Battle of Maxia - Why did Picard not destroy the Stargazer?
Posted by Scrat-Slartibartfast@reddit | TNG | View on Reddit | 22 comments
I am on a rerun of TNG and find it strange that Picard gave the ship up and did not destroy it. Its Ship that contains weapons, and Technology of the Federation, the Computer holds a lot of classified Informations etc. Is it not usual to destroy the ship when it is abandoned?
rdt_48695@reddit
I don't know either. Auto-destruct is a bit of a tension builder. Yes the flagship needs auto destruct but does an Oberth ship? Although if you didn't have auto destruct you could just let the magnetic seals on the antimatter containment fail and boom.
elwyn5150@reddit
All starships definitely need one.
In a worst-case scenario, a starship is a massive meteorite engineered to endure the heat and stress of atmospheric entry heading towards a major population centre or ocean that will cause tidal waves.
A self-destruct would break into smaller parts that are more likely to burn up in atmosphere.
Scrat-Slartibartfast@reddit (OP)
I Think every ship has an auto destruct, but maybe the ship was to damaged or there was no time to do that.
RangerMatt76@reddit
It takes three bridge officers to initiate the auto destruct. It’s possible that too many people were either killed or injured to use auto destruct.
Champ_5@reddit
Maybe they just forgot the codes, you know they're really complicated.
Who could be expected to remember 1-1-A?
Malnurtured_Snay@reddit
Not necessarily. We've seen as few as two officers initiate self destruct. And what happens if you've only got one officer left and they need to blow up this ship?
Phaser on overload set next to the warp core would likely do it...
MageKorith@reddit
I believe the term you're looking for is "scuttle".
Inspiredwriter26@reddit
I figured either one of two things happened:
—The Stargazer was about to suffer a warp core breach when the crew evacuated and Picard didn’t bother with the self destruct as a result. Something prevented the core breach, either a local phenomenon dampened or prevented the reaction, or, more likely, other Ferengi ships caught up to the Stargazer, and due to the valuable prize it represented, transported the warp core and/or matter-antimatter fuel into space away from the Stargazer.
—Picard did activate the self destruct but since that system uses the mother of all warp core breaches, Ferengi did the same steps as above.
Worf_Of_Wall_St@reddit
Picard expected it would be destroyed which is why he's very surprised when Bok shows up with it 15 years later.
I don't think TNG explains the destruct mechanism but as another reply explains a novel took up the task. I think it was called The Buried Age, it was a pretty good book except the story is so epic it's a bit implausible that he would never have mentioned it in the TNG years.
KorEl555@reddit
So the story can happen where the Ferengi brings it back to him.
Altruistic-Ad8291@reddit
In one of the beta canon 'lost era' books it shows the end of the Stargazer. Adrift after pulling off the Picard maneuver, the crew is forced to evacuate due to a radiation leak caused by heavy damage to the science labs. Picard has the engineer set the Gazer to fall into a nearby planet, but due to a fluke it ends up bouncing off the atmosphere after the fleet of evac shuttles and pods have departed.
techm00@reddit
that's a good plot solution, I like it!
Scrat-Slartibartfast@reddit (OP)
That explains a lot. Thank You.
emptiedglass@reddit
Maybe main power/computer was out, or the autodestruct systems were damaged and there was no other safe way to blow the ship up?
ColBBQ@reddit
Well space is very big and finding a wrecked ship on scanners would be difficult to sort through the debris in space.
Scrat-Slartibartfast@reddit (OP)
I am not sure about that. If it is completely dead its hard to find, but if it can do warp it must have antimatter on board, that storage still needs energy that can be detected.
Yes maybe the Ferengi filled up the Antimater storage, but there is still a change that someone finds the wreck, and get informations or technology from it.
OffensiveComplement@reddit
I imagine a ship could always dump its antimatter in an emergency.
Scrat-Slartibartfast@reddit (OP)
it should be possible, but maybe something failed.
OffensiveComplement@reddit
When I say "dump the antimatter" I mean get it off the ship.
Scrat-Slartibartfast@reddit (OP)
when I see how often the cant eject the warp-core, I am pretty sure there also have problems sometimes to eject the antimatter.
ColBBQ@reddit
I misunderstood your question and came up a couple theories;
The Stargazer is a long range exploration ship, designed to look the least intimidating with enough weapons to defend and escape any hostile encounters. The ship would not have been equipped with the latest hardware nor have files on them along with classified federation files. The stargazer is just to collect data and report them back to HQ.
As for self destruct, since the ship just have to mix all the antimatter with matter all at once may release a radiation shockwave which can be concerning about damaging the local planetary systems.
I believe the ships also have ways to permanently seal leftover antimatter in permanent magnetic bottles when the warp core is damaged or inoperative.
Scrat-Slartibartfast@reddit (OP)
that maybe a reason. outdated equipment, a planetary system nearby, can be good reason to not self destruct.
Thank you for your theories.