What if it wasnt an Intrepid in the delta quadrant

[SoulReaver]

The entire Union went from civilian control to military control, so military R&D would accelerate exponentially.

ok
still that shouldn't explain how they became (apparently) even more advanced than the Federation & all the other top factions of alpha quadrant

[mad_gater]

ok
still that shouldn't explain how they became (apparently) even more advanced than the Federation & all the other top factions of alpha quadrant

In actuality it might not have been so much the quality of the firepower as the quantity of it. Those platforms were designed for catching ships in crossfires with scores of them, not for one-on-one engagements. So many of the ships that were destroyed or heavily damaged by those things probably had like at last half a dozen of those things firing on them at the same time in a crossfire. And in the end they had one glaring flaw...in order ot power them effectively they needed a central power source....find the power source, destroy it, and those things become sitting ducks rather quickly.

[SoulReaver]

And in the end they had one glaring flaw...in order ot power them effectively they needed a central power source....find the power source, destroy it, and those things become sitting ducks rather quickly.

but the powersource itself was invulnerable (they just fooled it into destroying itself basically the cardassians made good hardware but messed up the software)

[mad_gater]

but the powersource itself was invulnerable (they just fooled it into destroying itself basically the cardassians made good hardware but messed up the software)

probably not totally invulnerable if they could've gotten the whole fleet to fire on the asteroid on which the power source was housed...the trick was actually getting to it without getting torn to shreds in the crossfire and pretty much only the smaller vessels like the Defiant had the kind of speed and maneuverability to dodge most of the fire from those things (i.e., it's extremely difficult to catch a ship like the Defiant-class in a crossfire)

and by the time they encountered them again in the final battle they'd probably developed their own toys that could more easily neutralize them as Admiral Ross didn't seem to think them all that much of a threat any longer

heck another way to neutralize them would be to ask the Klingons if they still have the blueprints for making ships that could fire when cloaked...just warp a whole fleet of those ships in and take them out without those platforms even being able to detect what's firing on them

[SoulReaver]

heck another way to neutralize them would be to ask the Klingons if they still have the blueprints for making ships that could fire when cloaked

that's another plothole ever since that film never heard of this again yet it's doubtful the klingons would've renounced something as useful

but even that one probably had the flaws of standard cloak that Dominion could see through (on the other hand that huge reman Scimitar had the perfect cloak this sort of ship would've given the Dominion a good run for their money if Starfleet got their hands on this)

[mad_gater]

that's another plothole ever since that film never heard of this again yet it's doubtful the klingons would've renounced something as useful

but even that one probably had the flaws of standard cloak that Dominion could see through (on the other hand that huge reman Scimitar had the perfect cloak this sort of ship would've given the Dominion a good run for their money if Starfleet got their hands on this)

well the one flaw when they encountered the BoP that could do this in ST:6 was the fact that the BoP couldn't really cloak its exhaust too well...or as Uhura put it "The thing's gotta have a tailpipe" and got the idea to modify a torpedo to lock onto the BoP's exhaust

but between the Feds and the Klingons I'm sure they could figure out a way to overcome that flaw and I think by the time war broke out with the Dominion both Romulan and Klingon cloaks had been modified to not be lit up like Vegas on a Saturday night when getting anti-proton scanned

[SoulReaver]

it's just that in the movie with the young Picard clone Geordi said the Scimitar's cloak was "perfect" (he never said that about previous versions)
another thing is they never explained how the remans were able to come up with such a cloak even though they were just a rebel faction whereas the much more powerful romulan empire never got it? (if the romulans had it they wouldn't have hesitated to break the peace treaty & destroy the Federation)

[P-90_177]

Don't pay attention to Nemesis. It jumped the shark in almost every scene.
The good thing about cloaking devices throughout the franchise (and probably the reason why the Federation didn't have too many issues with the Romulan treaty) is that ships under cloak can still be detected. Sensor nets watch over the Neutral Zone, and more than once we saw a scene in next gen where they knew full well a cloaked Warbird was right in front of them, They just couldn't pinpoint their location precisely or get a target lock. That's no good when you're still trying to be diplomatic because if you shoot you could just as easily destroy the entire ship as you could just make the lights on deck 3 flicker.

As for the cardassian weapon platforms. They were high tech but the cardassians had been allies with the Dominion for a while by then so they would have likely picked up a few tips. But even then it would be far easier to turn a stationary, unmanned object into a brutal killing machine than it is on a Starship, so likelly most races could create platforms that can do much the same job.

[Annoyed]

The good thing about cloaking devices throughout the franchise (and probably the reason why the Federation didn't have too many issues with the Romulan treaty) is that ships under cloak can still be detected. Sensor nets watch over the Neutral Zone, and more than once we saw a scene in next gen where they knew full well a cloaked Warbird was right in front of them, They just couldn't pinpoint their location precisely or get a target lock. That's no good when you're still trying to be diplomatic because if you shoot you could just as easily destroy the entire ship as you could just make the lights on deck 3 flicker.

Heck, there was one scene in one of the TOS movies (ST III?) where Sulu spotted a cloaked Bird of Prey on the viewscreen.

[mad_gater]

Heck, there was one scene in one of the TOS movies (ST III?) where Sulu spotted a cloaked Bird of Prey on the viewscreen.

That's cuz the cloaking device on that one didn't work very well and was giving off distortions that could be detected with the naked eye. Must've been made in China

[SoulReaver]

hey like it or not the Scimitar is canon & its cloak can slip through sensor nets ^^
(then again the federation prototype phase-cloak could do the same anyway)

As for the cardassian weapon platforms. They were high tech but the cardassians had been allies with the Dominion for a while by then so they would have likely picked up a few tips.

that could be a good explanation but is there any evidence at all that the Dominion gave military tech to the cardassians? (weren't they a bit wary of the cardassians to begin with)

[mad_gater]

it's just that in the movie with the young Picard clone Geordi said the Scimitar's cloak was "perfect" (he never said that about previous versions)
another thing is they never explained how the remans were able to come up with such a cloak even though they were just a rebel faction whereas the much more powerful romulan empire never got it? (if the romulans had it they wouldn't have hesitated to break the peace treaty & destroy the Federation)

It was actually supposed to be a new class of warship with which to fight the Dominion. And while Remans built many ships of this class (and then hijacked one and used it to destroy all its sister ships while still in their berths so that none of the other Scimitar-class ships could be used to oppose his own), the technology was Romulan. The Remans were mostly slave-labor. Oh and geordi may have called it a "perfect" cloak because no stealth-busting tech at the time could defeat it. But I say give the Feds enough time and they could probably find a way to detect them. No stealth tech is completely 100% foolproof. It only lasts long enough until someone figures out how to defeat it.

[Annoyed]

That's cuz the cloaking device on that one didn't work very well and was giving off distortions that could be detected with the naked eye. Must've been made in China

Or the forced labor camps on Praxis, before it blew up in ST VI.

[SoulReaver]

It was actually supposed to be a new class of warship with which to fight the Dominion. And while Remans built many ships of this class (and then hijacked one and used it to destroy all its sister ships while still in their berths so that none of the other Scimitar-class ships could be used to oppose his own), the technology was Romulan.

ok but then that makes another gaping plothole if the romulans have this sort of ship then they can invade & destroy the Federation at any time (it's not like they've a sense of honour that keeps them from breaking the peace treaty)
they wouldn't even need the thalaron radiation device just the raw power of those ships combine with the new cloak would completely outclass anything the federation has

[Annoyed]

ok but then that makes another gaping plothole if the romulans have this sort of ship then they can invade & destroy the Federation at any time (it's not like they've a sense of honour that keeps them from breaking the peace treaty)
they wouldn't even need the thalaron radiation device just the raw power of those ships combine with the new cloak would completely outclass anything the federation has

The Federation has something stronger than that, though.. or any weapon they might have.

Writers.