U.S.S. Enterprise - how many decks?

[Boris Skrbic]

The first digit may have indicated Deck 3 while the ship was still supposed to have 11, but if so, it’s interesting that Matt Jefferies was fine with leaving such door signs: perhaps because they’d already been established in closeups? Either way (and especially because of the lone captain’s chair label) I’d be fine with a totally different interpretation. Maybe Kirk’s chair was Item 42 of 3C class and later his quarters became 3F class, while Rand’s remained 3C?

 

[Henoch]

From DS9, Trials and Tribble-ations, we have:

DAX: Chief, here are the coordinates. The Captain and I will start on deck four and work our way aft. You and Julian should start on deck twenty one
O'BRIEN: And work our way forward.​

The search of the Enterprise for Spy Darvin will start on Deck 4 Forward section and move aft (and probably down, too) and on Deck 21 Aft section and move forward (and probably up, too). I can see why Deck 1-Bridge is not needed to be searched, but why skip Decks 2 and 3? Maybe those two decks are high security areas and unauthorized personnel would be noticed (but not a guarantee by typically inept Starfleet Security ). Anyhow, this suggests that the bottom deck is Deck 21. I have to rethink my deck plans, now.

 

[Boris Skrbic]

Anyhow, this suggests that the bottom deck is Deck 21

No, only that there are at least 21 decks.

 

[Henoch]

No, only that there are at least 21 decks.

Then the illogic not to search every deck comes into play, again, like with Decks 2 and 3.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

What if decks 2 and 3 were not habitable or just machinery?

 

[F. King Daniel]

What if decks 2 and 3 were not habitable or just machinery?

Then it's a little weird Spock took the Romulan Commander there

 

[Timo]

That the top officers and their guests would live in the superstructure of the ship should appear natural to the audiences of the day, and to Jeffries himself. The ship does have this distinct hull vs. superstructure layout, even if the idea otherwise might be that the saucer is the habitation area.

The search for Arne Darvin involves the heroes scanning for him, not looking for him. Bashir's scan covers a "section"; might be it covers several decks at a time, so the heroes proceed from Decks 4 and 21 to Decks 7 (which is the next Sisko/Dax deck we do learn about) and 18, then to Decks 10 and 15, and finally meet on Deck 13 or so, having covered the entire ship that way. Doesn't mean there would exist a Deck 24; covering the compact superstructure from Deck 4 is more doable than covering the entire length of Decks 22 through 24 from Deck 21. Doesn't mean 21 would be lowest, either, though.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Then it's a little weird Spock took the Romulan Commander there

I meant it in the sense that if they skipped certain decks maybe they had other uses that didn't facilitate people being inside them.

 

[Henoch]

That the top officers and their guests would live in the superstructure of the ship should appear natural to the audiences of the day, and to Jeffries himself. The ship does have this distinct hull vs. superstructure layout, even if the idea otherwise might be that the saucer is the habitation area.

The search for Arne Darvin involves the heroes scanning for him, not looking for him. Bashir's scan covers a "section"; might be it covers several decks at a time, so the heroes proceed from Decks 4 and 21 to Decks 7 (which is the next Sisko/Dax deck we do learn about) and 18, then to Decks 10 and 15, and finally meet on Deck 13 or so, having covered the entire ship that way. Doesn't mean there would exist a Deck 24; covering the compact superstructure from Deck 4 is more doable than covering the entire length of Decks 22 through 24 from Deck 21. Doesn't mean 21 would be lowest, either, though.

Timo Saloniemi

Good catch. I had similar thought after my last post. Bashir might be scanning an area of about 25 feet radius in all directions, so, he could be covering Decks 19 through 23. He may have started aft and walked forward on Deck 21 to cover the 340 foot Engineering Hull, then plan to proceed to Deck 16-ish to scan Decks 18 though 15, covering all of the 90-100 foot diameter Engineering Hull.

 

[DanGovier]

Based on a 305m scale for the Refit Enterprise, I've found that I can fit 9 decks comfortably in the saucer. That's with each deck being 8' tall and separated by 1'3" beams. The bottom saucer deck is barely a deck at all, but you can fit a room and a small corridor down there.

I'll take a look at the secondary hull later when I get home from work, but I think 21 decks may be a little optimistic at that scale.

 

[Fred617]

Why would you need the F for forward since you have the frame number?

Also, in a circular vessel, it would make more sense for the frames to be laid out in a pie segment layout instead of the linear layout used in maritime vessels. Using that process, there should only be 36 frames if a frame was placed at 10 degree intervals. But even that is a huge assumption. Maybe they placed the frames every 5 degrees thereby making 72 frames.

 

[Henoch]

Maybe they placed the frames every 5 degrees thereby making 72 frames.

Or bigger wedges like 12 each or every 30 degrees. That way you don't run out of alphabet letters (only 26).

 

[Boris Skrbic]

How about a Pike show where we hardly ever see Pike because the format will be called Star Trek: 23 Decks (seeing as DSC style is somewhat FJ-inspired)? The idea is you start at the bottom and climb towards Deck 1 over the course of 23 episodes titled “Deck 23”, “Deck 22”, “Deck 21”… with the opening titles always highlighting the deck of the week on the ship’s exterior.

Now, the rule is you cannot leave a deck over the course of an episode, not ever: you’re stuck with whoever or whatever is on that deck at a particular point in the season-long arc. The series finale, of course, will be called “Deck 1” and show Pike handing over command to Kirk and his recast crew to secure a fan campaign for the Kirk show that will never come.

 

[F. King Daniel]

How about a Pike show where we hardly ever see Pike because the format will be called Star Trek: 23 Decks (seeing as DSC style is somewhat FJ-inspired)? The idea is you start at the bottom and climb towards Deck 1 over the course of 23 episodes titled “Deck 23”, “Deck 22”, “Deck 21”… with the opening titles always highlighting the deck of the week on the ship’s exterior.

Now, the rule is you cannot leave a deck over the course of an episode, not ever: you’re stuck with whoever or whatever is on that deck at a particular point in the season-long arc. The series finale, of course, will be called “Deck 1” and show Pike handing over command to Kirk and his recast crew to secure a fan campaign for the Kirk show that will never come.

If they follow FJ's prints, Deck 21 will be my favourite episode.

Why?

The bowling alley!

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

If they follow FJ's prints, Deck 21 will be my favourite episode.

Why?

The bowling alley!

What no shopping mall?

 

[Henoch]

What no shopping mall?

No, they park at DS9 for mall shopping.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

No, they park at DS9 for mall shopping.

Oh yeah forgot that.

 

[Maurice]

Apologies if this has been discussed already, but I just stumbled on this thread and have a couple of data points foe the TMP refit:

Speaking of which, this is the deck layout as seen on the CONDITION: RED image seen in TWOK (made for TMP but only seen in trailers).

I just posed the above in a Fan Art thread. The TMP art department drew the ship to have 20 decks in various diagrams made of the movie but which only appeared in trailers before showing up in TWOK. The attachment in the quoted message is a crude trace-over of the CONDITION: RED diagram which shows all the decks as the ship goes to alert. The decks the light up in the clip are IDed as:

DECK BRG 001[symbol]
DECK SCA 002
DECK SCB 003
DECK OFQ 004
DECK QRT 005
DECK QRT 006

DECK MCL 0013
DECK CRA 0015
DECK CGO 0016c (maybe CQO or OQO, and 16c might be 16 and some tiny symbol)
DECK STG 0019
DECK HLD 0020​

The INTRUDER ALERT diagram seen in TWOK (oft mistaken for some kind of defense grid) was also made for TMP and TWOK cuts it off before it displays the text (seen in some TMP trailers):

INTRUDER DISPLAY LOCATION DECK 004 OFQ

OFFICER'S QUARTERS 048A*
STATIONARY​

*might be 045A​

But in TMP Chekov says "Deck five keptin. Officers qvarters." So either Chekov vas wrong or the art dept. vas.

Incidentally, Jefferies' cutaway for the TV refit that got reworked into the TMP one only had 19 decks.

 

[Henoch]

DECK BRG 001[symbol]
DECK SCA 002
DECK SCB 003
DECK OFQ 004
DECK QRT 005
DECK QRT 006

DECK MCL 0013
DECK CRA 0015
DECK CGO 0016c (maybe CQO or OQO, and 16c might be 16 and some tiny symbol)
DECK STG 0019
DECK HLD 0020

Translations?:
BRG=Bridge
SCA=? A level
SCB=? B level
OFQ=Officer's Quarters
QRT=Quarters
MCL=? maybe Medical or Medical Laboratories
CRA=?
CGO=? maybe Cargo
STG=? maybe Staging
HLD=Hold

 

[Timo]

...SCA would have to include Spock's accommodations somehow, in-universe. So perhaps C stands for Cabins, which would be appropriate for visiting bigwigs (and the occasional Romulan captive), as opposed to Quarters for the regulars. Or S is for Suites...

But in TMP Chekov says "Deck five keptin. Officers qvarters." So either Chekov vas wrong or the art dept. vas.

Both being right sorta kills two moon-birds with one space-stone. Deck 4 is a tad small for accommodating even those officers we see, even if OFQ is an appropriate generic label for the entire deck; Deck 5 in turn would be way too big for "Deck five!" alone to provide actual information, but if one narrows it down to "More specifically, the Officers' Quarters there, not all those Ratings' Quarters that give the deck its label!", one doesn't necessarily risk sending the security team to the wrong end of the ship.

It being officer country all the way from Deck 2 to Deck 4, and then some officer spillover to Deck 5, covers almost all the bases: the top heroes generally live in the upper superstructure, but circumstances may force them to hand over their cabins to visiting Vulcan Ambassadors in which case Deck 5 is happy to receive them. Even if it means placing them in a cabin right next to the Brig, TSfS style.

Timo Saloniemi