My comment was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. But I'm big on visualization - up until Transformers my "brain fx" were far better than any movie or TV show. Nowadays it's about even. Any chance of Christopher, David R George III or any of the other authors with their ships mentioned here getting artistic? They don't have to be masterpieces - line drawings in MS paint would do (or scanned-in back-of-napkin-in-biro scribbles), just to give us rough shapes. Or maybe other people here posting pics of what they think these mystery ships should look like?
You question reminds of something I've been meaning to ask for a while: are the illustrations of the IKS Gorkon online anywhere? I do plan on reading the series, but I was just curious to see the pics before hand to get a better idea of what she looked like.
Yeah, that's what I was asking about. I was hoping to find out if I could see them sooner, but I can wait till I get my hands on the book.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge26NPjJ99U&feature=PlayList&p=9BCC2AE37BBF9533&index=0&playnext=1 I think the ship seen in this video from about 2.00 would be a good start at least. It probably isn't sleek and simple enough as is to fit the description, but I really like the basic design. Redesign it a bit and it could be a ship that is a combination of classic Starfleet and a Vulcan ring-ship.
Well, Needle is a civilian ship, so there's no reason why it would resemble Starfleet designs, beyond form following function -- though as we've seen, form following function doesn't seem to be much of an impediment on ship design in the Trekverse.
Near the end of Federation, there's a scene with an all-new, super-futuristic Enterprise. I would've loved to have seen what that one looks like. I often imagine it to be the Enterprise-J seen briefly in "Enterprise"--and which appeared in one of the "Ships of the Line" callenders. That is one...sexy...ship! Still...my all-time fav would have to be Aventine. A real beauty, that one--Ezri should be proud!
Not very. Just enough for a dozen-ish people in close quarters, their research equipment, powerful engines (by civilian standards), sensors, and other essentials. At a guess, maybe 3-4 times the size of a runabout.
no way, that Enterprise was from way too far in the future to be the J. it'd be more like the Enterprise V or something.
I don't know. I depicted it as remaining in orbit. It probably could land if it needed to, but generally wouldn't. Relevant passages from The Buried Age: The ship has a "compact bridge -- little more than a cockpit, really." The bridge has a door that can be locked from the inside. There is a "compact science lab" and a "compact lounge" (I sense a theme). I refer to a transporter stage but not a transporter room; given that the transporter gets a good deal of use as an archaeological tool, the transporter stage might be part of the lab facilities. The ceilings aren't especially high, adequate for humans but too low for the taller Caldonian member of the crew. How big was Cousteau's Calypso? That might be a good analogy. Hmm, Wikipedia puts it at 42 meters long, 3 decks, with a crew capacity of 27. I don't think Cleo's Needle needs to be that large, since the crew is half that. Hmm, thinking it over, I'd guess the Needle might have two decks -- assuming something roughly cylindrical with room for chambers on either side of a narrow central corridor, two decks seems right for giving it a height comparable to its width. Since it's pretty narrow, a length around 40-45 meters might be about right -- that's a little over twice the length of a runabout, but a runabout's only got one deck (plus the warp core on top).
When reading The Buried Age, I always picture this flying through space! Which is dumb, but what can you do?
Thank you for the additional information Christopher! It would be quite a challenge to fit that kind of design into the 2360's.