Instead of a shield being a bubble around a ship.....

[~Benjamin~]

ive got question what happens when the the atlantis city ships sheilds go done would every get sucked out of the city ?

[TheMinuteman]

Well, ideal space travel shapes aren't aerodynamic like in atmo... it's actually a sphere.. so a spherical shield (since shields deflect particle matter too) is ideal.

That and.. in scifi, skin-tight shields seem to indicate low-power or low-tech shields. The NX-01 had polarized hullplating, as did the NCC-1701 and the NCC-1701-A. The reason is... the energy dissipation is so close that the process of bearing the brunt of the energy blast could force the energy shield back ONTO the hull, and in a way, the shields would damage the ship.

The Ancient warship was running on low power, if you recall. So it's possible that the reason it was skin-tight was because the shields were on minimal power aka: emergency shielding.

Except in Nemesis the refitted Enterprise E. had the tight fitting shielding...and we know that wasnt low tech at all...

[IcyNeko]

No, the Enterprise E still had a bubble shield.

Star Trek's advanced starships (post- Kirk) have both shield systems. An advanced outter "bubble" shield, and another layer that's closer to the hull. Perhaps like the "Polarized hull plating" that NX-01 had.

[Buba uognarf]

actually in star trek it's down to special effects, pre nemisis the tech was limited to bubbles in nemisis the shields were skin tight due to special effects being more advanced...

[IcyNeko]

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Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

[PG15]

Please edit your post so it doesn't stretch the whole thread.

Pretty please with cherry on top?

[Quest_techie]

turn on a van de graaf generator, now certainly shields are more controlled than that, but come on, why are you going to waste energy with complex energy field geometries when you can just pour more into an egg?

[ACharmedAsgard]

I still feel the bubble sheild is best due to its multi purpose 1. Bubble shape disperses energy easier and 2. The spaces not filled by ship allows smaller vessels or fighters to be protected from enemy fire within the more large ships's sheild

[beale947]

A sphere is the best way to get equal protection, because the power is evenly spread out, and a bubble is quite stong considering.

[ACharmedAsgard]

A sphere is the best way to get equal protection, because the power is evenly spread out, and a bubble is quite stong considering.

Exactly what I was thinking. Good thinking Batman

[Mister Oragahn]

Trouble with bubble shields is that they'll stop hits that may have missed a slimmer target, had the shield be partially hull hugging.

There are other cases of shields averagely espousing the shape of the ship besides the Orion:

- Prometheus, when sitting on the ground and attacked by Death Gliders while Daniel was running back inside.
- Seberus, Warrick Finn's hebridan small cargo, during the Kon Garat loop.

[The_New_Anubis]

Make bubble shaped ships -> problem solved ^^

[Mister Oragahn]

And recently...

Spoiler:

The shield on the PJ in Return Pt 2 also was hull hugging

... which proves its "modularity".