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How big was the Enterprise?

it's been a while since i watched TAS, i admit

Understandable. You are the victim of confusing dialog that contradicted continuity.

The Time Trap
SCOTT: There are ships here I've only seen crude drawings of, pictures in museums.
SPOCK: Sensor scans give a rough approximation of the age of the metal in the hulls, Captain. Some of them have been here for centuries.
SCOTT: Captain, there's the old Bonaventure. She was the first ship to have warp drive installed. She vanished without a trace on her third voyage.
(Bonaventure looks very like a fat Enterprise, with 0201NCC on the nacelle)
SPOCK: The crew's descendants may still be living, Captain.
KIRK: Their descendants?
SPOCK: Yes. I am picking up life and energy readings from the cluster of ships ahead of us.

The Counter-Clock Incident
Captain's log, stardate 6770.3. The Enterprise is on course for the planet Babel, where ambassadors from all Federation planets are waiting to honour the Enterprise's distinguished passenger, Commodore Robert April, first captain of the USS Enterprise, and for the past twenty years, Federation Ambassador at large. Now seventy five years old, Commodore April has reached mandatory retirement age.

APRIL: No matter where I've travelled in the galaxy, Jim, this bridge is more like home than anywhere else.
KIRK: Yes, Commodore, I know the feeling.
APRIL: To me she was always like my child. I was there in the San Francisco Navy Yards when her unit components were built.
(McCoy enters with Mrs. April)
MCCOY: Jim, I didn't realise how many of the tools I use in Sickbay were designed by Sarah.
SARAH: As the first medical officer aboard a ship equipped with warp drive, I'm afraid I had to come up with new ideas all the time.
KIRK: Your modesty is unnecessary, Mrs. April. Your achievements as a pioneer doctor in space are well known.

So, the Bonaventure was the first ship to have warp drive installed. April's wife was the first medical officer to serve aboard a ship with warp drive. April was the first captain of the Enterprise. Easy to see how your memory merged all this into thinking April was captain of the Bonaventure.

It could fit with continuity that the Aprils were adults serving in Starfleet during the same time the Bonaventure was launched. However, later Trek established the Phoenix was the first warp capable Earth ship and that by the time the Bonaventure would have been launched would have been after the events depicted in ENT where we see several warp powered Earth ships and some had medical officers.

Those who practice mental gymnastics explain some of the continuity error with the retcon that Dr. April mean she was the chief medical officer on a warp capable starship.
 
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Bonaventure' warp drive is a puzzle...


I think that I just solved it.

The DY-100 and Nomad had selective screen Amplifiers...

The European Space Agency in the early 2000's came up with a two stage ion drive - doubling the power possible, from 5,000 amps to 10,000 amps(Space does not conduct electricity very well, but above this threshold it will). So Selective Screen Amplifiers also have this limitation as well (the laws of physics) so Zephram Cochran does a two stage Selective Screen Amplifier...

Space warp discovered.
 
When I watched the movie, Star Trek the Motion Picture the Enterprise in dock was an impressive visual but the whole ship looked pretty small....The Original Series there's just something about it where it seems huge.
 
When I watched the movie, Star Trek the Motion Picture the Enterprise in dock was an impressive visual but the whole ship looked pretty small....The Original Series there's just something about it where it seems huge.
In TOS there was never anything outside the ship as a relatable reference point to give it scale. So it was easy to imagine it as massive. In TMP the drydock, the travel pod, the workbees and the space suited person outside give you something to compare the ship’s size to.
 
That's not the real problem. Just how much leg room does the crew have? Could a crew of 430 individuals, highly disciplined at that handle a five year mission as the Enterprise was designed???

Or would the SNW size be better?
 
Something’s scale can be a funny thing. A lot depends on viewpoint and perspective. The Titanic in many photos and in the ‘97 film can look massive, but in comparison to a modern cruise ship it looks small.

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The aircraft carrier Enterprise CVN-65 had a crew of over 4600 and her replacement Gerald R. Ford class Enterprise will have a crew of 4500.
I've heard that's one of the hardships at sea, that there are men underfoot everywhere you turn.

Also, I once asked my uncle why he left the Navy, and he said "Go stand in the closet for four hours." He would have served in the 1960s I think.
 
I've heard that's one of the hardships at sea, that there are men underfoot everywhere you turn.

Also, I once asked my uncle why he left the Navy, and he said "Go stand in the closet for four hours." He would have served in the 1960s I think.
You left out needing to state to no one in particular "closet manned and ready" and "closet secured" at the beginning and end of each four hour shift.
 
I've heard that's one of the hardships at sea, that there are men underfoot everywhere you turn.

Also, I once asked my uncle why he left the Navy, and he said "Go stand in the closet for four hours." He would have served in the 1960s I think.
Definitely. Even modern ships are not immune to it. I think NCIS has a quote that exemplifies it:

"Are you alone, Dinozzo?"

"Oh, it's just me and 5,000 of my closet friends. I am never alone!"
 
Removing the Captain from immediate consideration, leaves 429 crew. Which is divisible by three. Or 143 crew per watch. This reduces friction of the personal type.

A certain number are going to be at stations. But the real consideration is just how many are going through the ship and cleaning/ performing routine maintenance...The majority, I think, not taking into account that the science laboratories are going to be fully crewed.
 
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