I would hate it to seem like I'm ingratiating myself too much here, but I'm going to start drinking margaritas in an effort to facilitate the creative juices with my Google SketchUppery… I've bloody well tried every other alcoholic combination …
Indeed, in sufficiently large doses tequila has the power to make my clothes disappear, and for the contents of my insides to magically transport themselves to the outside.
When I first heard Cetacean Ops in the background, I thought, "Oh, that must be a special commando team from Tau Ceti." It's really neat that it actually involves dolphins, etc.
Mr. Sternbach - How much of the possibility for cetacean crew was shelved by the introduction of such a crew member on SeaQuest? Personally, it would have been fitting to have a descendant of George and Grace (it had to have been a descendant at this point) on the Enterprise-D.
No idea if SeaQuest was ever a factor; probably not, since we never caught wind of any of our writers or producers ever wanting to pursue story bits involving cetaceans on the ship. I suspect that STIV was enough whale action for Paramount. Rick
Doesn't explain the number of decks in the least. I just wrote about graphics that were handed to me. You can lay that one at the door of the DS9 Art Department. And it really doesn't explain the number of decks on the Enterprise-E, since I didn't come anywhere near the writers or whoever put together the MSD (pro'lly Doug D.) Rick
...A 29-deck Enterprise would fit the dialogue better in more ways than just the "yes, we have a Deck 29" bit. Namely, when the E-E suffers damage early on in the battle against the Scimitar, Decks 12 through 17 are evacuated. If the saucer featured two or three more decks than the MSD suggests, then evacuating 12 through 17 would leave the bow empty and free for use as a ram... If there are only the twelve decks plus torpedo turret / yacht berth there in the saucer, though, then people on Decks 8 through 11 would be out of luck! Timo Saloniemi
Rick Sternbach should've been asked to blueprint the Defiant back in 1994, like he fleshed out the Enterprise-E in 1996, since I doubt anyone else could've planned out the tech, aside from Doug Drexler who was a scenic artist at the time. It's not Doug's fault; he did a fair job with the MSD and deck plans later on, and we must accept that layout as the basis because it kept showing up onscreen, but the only way to do it really well was to pay close attention to every single episode produced until then (late season three or so), and of course, to keep sending script guidance to writers, like Rick and Mike Okuda did on TNG. Also, the Ent-E MSD appears to show the right deck count (23 or 24, Rick established 23), although their layout is inconsistent with Rick's ten-footer construction blueprints. The latter may have been drawn up closer to post-production, while the MSD had to be available for shooting. A non-final layout would also explain the original errors introduced in the dialogue (24 decks, Deck 26), but not the later Deck 29.
There was a 10-footer?!?! I always thought there was a 6' model and later a 4' model. Also, didn't Probert design the first one? I didn't think Rick wa involved much at all with the E-D's external look. At least during pre-production... --Alex
I wrote about the -E, not the -D. Rick Sternbach drew the blueprints for ILM's ten-foot model used in First Contact, based on John Eaves' final sketches.