Re: NX-01 Self Destruct?

In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (John Savard) writes:
>On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 20:37:01 -0600, lyon_wonder
><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote, in part:

>>Though the warp core
>>was deliberately overloaded  temporary to scare the Suliban into
>>evacuating the ship in "Shockwave", and Archer destroyed the NX-01 in
>>that alternate timeline in "Twilight", in aired episodes I don't
>>recall ever hearing an on-screen mention of an official self-destruct
>>capability.
>
>Well, there you are. Given "Shockwave", doubtless Archer will have
>Trip put in the *first* official self-destruct circuitry in a
>starship, adding this to phaser cannons, the transporter, and a
>no-doubt forthcoming upgrade to photon torpedos as one of the
>innumerable features that we've come to associate with Federation
>starships as first being developed aboard the NX-01 Enterprise.

Well, judging by "The Expanse", the rest of the fledging Fleet
was already well stocked with phase(r) cannon by the end of the
second season. There's no telling whether they or NX-01 got
those first. The weapon wasn't unknown or unpredictable in "Silent
Enemy", it was simply uninstalled.

And save for the overload-upgrade to the phase cannon, none of
these features listed was "developed" aboard NX-01. The forcefields
seemed to be, but thankfully they haven't been transformed into anything
especially practical yet. Transporters or photonic torpedoes were new at 
the time they were introduced on the NX-01, yes, but might have been a 
fleetwide upgrade for all we know. And the NX-01, being out in the sticks, 
was actually in all likelihood the last ship to get them.

Admittedly, all these technologies seem to be emerging concurrently with
the NX-01 mission, but that's only to be expected. Before this, Earth's
space program seemed to be on back burner, and certainly wasn't having
an influx of intelligence on alien tech (such as Klingon photon torpedoes!).

>We never realized what a hard act Kirk was following!

Was Kirk "first" on any technological field? It was never suggested that
any of the technologies he used was brand new or untested, save for
the M-5 debacle. Kirk was making the best of existing hardware, and
hence seldom elevating it to a significant plot position or making
it the centerpiece of his strategy. The latter being noteworthy because
other heroes tend to put everything on the risky card of a new and 
untested technology, which is pretty much the opposite of how one
should use such new stuff.

Timo Saloniemi