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From: alcmist@ssc-vax.UUCP (Frederick Wamsley)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: Death of the Enterprise
Message-ID: <259@ssc-vax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Dec-84 21:52:09 EST
Article-I.D.: ssc-vax.259
Posted: Mon Dec 10 21:52:09 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 12-Dec-84 05:24:12 EST
References: <2129@garfield.UUCP> <1256@uscvax.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Boeing Aerospace Co., Seattle, WA
Lines: 36


Tony Li brings up a good point:
> One of the things that bothered me about the scene
> was the lack of destruction.  If you're going to implement a self-destruct
> mechanism, you'd make sure that it would *DESTROY* the ship.  If you set of
> an uncontrolled anti-matter/matter reaction, it should be equivalent to a
> fair sized nuclear warhead, which should be enough to easily pulverize the
> ship.  But in the movie, we see about 50% of the ship spiral in.

But what if the purpose of the self-destruct mechanism was simply
to protect classified information (including design details) ?

I can think of a few reasons for not setting off the engines (which,
we learn from The Doomsday Machine, would make a bigger bang than 
any nuke ever tested(*)).  For one thing, if the ship were evacuated first,
the crew might not survive a matter-antimatter blast nearby.

If the goal of self-destruct was simply to keep Federation secrets
out of enemy hands, that would explain why the bridge was the first
part of the ship to be taken out in the destruct sequence (I'll never
be able to forget that scene...)

Does anyone know of analogies from Earth's navies?  Does any country
have contingency plans for scuttling its major combat vessels?  If
so, I doubt that such plans involve using onboard nuclear weapons.

(*) And that was just the *impulse* engines!

Fred Wamsley
-- 
UUCP:{ihnp4,decvax}!uw-beaver!ssc-vax!alcmist ARPA:ssc-vax!alcmist@uw-beaver
I am not speaking as a representative of the Boeing Company or any of 
its divisions.  Opinions expressed are solely my own (if that) and
have nothing to do with company policy or with the opinions of my
coworkers, or those of the staff of the Software Support Center VAX.
	(did I leave anyone out? :-))