Star Trek: Why Doesn't The Federation Have Cloaking Technology?

Forget cloaking tech- why are all their weapons line-of-sight based? Our navies have been able to shoot stuff long distance since the 1800's.

 

I thought phaser and torpedoes could lock on..

 

I think he means, why don't the torpedos go to warp

 

If remote locking was a weapons technology in the Star Trek universe I sense it would not be very long before the federation would invent cloaking technology.

 

My opinion on DS9:

Well I'm at the end of watching season 2; and I see the complete opposite to what most of you have reported! I think that Avery Brooks is brilliant. I think Jadzia Dax is mildly attractive. I like Kira's Bajoran antics and I think Quark is interesting. So I'm perhaps the exception to the rule.

I have a theory about why you might find Star Trek Deep Space Nine offensive in some way. I think the show aired alongside two other shows that you liked better. Voyager and TNG.

I find that it's entertaining to watch DS9 as I have been doing via DVD for the past several weeks. It's just different than if the setting were onboard a starship.

 

Nope. I judged it on it's own merits.

If anyything would have influenced my opinion by comparison it would have been the vastly superior Babylon 5, which I didn't really like much in the beginning but it grew on me. I didn't like DS9 much either, the only difference is it never grew on me, I just disliked it the more I watched it.

 

???
HUH?
You do mean the black guy, Captain Sisco, correct? You know, the guy who didn't understand the proper use of inflection, whispered most of his lines, and delivered every word like stiff cardboard coated with cement.

 

Uh huh. Same guy. I like his acting believe it or not.

 

Last weekend I watched an episode from the original series in which Spock and Kirk stole a cloaking device from a Romulan ship. After it was beamed aboard the Enterprise, Scotty hooked it up and it successfully cloaked the ship and they made their escape. So, what in hell happened to it?

 

As Kirk would say, "I asked what in hell happened to it, mister! And I want answers now! Where's that god damned cloaking devise?"

 

Okay. But if the cloaking device makes a ship undetectable, it seems to me that the Federation could use it, and no one would be the wiser . . . as long as they didn't go to cloak while being watched. It would be used exclusively for spying.

 

If the federation had cloaking technology then their ships would permanently be cloaked all the time, and then we wouldn't be able to view nice shots of them going to warp and all that

 

It was just another way of keeping the Federation "on it's toes" and keep the interest in the show alive. If they had cloaking tech, than the Klingon and Romulans don't pose the same threat and make for less suspenseful plot lines.
same methodology employed when the Borg were introduced in TNG and the Dominion in DS9. Gotta have a nemesis that has the potential to win otherwise it becomes boring fast.

 

Good point! I stand corrected.

 

I just watched DS9 Episode 1, Season 3 and they borrowed cloaking technology from the Romulans to avoid the Jem'Hadar's detection while searching the Gamma Quadrant for the Dominion's founders. It was implemented on a vessel called "The Defiant" and required a Romulan to operate the cloaking technology. Interesting stuff!

 

I second that

 

The Federation under the treaty of Algeron (2311) was banned from using cloaking technology without explicit permission from the Romulans.
The treaty was signed between the Federation and the Romulan Star Empire after the Tomed incident.


Hotwater

 

According to Wikipedia, Deep Space Nine takes place after the treaty was signed. There may even be discussion about the treaty in several of the episodes, however the federation vessel USS Defiant does in fact have cloaking capabilities.

 

Filming on Discovery starts soon. Not really looking forward to it though because by the time it starts it will mean I'll have watched the entire 4 seasons of Enterprise and so there will be no more Enterprise. Why the fuck didn't they take this series to the big screen, at least for one film? I'd rather have seen that than the reboots. Season 3 so far has been tremendous, great storyline and plot running through the whole season and the characters and cast are flawless. Every one of them is a top actor and the characters they play are so likeable. Kind of the exact opposite of DS9 and Voyager where you have to try to like them, and success is not always guaranteed. The space scenes and the ship and the sets are all really nice too, unlike the grotesque, clinically clean sets of it's two predecessors.

Here me now. Enterprise is warp factor 9+

I hope Discovery retains some of the elements of Enterprise that made it such a great, yet underrated Star Trek spin-off.