

(covers information from several alternate timelines Multiple realities

The navigational deflector (also known just as the deflector, the deflector array, the deflector dish, the main deflector, the nav deflector, or the parabolic dish) was a component of many starships that was used to deflect space debris, asteroids, microscopic particles, and other objects that might have collided with the ship. At warp speed, the deflector was virtually indispensable for most starships as even the most minute particle could cause serious damage to a ship when it was traveling at superluminal velocities. (VOY: "Alliances", "Collective")

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Technical data

The deflector commonly took the form of a dish-shaped force beam generator containing heavy-duty subspace accelerators at the extreme forward end of the vessel's secondary hull. It performed its primary function by emitting low-power deflector shields to deflect microscopic particles and higher-powered deflector beams and/or tractor beams to deflect larger objects. (Star Trek: First Contact; VOY: "Alliances", "Shattered")

On the Constitution-class starships, the navigational deflector was a combined system with the ships' main duotronic sensors. (TNG: "Datalore" computer screen; DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations" computer screen)

According to Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual (p. 87), the long-range sensor array was a key element of the navigational deflector system as it was used to detect and track objects in the ship's flight path. The deflector beams caused a great deal of subspace distortion, so the sensor arrays were placed in a circular fashion around the deflector beam emitter array.

A deflector's energy could be extended outward to protect other ships. In 2266, the USS Enterprise extended its deflector shield around Harry Mudd's stolen Class J starship, Stella, to temporarily protect it from asteroids while its crew were transported to safety. (TOS: "Mudd's Women") The 24th century Federation starship navigational deflectors could easily deflect laser fire. (TNG: "The Outrageous Okona")

Ordinarily, Federation starships were equipped with a single external deflector dish. In the 2250s these devices were sometimes known as the ships' meteorite beam. (TOS: "The Cage") In the late 24th century, some starships were known to have more than one deflector. One example of this was the Intrepid-class, which had its main deflector located between the extreme forwards of Decks 10 through 13, while the secondary deflector was located on the extreme forward of Deck 6. (VOY: "Caretaker")

The deflector of the USS Enterprise-E was charged with antiprotons while the Borg were modifying it. This proved to be a potential hazard as particle weapons fire hitting the deflector could destroy much of the ship. (Star Trek: First Contact)

Components of the system

Other uses

Due to its ability to project a wide variety of energies and particles, the navigational deflector was an extremely versatile piece of equipment. Many starship crews made one-time modifications to the dish to solve several problems they were facing.

Cochrane (NCC-74656/04)

In 2374, the Class 2 shuttle Cochrane fired a polaron pulse from its main deflector in an attempt to shore up the confinement field for the quantum singularity of the relay station that temporarily connected USS Voyager to the Alpha Quadrant. After firing the pulse, the variance in the containment field had been stabilized at 0.29, which was believed to prevent further degradation of the communications signal Voyager was receiving from Starfleet. (VOY: "Hunters")



USS Defiant (NX-74205)

Enterprise (NX-01)

In 2154, the navigational deflector of Enterprise NX-01 was used to generate a deflector pulse which destroyed Sphere 41, thus disrupting the entire network of spheres in the Delphic Expanse. Modifications had to be made, however, to prevent the pulse from rupturing EPS conduits throughout the ship. (ENT: "Countdown", "Zero Hour")

Later that year, the NX-01's deflector was modified to emit a positron burst, which disabled Harrad-Sar's barge when it passed through the grappling line of his ship. (ENT: "Bound")

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

The USS Enterprise used a deflector beam to attempt to shift a large asteroid off course when it threatened the planet Amerind in 2268. The attempt failed and caused damage to the ship's power. (TOS: "The Paradise Syndrome")

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-B)

In 2293, Captains Montgomery Scott and James T. Kirk modified the deflector of the USS Enterprise-B to produce a resonance burst in order to simulate an antimatter explosion when the ship became caught in the Nexus energy ribbon. (Star Trek Generations)



USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E)

A group of Borg attempted to modify the deflector of the USS Enterprise-E to perform as an interplexing beacon so as to contact the Collective of the 21st century. The crew of the Enterprise prevented the attempt by detaching and destroying the deflector. The movement controller unit of the Enterprise-E deflector was labeled "AE-35". ( Star Trek: First Contact )

As evidenced by a call sheet from Star Trek: First Contact, live-action footage of the deflector array was filmed on Paramount Stage 15. " In "The Deflector Dish" featurette, production designer Herman Zimmerman confirmed this location, and elaborated on the set's construction: "We took the biggest stage on the lot, Stage Fifteen, and it was just barely big enough... I actually made the deflector dish about seven eighths actual size. I don't think the audience was cheated from what the size should have been, but that was a difficult thing to proportion... that whole set was made of plastic with lights inside it, and had to do a lot of different things, including separate... about twenty feet of the actual rise was done physically with the Borg actors on it, and the piece actually leaving the base that it's mounted to, and going up toward the stars. " Producer and writer Rick Berman further recalled: "I remember at first, we were pretty disappointed that we couldn't build the deflector array as big as we wanted to. There were restrictions on the size and the height that we could get up to... we were bummed out a little bit, because it wasn't as big as we wanted it to be. Star Trek: First Contact

USS Odyssey (NCC-71832)

A suicide run on the navigational deflector of the USS Odyssey in 2370 caused a chain reaction resulting in the ship's destruction. ( DS9 : " The Jem'Hadar ")





USS Voyager (NCC-74656)

Appendices

Background information

The conceptual origins of the navigational deflector, in common with those of several other key Star Trek devices including shields, phasers, and tractor beams, can be traced to notes compiled by Gene Roddenberry through "discussion with various scientists" while writing the first pilot in 1964, and subsequently circulated among production staff, as reproduced in Roddenberry and Stephen E. Whitfield's The Making of Star Trek (p. 86): "Some kind of 'meteoroid shield' or 'meteoroid force field deflector' will be necessary in true spaceships. If not a force field, it may be a magnetic field which deflects cosmic dust or small meteoroids via an opposite charge. Or it might consist of a probing Laser beam which deflects and/or destroys dust and small particles from the path of the ship."

By the time of its third revision in April 1967, the Writers/Directors' Guide for Star Trek: The Original Series (p. 21) specified under the general heading of "DEFLECTORS" that, in addition to its deflector screen, "the ship also has 'navigational deflector beams' which, guided by 'navigational scanners', sweep out far ahead of the vessel's path through space, deflecting from the ship's course meteoroids, asteroids, or space debris and other objects which would cause damage should the vessel strike them at this enormous speed. These are all fully automated, operated by the vessel's computers."

In an internal production document they entitled the Star Trek: Voyager Technical Guide Version 1.0 (p. 22), Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda emphasized that the vessel's "DEFENSIVE SHIELDS" were "distinctly different from the NAVIGATIONAL DEFLECTOR."

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