Just watched this and my biggest gripe with Star Trek will always be that the federation ships are just way too weak. Yes they aren't supposed to be a battle force, but any moderately powerful enemy and they are toast...at least they had that special crate of better weapons, but why not just make that the norm? Finally, what good are the force fields if everything inside of the ship is getting wrecked with each hit? And send more friggin ships...
You do realize that without shields, they’d have been blown out of the sky in one shot rather than being able to survive in a firefight, right? It’s like saying what’s the point of a kevlar vest I’m going to get a broken rib from a body shot? If I can live, I’ll take that vest and broken rib, thanks.
Power is relative. There’ve been times we’ve seen weapons from less advanced species than the Federation bounce uselessly off shields or are seen as no threat. We’ve also seen Starfleet ships get carved up like a prize turkey. The Gorn are powerful, that’s just it. That doesn’t mean Starfleet aren’t heavy hitters - at this point it’s just that there’s stronger kid in the playground.
Yes i realize that it gives them time to basically run away or end up like the other ship in lil pieces floating in space...basically have to rely on some type of trick to win...kevlar vest also doesnt let the bullet wreck your organs, did you not see the people getting tossed around inside the hsip?
Just brought me back to Picard S03 where the Titan, one of their more powerful ships btw, getting folded by some pirate ship with a portal weapon...sigh...
For the number of ships, by TOS there are only 12 Constitution class ships, so there might not be more ships to send. We’re a year or so out from the Klingon war, and it doesn’t seem like the Federation is in a position to quickly replace ships. They already lost the Cayuga. Also the admiralty obviously isn’t interested in a Gorn war at all, and certainly not over this planet or the potential survivors.
I will say it’s been shown that Pike is just not a fighting captain. He’s not the person you want in a combat situation. It does make me wonder why he’s a Captain but idk. They really should send the Enterprise back on a deep space mission of exploration and have someone (who is not an evil mirror universe person) more like Lorca or Kirk running these border conflicts or something.