Star Trek question: So...WHY exactly can't the Federation use a cloaking device?

[Zombie_61]

Dood, in our house we drink Coke AND Pepsi...

I'm firmly in the "Coke" camp on that one (Diet Coke, actually). It's not that I dislike Pepsi, but if I drink more than 12 ounces of any Pepsi product it upsets my stomach in a big bad way for some reason.

...I love both franchises equally. Now the wife knows more Trek and I know more Star Wars...collectively, between the wife and I, we can go toe to toe against ANY sci-fi trivia contest and most likely come out on top! :thumbsup

That's terrific! My wife couldn't care less about sci-fi, so what little she knows about either franchise has come from being in the room while I'm watching them. :lol

 

[Michael Bergeron]

We're unique in that regard. I've never understood the whole "Star Trek vs. Star Wars" debate. I watch and enjoy both franchises, so I don't have to choose one over the other; if someone can't deal with that, it's their problem, not mine. :cool

Me three man. Spread the word!

 

[kialna]

I join in with loving both!

 

[CB2001]

I thought that was a holographic cloak. Maybe that makes a difference?

That and I think intent. I mean, if you use a cloak in a ship to ship battle, then it's a cheap shot for ship-to-ship engagement, where as using a cloak of any kind of anthropic purposes isn't a bad thing because your trying to understand and better societies than trying to destroy it.

 

[Jeyl]

Hey don't dis the Romulans. They probably save a lot of money on only having one haircut. I agree though that the Klingons and Romulans are too similar.

Oh, I don't want to dis the Romulans. They had a ton of potential. The show runners even got rid of those stupid looking uniforms when the Dominion started to make waves in Deep Sapce Nine.

And it wasn't so much that the Klingons and Romulans were similar, but that the Klingons were just way too popular, had all the assets the show could re-use and were more interesting to the writers to write. Remember, TNG and DS9 had no re-occuring Vulcan or Romulan character, but they did have a main Klingon character in the form of Worf. When Worf was brought onboard to DS9, Klingon stories shot up by about 250%. It's not hard to see why you would want to write for the Klingons when one of your main characters is a Klingon who has conflict with his own race. I can imagine using the Romulans would be a waste of time for the writers since, again, Klingons have cloaking devices anyways.

 

[Igniitus]

Hey, man, I'm an equal opportunity geek!

I love when I pull out Star Trek info in front of people who only know me as a Star Wars-er. It's like, when someone youve known forever doesn't know you speak another language and you break out Spanish in conversation. Mind Blown.

I've always been under the impression, as mentioned by someone else here, that 'the good guys don't hide.' That being said, there are two occasions I expected to see the feds use cloaking tech, not including the Defiant.

1: In 'All good things," the refitted Enterprise having cloaking tech. Time has passed, war has raged, and measures have become desperate. Time to let go the value and ensure we are on even playing field with those who would oppose us (and blow up defenseless medical ships)

2: In DS9, After the revelation of Section 31... I truly expected to see a FLEET of Defiants revealed, as the Feds had a secretsecretary ops division, it would make sense they had a Black Ops fleet to support their nefarious (but neccessary) agendas.

 

[RomulanCmdr]

Oh, I don't want to dis the Romulans. They had a ton of potential. The show runners even got rid of those stupid looking uniforms when the Dominion started to make waves in Deep Sapce Nine.

And it wasn't so much that the Klingons and Romulans were similar, but that the Klingons were just way too popular, had all the assets the show could re-use and were more interesting to the writers to write. Remember, TNG and DS9 had no re-occuring Vulcan or Romulan character, but they did have a main Klingon character in the form of Worf. When Worf was brought onboard to DS9, Klingon stories shot up by about 250%. It's not hard to see why you would want to write for the Klingons when one of your main characters is a Klingon who has conflict with his own race. I can imagine using the Romulans would be a waste of time for the writers since, again, Klingons have cloaking devices anyways.

Actually it was lazy writing. The TNG writers basically took the good traits of the Romulans -gave them to the Klingons decided that hey lets stick something on their foreheads and give them terrible uniforms and try to make them seem like honorless ppl. TNG is nothing but Federation propaganda.