Atlantis' Shield Plothole

[stargatefan234]

in the siege pt 3 Mckay states

If they stop firing at it (the shield), it'll last almost indefinitely

suggesting that to power a shield that is not being taxed takes up very little power. and yet in "First Strike"

Spoiler:

after the asteroid has blocked the Asurans energy weapon, the shield is not being taxed, and yet that tiny power consumption is to much for atlantis to take flight.

i just think that in "First Stirke" the shield was not a good reason for atlantis not to take flight, and it was only lowered so that atlantis could get damaged and drop out of hyperspace, from a writing point of view

Thoughts?

[1LostFurling]

in the siege pt 3 Mckay states



suggesting that to power a shield that is not being taxed takes up very little power. and yet in "First Strike"

Spoiler:

after the asteroid has blocked the Asurans energy weapon, the shield is not being taxed, and yet that tiny power consumption is to much for atlantis to take flight.

i just think that in "First Stirke" the shield was not a good reason for atlantis not to take flight, and it was only lowered so that atlantis could get damaged and drop out of hyperspace, from a writing point of view

Thoughts?

Are you suggesting that TPTB convienently changed previously established tech specs so they add some dramatic value to the show? My God man, the beloved and all powerful TPTB would never stoop to such a level just for cheap drama points!

I for one hope that there are no new writers/producers/directors added to Universe because it would take away from all the wonderful moments, like the one mentioned by "Stargate Fan" above that we've all come to love and appreciate.

[ph30nix]

in the siege pt 3 Mckay states



suggesting that to power a shield that is not being taxed takes up very little power. and yet in "First Strike"

Spoiler:

after the asteroid has blocked the Asurans energy weapon, the shield is not being taxed, and yet that tiny power consumption is to much for atlantis to take flight.

i just think that in "First Stirke" the shield was not a good reason for atlantis not to take flight, and it was only lowered so that atlantis could get damaged and drop out of hyperspace, from a writing point of view

Thoughts?

well first of course they had the shield come down for some reason to damage the city lol.

secondly the star drive was ment to be run with 3 zpm's mckay just rigged it to work with one, so its not a stretch to belive that EVERY ounce of power possible would be needed.

so its realy not that hard to belive

[kymeric]

in the siege pt 3 Mckay states



suggesting that to power a shield that is not being taxed takes up very little power. and yet in "First Strike"

Spoiler:

after the asteroid has blocked the Asurans energy weapon, the shield is not being taxed, and yet that tiny power consumption is to much for atlantis to take flight.

i just think that in "First Stirke" the shield was not a good reason for atlantis not to take flight, and it was only lowered so that atlantis could get damaged and drop out of hyperspace, from a writing point of view

Thoughts?

I think its two completely different situations, in your first example he was talking about the sheild operating out of combat with no other systems running besides the lights and airconditioning. In the second example the sheild was being operated alongside the intertial dampners, sublight engines and the powering up of the hyperdrive. In critical mass Mckay said that just powering up the intertial dampners took an insane amount of power. I would speculate that the sublights also take alot of power as theyre moving a CITY into orbit.

So its like the sheild takes 50% of a zpms output, but all the other things all take 50% as well, so 50+50+50=stalling out. If they had 3 zpms itd be ok, but not with just one. Also as further support in EATG they had to make a choice between sheilds, and either drones or using the engines to stay in orbit. So clearly theres a power/number of systems limit no matter how many zpms they have.

So its not really a plothole that they didnt have enough power in first strike compared to rising pt3 because one powerhogging system running indefinately<3 or 4 powerhogging systems running concurrently

[THE HAM]

and you have to remember that in the seige part 3 it is wraith weapons fire, in first strike it is replicator weapons which are far more advanced

[stargatefan234]

I think its two completely different situations, in your first example he was talking about the sheild operating out of combat with no other systems running besides the lights and airconditioning. In the second example the sheild was being operated alongside the intertial dampners, sublight engines and the powering up of the hyperdrive. In critical mass Mckay said that just powering up the intertial dampners took an insane amount of power. I would speculate that the sublights also take alot of power as theyre moving a CITY into orbit.

So its like the sheild takes 50% of a zpms output, but all the other things all take 50% as well, so 50+50+50=stalling out. If they had 3 zpms itd be ok, but not with just one. Also as further support in EATG they had to make a choice between sheilds, and either drones or using the engines to stay in orbit. So clearly theres a power/number of systems limit no matter how many zpms they have.

So its not really a plothole that they didnt have enough power in first strike compared to rising pt3 because one powerhogging system running indefinately<3 or 4 powerhogging systems running concurrently

I Accept Your Logic... Erm... Sort of...
I accept that there were other systems active taxing the Zpm, but i dont agree that the shield was "the one" that pushed the power consumption over the limit, im sure there were other things they could have switched off.

[Telchak]

On a planet surface there is no pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the shield. In space however, you have to hold all the air in (which would be a decent amount) so it would put some pressure on the shields.

[AtlantisAssassin]

I Accept Your Logic... Erm... Sort of...
I accept that there were other systems active taxing the Zpm, but i dont agree that the shield was "the one" that pushed the power consumption over the limit, im sure there were other things they could have switched off.

Zelenka says in first strike that all non-essential systems had already been shut down, so short of maybe shutting down all the control consoles in the city (which I think has to be done manually anyway) there wasn't anywhere else for the power to come from.

[Xaeden]

And yet all along it has always been the case that only something with more power generation than they had would allow them to raise the shield, showing that it did use more than just a little energy in non-battle situations. But, at the same time, I think they are trying to portray that ZPMs hold so much power that despite that, the shield can hold out for a numerous, but undetermined period of time if left undisturbed (indefinitely). It may not use as much energy as the engines or things like bridging universes, so it is capable of holding out for thousands of years against the strain of water pressure (or without any strain). However, I think that goes more toward the capabilities of ZPMs. It holds so much energy that it can power systems that use a lot of energy for long periods of time, but the Ancients started building things that use insane amounts of energy which really can drain one quickly so that causes problems and it has further problems when powering multiple systems, especially when you're trying to power all those systems improperly. So, while the shields might not be a huge power hog in that situation, I can see it being enough of an issue when you can only output so much energy at once and some of it is going to the shields instead of the engines that were built to run on three ZPMs, not one and whatever the drilling platform provided.

[ggf31416]

I believe that the shield was using the power to reload or was storing energy in buffers, which is a sensible thing to do as an interruption in enemy fire may mean that the enemy is charging a superweapon.

[kymeric]

I Accept Your Logic... Erm... Sort of...
I accept that there were other systems active taxing the Zpm, but i dont agree that the shield was "the one" that pushed the power consumption over the limit, im sure there were other things they could have switched off.

What else, those are the 3 big power draws. They couldnt turn off the engines obviously or theyd stop flying, they couldnt turn off the intertial dampners or suddenly they weigh as much as a city, that leaves only the sheild. What else wuld draw more power, the toilets?

Everything else was clearly operatable by naquada generators way back in season one.

[morjana]

in the siege pt 3 Mckay states



suggesting that to power a shield that is not being taxed takes up very little power. and yet in "First Strike"

Spoiler:

after the asteroid has blocked the Asurans energy weapon, the shield is not being taxed, and yet that tiny power consumption is to much for atlantis to take flight.

i just think that in "First Stirke" the shield was not a good reason for atlantis not to take flight, and it was only lowered so that atlantis could get damaged and drop out of hyperspace, from a writing point of view

Thoughts?

Yes, the shield not being taxed takes up very little power -- as long as there is no other heavy power consumptions underway, as in First Strike, when the ship is powering up to fly.

[THE HAM]

i think that the city star drive uses so much energy that only having one was pushing it, and having 1 with an active shield facing the pressure of an ancient weapon, that would really take a toll

so i dont see a plot hole

[J_schinderlin56]

I think what Meredith was trying to say was that if the Wraith stopped shooting and left that they could turn the shield off and not tax the Zed PM.

[WraithHumor]

i think that the city star drive uses so much energy that only having one was pushing it, and having 1 with an active shield facing the pressure of an ancient weapon, that would really take a toll

so i dont see a plot hole

I agree. That combined with the fact that Sheppard wasn't exactly in the best state of mind to be using a device which is controlled...well...by the mind. I mean he seemed pretty stricken with guilt over the whole thing from my point of view because he was the one that 100% backed Ellis from the time he beamed down.

I really doubt he was putting his full concentration into the chair, and therefore may have also been experiencing difficulty in controlling where the power was going. But then again, remember they did only have 1 ZPM as compared to the Ancients who had the 3.