Escape pod

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A lifeboat hatch aboard the refit USS Enterprise

In starship classification, an escape pod (also known as life pod, life boat or evacuation pod) was a small craft found aboard most starships that could be used in the event the crew needed to leave the ship. Some 22nd century Klingon starships lacked escape pods. (ENT: "Sleeping Dogs", "Bounty")

Noted uses

Escape pods were not limited to space-borne craft. Malcolm Reed once related a story about his great-uncle aboard the 21st century submarine HMS Clement, where it was disabled by a mine, and the crew abandoned ship via escape pods. (ENT: "Minefield")

When the USS Enterprise-E traveled back in time to the year 2063, the crew used the ship's escape pods to leave the Borg-occupied ship. (Star Trek: First Contact)

In 2154, Commander Shran ordered the crew of the Kumari to the escape pods, after the vessel was critically damaged by a Romulan drone-ship posing as a Tellarite vessel. (ENT: "Babel One")

In 2155, the crew of the ISS Enterprise NX-01 was forced to use the ship's escape pods, after it was trapped in a Tholian web in the mirror universe. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly")

In 2265, when the Enterprise located an object near the galactic barrier that was ejected from the SS Valiant 200 years previously, Spock noticed that it wasn't even large enough to be a lifeboat. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before")

Escape pods, also known as rescue pods, of the Odin were capable of traveling at sublight speed for extended periods. It took them over five months to reach the nearest inhabited planet, Angel I, in 2357. (TNG: "Angel One")

Roga Danar used an escape pod from a stolen Angosian police shuttle, in an attempt to elude the USS Enterprise-D. (TNG: "The Hunted")

In 2366, the Zalkonian known as "John Doe" used a Zalkonian vessel to escape prosecution for his slow transformation to a higher being. When the ship was attacked, "John Doe" used an escape pod to leave the ship before it was destroyed. (TNG: "Transfigurations")

Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Sisko used an escape pod during the Battle of Wolf 359 to escape from the doomed USS Saratoga. (DS9: "Emissary")

In the year 2367, the crew members of the Arcos used escape pods when they abandoned the ship above Turkana IV. (TNG: "Legacy")

Ensign Sito Jaxa was reportedly killed in a Federation evacuation pod, when she tried to return to the USS Enterprise-D after her mission – to bring back the Cardassian Joret Dal, who previously came aboard the ship in an escape pod – succeeded. (TNG: "Lower Decks")

On Stardate 46383, the Bajoran transport Ibudan had a lifeboat drill. (DS9: "A Man Alone")

Following a Dominion attack and being boarded by the Jem'Hadar, Commander Benjamin Sisko gave the order for the crew to abandon the USS Defiant using escape pods. (DS9: "The Search, Part I")

Captain Lisa Cusak and Commander Gatsby left the USS Olympia in an escape pod. However, it was torn open on impact and Gatsby was killed. (DS9: "The Sound of Her Voice")

Several crew members from the USS Honshu used escaped pods to leave the ship when it was being attacked by Cardassian forces. At least three escape pods detached from the Honshu before its destruction. An escape pod also landed on a planet. (DS9: "Waltz")

When the IKS Koraga was about to be destroyed by the Dominion in 2375, Worf left the ship in an escape pod. However, it drifted into the Badlands. The IKS Rotarran recovered six escape pods from the Koraga. Prior to being rescued by Ezri Dax, Worf passed the time in his escape pod by singing the Klingon opera Gav'ot toh'va. (DS9: "Penumbra", "Strange Bedfellows")

During a survey of a class T cluster designed to give away mission experience to a number of junior USS Voyager crew members, Crewman Mortimer Harren deliberately took an escape pod from the Delta Flyer II in order to lure away dark matter lifeforms that had been pursuing the Flyer. (VOY: "Good Shepherd")

In 2377, while trying to fend off a Quarren attack, Harry Kim came up with an ingenious plan to mask the life signs of the remaining crew in the briefing room, ejecting two escape pods which actually contained photon torpedoes. When the Quarren ship tractor beamed them in, they were detonated, and the Quarren ships were disabled. (VOY: "Workforce, Part II")

Escape pods

• Angosian escape pod
• Cardassian escape pod
• Kantare escape pod
• Kelvan life craft
• Klingon escape pods:
  • 22nd century escape pod - Goroth's starship, Bird-of-Prey
  • K'Vort-type escape pod - IKS Koraga
• Starfleet escape pods:
  • NX-type escape pod - Enterprise, ISS Enterprise
  • Constitution-type escape pod - USS Enterprise
    • 313-C
  • Miranda-type escape pod - USS Saratoga
  • Intrepid-type escape pod - USS Voyager, USS Defiant, USS Valiant
  • Sovereign-type escape pod - USS Enterprise-E
    • H-47
    • H-50
    • H-925
  • Delta Flyer escape pod - Delta Flyer attached to USS Voyager
• Retellian escape pod
• Tesnian escape pod
• Xindi-Aquatic escape pod
• Zalkonian escape pod
• Zibalian escape pod

Appendices

Appearances

• TNG:
  • "The Hunted"
  • "Transfigurations"
  • "Legacy"
• DS9:
  • "Emissary"
  • "Valiant"
  • "Penumbra"
  • "The Changing Face of Evil"
• VOY:
  • "Basics, Part II"
  • "Year of Hell"
  • "Good Shepherd"
  • "Inside Man"
  • "Workforce"
  • "Workforce, Part II"
• ENT:
  • "Precious Cargo"
  • "First Flight"
  • "Bounty"
  • "In a Mirror, Darkly"
• Star Trek films:
  • Star Trek: First Contact
  • Star Trek

Background information

According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual they are also referred to as "Autonomous Survival and Recovery Vehicles" or ASRV on Starfleet and Federation spacecraft. It was also stated that the cube-shaped escape pods of the Galaxy-class starship were capable of docking together to form large arrays in order to pool resources. However this was never shown on screen.

External links

• Escape pod at Wikipedia
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