Starship Landings

[Snowman37]

Voyager was the first full scale Starfleet ship depicted with the capability of landing on a planet. Previously; we've seen shuttlecraft, runabouts, and a Klingon Bird of Prey perform landings. Did I miss anything? Feel free to include implied landings. Was your impression that landing the mothership was new for Starfleet? I just assumed this was always an option. We just never saw it until Voyager. The original Enterprise just didn't have a landing-friendly shape, and neither did the Enterprise-D. The original Enterprise was intended to have saucer separation. Presumably, both Kirk and Picard's Enterprise saucer section could land. Yeah, it crashed in Generations, but I always imagined that huge landing feet could unfold. As for DS9, well... they had the runabouts. Then came Voyager... It was the first central starship setting small enough to land. If Voyager can land, why not the Defiant? Yeah, the writers didn't know landing feet were included on the MSD. It's smaller than Voyager, shouldn't that have clued them in?

Point is, do you think Starfleet's smaller mother ships always had the ability to land?

If there's a question on what qualifies as a mother ship, I'd say anything large enough to carry shuttlecraft.

[Dazzle foot]

I believe the ncc 1701 retrofit, had the capabilities to land. If to check out Mr Scott's guide to the enterprise, the ship has landing pads (struts) on the lower half of the saucer section, though, one would assume the weight of the nacelles would cause it to topple.
Saying that, they were going to land the ship in TOS, but effects wise, it was to expensive... Hence the transporter.
The defiant has 4 landing struts, according to DS9 technical guide, though I guess there was just never a need to land?

[blueray]

i could have swarn they land the defiant in an episode. but i could be wrong.

and i remember when they first land voyager, tom was shocked when janeway gave the order.

[Snowman37]

I believe the ncc 1701 retrofit, had the capabilities to land. If to check out Mr Scott's guide to the enterprise, the ship has landing pads (struts) on the lower half of the saucer section, though, one would assume the weight of the nacelles would cause it to topple.

The original Enterprise was intended to have saucer separation. Presumably, both Kirk and Picard's Enterprise saucer section could land.

Saying that, they were going to land the ship in TOS, but effects wise, it was to expensive... Hence the transporter.

Too expensive, and it would have killed the pacing to land the ship every season.

The defiant has 4 landing struts, according to DS9 technical guide, though I guess there was just never a need to land?

Then came Voyager... It was the first central starship setting small enough to land. If Voyager can land, why not the Defiant? Yeah, the writers didn't know landing feet were included on the MSD.

i could have swarn they land the defiant in an episode. but i could be wrong.

It crash landed off screen in "Children of Time." I wish we'd seen a camera pan over the ancient wreckage, though. It would have been quite a sight, no?

and i remember when they first land voyager, tom was shocked when janeway gave the order.

They didn't even explore trying to use a shuttlecraft beyond stating it to be too dangerous. Janeway was showing off her new ship's landing ability, and Tom Paris had never landed anything bigger than a shuttlecraft. That doesn't necessarily mean that full scale ship landings were relatively new. Tom was the only one to be all that surprised, but again, probably because he was the one doing the landing. If anything, it would imply that landing a full scale ship was possible but rarely done. It was the same attitude towards the Ent-D's saucer separation.