That was one the best endings to see the Ent-A get built! I love that sequence and including it in the end of the movie was a genius move. Gives me hope for Star Trek's future!
Star Trek Beyond final Enterprise timelapse
- Thread starter captain3ddd
- Start date
Brilliant! Hope you all put toilets on the bridge! 
I really hope we get a good behind-the-scenes look at the making of this sequence one day, with lots of close looks at the tiny details in there. With the graphics made for this scene, imagine fold-out glossy deck plans of this new Enterprise
Thanks for posting, and for the great work you did! I never noticed it before, but this montage "canonizes" the idea that the bridge section is a module that can be swapped out with relative ease (starting around 21s). Fun!
Anyone but me notice the huge cavernous space beneath the "spine" of the saucer section? This appears to be an open space for the impulse deck, and I'm thinking is supposed to be the same space that Spock and Pike walked through in STXI on their way to the shuttlebay (right before Pike named Kirk as first officer).
Actually from the Star Trek 2013 game, that section is between the deflector control area and just before the shuttlebay itself, leading on to the upper level of it.
It's right inside the secondary hull and acts as a way to access various areas of the engineering levels. The turbolift Spock takes is meant to be a perfect diagonal high speed turbolift.
I think that's the 1701-A analogue of the huge open space around the saucer docking clamps we see in Beyond.
Pike and Spock were walking through engineering in ST'09, as seen in this cutaway.
The open space around the clamps wasn't THAT big. The thing I'm looking at runs almost all the way to the back of the bridge through the top of the saucer. Also, having that space be in engineering doesn't make a whole lot of sense; the way the scene is filmed it looks like they walk directly there from a short corridor right off the bridge before getting into a turbolift. Why would they WALK all the way down to engineering just to get into a turbolift at that point?
The area I'm referring to, we never actually saw in the game.
I'm talking about this thing here:
This huge cavernous space which is at least three decks high and, upon completion, is probably (well, obviously) filled out with components for the impulse engines, among other things. This space is almost large enough to be a small shuttle bay, but there is no sign of a shuttle bay door or anything to fit the bill. Which is why I'm thinking this might actually be the Enterprise-A version of this space:
And given that there seems to be a clear division of space within the ship such that the saucer section contains almost all of the ship's habitable space, it actually makes sense that this entire complex they're walking through is in the saucer's impulse deck. In fact, they walk through it TWICE, the first time on reporting to the ship and the second time on leaving it on the way to the Narada. This suggests to me that the turbolift network isn't as fully connected on this Enterprise as it is on 24th century starships or on smaller vessels like the TOS Enterprise; the lift (or the MANY lifts) that connect to the saucer all have end stations in this huge space. OTOH, the turbolift that Spock goes through in ST09 is probably right under -- maybe two or three decks -- below the bridge; it wasn't an ultra-fast turbolift, it was just a really short ride. There's also the fact that in the second scene Pike and Kirk board a turbolift in this section to get TO the shuttlebay; if this space was somewhere in engineering, they wouldn't need a turbolift, they'd just keep walking a little ways further to get there. IOW, the turbolift ride should come BEFORE arriving in this place, if it really is in engineering. The fact that it doesn't means it's somewhere in the saucer and is nowhere near engineering.
Why are they having the entire crew walk through this huge space full of machinery all the time? My guess is in addition to having the support equipment for the impulse engines, it also has the fabrication equipment, the ship's armory, and probably the quartermaster's office too. So all the new recruits coming onto the Enterprise for the first time would of course have to report there when they came aboard to pick up their uniforms, boots, personal equipment, side arms, tooth brush and three-sea-shells (they definitely weren't carrying any luggage when they boarded those shuttles!).
This huge cavernous space which is at least three decks high and, upon completion, is probably (well, obviously) filled out with components for the impulse engines, among other things. This space is almost large enough to be a small shuttle bay, but there is no sign of a shuttle bay door or anything to fit the bill. Which is why I'm thinking this might actually be the Enterprise-A version of this space:
And given that there seems to be a clear division of space within the ship such that the saucer section contains almost all of the ship's habitable space, it actually makes sense that this entire complex they're walking through is in the saucer's impulse deck. In fact, they walk through it TWICE, the first time on reporting to the ship and the second time on leaving it on the way to the Narada. This suggests to me that the turbolift network isn't as fully connected on this Enterprise as it is on 24th century starships or on smaller vessels like the TOS Enterprise; the lift (or the MANY lifts) that connect to the saucer all have end stations in this huge space. OTOH, the turbolift that Spock goes through in ST09 is probably right under -- maybe two or three decks -- below the bridge; it wasn't an ultra-fast turbolift, it was just a really short ride. There's also the fact that in the second scene Pike and Kirk board a turbolift in this section to get TO the shuttlebay; if this space was somewhere in engineering, they wouldn't need a turbolift, they'd just keep walking a little ways further to get there. IOW, the turbolift ride should come BEFORE arriving in this place, if it really is in engineering. The fact that it doesn't means it's somewhere in the saucer and is nowhere near engineering.
Why are they having the entire crew walk through this huge space full of machinery all the time? My guess is in addition to having the support equipment for the impulse engines, it also has the fabrication equipment, the ship's armory, and probably the quartermaster's office too. So all the new recruits coming onto the Enterprise for the first time would of course have to report there when they came aboard to pick up their uniforms, boots, personal equipment, side arms, tooth brush and three-sea-shells (they definitely weren't carrying any luggage when they boarded those shuttles!).
Looks like the entire rear quarter of the saucer is hollow to me:
That's not the rear quarter, though.
This appears to be a space near the very bottom of the saucer, about where the front of the neck connects to the hull. It's also oriented the wrong way for it to be the same feature, in addition to being the wrong scale relative to what we're seeing.
Going by the shape of the bottom of the saucer, I'm thinking the separation mechanism thingamajig was about here:
While the feature I'm looking at in the video is higher up and extends further aft, here:
And also doesn't appear to wrap around the saucer like the image at the beginning of the film
I'm talking about this thing here:
This huge cavernous space which is at least three decks high and, upon completion, is probably (well, obviously) filled out with components for the impulse engines, among other things. This space is almost large enough to be a small shuttle bay, but there is no sign of a shuttle bay door or anything to fit the bill. Which is why I'm thinking this might actually be the Enterprise-A version of this space:
And given that there seems to be a clear division of space within the ship such that the saucer section contains almost all of the ship's habitable space, it actually makes sense that this entire complex they're walking through is in the saucer's impulse deck. In fact, they walk through it TWICE, the first time on reporting to the ship and the second time on leaving it on the way to the Narada. This suggests to me that the turbolift network isn't as fully connected on this Enterprise as it is on 24th century starships or on smaller vessels like the TOS Enterprise; the lift (or the MANY lifts) that connect to the saucer all have end stations in this huge space. OTOH, the turbolift that Spock goes through in ST09 is probably right under -- maybe two or three decks -- below the bridge; it wasn't an ultra-fast turbolift, it was just a really short ride. There's also the fact that in the second scene Pike and Kirk board a turbolift in this section to get TO the shuttlebay; if this space was somewhere in engineering, they wouldn't need a turbolift, they'd just keep walking a little ways further to get there. IOW, the turbolift ride should come BEFORE arriving in this place, if it really is in engineering. The fact that it doesn't means it's somewhere in the saucer and is nowhere near engineering.
Why are they having the entire crew walk through this huge space full of machinery all the time? My guess is in addition to having the support equipment for the impulse engines, it also has the fabrication equipment, the ship's armory, and probably the quartermaster's office too. So all the new recruits coming onto the Enterprise for the first time would of course have to report there when they came aboard to pick up their uniforms, boots, personal equipment, side arms, tooth brush and three-sea-shells (they definitely weren't carrying any luggage when they boarded those shuttles!).
They're almost certainly walking and talking through engineering near the shuttlebay. They do exit opposite the turbolift but according to the designs, there should be a turbolift down that corridor as well.
We see the same sort of area later when Kirk and Scotty beam onto the ship and it's almost certainly in engineering.
Similarly, we see the area in Into Darkness leading away from the shuttlebay as Khan is taken away and again when Scotty and Kirk are rushing to the warp core.
For simplicity sake, I'll refer to the area with the diagonal crossbeams as "the Mall" in future mosts.
The space where Kirk and Scotty beam into is also a COMPLETELY different space; the diagonal crossbeams are absent, and the very next compartment they walk through is this one:
Which is the same space they're going through in STID on the way to the warp core. Whatever these canisters are (I would assume they're slush hydrogen tanks for the warp core) this catwalk is on approximately the same level as both the warp core and the water turbine that nearly minces Scotty. While it is POSSIBLE that the first scenes are actually some vast space several decks below these canisters, that still seems pretty unlikely, since again, we'd have to explain why so many people keep physically walking through this space instead of bypassing it with a turbolift ride. There's no actual REASON for them to do that; in fact, if that entire compartment was directly below a huge pressurized engineering bay with full gravity extending five decks up, it's probably a space you wouldn't want people going at all unless they NEEDED to be there.
The other thing that stands out is that almost every time a character is seen walking through the Mall it is immediately before or immediately after a costume change (which is why I started calling it "The Mall"). The first time this happens is on the Enterprise when hundreds of cadets, fresh off the shuttles, are seen walking through this space in something of a hurry; Uhura, too, is present here in her red Academy jumpsuit, but Spock -- who boarded a shuttle in a black instructor jumpsuit, has already changed to his blue uniform. The next time we see Kirk he's ditched the Academy jumpsuit and is wearing a black shirt (though McCoy isn't) which probably means Kirk changed clothes -- or was issued an actual duty uniform -- in the Mall. The same exact thing happens in STID: Kirk is wearing a field jacket in the warp core, but in the very next scene he's walking out of the Mall and into a turbolift and the jacket is gone. Did Kirk take a turbolift all the way up to his quarters in the saucer, hang up his jacket, take another turbo back down TO engineering, turn a corner, get into another turbolift and then ride it to the bridge with Uhura who up to that point was hanging out in engineering for no reason? Or did he simply take the turbo from engineering to the Mall, hand in his field jacket to the quartermaster, and then go up to the bridge with Uhura who had just finished doing the same thing?
And even with all of that, the presence of this large space really IS an issue. At the scale we're looking at it's easily fifteen meters high and sits directly beneath the spine of the saucer section:
In fact, the spine and the bridge section are an interconnected part that are lowered directly ON TOP of this space like a bulky piece of superstructure. Which means those backlit strips we've seen on the side of the spine on both the Enterprise and the Enterprise-A are probably just windows after all.
No, again, those are three completely different areas you're describing, and are represented by three completely different physical sets anyway. The first one has a corridor far opposite from a turbolift station; Khan's walk of shame moves in the same direction as Kirk and Pike's walk to the shuttle. So this still begs the question of why the three of them are physically walking through engineering to get to that turbolift in the first place; they either walked all the way from the saucer (huh?) or took a turbolift down there, got off, walked across engineering and then got on ANOTHER turbolift to ride it the remaining twenty meters to the shuttlebay (huh?!). The more likely explanation is that that entire compartment is actually in the saucer near the impulse engines and that the turbolfit network in the saucer doesn't directly connect to the one in engineering, so they simply walked off the bridge and hoofed it to the engineering access turbolift and rode that the rest of the way there.
The space where Kirk and Scotty beam into is also a COMPLETELY different space; the diagonal crossbeams are absent, and the very next compartment they walk through is this one:
Which is the same space they're going through in STID on the way to the warp core. Whatever these canisters are (I would assume they're slush hydrogen tanks for the warp core) this catwalk is on approximately the same level as both the warp core and the water turbine that nearly minces Scotty. While it is POSSIBLE that the first scenes are actually some vast space several decks below these canisters, that still seems pretty unlikely, since again, we'd have to explain why so many people keep physically walking through this space instead of bypassing it with a turbolift ride. There's no actual REASON for them to do that; in fact, if that entire compartment was directly below a huge pressurized engineering bay with full gravity extending five decks up, it's probably a space you wouldn't want people going at all unless they NEEDED to be there.
The other thing that stands out is that almost every time a character is seen walking through the Mall it is immediately before or immediately after a costume change (which is why I started calling it "The Mall"). The first time this happens is on the Enterprise when hundreds of cadets, fresh off the shuttles, are seen walking through this space in something of a hurry; Uhura, too, is present here in her red Academy jumpsuit, but Spock -- who boarded a shuttle in a black instructor jumpsuit, has already changed to his blue uniform. The next time we see Kirk he's ditched the Academy jumpsuit and is wearing a black shirt (though McCoy isn't) which probably means Kirk changed clothes -- or was issued an actual duty uniform -- in the Mall. The same exact thing happens in STID: Kirk is wearing a field jacket in the warp core, but in the very next scene he's walking out of the Mall and into a turbolift and the jacket is gone. Did Kirk take a turbolift all the way up to his quarters in the saucer, hang up his jacket, take another turbo back down TO engineering, turn a corner, get into another turbolift and then ride it to the bridge with Uhura who up to that point was hanging out in engineering for no reason? Or did he simply take the turbo from engineering to the Mall, hand in his field jacket to the quartermaster, and then go up to the bridge with Uhura who had just finished doing the same thing?
And even with all of that, the presence of this large space really IS an issue. At the scale we're looking at it's easily fifteen meters high and sits directly beneath the spine of the saucer section:
In fact, the spine and the bridge section are an interconnected part that are lowered directly ON TOP of this space like a bulky piece of superstructure. Which means those backlit strips we've seen on the side of the spine on both the Enterprise and the Enterprise-A are probably just windows after all.
The ground level in this area is the same one Pike and Spock walk through (on the way to the shuttlebay), that Khan is marched through in Into Darkness (on the way from the shuttlebay) and that Chekov goes sliding through (between the warp core and the navigational deflector) near the end of that movie. The catwalk is the same one Kirk and Scotty are caught on when the Enterprise's gravity fails in Into Darkness, and they're saved by Chekov.The space where Kirk and Scotty beam into is also a COMPLETELY different space; the diagonal crossbeams are absent, and the very next compartment they walk through is this one:
The Into Darkness version have digital set extensions but I'm counting them as representing the same area.
This is a very rough and early version of how I envisioned the "brewery" engineering section prior to the release of the official cutaway:
And this is where I see the massive open space in the saucer, wrapping around the rear quarter:
The bridge module is several decks thick when lowered into the saucer in the sequence. But it's oddly designed, I like to think it's a "kit" with extending portions that unfold and lock when finally in place.
So that the rest is worked on internally to both hook it all up and fill out the spaces left over. Something could slide back from the bridge module to fill that structure.
Actually maybe if the saucer separates, that unit slides back and the bridge can eject as an emergency module too, taking part of the impulse assembly with it.
(Talking about the Enterprise A, not the original 1701)
So that the rest is worked on internally to both hook it all up and fill out the spaces left over. Something could slide back from the bridge module to fill that structure.
Actually maybe if the saucer separates, that unit slides back and the bridge can eject as an emergency module too, taking part of the impulse assembly with it.
(Talking about the Enterprise A, not the original 1701)
That's been the operative theory behind bridge modules for awhile, hasn't it?
