Spoilers ST Strange New Worlds - StarShips & Technology Season 1 Discussion

Wasn't intraship beaming considered extremely risky in TOS?

 

Only the alien ringship from the trailer

 

IIRC, It was said for dramatic effect, but didn't make sense. The transporter could set you down on a planet a hundred miles below, but could not pinpoint you into the next room or a floor below?

 

I don't know if that gives us a good example of the actual capabilities.

 

People have been commenting a fair bit on the size of Pike's quarters in Ep 2.

Just a reminder that the Big E's saucer diameter is 126m.
π * (126/2)^2 is roughly 12,500 sq metres of floor space for a full diameter deck.
Most blueprints suggest two full height decks in the saucer.
So even if just these decks are where all 450 crew are quartered, this gives 55 sq metres to each.

Many 1 bedroom apartments (Living Room, Bedroom, Bathroom) in European cities are about this size.

Given many of the lower decks crew will be sharing quarters there is ample space for the Captain and other senior officers to have a great deal of private space if so configured. Still plenty of room for recreation, labs, machinery and storage in the saucer and in the whole of the secondary hull.

These ships are not small.

She's almost as long as a Nimitz class carrier, and although not quite as 'filled out' as a boat, those carry a crew of 5,000 and the Captains quarters on an aircraft carrier are similarly plush!

 

You asked, "That's a fair point, but to what level is it able to take control? How much so? Is it autopilot like or is it able to respond to outside stressors?"

I replied to what level the computer is able to take control (apparently all the systems, even messing with overrides if it was allowed to act independently like thru M5 or an alien.)

As to whether the regular computer control is like autopilot or able to respond to outside stressors that depends on what level of response the crew allows it. In TOS, the only action that the computer can do without initiation is to automatically raise shields (responding to outside stimulus). But other things like automatic gravity control ("WNMHGB"), computer-controlled attack ("Arena") are initiated by crew and not the computer itself.

 

Except, those still sound like very unusual circumstances, not necessarily day to day.

 

That's like asking why day-to-day I don't drive my car over the 65 mph speed limit but if I'm on a racetrack I could push it 115 mph. The TOS episodes demonstrated what the computer control can do in unrestrained circumstances.

I'm surprised you haven't asked what the automated Woden can and cannot do. (Other than it couldn't avoid a photon torpedo run from the Enterprise.)

 

I had forgotten about the Woden until you brought it up.

Not sure what the car statement has to do with my question. Each scenario given as an example of automation seems to be highly unique situations, like with alien or M5 control. That doesn't strike me as being the daily operation of the ship that tells me what can be done.

 

Yep there are fully automated things in TOS like the Woden, the lithium cracking plant, etc.

You asked, "I don't know if that gives us a good example of the actual capabilities." So I answered based on what we've observed. Actual capabilities are like going top speed in a car or examples of the computer controlling all the systems of a ship were listed. I've written earlier that for daily operations the crew prefers to make the decisions in most cases which they input on the control station which then the computer executes the control. The exception seems to be letting the computer to automatically raise the shields on approach of what it considers a danger.

What do you consider as an example of automation in TOS? What do you not consider as automation? Just curious since your questions move around a bit and it is obvious that you are thinking of something different to what I'm thinking of.

 

I have always thought that there must be a bunch of various system related things running between decks, like conduits for various things, electrical systems, etc, that should be accounted for. Plus the ship is supposed to have various things that end up taking up space in the TOS era but wouldn't be an issue in the future, like a laundry (at least according to things like the old Encyclopedia). Every system should be taking up a lot more room for the ship's size then it would on later ships. I think you could argue that Kirk's TOS quarters were probably too small, but Pike's are obviously way too big if we're judging them by the standard of the TOS (or even movie) era Enterprise.

In the end, the SNW Enterprise can't be the TOS Enterprise anyway, its more advanced then the Ent-D much less the original ship, so its not really a discussion worth having. Its a totally different ship, because the people making the modern Star Trek shows would rather do what they think is cool, even if it breaks any attempt at continuity. Kirk's Enterprise quarters could fit in Pike's quarters living room, and it would take real twists in logic to justify why Kirk chose what is comparatively a broom closet for his quarters if these were available. That's not even bringing up the Medical transporter, the R2-D2ish repair droids shown in DSC, the bridge that is probably double the size of the original, or all the other things that were obviously never part of the TOS Enterprise.

To be clear I'm loving Strange New Worlds so far, but I really just don't count it as having a connection to the Prime Timeline. Regardless of what they say it really can't fit for many reasons, its basically just in (along with DSC, and possibly Picard) a third Star Trek timeline that is loosely based on the Prime Timeline, and thats ok. I can enjoy the show regardless, but trying to reconcile the tech or characters from SNW with Prime Trek stuff just seems like a fool's errand. It will never match, because the people that make it literally don't care about making the show match the old universe.

 

Actually she’s almost twice as long as a Nimitz class carrier. This ship is 450 M and likely bigger based on what we’ve seen.

 

Given the increased scale of the DIS/SNW Enterprise the saucer would now be approximately 204m in diameter; that would give an approximate area per deck of 32,500m². So if there are still two decks at the saucer rim, and assuming that these are the only two decks used for crew quarters, and even assuming that 25% of the deck space was given over to corridors, communal crew amenities and social spaces, turbolift shafts etc, there'd be ~110m² per crew member, or about half the present median size of the standard family house in the US. Quite generous for a single person, and given that the lower ranks would be sharing there's plenty of space for Pike to have his captain's suite.

Nimitz-class carriers are 332.8m long; the DIS/SNW Enterprise is 442m long. So that's about 33% longer. However, in terms of what this size increase does to her volumetrics, the Enterprise would now have an internal volume of around 750,000m³ – nearly as big as the canonical Excelsior-class (873,000m³) and larger than the Intrepid-class (626,000m³), and hugely bigger than the original TOS-configuration Constitution-class (211,000m³). Though remember a lot of this extra volume would be in the nacelles, which together account for about 25% the internal volume of a Connie.

 

I still feel that the Space Suits needs a bit more Flash lights mounted on them.

Not enough lights for exploration / spelunking on a suit.

Especially given how low powered modern LED Flash lights are, you can mount ALOT more on the Space Suit costume.

 

Why does the British guy on Trekyards always mumble so badly? I'm British and I can barely understand him half the time. Am I just getting old?

 

I can understand him despite having a default West Coast American accent.

Maybe he has an accent that is significantly different from yours?

From my understanding, there are LOTs of accents/dialects across the UK.

 

So, how about that transporter buffer?

And Uhura rooms in the equivalent of a capsule hotel! Are we mixing “lower decks” style habitation, or is this Enterprise just that much cooler than any ship ever, despite arguably having enough room for everyone to have quarters the same size as Pike’s?

mark

 

That was a surprise re: the sickbay's transporter buffer, yes. It also sets a precedent for Scotty's "Relics" survival tactic.

I'm wondering if crew don't actually get to choose solo accommodations or up to "x" roommates to bunk with.

 

It would make sense that cadets and lower ranking individuals would basically do an equivalent of 'room sharing'... so 3 or 4 people per room really.
That way, 10 rooms alone can easily have 30 lower ranks. 100 rooms bumps that up to 300 people right there with rest being for higher ranked officers (which is consistent with Jadzia's statement that ships like that packed a lot of people).

We've also seen bunk style beds on the USS Defiant in the 24th century... so, it would make sense if you want to 'pack a lot of people' on these 23rd century ships, you'll end up with room sharing.
Though even on USS VOY, we've seen that in the season 6 episode 'the good Shepard' (VOY equivalent of Lower Decks) showed us Tal Celes sharing her quarters with someone else in a bunk bed.

So, room sharing is a think in the 24th century. The ships would have less people in that era by default due to increased automation and larger fleet size, however it seem internal machinery taking up space isn't a big deal. When you have largely communal space for eating, etc. installing molecular manufacturers across the ship (which probably aren't big to begin with) that can synthesize material goods and recycle them isn't a big deal.

 

Another possibility is that while the Enterprise is relatively large, her crew accommodations may not be. There could be a large (if not predominant) percentage of the ship's interior dedicated to cargo space, laboratories, utilities, repair & fabrication, or other facilities. If the ship is built with a "take everything you might need out there and then some" philosophy, then personnel with individual quarters may be more of a special privilege than a given right, IMO.

It's even possible that there could be vast sections of the ship that are unfurnished and maybe not even really habitable yet, but are held in reserve for yet-to-be determined future onboard facilities and expanded crew capacity later down the road. Years from now, more crewmembers could have private quarters...