Enterprise NX-01 vs Normandy SR-2 (Mass Effect)

[sonofccn]

Not sure if it really matters but browsing over Silent Enemy (ENT) transcript I stumbled upon this.

ARCHER: Get a lock and standby.
T'POL: They've stopped. Eleven thousand metres.
HOSHI: We're being hailed.
ARCHER: Put it through.
ARCHER [on viewscreen]: Defenceless. (the image we saw in the launch bay) Prepare to surrender your vessel. You are defenseless. Prepare to surrender your vessel.
ARCHER: Shut it off.
TRAVIS: Ten thousand metres, nine.
ARCHER: Mister Reed, both cannons, fire. (two beams scrape along the green ship's shields)
T'POL: I'm reading a fluctuation in their shielding, but it's marginal.
TRAVIS: Five thousand metres.
ARCHER: Is that the best we can do, Lieutenant?!

Citing similar ranges to cold station 12 example. Just thought I add it to JMS list of examples.

[Mike DiCenso]

Not sure if it really matters but browsing over Silent Enemy (ENT) transcript I stumbled upon this.

ARCHER: Get a lock and standby.
T'POL: They've stopped. Eleven thousand metres.
HOSHI: We're being hailed.
ARCHER: Put it through.
ARCHER [on viewscreen]: Defenceless. (the image we saw in the launch bay) Prepare to surrender your vessel. You are defenseless. Prepare to surrender your vessel.
ARCHER: Shut it off.
TRAVIS: Ten thousand metres, nine.
ARCHER: Mister Reed, both cannons, fire. (two beams scrape along the green ship's shields)
T'POL: I'm reading a fluctuation in their shielding, but it's marginal.
TRAVIS: Five thousand metres.
ARCHER: Is that the best we can do, Lieutenant?!

Citing similar ranges to cold station 12 example. Just thought I add it to JMS list of examples.

Except that Archer here clearly orders Reed to get a lock on the approaching ship and then to "stand by", then they spend several seconds listening to the mystery aliens' cobbled together surrender order message before Archer decides it's time to fire on them indicating much longer ranges.
-Mike

[sonofccn]

Dang it. Oh hell, #$%^% it instead!!!

I can't believe I misread and mistook meters for kilometers. Sorry about that...jumped before I looked, again as usual. I can't express how embarresed I am.

P.S. Why can't they just use Standard instead of metric? I don't care how logical it all is i still have trouble wrapping my head around it all. :-)

Once again sorry for the Noob mistake, the second in this very thread.

[Roondar]

With Tucker's thousand NXes needed to blast a planet, it's starting to make a lot of precise yet hyperbolic statements. Time before we treat Reed's statement as hyperbole?

What's interesting about that line is that it's basically the same thing Han Solo says in ANH.

A thousand really isn't that precise.

It is not that precise because you're already willing to treat it as hyperbole. On its own merits, the description is actually very precise. And even if the count wasn't meant to exactly represent a thousand ships of the NX type, it still vehicles an idea about the order of magnitude here.

[quote="Tucker, in "The Forgotten""]
Hell, it'd take at least a thousand starships like Enterprise to blow up an entire planet.

It would take at least a thousand NXes to blow up a planet.
We blew up a mountain the size of McKinley with our phase cannons.
A torpedo is capable of leaving a three kilometer wide in an asteroid.

The only changing factor is the likeliness, and that's only if you have a basic knowledge of what it takes to do X.[/quote]

I don't really agree with this assesment.

The first two are clearly hyperbole because we a) know that an NX-class spaceship doesn't have 1/1000th planetbusting abilities in a gazillion years and the scene was very clearly played out to back this up - including Tuckers rather aggitated state of mind.

And b) we see that they don't really blow up Mnt Mckinlies ugly brother. Archer 'had it up to here' by then, so he was basically just calling for more firepower and damned be the later consequences.

The third statement however, is not that impressive to begin with and leads to a rather low-key and reasonable level of strength for said torpedoes (come on, it's not even in the megaton range - just how low do you feel would be adequate for a fricking anti-matter weapon thats supposed to be an upgrade over other earth tech - such as nukes).

It's also made under very different circumstances and has the advantage of fitting with the technology involved - antimatter/matter reactions are not subtle, nor powerless.