Then you fail to properly interpret the evidence; Scotty's failure to mention the torpedoes, properly means that they would do no more than the phasers would; otherwise it would be silly for him to tell Dr. McCoy that the phasers would endanger the people, but make no mention of the torpedoes.Picard wrote:You are both wrong. Phasers at full power failed to penetrate shield; but photon torpedoes would have penetrated shield, althought collateral damage would be enough to cause unintentional execution of GO24 on planet. Or at least it is how I interpreted episode.
More succinctly, there's no evidence to show that torpedoes will have more effect on a planetary shield than phasers; after all, the shield was miles above the surface, so at most it would only impact on the shield's surface, even if they dropped every single photon torpedo they had at the same time.
However, there's NO evidence that torpedoes would bring down the planetary shield.
In Elaan of Troyus, for example, Kirk fires a full spread of torpedoes at the Klingon ship, and scores several hits, bringing down a couple of shields and causing some damage-- he doesn't destroy the ship, it just takes off and leaves.
Given the proportionate difference in energy-stats here, Garth wouldn't even hear a little "ping" in the planetary shield-generator. Remember, those are anti-SHIP weapons, not anti-planet; for that, you'd need something HUGE, particularly if it's of a class of defense that could stop V'ger!