Michael Wong's Trekkie critics are legion. One of the more vocal critics was Michael Griffiths, known on ASVS as "Lord Edam de Fromage", or "Sorborus", or "David Morris". Lord Edam created a web page which attempted to critique alleged mistakes Mike Wong made on his Star Trek shielding page.
Mike eventually challenged Lord Edam to an online debate about the subject, which can be read here. "THE CHEESY RED HERRING" was created to enlighten the more gullible fans of Lord Edam's webpage, and to showcase the errors in his original critique.
LORD EDAM: Mike generously assumes the area affected will be a box of roughly the same dimensions of the Enterprise. Obviously, this is very generous - if we are simply considering the ship itself. As the images below show, the box does have a far greater surface area than the ship. However, Mike appeared to have forgotten that he is discussing the effects of radiation on the shields of the Enterprise. Unlike Star Wars shields these are not hull-conforming. Infact, they extend quite a distance from the ship. In the video capture image below the shields have a height of almost 600m, and extend beyond the front of the ship by over 200m. If we assume the shields extend from the rear of the ship by a similar amount, then the length of the shields will be over 1000m. This gives an approximate shield area of (pi)(length/2)(height/2) = 470,000m^2, or nearly six times what Mike has used above. If the ship is projecting its dorsal or ventral silhouette it will be an area of over 600,000m^2. The minimum the shield silhouette could be (from a frontal view) is 375,000m^2. As you can see, in his haste to be generous Mike has failed to consider the very technology he is discussing. This error is repeated throughout his shield estimations.
The faulty observation above serves as the bedrock which the rest of Lord Edam's entire argument stands.
From this ONE example, Lord Edam concludes that this is the default setting of the Enterprise-D's shield ovoid. However, as multiple examples show, the shields are conformed in answer to the threat presented to the ship at the time. For instance, the above picture is a defensive posture in answer to the physical attack on the ship, by an object that rivals the size of a Borg cube. A unique circumstance to say the least.
In the image above, a diffuse cloud is interacting with the Enterprise's shields. Certainly not a physical attack.
Above, the shield ovoid certainly doesn't look like its height is 600m, nor does its forward extension seem to reach 200m. It would seem Mike Wong's generous box area for the shields holds up quite well.
The vidcap above is from TNG "The Hunted" Roga Danar bounces his one-man capsule off the Enterprise' shields. Take a look at the ovoid. Does it look like its height is 600m? Nope. The shields were conformed in a defensive posture in answer to a physical attack on the ship, by an object that rivals the size of a communications satellite.
The image above shows the shields interacting with X-rays. Note the small shield bubble.
This scene above certainly doesn't validate a shield bubble of the massive size that Lord Edam suggested was the default setting. If he were correct, those Romulan Warbirds and at least one Klingon BoP would be bouncing off said bubble. In fact, this episode confirms that shield geometry can be augmented to conform to the threat profile presented:
In this scene, the Enterprise has extended its shields to 5km to offer limited protection to the Romulan scout ship in the upper right hand corner. A Romulan Warbird has flown up to the E-D's bow for a face-off. It's quite clear that the Romulan Warbird is MUCH closer to the Enterprise than 5km. The shields must not only be protecting the Enterprise, but the scout ship as well, WITHOUT touching the Romulan Warbird.
What of the claim by Lord Edam that Trek shields aren't hull hugging? Well, these pictures prove this incorrect:
One last comment on hull-hugging shields. The Visual Effects Supervisor for "Deep. Space. 9", David. Stipes, had this to say on hull-hugging shields vs. bubble shields:
Hi there!
The shields are a problem. To do them well takes a lot of digital compositing time (= lots 'O dollars!)
The producers and effects team have gone with the "skin tight shields" that are not seen vs the big bubble. It's not as exciting visually...but no shields allowed us to get the show done AND have more shots.
The Orbital Weapons Platforms did have "bubble shields" that were CGI creations and were more easily created.
David Stipes,
These vidcaps from DS9:"Sacrifice of Angels" wouldn't have been possible if all those Galaxy-Class starships has massive shield bubbles extending around them.
The vidcaps above also suggest hull-hugging shields. Or an example of Galaxy-Class starships going into battle with no shields. It's quite apparent from these examples that shield geometry isn't set at one size or shape. It's also
apparent that the shield ovoid seen in "Symbiosis", "Clues", and "The Hunted" appear to be the default setting.From: David Stipes
(dstipes@earthlink.net)
Subject: Re: DS9:No Shields???
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current, alt.tv.star-trek.ds9, rec.arts.sf.tv
Date: 1998/06/24
Visual Effects Supervisor, DS-9