Mike DiCenso wrote:Unfortunately, that's the end result of relying solely on dialog, or taking dialog over visuals. The smartest approach I feel, is to create a synthesis of dialog and visuals as much as possible.
-Mike
Um...no?
Sorry, but taking one over the other doesn't mean you totally ignore the visuals, nor does it mean you can toss logic to the wind. TDiC is a rather high end example, probably using high end orbital bombardment weapons taht aren't suited for ship to ship combat.
You could look at it sort of like a level of destruction sort of thing;
Utterly Fuck Over Planet
Level of firepower that either destroys the planet or utterly devistates the planet with only one weapon.
1) Troubles and Tribbulations (Worf's statement that a 23rd century Klingong fleet obliterated); Possible, but not totally confirmed planetary destruction (Unknown size of Klingon fleet, presumably at least 40 or so).
2) The Die is Cast; clearly indicates that 20 starships can destroy the crust and the mantle of a planet within six hours (20 Warbirds/20 Keldons.
3) Obsession; half the planet's atmosphere is torn off (Bomb the size of a bowling ball, only 1x Constitution class).
4) The Omega Directive; a little blurry, but a technobabble weapon was supposably capable of destroying a small planet, probably something about the size of pluto or some such (Gravametric torpeo).
5) By Inferno's Light; The Dominion attempts to use a sun buster to destroy Bajor and DS9 (torpedo/missile/bomb).
6) ST: Generations; A UFP scientist uses a sun buster to alter gravity to suit his purposes (torpedo/missile).
Inbetween
The ones that are inbetween is Broken Link and Trials and Tribbulations. The reason being that both of them are a bit vague and can technically be placed in the other based upon how one takes the dialogue.
Orbital Bombardment (General Order 24)
1)Whom God's Destroy; Mention of General Order 24 by the insane captain to destroy all life on a planet (Presumably a Constitution or similar type class, it is unknown).
2) A Taste of Armageddon; Kirk gives the order to perform General Order 24 if he was not released . The order is stated to destroy the inhabital surface of the planet (1x Constitution Mark II class).
3) Broken Link; Garak attemps to use the Defiant to eliminate all life on the Founder Homeworld (1x Defiant Class).
4) Operation: Annhilate!; the episode isn't specific enough for us, but Kirk does mention that if he can't stop the parasites somehow, he'd be forced to kill over a million people, probably via orbital bombardment. This is probably likely given how dangerous the parasites are (1x Constitution Class).
5) Star Trek II & III; the device is capable of remodling an entire planet, but will kill anything on that planet if it does so (a torpedo thingy...).
Conclusion:
Thus, we have at least 5 instances of orbital bombardment and six of planetary destruction through some method or the other. Now, let's look at 3, 4, 5, and 6 of the planetary destruction incidents; we can clearly see that some sort of unique or superweapon is involved (ignoring the Borg multi-kinetic bomb, which actually supports this a bit more, but I digress). Therefore, it seems likely that the Tal Shiar and the Obsidian Order used something similar in either uber powerful bombs...or technobabble bombs that are incredibly powerful. We can theorize on what exactly is going on, but it doesn't matter, since we can clearly see that it requires special hardware. Now, the same may or may not apply to the Klingon incident, but it definately supports TDiC, without making firepower levels absurd.
Now let's take a look at GO24. Basically, we have five examples of such, only one being through a method that would spell instant death to a planet (and really, that should probably be in the other one...given how deadly it is, but whatever)...which of course is technobabble or a superweapon of sorts. But look at the other four examples; they all indicate that one ship is enough to destroy all life on a planet and in fairly short amount of time.
This means that while the UFP can quickly destroy or devistate a planet with a superweapon, they typically only have the firepower to utterly destroy the inhabital surface, probably within a short amount of time as well (the NX had 50 megaton level weapons, giving the 1701 at least 4,800 megatons worth of firepower to work with, although an assumption of firepower increase for say, 75 megatons would 72,000 megatons, which is much more reasonable for orbital bombardment).