Generations: Evacuating a Galaxy Suffering a core breach: How it Should be Done

[RCgothic]

In Generations, the Saucer crashed into the planet because it couldn't get away from the explosion in time.
As far as I know, no escape pods were launched. The saucer waited for the stardrive to be evacuated before undocking. This meant it got caught in the blast.

What should have happened:
#1. The saucer should have undocked immediately as it already containts the majority of the crew, getting as far clear as possible.
#2. The engineering section crew should have made their way to the nearest escape pods. An escape pod would in almost every case be closer than the saucer anyway.
#3. Escape pods could be recovered in the main shuttlebay or by transporters.

I hope the after-action report was damning.  :arms:

(edited point 1 for clarity)

[mckinneyc]

You're forgetting that the only reason the Enterprise's saucer crashed into the planet was because she was close to it and while not in orbit was certainly in it's gravity well. Had the saucer section been in deep space or further away from the planet it would probably have only taken slight damage from the shockwave.

[Dalek]

Also, the escape pods would have gone down with the saucer and most likely ended up a splatted mess. Not advisable.

And option #1 did happen in the film anyway. They tried to stop the warp core, got people going anyway and then BLAM, warp core explosion.

[RCgothic]

Those weren't options, they were the procedure for evacuating the star drive. From memory Alpha:

As the breach nears critical and with the crew cleared of the star-drive section, the ship separates and moves to safety. However, the core breaches prematurely, destroying the damaged drive section of the Enterprise, creating a shock wave that pushes the saucer into the atmosphere of Veridian III.

If the saucer had had more time, it would have been further away from the stardrive, and not between shockwave and planet. La Forge managed to get all the way from main engineering on deck 36 all the way to secondary hull access on deck 7. He had to get up 29 decks. There were lifeboats on deck 40, just 4 decks away.

Escape pods are also specifically DESIGNED to land on planets in the event of an emergency (as they did in first contact), something the saucer section most definitely wasn't.

[Dalek]

And since when does being spiffing-accurate stuff make good storylines? Everyone would live happily ever after in your scenario with something to cushion the little bumpy ride. And think about it, the core is about to explode in 3-4 mins, you've been attacked with direct hull contact, you're rattled, and the chances of escape pods working properly are low and saucer separation is the only viable option.

Also, the saucer was specifically designed to evacuate from the stardrive. It's protocol.

[Shadowknight1]

What they SHOULD have done was use the transporter to beam the entire engineering crews to the saucer.  But either way, the Enterprise was still too close to Veridian III and had damage to her engines, so it probably still would have been caught in the shockwave.

[Kirk]

The only damaged engine was the main one on the stardrive.

Oh wait, pointless argument is pointless.
Carry on.

[Tuskin38]

Escape pods are also specifically DESIGNED to land on planets in the event of an emergency (as they did in first contact), something the saucer section most definitely wasn't.

Unless you read the novels in which case there is a novel where the Enterprise gets a new saucer made for planet landings,


But then again novels are noncCanon so my point is invalid.

[mckinneyc]

I believe background sources did state the saucer was designed to make planetfall but had the helm controls been working they could have chosen somewhere other than a dence jungle to crash land in.

The fact no one was killed during the crash adds to that. But what a great sequence! Best and most sad part of the entire film, I don't think I was as upset when Kirk died later on!

[Darkthunder]

In any case, the blooper with Picard being beamed down to Veridian III from a FEDERATION transporter beam, stands out more in my mind.

Not to mention, the fact that they were evacuating people from Sickbay, when sickbay is already in the saucer section.

[mckinneyc]

Not to mention, the fact that they were evacuating people from Sickbay, when sickbay is already in the saucer section.
[/quote]

Remeber decks 11-16 are going to take the full force of the impact when the saucer hits the ground and sickbay is on deck 12. Best thing to do is get everyone above deck 10.  This is probably one of the reasons the saucer can't be salvaged as decks 12-16 become deck 11!

[Kirk]

Except they weren't planning on hitting the ground. ;) Hence Data's outburst.

[Nebula]

I think there was a small sep sickbay in the neck of the engineering section

[Shadowknight1]

I think Data's outburst was more a reaction to the speed at which the ship was uncontrollably falling.  The saucer was designed to make planetfall.  Heck, the 1701's saucer was designed for it(what do you think those triangular sections on the underside were?).  But without helm controls it went from a controlled soft landing to the typical crash landing.  But even a soft landing might have incurred some damage, especially if, say, the inertial dampeners were offline, hence the decision to evacuate everyone to the upper half and closer to the center of the saucer section.

[Aeries]

Escape pods are also specifically DESIGNED to land on planets in the event of an emergency (as they did in first contact), something the saucer section most definitely wasn't.

Hmm... do you think, though, that they could have survived a shock wave of that magnitude? That shock wave turned the saucer section into FUBAR, forcing the crash landing... what do ya think it could do to an escape pod, given that escape pods surely can't reach even a fraction of the impulse speeds that the saucer section could? Also, gotta take the range of that shock wave into account... To me, anyways, that sounds like a lot of bloodshed to evacuate to escape pods in that circumstance...

Just my thought anyways. perhaps I'm wrong. :]

[rengers]

here is my theory:

what you said makes sense but you forgot, that the scene when the saucer crashes
on the planet just looked cool and was something special( atleast i think the authors thinked like that)

[ACES_HIGH]

Not to mention, the fact that they were evacuating people from Sickbay, when sickbay is already in the saucer section.

yeah I think they were taking the wounded to emergency crash shelters

[Kirk]

Hmm... do you think, though, that they could have survived a shock wave of that magnitude? That shock wave turned the saucer section into FUBAR, forcing the crash landing... what do ya think it could do to an escape pod, given that escape pods surely can't reach even a fraction of the impulse speeds that the saucer section could? Also, gotta take the range of that shock wave into account... To me, anyways, that sounds like a lot of bloodshed to evacuate to escape pods in that circumstance...

Forgive my darkness, but that sounds like it would be awesome for a really dark episode. Crew abandons ship in life boats and saucer, only to have the crew in the pods be wiped out by the resulting shock wave.

[Dalek]

Ya know, thats just nasty. Captain Picard would never let the producers come up with that sort of thing. I suppose in the TrekNiverse, if enough of the crew was killed, the Captain could go up on court-martial for loss of crew and ship (happened to Picard after the Battle of Maxia except without the crew problems).

[Martyn_Myst]

Not to mention, the fact that they were evacuating people from Sickbay, when sickbay is already in the saucer section.

Remeber decks 11-16 are going to take the full force of the impact when the saucer hits the ground and sickbay is on deck 12. Best thing to do is get everyone above deck 10.  This is probably one of the reasons the saucer can't be salvaged as decks 12-16 become deck 11!
[/quote]

i would like to point out that the sickbay deck in the galaxy class was in the neck just above the torpedo room not in the saucer it was later put in the saucer during the ds9 refits as the saucers were more armour at that time