*Spoilers* U.S.S. Franklin Design?

[Jedi_Master]

This would make the most sense. That way, anyone, anywhere on the ship would be able to see whatever there was to see "out there." Of course in deep space, more often than not, there is no "there" there. Being able to see "out" is as much a psychological need as it is a practical one, even if one is seeing a black void most of the time.

I always thought it would be neat if crew quarters on a starship had a view screen on a wall that was like a window, and any scene at all could be replicated as if it were a live 24-hour view, even with weather changes. For example, if you wanted to imagine your quarters were on the penthouse level of a skyscraper in Manhattan overlooking Central Park, that would be your view, day, night, sunshine, clouds, rain, and snow (or whatever you may want). Relatively speaking, the technology for such simulations would have to be fairly easy to do in the 23rd century.

Considering the fact that starships would naturally travel at various angles that would seem "unnatural" to beings accustomed to terrestrial movement (the ground is "down" the sky is "up) I imagine that viewscreens would have to be carefully controlled so as not to induce vertigo or other motion sickness based symptoms.

 

[Timo]

One does wonder why Kirk's TOS ship nearly always flew "port side down" past planets, yet his viewscreen nearly always was oriented "floor down" towards the planet...

Given that the window on the Franklin couldn't provide much of a view of a planet in either orientation, one wonders if her skipper wouldn't just point the window away from the planet, against the darkness of the sky, and superimpose Kirk's favorite floor-down image there.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Some people believe that above USS Franklin can be written "StarFleet Command". I can not see neither StarFleet Command nor United Federation of Planets or anything else in it. Could you tell me what it means?

In that image, yes, there is a STARFLEET COMMAND in the logo.

 

[Jedi_Master]

One does wonder why Kirk's TOS ship nearly always flew "port side down" past planets, yet his viewscreen nearly always was oriented "floor down" towards the planet...

Given that the window on the Franklin couldn't provide much of a view of a planet in either orientation, one wonders if her skipper wouldn't just point the window away from the planet, against the darkness of the sky, and superimpose Kirk's favorite floor-down image there.

Timo Saloniemi

Meh. He probably flew any way he wanted and said "We'll fix it in post-production"

 

[Franklin]

Some people believe that above USS Franklin can be written "StarFleet Command". I can not see neither StarFleet Command nor United Federation of Planets or anything else in it. Could you tell me what it means?

I don't see it, either. Are "some people" basing this on a really good photo-enhancement of the patch on the jacket Spock is wearing? Or, is this just speculation because it seems to fit the space? I captured the picture and tried enhancing it, myself, and there's something there besides blank space, but I couldn't make out anything. Not even a single letter.

Whatever (if anything) is written there, it's odd "USS Franklin" shows up, but it doesn't.

Just a mystery, I guess.

 

[M'Sharak]

I captured the picture and tried enhancing it, myself, and there's something there besides blank space, but I couldn't make out anything. Not even a single letter.

Whatever (if anything) is written there, it's odd "USS Franklin" shows up, but it doesn't.

Looking at it in both this screencap and this detail cap of the patch, it looks to me like something might be written there, but whatever it is is completely illegible. Same result when looking at the HD trailer.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

When you think about it, a commercial airliner doesn't really need windows for the passengers. Why do they need to look out? Indeed, the borders between the windows and the fuselage actually create engineering weak points, so from a practical engineering standpoint, the plane is better off without them. But just imagine what it would be like to fly from New York to Los Angeles in a plane with no view outside. And even then, at 40,000 feet, there's very little to see. It's just knowing there's an "out" out there. They serve little practical purpose beyond that.

The original Mercury capsule had two small portholes and a periscope instead of windows. The astronauts insisted that it have a window, and they won out.

But yeah, windows on a starship are for purely artistic purposes. In space, they would have no practical worth at all.

Wasn't there a concept somewhere for replacing windows with long strips of display panels to show the outside?

I'm thinking such a huge display would actually freak people out more then the windows.

Actually I think the only time a window might be useful is if you are approaching a familiar location like a spacedock, or in orbit of a planet, or about to land if your ship can land.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Wasn't there a concept somewhere for replacing windows with long strips of display panels to show the outside?

I'm thinking such a huge display would actually freak people out more then the windows.

Actually I think the only time a window might be useful is if you are approaching a familiar location like a spacedock, or in orbit of a planet, or about to land if your ship can land.

I've always thought that would be a good idea for a scientific research ship. It would land on a planet and the entire thing would go transparent (at least from the inside).

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I've always thought that would be a good idea for a scientific research ship. It would land on a planet and the entire thing would go transparent (at least from the inside).

Actually for that purpose it would be amazing. But make sure you land in a secluded area because you do not want the natives to see your spaceship. You might break their culture.

 

[DaddlerTheDalek]

The USS Franklin looks like a mix of a NX class ship and a 23rd century Romulan Bird of Prey. Interesting.

 

[mos6507]

So what is that window for?

To even enter into this debate assumes that the production design behind JJ Trek put any thought into scientific plausibility. Nothing about what they've ever built suggests they do, so fans should not perform mental gymanstics to try to explain what they've come up with.

 

[Timo]

Umm, we're not interested in these mythical "production" people - there's no evidence that such people would exist, not in the Star Trek universe (although last I heard, the Hansen family had some intriguing theories they were going to check).

We want to know why Starfleet does things this way instead. Say, why do they put engine nacelles on their ships? (No "thought into scientific plausibility" ever went into it, or at least it doesn't qualify because it was such stupid thinking.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Actually for that purpose it would be amazing. But make sure you land in a secluded area because you do not want the natives to see your spaceship. You might break their culture.

Maybe cloaked from the outside, if there are intelligent life forms.

 

[M'Sharak]

<noise text snipped> so fans should not perform mental gymanstics to try to explain what they've come up with.

Not your call to make - please sit down.

Fans are permitted to perform any mental "gymanstics" they wish, so long as same are not in conflict with board rules or any applicable laws (international, federal, state, or local.)

 

[JKM]

Nothing's saying the "window" can't in such a case be opacified, and either function as a viewscreen fed by visual inputs from other sources or as an "instrument flight only" display using the heads-up overlay elements we've already seen are a functional part of the Kelvin and Enterprise viewscreens.

Or am I imagining that I also see those elements in the Franklin viewscreen?

View attachment 1291

That looks more like a reflection of a display to me.

Windows have a practical use for the film makers, which is to provide a sense of scale & familiarity & help inform the audience where the heroes are, and make the sets more interesting. I'm not against the idea of having the windows, it makes sense for the visuals of a movie.

But I do have to put my foot down on the notion that the windows would be practical in-universe. That's complete nonsense, windows on a starship bridge would show a black void 99% of the time, and the rest of the time you would be looking at tiny unfamiliar objects that might be 500 meters or 5,000,000 meters away with no visual cues to figure out which.

Well if that argument were true why do our real world space shuttles have them, ala our Enterprise
True they have to land them and to do that they have to see out some way, but front windows aren't the only windows showing out if the pics we get from space say anything.

I think its more about a humans need to see out than any practicality.

 

[JKM]

Ha found it. This pic doesn't look like it was taken at the front of a space ship, but I could be wrong. So now we know why they have them so they can take pics like that

 

[M'Sharak]

Ha found it. This pic doesn't look like it was taken at the front of a space ship, but I could be wrong. So now we know why they have them so they can take pics like that

That one was taken by astronaut Terry Virts from the ISS (which doesn't really have a front window.)

 

[JKM]

That one was taken by astronaut Terry Virts from the ISS (which doesn't really have a front window.)

Yeah I remembered when it was posted just not from where. So apparently even space stations have windows.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

space stations are in orbit of planets so it'd be understandable why they'd have windows.

Also you could take lovely photos from those.

 

[F. King Daniel]

To even enter into this debate assumes that the production design behind JJ Trek put any thought into scientific plausibility. Nothing about what they've ever built suggests they do, so fans should not perform mental gymanstics to try to explain what they've come up with.

Here's a photo of the USS Enterprise model, from the time of the original pilot episode. Your argument is invalid.