TOS Science/tech changes

[Henoch]

I was probably not the first, but I suggested it originally to cover both the change in Engine Room designs and the uniquely weird situation in Metamorphosis where the senior staff are reduced to using a shuttlecraft to conduct a rescue mission.

I thought Mytran was the one, but I didn't have the time to research it, so, he got demoted to "some". Sorry, buddy.

I concur with @drt that this explanation is brilliant in its simplicity. The Companion's home star system is stated as being in the "Gamma Canaris" region after all, the nomenclature of which suggests the next system over.

Since both star systems have the family name "Canaris", they could be part a binary or multiple star system. For a real life example, we have the tertiary Alpha Centauri star system next door with stars: Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Proxima Centauri.

Internet queries say that perhaps up to 85% of all stars are in binary systems with some in triple or even higher-multiple systems. One article said that we have observed star systems with six stars. Switching to another show, Firefly's "Verse" has multiple stars.

Maybe this can explain the high number of Rigil planets referenced throughout Trek lore. Another article says that Rigel is around 800 light years from Earth and is the brightest star in the constellation of Orion. Rigel is actually a three star system consisting of the blue supergiant Rigel A and two distant and much dimmer companions.

 

[Ronald Held]

No guarantee the Canaris stars are close to each other or a binary system. The labeling could be Iin order of brightness as seen from some planet.

 

[MAGolding]

No guarantee the Canaris stars are close to each other or a binary system. The labeling could be Iin order of brightness as seen from some planet.

In the Bayer star catalog and maps from 1603 most of the naked eye stars in each constellation are labeled with Greek letters. In most, but not all, constellations Bayer labeled the stars in order of apparent magnitude (brightness) as seen from Earth. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, etc., etc.

So according to the Bayer system Gamma Canaris would be the third brightest, as seen from Earth, star in the constellation of Canaris, and Epsilon Canaris would be the fifth brightest star in Canaris as seen from Earth.

Unfortunately, there is no constellation Canaris in Earth astronomy and never was.

There are constellations named Canis Major and Canis Minor. Some fans speculate that Canaris could be a shortened form of Canis Majoris or Canis Minoris.

Gamma Canis Majoris or Muliphein is about 440 light years from Earth, and Epsilon Canis Majoris is a double star about 430 light years from Earth.

Gamma Canis Minoris is a double star about 320 light years from Earth, and Epsilon Canis Minoris is a probably double star about 770 light years from Earth.

Another theory could be that an Earth colony far from Earth created new constellations in its sky and gave the stars in those constellations Bayer type designations. Thus there could be a constellation Canaris, possibly named after Canary birds or the Canary Islands, or someone named Canaris, like Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, (1877-1945), for example.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_canary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Islands

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Canaris

In that case there would be no indication how far apart Gamma Canaris and Epsilon Canaris would be, except that they would probably be at least 5 light years apart, the typical separation between a star and its nearest neighbor.

 

[Ronald Held]

Going for an Earth colony named that constellation and the stars in the Bayer fashion.

 

[drt]

Going for an Earth colony named that constellation and the stars in the Bayer fashion.

That has always been my go to for apparantly novel or incorrectly named Trek constellations, the name comes from a non-Earth constellation (not necessarily always an Earth colony, I surmise that Vulcans, etc. likely have similar naming conventions).

 

[johnnybear]

Obviously times change. Astronomers discover new distant star groups and re-name some of the old ones to accommodate the races that live near there as to their own naming of those systems!
JB

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Yes it's upside down, because the "NCC-1701" was always oriented that way on the port underside of the saucer!
https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/ccd-enterprise-sheet-3.jpg
The text on the starboard underside is always shown oriented "normally" which in fact is another way you can tell that the shot was intended to be mirrored

Great observation, that indicates their intent to have used this shot to reveal the port side of the starship as well as their attention to detail.

In @Tallguy's catalog [http://www.trekplace.com/tosfxcatalog.html], I believe that the shot in question is called Approach Tilted. Interestingly, the catalog has a shot that appears to be a screencap in which the shot is in fact reversed to reveal the port side, http://www.trekplace.com/tosfxcatalog_images/tosfxcatalog_html_m37b5120a.png. I'm not sure which episode it is from. I made a partial scan of TrekCore and did not find it in an episode, and I can't remember seeing it in one.

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On the list of shots intended to depict the port side, there is also the shot in @Tallguy's catalog called WNM Slides Away that was used in "Dagger of the Mind":

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=30&page=4
http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/1x09/daggerofthemind087.jpg

This shot also seems to have been created using "wallpaper" on the nacelle, as described upthread by @alchemist.

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Of course the formation of starships pursing the Enterprise in "The Ultimate Computer" has reversed elements.

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=75&page=14
http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x24/The_Ultimate_Computer_317.JPG

That is @Tallguy's Approach2.

According to @Tallguy, Approach2 was also used reversed for the view of the Defiant in "The Tholian Web".

http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=85
http://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/3x09/thetholianweb018.jpg

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I like how many of the reversed shots were used when there's a "personality change" in the starship that is implied, which is the case in "Shore Leave" (we're on vacation), "Mirror, Mirror" (mirror universe version), "The Ultimate Computer" (other, attacking starships), and "The Tholian Web" (other, "ghost" starship).

 

[Maurice]

Reversing the shots is also/primarily for directional continuity reasons. Since the Enterprise almost always points screen right, any ships depicted facing/heading towards it need to point screen left. The only time I recall the "personality change" flop is "Mirror Mirror".

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Reversing the shots is also/primarily for directional continuity reasons. Since the Enterprise almost always points screen right, any ships depicted facing/heading towards it need to point screen left. The only time I recall the "personality change" flop is "Mirror Mirror".

TNG always had the Enterprise traveling left to right, except when the ship turned around or when it was heading back toward Earth. Same idea.