Dreadnaught question.

[Stofsk]

Why, for instance, did the Caretaker bother to suck the Dreadnought AM missile all the way from the AQ to the Delta Quadrant? There wasn't a soul onboard, so there was no reason to do it.

We don't know how much the Caretaker knew of the Dreadnaught before it hijacked it, from halfway across the Milky Way it might not have been able to scan the ships interior well enough to know that it had no crew.

It can grab and yank ships from thousands of parsecs distant, yet it can't scan their holds? Curious. It would NEED some kind of scanning range in order to lock onto the ship and bring it to it. And in "Caretaker" I dimly recall Kim saying "We're being scanned by *technobabble*" just before that wavefront appears.

I'm... reluctant to confirm this, however. It would mean having to rewatch a VOY episode.

And I find it odd that the Maquis, when given such a boon, couldn't salvage it. The Dreadnought missile was pretty sophisticated for Cardassian hardware. It had a formidable array of weaponry which the maquis could have at least taken it for themselves before retooling it's target.

True, however Torres sent the missile to attack the Cardassian depot on her own with out asking Chakotay.

Yeah, Torres is a dumb bitch.

[Sir Sirius]

It can grab and yank ships from thousands of parsecs distant, yet it can't scan their holds? Curious. It would NEED some kind of scanning range in order to lock onto the ship and bring it to it.

Being able to spot a ship from 70 000 lightyears away and being able to scan it's interior from 70 000 lightyears away are a bit different, no?

And in "Caretaker" I dimly recall Kim saying "We're being scanned by *technobabble*" just before that wavefront appears.

True, he says something about a coherent tetryon (or something to that effect) beam.

[RedImperator]

So the Maquis acquired a missile with quantum torpedos, shields, and 1000kg of antimatter. Rather than taking the torpedos and the antimatter for their own use, they decided to fire their only superweapon, knowing it's virtually impossible that they'll ever get another chance to do it. Then, rather than firing it at, oh, maybe, Cardassia, or a major Cardassian strategic target like a shipyard, they decide to blow up a supply depot. Then, instead of making sure their only superweapon hits the target, they fire it into or through the Badlands, where it's perfectly possible some random phenomonon could disable or destroy it.

Did these writers even read their own scripts?

[Stofsk]

Did these writers even read their own scripts?

Do you really need to ask?

Devil's Advocate: Torres decided to fire Dreadnought unilaterally, without even Chakotay's knowledge let alone approval. Of course, didn't Chakotay vote to abandon the missile? I'd like to think he didn't, he was one of the few characters I actually liked.

[RedImperator]

Did these writers even read their own scripts?

Do you really need to ask?

Devil's Advocate: Torres decided to fire Dreadnought unilaterally, without even Chakotay's knowledge let alone approval. Of course, didn't Chakotay vote to abandon the missile? I'd like to think he didn't, he was one of the few characters I actually liked.

So Torres wasted an extremely valuable asset without orders and she wasn't punished for it? And Chakotay planned on abandoning it without even stripping it for parts? That's not much better.

[Sir Sirius]

When did they say that Chakotay wanted to abandon the missile? I'm too lazy to watch the entire episode from beginning to end, but a quick search through it did turn up anything about Chakotay's plans for the missile.

BTW Torres's "punishment" was a Chakotay telling her that what she did had hurt him.

[Uraniun235]

So the Maquis acquired a missile with quantum torpedos, shields, and 1000kg of antimatter. Rather than taking the torpedos and the antimatter for their own use, they decided to fire their only superweapon, knowing it's virtually impossible that they'll ever get another chance to do it. Then, rather than firing it at, oh, maybe, Cardassia, or a major Cardassian strategic target like a shipyard, they decide to blow up a supply depot. Then, instead of making sure their only superweapon hits the target, they fire it into or through the Badlands, where it's perfectly possible some random phenomonon could disable or destroy it.

Did these writers even read their own scripts?

I don't think these Dreadnought missiles are invulnerable to conventional weapons fire - they're probably just tougher than anything the Maquis could throw at it. Sending it at Cardassia would give the Cardassians plenty of time to pick up this incoming missile, and intercept it with a few heavy cruisers.

As for writers reading their own scripts... doubtful. Ronald D. Moore complained at one point of Voyager scripts with page after page of technobabble that utterly confused him, a man who'd been writing Star Trek for several years.