area, and the shuttles are sent out for a closer look. If they find something interesting, the ship shows up which reduces the risk to the ship as well as manages time. So your use of the image of a carrier is on point. If i had to guess an in show reason as to why we don't see the type 7s that often is because they're probably out on a scientific mission.

[Peaceforall]

Timing of this is crazy been really into vr walkthroughs on the D especially shuttle bay.

You rule, I ALWAYS love Thursday nights

[balrighty]

I like the explanation that the main saucer shuttlebay was for more day-to-day operations. It means that while it's important, it's also never plot-relevant. Anything exciting enough to be part of an episode is going to happen in one of the secondary bays.

[joshpetersen]

I think there might be a couple reason they would have both the Type 6 and Type 7 shuttles on the Enterprise. One is like you've pointed out the Type 7 is the newest most advanced generation of shuttle and it's likely that they are more expensive (in raw material cost if nothing else) than the Type 6 which is likely a mature, reliable design. Two it's likely that the time is which TNG was set in a transition between shuttle generations This would be not unlike USN aviation during the Vietnam era. USN carriers carried everything from WWII vintage, propeller driven A-1 Skyraiders and S-2 Trackers to 50s era jets like the A-3 Skywarrior and A-4 Skyhawk; to late 50s early 60s supersonic jets like the F-8 Crusader to the latest cutting edge A-5 Vigilante, A-6 Intruder, A-7 Corsair and F-4 Phantom. The older types were still operated because while the were older they performed their jobs adequately, if not at the same level as the newer designs.

[CiaranMaxwell]

Stagnation is also somewhat on display with the Enterprise-D itself. Yes, its warp drive is much better than the Ambassador. But its combat capability? Not much improvement at all. And it shows. The Galaxy class is woefully underpowered when it hits the fan. Remember: The D'Deridex was a panic response to the Ambassador class, the Galaxy's predecessor. Yet the Galaxy, a full generation of ship design newer than both, still only has one good option when faced with a hostile D'Deridex: Run.

A known hostile power had a ship that vastly outmatched the Federation ship that spurred its design, and Starfleet chose to _not fix this problem._ If the Romulan Star Empire had decided to forgo stability (something like 75% of the Romulan battleship population is busy maintaining order (read: suppressing rebellion) at any given time) and invade the Federation, Starfleet could not have stopped them. Both factions knew this. Yet Starfleet did nothing about it.

The Constitution pioneered phasers, marking a huge increase from Starfleet's previous laser weaponry.

The Excelsior massively increased their firepower and fire rate by powering the phasers from the warp core directly, instead of the Constitution's self-powered emitters. Its shields could no-sell a single photon torpedo. (This technology was backported to the Constitution, creating the TMP-era Enterprise. While not capable of fully blocking one photon torpedo like the Excelsior, it _could_ block a single shot from V'Ger.)

The Ambassador pioneered the phaser array, granting an unparalleled field of fire. Thanks to the phaser array's charging method, it could match the firepower of the Excelsior's phasers without drawing from main power. Its shields could tank an entire salvo from a Klingon battleship without entirely failing. Its single forward torpedo launcher was capable of burst fire, allowing it to match the fire rate of the Excelsior and Constitution Refit's dual torpedo launchers.

The Galaxy... had one continuous phaser array each dorsal and ventral along its saucer, compared to the Ambassador's separated three each. While this gave the Galaxy's phasers more than triple the punch of the Ambassador's (the saucer is much larger than the Ambassador's, remember), there is no new technology here. The Galaxy, in battle, is little more than a refit of the Ambassador, and not nearly on the same level as the Constitution Refit was to its original design.

It took the Borg to remind Starfleet that it isn't safe out there. Q introduced the Federation to the Borg, thus causing the Battle of Wolf 359. This catastrophic defeat spurred the panic development of new combat technologies and warship designs. Yes, _warship, _ not all-rounder exploration ships. This mindset of "Fuck, we need improve NOW to survive, " shows in the names of the two warship classes that came out of this renewed innovation effort: the Sovereign and the Defiant. Translated: "Resistance is _not_ futile."

Without this panic-induced engineering revival, the Dominion would have entirely overrun the Federation. And the Feds were still slowly losing ground, even after the Dominion decided to dig in and start up their war machine logistics on this side of the wormhole rather than continue their advance. Starfleet just couldn't produce the anti-Borg ships fast enough. And the Galaxy, Starfleet's pinnacle ship class, was nearly useless.

The Galaxy class, believed by Starfleet to be a battleship, shows off the stagnation caused by the golden era of the Federation. Small improvements to existing technology, rather than any true innovation. Necessity is the mother of invention... and despite the signs (see the D'deridex above), there was no invention.

Edit: I missed a word.

[kendrakirai]

The Enterprise is a ship that is very *important*. It's a diplomatic type ship, ferrying dignitaries around, it's a place for conferences and negotiations to be held, that sort of thing. It has multiple, big shuttle bays to accommodate such dignitaries and their personal vessels. The Type 7 shuttlecraft is a luxury shuttle for ferrying ambassadors and the like around. The Type 6 is the one the ship actually uses for getting around, and the one they can just...give people, like they did with Scotty.

A ship will, when possible, have multiple sub-vessels for various given tasks. A big cargo shuttle, a little shuttle pod for quick trips down to a planet, let's say, a ship for actually going somewhere away from the main vessel. And the fancy one to impress a diplomat and his aides as they're ferried up to the Enterprise.

And then there's the later addition of Runabouts, to actually be sub-ships.

[davidponseigo]

In " Cause and Effect " they decompressed the main shuttlebay at the end to avoid the USS Bozeman but your right that we don't get to see inside. I really feel like a nerd now !

[Jack_Stafford]

We did see shuttle Bay 1, in Cause and Effect that was the main shuttle bay door opening that moved the Enterprise out of the way of the incoming ship to avoid collision.

[occultatumquaestio]

Something I find odd is how the Galaxy class didn't have any type-8 shuttlecraft, and it took until Voyager for them to be introduced.
Shuttlecrafts are indeed underrated in Trek, combined with the how massive the Galaxy class is, more exploration on them is neat.

[GoodOldGamer]

One of the reasons the Akira class is my favorite is because it also has a huge fly through shuttle bay. I like to think if a show used it as a hero ship, they'd have a dedicated Flight Ops department and official flight deck like a carrier.

[TheAtkey]

It would be so cool if in the final season of Lower Decks they would show the "Flight Deck" of a Galaxy Class Starship.

[proffurrypaws]

Given the number of shuttles reported in your count @18:05, that means they can easily accommodate between 350-550 personnel onboard the normal complement of shuttlecraft. Incase of emergency evacuation, getting a third to a half of the crew comfortably into shuttles before even needing to resort to escape pods is pretty good.