PROBERT in need of a little help-

[Robert Comsol]

Albertus wrote:

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"The earliest rendition or inclusion (on screen) of discernible 'Escape Hatches' were on the Ambassador Class Enterprise captained by Rachael Garret in 'Yesterday's Enterprise'."

As the designer of the original and beautiful Ambassador Class Enterprise (Enterprise-C depicted on conference room wall sculpture display) I would not expect Mr. Probert to pay any attention to a design that pushed his original design over the cliff.

To illustrate the issue check out Tobias Richter's amazing and fully operational CGI recreation of Mr. Probert's original design:
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2011/...obias-richter/

As an afterthought I just had a discussion with one of my friends regarding the lifeboat issue. He wondered if it really would make sense to have the necessity of a hatch opening (mechanical failure?) and felt it to be more sensical that what appears to be a hatch panel is actually one side of the lifeboat.

Bob

[Timo]

The square panels found on typical TNG shooting models were sort of established as indeed being either lifeboat hull sections (or then at least blowaway rather than hinged obstacles to lifeboat launch). That is, in "Best of Both Worlds", some of the wrecks were supposedly completed with "missing" squares rather than "opened" ones.

Of course, there's a major dramatic advantage to having hinged panels, because the plot can then involve a pod or dozen being fired without necessitating the shooting model to be modified to show the aftermath of the launch. VOY appeared to capitalize on this.

Timo Saloniemi

[Robert Comsol]

Timo wrote:

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"Of course, there's a major dramatic advantage to having hinged panels, because the plot can then involve a pod or dozen being fired without necessitating the shooting model to be modified to show the aftermath of the launch. VOY appeared to capitalize on this."

It's a practical VFX production advantage but wouldn't it actually look more dramatic if the hull of the ships was covered with square holes that tell the viewer immediately that the lifeboats had been ejected and that the ship had been abandoned?

Bob

[Albertus]

Hi Mr Comsol, The E-C is a great ship,(I paid £78 for a resin kit model of it.

I think it is a troop ship. Big, powerful and robust. Heavy-duty nacelles, short, powerful Engineering section and lots of space for Federation troops.

Apropos of the 'hatches', in the escape pod scene in ST:FC (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhoH21tVJnQ) it can clearly be seen that the Escape Pod's heat shield is the hatch. No open lids.

I suspect that all escape pods were magnetically sealed to the ships hull, thus obviating a mechanical deployment system.

The real difference seems to be in the E-D, where the escape modules were designed, not for planet-fall but rather to connect together and await rescue by a third party whilst still in free space. Although, I also suspect that they were capable of touchdown in a manner similar to how the Soviets' do it. and the singular way that the E-E releases them as 'spores'. Even Picard references the 'chance' involved in the pods landing.

Just some thoughts

Al

PP
Just thought:

The E-D had up to 1000+ inhabitants, a 'community emergency habitat' makes sense as there were families aboard. seems reasonable to provide a "refugee complex" where they have the option to wait it out.

[Rick Sternbach]

Robert Comsol wrote:

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No matter how I look at the various possibilities, I think Rick Sternbach's cube proposal makes the most sense.

When I did the Voyager escape pods, which were appropriated for use on the Defiant, I also built in some docking capabilities, though the number of pods in a gaggle would be a bit lower due to the lack of docking ports on all sides. You'd still be able to connect a number of pods along the lateral ports, and hook a similar string of pods "roof to roof" to be able to wait out a deep space disaster or power on over to a habitable planet. The docking business was really devised to make personnel like medical folks available in a crisis.

Rick