I would hope for at least a curtain that can be drawn around your bed.
Mistakes in the Enterprise?
- Thread starter ZapBrannigan
- Start date
I would hope for at least a curtain that can be drawn around your bed.
Thanks.
Yes. I did look up the terms "star drive" and "stardrive" on the script search just to be sure. They appear twice in ST and three times in TNG. Two of the three times in TNG they refer to the " star[ ]drive section", while in ST they just refer to the propulsion system, not the section. That's why I put "star drive section" in quotes.
Apparently, requiring Starfleet ships to have their bridge on top of the saucer was a Gene Roddenberry edict for some reason.
The way the story goes is due to the fact the fan produced plans for the dreadnought had the bridge in the engineering section. Deck 23.
Sort of, but there's also a bridge in the middle of Deck 7 in addition to the one on Deck 23. In addition to an emergency bridge on Deck 10. Not sure what sort of emergency would affect Deck 7 but not Deck 10, but anyway. I like those prints otherwise, particularly the unambiguous placement of engineering forward of the impulse engines, the two deflector dishes, and the hangar deck/shuttle bay facing forward rather than aft.
I wouldn't have thought GR ever saw fan drawings like that, let alone pored over them and made policy decisions.
FJ's Booklet of General Plans was a big deal, utterly pioneering, and GR was involved with approvals before they were published, but the avalanche of FJ-inspired fan work? I don't know. I'd guess GR saw Michael McMaster's wonderful Bridge plans, but beyond that it seems like the rest was kind of obscure and small-time.
I at first said FJ but I couldn't find an FJ image that clearly labeled the bridge inside, so went with the more ambiguous "fan" production. I do assume those dreadnought plans were based on FJ's original drawings and that FJ placed the primary bridge inside instead of on top, hence the edict from Roddenberry. It seems Roddenberry's edict was intended to discredit FJ's work. So...
Nacelles must be in pairs = in response to the single nacelle scout/destroyer and the 3 nacelle dreadnought
Bridge must be on top = in response to dreadnought
Nacelle 50% visibility = I got nothing... maybe the dreadnought?
I think the "bridge on top" came about when Andy Probert submitted his 1701-D design and there was no bridge on top and Gene told him to put it up there... plus make the nacelles longer. I don't know of an earlier instance where he would have come up with such a rule, albeit I guess it's possible.
If I had my choice, I would want to work on the Engineering-section bridge, because it abuts the food prep facilities. Nothing like kicking back with a snack and watching a giant screen.
Kor
I now remember why GR dictated, post-TOS, that a ship's bridge be atop the saucer, and it goes all the way back to the first scene of Episode 1: he wanted the audience to have a direct visual link between the exterior model and the live action set, so they'd see how big the ship was. Zooming in on a circular housing on the saucer and then dissolving to the bridge set accomplished that.
However, a 1701-D "bridge housing dissolve" shot was never done, that I can recall. The Galaxy class ship is scaled so large that the bridge housing is rendered tiny, and they would have needed to build a partial miniature of just the center part of the saucer top to get a bridge housing large enough to photograph well.
Instead, they conveyed the scale with that shot of a guy walking through the aft lounge, matted onto the windows of the 1701-D model and shown in the main titles every week.
I've always wished TOS had a shot like that. The four windows on the leading edge of Deck 6 would be perfect. Show a crewman inside walking past the windows:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x18hd/theimmunitysyndromehd0004.jpg
But the realities of production budget and comparatively cumbersome '60s technology kept that from happening.
However, a 1701-D "bridge housing dissolve" shot was never done, that I can recall. The Galaxy class ship is scaled so large that the bridge housing is rendered tiny, and they would have needed to build a partial miniature of just the center part of the saucer top to get a bridge housing large enough to photograph well.
Instead, they conveyed the scale with that shot of a guy walking through the aft lounge, matted onto the windows of the 1701-D model and shown in the main titles every week.
I've always wished TOS had a shot like that. The four windows on the leading edge of Deck 6 would be perfect. Show a crewman inside walking past the windows:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x18hd/theimmunitysyndromehd0004.jpg
But the realities of production budget and comparatively cumbersome '60s technology kept that from happening.
Great post.
And your comment about the windows on Deck 6 reminds me of one improvement: windows in the crew cabins! I think they've earned it.
There already were windows in the crew cabins:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x05hd/theenemywithinhd138.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x05hd/theenemywithinhd141.jpg
They just tended to cover them up a lot
There already were windows in the crew cabins:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x05hd/theenemywithinhd138.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x05hd/theenemywithinhd141.jpg
They just tended to cover them up a lot
That wall indentation is not located where it would face out into space. See the curved ceiling to the left of Kirk's head? That's supposed to be the top surface of the saucer section, where Deck 5 has a sloping hull over it.
The hull curve is right about where the N is in NCC:
http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x18/immunitysyndrome0001.jpg
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That's not a curved ceiling, it's just a curved support brace. The wall continues up diagonally and the ceiling (as is usual with TOS) is nowhere to be seen.
Here's the wall extended up beyond the curved brace:
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x04hd/mirrormirrorhd0502.jpg
My view: a curved ceiling line is what the makers were trying to imply. Just like the curved ceiling beams in the briefing room. I say we're supposed to suspend disbelief and accept the set-building tricks rather than think the ship's ceilings are absurdly high, and architectural features like that are curved for no reason.
...And of course Deck 5 is not an "Enemy Within" feature. Kirk is supposedly on Deck 12 in the early episodes (and Rand is there in this very episode - in Kirk's cabin, or hers?), eliminating any possibility of curvature of ceiling being tied to an exterior feature.
In any case, by production design necessity, every cabin set features the curvature, regardless of deck. The real problem with Kirk's "window" is the angle, which (being close to vertical) might befit Deck 12 in the neck but on every other deck implies a deep tunnel of which this is just the inner end. No wonder we can see nothing through it, even at a near-perpendicular viewing angle!
Timo Saloniemi
In any case, by production design necessity, every cabin set features the curvature, regardless of deck. The real problem with Kirk's "window" is the angle, which (being close to vertical) might befit Deck 12 in the neck but on every other deck implies a deep tunnel of which this is just the inner end. No wonder we can see nothing through it, even at a near-perpendicular viewing angle!
Timo Saloniemi
Windows on starships are optional; by the 23rd Century, the technology would exist to 'wallpaper' an entire cabin with an ultra-thin flatscreen. This would allow them to act as windows, viewscreens tied into sensors, entertainment, or provide a virtual environment, like sleeping next to a waterfall in a forest of what not. Totally customizable. Not something they thought of back in the 60's, but as one of those forward looking technological retcons it would totally work. They are already talking about doing this to the interior of airline cabins. Imagine how people would freak if they turned on a 'clear cabin' mode, making everyone feel like they were sitting in the open air! Some people would never fly again!
Realistically, there wouldn't be a whole lot of interesting scenery to see out of the windows most of the time, since the majority of outer space is pretty empty. I'm not sure I would enjoy staring into the abyss of deep space from my quarters day after day. And more windows means more weak points in the hull.
Kor
Kor
