I'm more understanding of "Greeblies" for Alien Ships then for UFP / StarFleet vessels.
We, the informed audience, know what StarFleet vessels generally look like and what most major features on the hull is supposed to do.
What's the point of Aztec-ing on the hull?
- Thread starter Kamen Rider Blade
- Start date
We, the informed audience, know what StarFleet vessels generally look like and what most major features on the hull is supposed to do.
Again, though, most viewers would never get a close look at the ship in question. That's the point. It's not meant for close examination, it's meant to convey an impression during a brief glimpse. People who make TV and movie designs do not make them for the later technical manuals and decades of fan deconstructions online. They make them for the actual TV episodes and movies they appear in. Everything else is peripheral to that.
Haven't been here for a while. Am getting back into Trek again.
I believe the 'Aztec' patterning was introduced to give a sense of scale to make the E-D appear like much larger vessel on screen The 6 foot filming model of the E-D is relatively featureless and would have looked quite unrealistic without it.
In the Trek universe I always thought the stepped, 'Aztec' patterning denoted a form of ablative shielding and the 'patterning' was to allow for easy 'swap-out' of damaged panels.
Regards
I believe the 'Aztec' patterning was introduced to give a sense of scale to make the E-D appear like much larger vessel on screen The 6 foot filming model of the E-D is relatively featureless and would have looked quite unrealistic without it.
In the Trek universe I always thought the stepped, 'Aztec' patterning denoted a form of ablative shielding and the 'patterning' was to allow for easy 'swap-out' of damaged panels.
Regards
Greebles? Did someone say my name?
It's quite derivative, but I love it, it's beautiful.
Me too. All-time favorite design, with the TMP Refit in close second.
Yes, except it originated with the 1701 refit in ST:TMP.
Yes, as mentioned earlier in the thread, the TMP refit's hull pattern was inspired by the Space Shuttle orbiter's ablative tiles. Although I assume you're thinking in terms of shielding for combat purposes, since the Enterprise wasn't meant for atmospheric entry.
Ablative shielding on the Saucer Section for both combat and atmospheric entry.
According to Andrew Probert on memory-alpha.fandom.com, he remarked in this regard, "The Enterprise was always designed to separate from the Engineering section. I knew about this when I did Star Trek: The Motion Picture...I placed four landing legs in the bottom of the Enterprise and crated a very specific separation line on the dorsal."
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Constitution_class_model_(refit)
Yes, but as an emergency measure. The point is, the Shuttle tiles were meant exclusively for re-entry shielding, but that would be a rare thing for a Constitution-class starship, the exception rather than the rule, and thus presumably not the sole or primary purpose of its shielding.
I'm just glad Defiant proved how valuable "Ablative Armor" was for the hull of the vessel.
I kind see a future where Every StarFleet vessel has "Ablative Armor" on the hull as a new minimum standard for StarShip design.
I kind see a future where Every StarFleet vessel has "Ablative Armor" on the hull as a new minimum standard for StarShip design.
I don't see what's so great about ablative armor, when by definition it's armor that works by partially disintegrating/vaporizing when it's used, absorbing the energy of the impact by taking damage itself rather than propagating the damage to the vessel within. So it would have to be replaced after every battle, like the Space Shuttle's heat tiles had to be replaced after every flight. It seems very inefficient and cumbersome compared to energy shields that you can just turn on and off.
Energy Shields are the "Primary" form of defense, but as in many battles, we have seen that "Shields" can be brought down either temporarily or permanently (for the duration of the battle). Or out-right bypassed if you can somehow steal the Frequency Modulation of the Shields as in ST:Generations (The Duras Sisters planted Malware in Geordi's Visor which leaked Visual Information to the Duras Sisters).
The point of Ablative Armor is similar to Chobham Armor IRL, it's a quick to replace system that absorbs alot of hits from Energy Weapons and slowly wears away, leaving the core Hull/Structure intact.
So that once you return to the StarBase, it's fairly easy to remount new Ablative Armor panels and send your vessel back out as fast as possible.
Core Hull / Structural damage on Ships or Tanks can take a vessel out of commission for weeks / months / years depending on the damage and how fast you can repair something based on available repair crew resources and available parts & supplies.
A modular replaceable armor that can take several hits allows for quick & easy logistical replacement.
There's a reason why modern Ceramic Body Armor panels for people to wear is designed to be quick and easily replaced.
People going down, they can either be permanently incapacitated, temporarily, etc.
Body Armor panels are cheap and easy to replace, well worth the cost compared to the lifes of the person it protects.
Without Shields, you can potentially be One-Shot by just about anything once Shields are down, it's always a good idea to have "BackUp" solutions for defense once your "Main Shields" are down. And Energy Weapons are the most common form of offense next to a Torpedo/Missile of some sort. But Torpedos/Missiles are far easier to dodge/intercept with weapons fire, then Energy beams that travel at the speed of light.
You know how in the ST:VOY episode where Janeway had to face Ransom and the Nova-Class StarShip Equinox had one very cool / unique feature. The ability to quickly recharge the Shield Capacity to Full if taken offline for 45 seconds. That feature is similar to how SmartPhones are easier and quicker to recharge if the device is Off and you have the Best Quick Charge Wall Wart available to feed power into the battery.
Now imagine the future evolution of that technology where you have 2x / 3x sets of Emitters and Shield Systems that are largely independent of each other that can create "Ovaloid Shaped Bubble Shields". If one set goes down or is turned off when near empty, the computer can turn on the other set of Shields quickly in a split second and have rotating sets of Shields to defend your vessel. That makes killing your vessel that much harder since they have to "Alpha Strike" your Shields through "Multiple" Sets of Shields and hope they have enough Sustained FirePower to punch through a "Full Capacity" set of Shields each time.
Hypothetically that makes the enemy need to punch through 100% of your Shields in < 45 seconds and sustain that FirePower for the second set of 100% Shields while your other set is quickly recharging. That could be "Tough" depending on how good your default Shields are.
Add in Multiple Layers of Shields like say a "Skin Tight" shield that conforms to the surface of the hull, we've seen that before many times. I can see a future with "Multiple Stacked Layers" of Active Shields before you even factor any physical Armor onto the hull of a vessel.
Then you have to figure in Ablative Hull Armor Generator that Janeway brought back that can be replicated on top of the default Hull. The default Hull would of course already have Ablative Armor panels that are installed on top of the base Hull.
This gives you a nice "Tough Vessel" that makes it "Hard to kill". Many layers of defense for the opponent to get through in short order just to destroy you.
That's how I see technology progressing for Defense in the future of Star Trek Technology past the 24th century with all the evidence Defensive Technology/Capabilities I've seen in cannon ST works alone.
Last edited:
Why are you exposing the replicator system to harm? Bury it deep within your ship like you do with the Transporter system. You just need Mounting points for Armor and that's easy enough to setup by design.
Rom really should've patented his self-replicating idea, he could've made more latinum that Quark had dreamed of 
Sure. Once.Rom really should've patented his self-replicating idea, he could've made more latinum that Quark had dreamed of
I'm not sure where the Space Shuttle came into this, but if you look at photos of the Enterprise, its tiles are virtually invisible. They are fake as well. The aztec pattern was created to give a sense of scale to the surface of the model. They wanted to be able to shoot the 100 inch model very close. They did not have a talented airbrush artist on staff, so they hired one from the Music industry. Paul Olsen did not pick the paints or create the basic pattern, but he named it and perfected it. He applied 4 iridescent colors in multiple layers so that it would look like many separate plates and blend together from a distance to give the same smooth appearance as the original while having a lot of surface detail for close shots. For the original series, they achieved detail by adding grid lines to the top and bottom of the saucer and weathering all over. This creates a similar added dimension, but one that gives scale. It is more akin to the polished aluminum of the 747 Shuttle carrier aircraft than of the shuttle itself. Before it was painted white, you could always tell where the word American had been on each side. Jefferies had intended the original and the Phase II to be painted like Navy warships and for the metal plates to be concealed. So the description in Mr. Scott's guide is the best in universe reason to match the look of the difference in the models. And the 1701-D had a very simplistic azteching (green gray and blue gray) until it was repainted for Generations.
The shuttle had tiling all over it - its own kind of "aztecking". Yes, it was done on the refit model to give a sense of scale, but also because the shuttle was our first real "spaceship". The producers saw it and realized that's how a spaceship is supposed to look, not a smooth monochrome vehicle with no seams, so they added the detailing to replicate that effect.
Last edited:
The ship doesn't explode?
If something better were available, then they'd use that instead.
Similar threads
