Sorry Data, but Geordi’s right. The Tractor Beam literally never works. We need to start giving new ships grapplers like the NX-01
I know it’s for the plot but yeah, when xyz doesn’t work because of “atmospheric interference” or whatnot they could fall back onto more primitive technologies. Tractor beam not working? Use a grappler. Phasers not working? Bring down a gunpowder firearm.
Phasers don’t work?
“PORT SIDE CANNONS, FIRE!!”
(Can you imagine what a broadside attack from a Galaxy-class starship would look like?)
Rebel Galaxy does that, with style
Forget gunpowder though. With tech like tractor beams, inertial dampeners, and gravity plating, you’d think The Federation would have more armaments in the way of mass drivers, rail guns, and other physics based attacks. Heck, even an chaotic orbiting swarm of meteorites would do a lot to disperse phaser fire.
I was so happy to see this thinking in action during the last season of Picard.
I, for one, look forward to seeing more asteroids flung at jackasses with tractor beams in the future.
Riker and the tractor beam at the nebula. Riker, his aim true.
If nuclear weapons are considered at most a nuisance, what good would rail guns do?
Unless they’re Vulcan. Then they put the grappler to shame.
Explain this meme for somebody who’s not getting it?
To add to the great answer, this is from TNG Season Five, Episode 18: Cause and Effect
I consider it among the all-time best episodes of any science fiction show.
The redundancy of 3s, especially at the poker game and then the final solution blew my then 13 year old brain.
I agree, this is one of the best episodes out there. My only gripe is the great Kelsey Grammar is relegated to a few lines at the end. But it’s one of my favorites.
Basically, time loop of the enterprise being destroyed. Tractor beam fails to stop the danger, eventually riker decompresses the shuttle bay which shunts the enterprise out of the way and breaks the loop
Close, but not quite: Data suggest tractor beam, Riker shuttle bay decompression. Picard orders tractor beam, it fails, Enterprise destroyed, timeloop begins anew.
New try, this time Data sends “3” back in the timeline to indicate that they should listen to the commander.
New try, Data understands his message just in time to also decompress the shuttle bay along with the tractor beam shenanigans. All are saved and live happily ever after.
Couldn’t they have just done both? Also, what the hell was the first ship doing to get stuck in a time loop for so long before the Enterprise showed up?
Janeway’s advice on making sense of temporal paradoxes is simple: don’t even try.
This is why she’s violated the temporal prime directive more than anyone else and they’ve named a rule after her.
Frasier would be proud of this one
The is the theory of the Möbius: a twist in the fabric of space, where time becomes a loop.
