Do turbolifts have any sense?

Discussion in 'Trek Tech' started by Faria, May 22, 2013.

  1. Tiberius

    Tiberius Commodore Commodore

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    Very well.

    Ensign Faria, please take this engineering report to the bridge. As you don't like turbolifts, please climb sixteen decks in the Jefferies tubes.
     
  2. Faria

    Faria Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    I will use stairs
     
  3. Robert Comsol

    Robert Comsol Commodore Commodore

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    @ Faria

    Since you illustrated this cutaway diagram, I found it interesting that you didn't wonder why the shaft connecting the engineering with the saucer hull is not diagonal. ;)

    Of course, turbo lifts make sense. It's an easy way for the DP to box the actors up in a location and have their dialogue recorded.

    @ Timo

    According to the studio set plans the diameter of the turbo lift was 8' which I believe is enough space to move a TOS stretcher trolley in there together with two medical assistants.

    Bob
     
  4. Faria

    Faria Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    explain
     
  5. Tiberius

    Tiberius Commodore Commodore

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    Fine. Although I'd love to see how you go using the stairs to climb a sixteen storey building.
     
  6. Faria

    Faria Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    i do it every day: my apartment is on the 12th
     
  7. R. Star

    R. Star Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I always wondered how they could take a turbolift on basically any of the Enterprises and get to main engineering as we see them do quite often. They're consistently cylindrical shaped which pretty much means they're up/down only. And in all the turblolift scenes where they fall/get stuck they're always in a giant elevator shaft with no way out other than the crawl ways or prying open doors.
     
  8. Godblessed1701

    Godblessed1701 Ensign

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    perhaps mr. comsol should redesign them to be spherical. like balls in a pinball machine. im sure thats how gene originaly intended them to be.
     
  9. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    Just how often have we seen the turbolift network fail on the show? It seems a fairly robust system like the artificial gravity.
     
  10. Crazy Eddie

    Crazy Eddie Vice Admiral Admiral

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    That's how they were in the the 2013 "Star Trek" game. The actual turbocars are cylindrical, but they sit inside of a spherical cage that "rolls" in the shaft at perilously high speeds. My impression is that only a few of the turboshafts even travel in straight lines in the Abramsverse and that diagonal/slanted/curved shafts probably exist in this version of the ship.

    Which both justifies our feelings about diagonal turboshafts in the "neck" of the ship (in which case the ride from the shuttlebay to the bridge could be an almost straight line with a minor direction change in the saucer section) and explains the putative turboshafts through the pylons to the warp nacelles. OTOH, the NuEnterprise has a lot more ladders and stairs than any other version of the Enterprise save the TOS ship, so it seems to me that the turbolifts either function as rapid vertical lifts between decks or "express line" transit between major areas.
     
  11. Tiberius

    Tiberius Commodore Commodore

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    How many times? I can see some poor ensign starting his shift in engineering, then taking a report to the bridge, then going down to the shuttlebay , then going to the cargo bay to get a spare part, back to the shuttle bay, then down to engineering to report to the chief engineer, then back to the shuttlebay, off to a lab...

    I bet you walk down your 12 flights once when you leave, then again when you come back.

    And also, how long does it take yo to walk up 12 floors? Would you really want to take that long to deliver a report to the bridge, or would it be better to use a lift?
     
  12. Robert Comsol

    Robert Comsol Commodore Commodore

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    Because I had the impression you took an unbiased approach to the subject, I wondered if you felt that the zig-zagging turbo lift course from the saucer to the engineering hull would really make sense.

    I'd say that the shape of the TOS turbo lift studio set, the apparent close proximity to the turbo shaft lights, the same width of the set as the corridor set and last but not least the little bump that sticks out flat at the top of the VFX model Enterprise near the Bridge all indicate an essential cylindrical shape of your typical TOS turbo lift car.

    Where I sympathize with Faria is that less turbo shaft space means more space for rooms aboard the ship. I'm just realizing that in the course of my TOS deck plan project where the rationalization of the turbo shaft network in the saucer has become a problem and currently keeps me from considerable progress.

    Bob
     
  13. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    I spend a fair amount of my day walking back and forth, and up and down stairs.
     
  14. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Since inertia no longer appears to be a concern in the Star Trek universe, I don't really see the problem with stepped turboshafts and sharp corners. Surely it must be trivial for the turbolift to do a fifty-gee turn at a corner when the starship apparently can do five thousand gee turns without as much as causing Kirk's coffee to spill.

    By the same token, there's no particular reason why Kirk's feet should remain pointed down throughout a long turbolift trip. He couldn't tell the difference even if the lift did cartwheels to clear a particularly tight corner or hop over a GNDN line.

    Whether the stepped shaft often portrayed on the neck of the TOS vessel is an accurate representation, or a symbolic one in the style of London tube maps, it's difficult to tell; these "cutout" or "MSD" views supposedly exist to serve an in-universe purpose, for which perfect realism would probably be counterproductive in most cases.

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  15. sbk1234

    sbk1234 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Personally, while I have no problem with the idea of turbolifts, I've always felt they were a little excessive with the horizontal shafts, as pictured here. The ships were large, but not THAT large. We weren't talking miles of walking. In my mind they didn't have more than a couple horizontal shafts per deck, and the crew did have to do some walking to get to where they were going. (Emergency situations, and the captain could be given the privilage of shorter walks due to more convenient drop-offs.) As mentioned, the bigggest issue would be the vertical travel.
     
  16. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Turbolifts, like shuttles and beaming, were only created because the show didn't have an infinite budget.

    With turbolifts you can have two characters talk while they get from A to B. Without turbolifts they would need to walk through corridors and take stairs and the camera would have to follow them: a lot more expensive, and the result doesn't work as well.
     
  17. xvicente

    xvicente Captain Captain

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    What's so great about point A that so many people from point B are so keen to get there and what's so great about point B that so many people from point A are so keen to get there?
     
  18. Crazy Eddie

    Crazy Eddie Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Point A contains Ensign Ricky.
    Point B contains a naked Orion girl.
    Hallways are too damn slow.
     
  19. xvicente

    xvicente Captain Captain

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    Hooray for point B... :drool: Go Ricky!
     
  20. Solariabsg25

    Solariabsg25 Commodore Commodore

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    Except of course people aren't going to use turbolifts for short journeys anyway, in all likelyhood will not use them to travel on the same deck, only from transfer from one deck to another.

    The time saving is when the ship is called to battlestations. You could have 150+ crewmembers suddenly trying to get from their quarters to to their duty stations. You have a few elevators or stairways, that will easily lead to logjams. There are numberous turbolifts that use the same system, so a single access point could enable up to six cars or more to be accessed in quick succession, without having thirty crewmen twiddling their thumbs waiting for the car to drop off it's passengers on it's several stops down the ship before coming back up to take the next batch.