How come theres never a queue for the Turbo Lift on the Bridge ?

[TIN_MAN]

Another possibility is that there is a circular turbo lift shaft surrounding the bridge, between the consoles and outer dome, and when one turbo lift exits, it just does a loop around the bridge and comes back to the shaft? This would explain why the T/L station on the bridge is offset from the main tube visible from the outside, so as to make the way clear for the other(s) access the shaft? And of course, there could be more than one or two doing the merry-go-round at any given time? Of course, there’s really not enough space for this kind of set up, if the dimensions of the ship are to be taken literally, but who knows?

[T'Girl]

It makes sense that there would be a select number of locations on the ship that got priority for lift access, the bridge definitely would be one of those places. However given the design of the bridge area, a mini car park for lifts would fix better directly below the bridge on deck two.

Places like sickbay, security, engineering, would likely have a small number of lifts just standing by. Places like the crew living quarters and the lower cargo holds not so likely.

[Timo]

There's also no security protocol for the bridge turbo lift either. Anyone can go in there and they notice the intruder only when he steps on the bridge.

Indeed. Although what are the specific instances of this happening? Van Gelder in "Dagger of the Mind", and..?

Places like sickbay, security, engineering, would likely have a small number of lifts just standing by.

...Which makes it all the funnier that there doesn't appear to be a turbolift station of any sort immediately adjacent to sickbay, before or after the refit.

And would that perhaps have been the not-so-proximal station on the sickbay level that McCoy was huffing and puffing at, when Saavik held up the lift? No priority override for the poor doctor!

Timo Saloniemi

[CorporalCaptain]

Timo wrote:

---

Indeed. Although what are the specific instances of this happening? Van Gelder in "Dagger of the Mind", and..?

...Which makes it all the funnier that there doesn't appear to be a turbolift station of any sort immediately adjacent to sickbay, before or after the refit.

And would that perhaps have been the not-so-proximal station on the sickbay level that McCoy was huffing and puffing at, when Saavik held up the lift? No priority override for the poor doctor!

Timo Saloniemi

From The Ultimate Computer [http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/53.htm]:

[Sickbay]

MCCOY: He'll have to be committed to a total rehabilitation centre. Right now he's under sedation and heavy restraints.
SPOCK: I would say his multitronic unit is in approximately the same condition.
KIRK: That's exactly the situation I was hoping for when I forced the M-5 to realise it had committed murder.
(The group walk out of the medical bay to McCoy's office.)
KIRK: Daystrom felt such an act was against the laws of God and man. The computer that carried his engrams also believed it.
SPOCK: Captain, why did you feel the attacking ships would not fire when they saw the Enterprise apparently vulnerable? Logically, that is the sort of trap M-5 should have set.
KIRK: I wasn't sure. Any other commander would have simply followed orders and destroyed us, but I knew Bob Wesley.
(They walk out into the)

[Corridor]

KIRK: I gambled on his humanity.
(and into the)

[Turbolift]

KIRK: Bridge. His logical selection was compassion.

It's right there.

[Timo]

Yup, the turbolift is across the corridor (at least in some episodes), in both TOS, TFS and TNG. One wonders why there isn't a lift even closer to the sickbay - quarantine is a concern in several episodes...

One also wonders why the lift diameter doesn't appear to cater for the horizontal carrying of a stretcher patient! It's a matter of just a few inches, but that just makes it all the more annoying, especially when we see those boxy TNG hover-stretchers that clearly cannot be tilted.

Timo Saloniemi

[Robert Comsol]

Timo wrote:

---

"One also wonders why the lift diameter doesn't appear to cater for the horizontal carrying of a stretcher patient! It's a matter of just a few inches, but that just makes it all the more annoying, especially when we see those boxy TNG hover-stretchers that clearly cannot be tilted."

Wasn't there a transporter room on deck 7 same as the medical section?
Of course it gets more complicated when you need a stretcher upon a shuttlecraft's arrival. Either there is also a medical section in the engineering hull or you have to use the ship's internal stairways (maybe with the help of some antigrav units). Intraship beaming is obviously out of the question.

Bob

[Timo]

Apparently, stretcher patients aren't the only bulky thing being moved around the ship:

http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/a.../tmphd0430.jpg

^This cute hovercart would easily fit inside a turbolift...

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Anti-grav_sled

^While this one would not.

Perhaps there exists an alternate transporting system for long, low items such as these pallets. Say, the corridors in TOS are very high, with lots of empty space atop the heads of our characters. There might be futuristic invisible trunkage up there: not just dataways or magic power flows, but a gravitic tube-mail sans the tube... Doesn't explain the arrangements of the TOS movies or the TNG era, though.

Timo Saloniemi

[T'Girl]

Timo wrote:

---

One also wonders why the lift diameter doesn't appear to cater for the horizontal carrying of a stretcher patient!i

If the stretcher had it's own built in artificial gravity, you could just stand it up on end in the turbolift, and the patient wouldn't know the difference.

[Timo]

Elegant.

Timo Saloniemi

[Robert Comsol]

Timo wrote:

---

"Perhaps there exists an alternate transporting system for long, low items such as these pallets. Say, the corridors in TOS are very high, with lots of empty space atop the heads of our characters. There might be futuristic invisible trunkage up there: not just dataways or magic power flows, but a gravitic tube-mail sans the tube... Doesn't explain the arrangements of the TOS movies or the TNG era, though."

The overhead space of the TOS ship's coridors has many hurdles in the way.
Besides, I think what we're actually looking at is a holographic illusion that creates psychological space that actually isn't there (holograhic technology was already a concept for TOS that didn't make it until TAS' "holodeck").

I know it's a rather unorthodox but inevitable idea if you want to confine these corridors / deck height plausibly within the given space of the Enterprise, IMHO.
(A pet theory of mine is that Kirk is actually explaining this to Ambassador Sarek as he takes him to Engineering in "Journey to Babel". I would find it hard to believe he's just saying "notice our efficient GNDNs overhead" ).

I also think that both the running around in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" and ST II clearly indicate that all decks are physically connected by stairways to one another if the tubo lift system is inoperate. And you'd need to have such a traditional system if you need to bring bulky equipment from the freight storage below in the engineering hull to the upper saucer section.

Bob

[sbk1234]

Turbolifts designed by Tardis.

[SchwEnt]

Interesting that TOS turbolifts don't seem to be able to accommodate a pt stretcher for transport to sickbay. And TOS didn't have a "beam directly to sickbay" option.

I'll look for real world answers. Onboard naval vessels today, how do they transport pts on stretchers between decks? Physically hoist them thru the gangways and hatches?

[sbk1234]

I suppose there could have been special "medical turbolifts", dedicated only for medical emergencies. Appropriate size, etc. for fitting a stretcher.

Was there ever an episode in TOS where we would have needed to see one?

[CorporalCaptain]

sbk1234 wrote:

---

I suppose there could have been special "medical turbolifts", dedicated only for medical emergencies. Appropriate size, etc. for fitting a stretcher.

Was there ever an episode in TOS where we would have needed to see one?

All the (limited) canon evidence (and mostly, if not all, from the movies and other shows) suggests that the tubes won't accommodate a car larger than the one that was used. I think T'Girl's anti-grav stretcher is a fine idea.

[Robert Comsol]

I feel the urge to ask a question:

Why is it we all assume the turbolifts can only travel vertically or horizontally.

If a turbolift were traveling diagonally the lights at the various deck levels would equally appear in the turbolift as if one were traveling vertically.

It's an idea that just popped up when I put a ruler at the bow part of the dorsal section connecting the engineering and primary hull (on Doug Drexler's blueprint). It miraculously seems to end just below the turbolift of the main bridge.

I'm confident that from a ship designer's point of view you'd like to have a turbolift system that enables you to reach all decks in the shortest amount of time (especially if the chief engineer is needed in engineering).

That could explain the long turbolift ride in "The Enterprise Incident" when Spock takes the female Romulan commander to ... the cargo hold in the engineering hull?

And it would of course provide all the space to have a nice engineering room at the stern of the saucer section which wouldn't have to share space with a turbolift tube...

Bob