Shields (Star Trek)

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USS Voyager's shields in action

In the fictional Star Trek universe, shields are defenses used to protect some starships in the 23rd and 24th centuries by absorbing or deflecting the energy of natural or artificial hazards. Prolonged exposure to such hazard weakens the shields, which can eventually collapse (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country).

The term "shields" first appears in Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint"); their Original Series equivalents are referred to as "screens"^{[citation needed]}.

Shields are not used by Starfleet at the time of Star Trek: Enterprise; Starfleet ships of that time period use "polarized hull plating", in effect an energy charge applied to a ship's armor to make it more resistant to weapons fire. However, occasional alien powers were known to use primitive shielding systems. Hull plating, like shielding, can be lessened by repeated attack, and can also go offline. It is unknown when shields were invented in the Trek universe.

1 Use
2 References
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Use

The most commonly seen use of shields is to protect the ship and crew against enemy attacks.

In Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the Enterprise crew is able to remotely lower USS Reliant's shields by the latter's "prefix code".

The Duras sisters penetrate the USS Enterprise-D's shields by matching their torpedo frequency to match the Enterprise's shield frequency (Star Trek: Generations).

Changing shield "nutation" can prolong the amount of time it takes the Borg to penetrate the shields (TNG: "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I"). Changing both the shield size and frequency can similarly momentarily ward off the Paxans (TNG: "Clues").

Shields can prevent some transporter use, although there are workarounds, such as matching transporter harmonics to shield frequency (TNG: "The Wounded").