• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

A Warp Core?

shapeshifter

Rear Admiral
Rear Admiral
I never understood how TOS Ent engines worked, we never saw a warp core like other series - films; just a bunch of pipes running side to side behind a metal screen.

So I ask: should the Star Trek Ent have the old familiar pipes or a warp core?

I say give the old girl a proper warp core.
 
Good question. I don't think we ever saw that much of the actual ships working parts on TOS. Mostly we saw access to the engines, Jefferies tubes, etc.
TNG started the Warp Core thing. I wouldn't mind seeing more of the 'technology' if it promotes the story.
 
I never understood how TOS Ent engines worked, we never saw a warp core like other series - films; just a bunch of pipes running side to side behind a metal screen.

So I ask: should the Star Trek Ent have the old familiar pipes or a warp core?

I say give the old girl a proper warp core.
"Warp core" is a silly term, since a ship's Matter/Antimatter reactor has nothing to do with warping space, only providing the power to do so, along with almost all other power on the ship.

The "pipes" in TOS were likely some kind of power distribution conduits. Its generally agreed that the main reactor on the original Enterprise was under the floor of engineering, with that large double-cylinder fixture in the middle of the room being the housing for lowering dilithium crystal into the reaction chamber, although there are some who believe that the reactors were in the warp nacelles themselves.

I kinda like the idea of the reactor being a big, chunky series of machines rather then a long cylinder with matter flowing in one end, antimatter through the other, and meeting in the middle. Seems more realistic to me.
 
I was under the impression that each warp nacelle was an independent warp "core" that mixed the deuterium and antimatter. Engineering was in the main saucer section just before the impulse engines. I get this information from an ancient book on TOS Enterprise.

~String
 
I was under the impression that each warp nacelle was an independent warp "core" that mixed the deuterium and antimatter. Engineering was in the main saucer section just before the impulse engines. I get this information from an ancient book on TOS Enterprise.

~String
There are many theories. I'm of the opinion that there was an engine room for the impulse drives in the saucer, and another for the main M/AM reactor in the engineering hull, and none in the engines themselves.

The book you saw on the TOS Enterprise design was probably done by Franz Joseph, who also put the photon torpedo tubes directly under the bridge, in spite of on-screen evidence they were elsewhere. Not the most reliable source, IMHO.

I like like this setup our very own Ancient designed. As you can see, there's a reactor room in both the saucer and the secondary hull, a good way to explain the differences in engine room design we saw between seasons 1 and 2:

 
Last edited:
Seen very few TOS episodes, must admit, never cared about that show, was before my time, but when movies came out, I fell in love with Star Trek and STNG was just something out of this world, I was only a little kid, but ever since first STNG episode aired, I've been avid fan of star trek. My favorite movie, Star trek Voyage Home.

But First Contact, Undiscovered Country and Star Trek Insurrection all feature up high in my book.

As to the warp core, I really never seen one in the TOS, but in Wraith of Khan and Search for Spock you can see Enterprise core.

Not bad if you ask me.
 
The book you saw on the TOS Enterprise design was probably done by Franz Joseph, who also put the photon torpedo tubes directly under the bridge, in spite on on-screen evidence they were elsewhere. Not the most reliable source, IMHO.

That was the NCC-1700, actually, not the NCC-1701. Although I am no longer an aficionado of Franz Joseph's work, I don't think that having two starships within the same class equipped with two different weapons configurations would be that much of a stretch, particularly if the earlier spacecraft's layout was found by UESPA to be lacking in some respect.

TGT
 
The book you saw on the TOS Enterprise design was probably done by Franz Joseph, who also put the photon torpedo tubes directly under the bridge, in spite on on-screen evidence they were elsewhere. Not the most reliable source, IMHO.

That was the NCC-1700, actually, not the NCC-1701. Although I am no longer an aficionado of Franz Joseph's work, I don't think that having two starships within the same class equipped with two different weapons configurations would be that much of a stretch.

TGT
Ah, perhaps not, then.
 
I think a lot of it might have to do with Scotty's role in the movie. How much screen time as engineer he has, and how much interaction with the engines he has.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top