30th Anniversary TNG Episode Discussion Marathon

[Nate the Great]

DATA: The starboard bulkhead of main Engineering is contained within the rock face, but most of its compartment is still intact.
WORF: There is a hull breach in that section.
PICARD: If we begin a power transfer, can we restore life support systems to that compartment?
DATA: I believe so, sir. The breach can be temporarily sealed by extending our shields.

I'm dubious of this one. You're going to use the shields to create a bubble that you can fill with air, then...what? How is there a power network intact enough to power the heaters, the lights, the gravity, etc.? They should've just skipped straight to the spacesuits.

RIKER: It means that I can't put this off any longer. Right up until this moment I had the luxury of time, but now I've got to make a choice. And, Admiral, I'm afraid my choice is this. I can't let you start these experiments again. It was wrong twelve years ag
And he's going to stop Pressman...how? Shooting the cloak? o, and it is wrong today.
Shooting Pressman? Furthermore, this isn't just about Pressman, it's about Starfleet Intelligence (cough-Section 31-cough). Someone else will come for it whether Riker is in a brig or not.

PRESSMAN: So on reflection you'd rather be a traitor than a hero.
RIKER: I wasn't a hero and neither were you.

So Pressman thinks that giving Starfleet cloaking devices will make him a hero. How? It would start a war with the Romulans that the Federation can't afford right now, much less in a matter of months when the Dominion enters the scene. Think about it, if the Federation, Klingons, and Romulans started a war now the Cardassians would quickly join to reclaim Bajor and the Federation wouldn't have the resources to stop them. The Dominion would know what's going on and quietly wait until the Alpha Quadrant powers have destroyed themselves so they can swoop in and conquer the pieces.

RIKER: They were brave enough to risk their lives to stop you from violating a treaty the Federation signed in good faith.
PRESSMAN: That treaty has bound our hands and given the Romulans a tactical advantage for the last sixty years. I was simply trying to level the playing field.

And now we reach the big question: why did the Federation agree to not use cloaks? Had the Romulans defeated us so badly that we were willing to do ANYTHING to stop the fighting? And after this happened, after we gave the Romulans a huge advantage, they decide to go into isolation for decades? To build a fleet of ships bigger than even the Galaxy class currently being designed?

The real headscratcher is why the Romulans didn't invade after the Borg invasion. Starfleet was in no position to oppose them, especially after the ceasefire with the Cardassians.

WORF: Captain, I believe we could use the phasers to cut our way out.
DATA: The asteroid's internal structure is highly unstable. Any attempt to cut through the rock could cause the entire chasm to collapse.

I find this overly simplistic. Surely you guys can replicate some concrete or foam to stabilize the walls as you cut. It would take a long time, but it'd be doable.

PRESSMAN: And that treaty is the biggest mistake we ever made. It's kept us from exploiting a vital area of defence.
PICARD: That treaty has kept us in peace for sixty years, and as a Starfleet officer, you're supposed to uphold it.

Peace? The Romulans orchestrated the Klingon Civil War, and the Federation knows it! There should've been renegotiations years ago!

RIKER: It's more than just a cloak. It changes the structure of matter. In theory, a ship using this device could pass through normal matter.

It's been said before, and I'll say it again: why do we need the cloaking function on top of the phasing function? A phased ship would be impervious to weapons fire, wouldn't it? Otherwise what's the point of the phasing?

PICARD: Except it's illegal. It's in violation of an agreement that the Federation signed in good faith.

And the Romulans didn't sign it in good faith. It's situations like this that make Section 31 seem more and more necessary. "Evil will always triumph because good is dumb" and all that.

LAFORGE: Commander, we've routed the impulse engines through the plasma conduits, but you'll have to watch the intercooler levels. If they get too high, we'll blow the entire relay system.

Why are we sending impulse plasma (ionized gas) through the warp plasma conduits? Why is that even an option?

While it seems reasonable to suppose that an ordinary cloak is a sister technology to the shields, a phase cloak would probably be a sister technology to the warp field. No need for impulse engine interaction at all.

RIKER: I think that's what happened twelve years ago. The cloak blew out the plasma relays on the Pegasus after we left the ship. The plasma ignited in space, and it looked as if the ship had been destroyed.

Nonsense. Even if we presume that every bit of matter of the ship was converted to energy (dubious, but IF), it would still have an energy signature that'd be different from ignited plasma.