Miranda Class - Original Design Intention

[Gepard]

It's embarrassing enough to justify - with varying degrees of success - some of the more questionable creative decisions made by Gene Roddenberry on TOS (S1&S2), TAS (which I still haven't made my mind up about), The God Thing (from what little I know about it), Phase II (in the form of scripts, treatments, production memos and artwork) and TMP (or such as it could have been under competent studio management), so I am sure as fuck not going to squander what miniscule level of self-respect I have left by cleaning up after Harve "Time Trax" Bennett.

TGT

I think you need Valium. And to take Star Trek waaaaaay less seriously.

 

[GodThingFormerly]

Aren't all ILM movie-era designed trek ships rather sloppy (or creative) in respect to "technical cannon"?

ILM only began designing (crappy) hardware for "The Franchise" with ST:TSFS. The Reliant, OTOH, was designed by TOS and Phase II illustrator Mike Minor, with input from production designer Jo Jennings and graphic artist Lee Cole (both of whom were also hired by Gene Roddenberry for PII). In my opinion the main problem with ST:TWOK's conceptual design was the removal of Gene Roddenberry from the development process. As a single example, just take a look at how many iterations of the original NCC-1701 Matt Jefferies had to doodle before GR settled on a general layout, and how many more sketches it took to get from there to blueprinting the actual miniature. Richard Taylor recounted in 2001 just how difficult GR was to work for, and yet ST:TMP even in its painfully incomplete form possesses a level of aesthetic elegance and technical verisimilitude that has still not been approached by a subsequent Trek installment, let alone surpassed. As far as I am concerned The Great Bird was - between 1964 and 1979 at least - the singular lens through which focused the talents of many brilliant people, be they writers, illustrators, directors or composers, and when he departed Star Trek departed with him.

TGT

 

[Captain Robert April]

I think there's a very valid point there.

However, I'd add that they also lost a lot with the departures of Gene Coon and Bob Justman. For the most part, they were able to, if not control, at least channel, Roddenberry's weirder creative tendencies and uneven work habits (even if it required standing on his desk to get him to finish a script).

 

[trekkerguy]

I've always loved the ships with rollbars, something kinda sporty to em.

 

[aridas sofia]

As far as I am concerned The Great Bird was - between 1964 and 1979 at least - the singular lens through which focused the talents of many brilliant people, be they writers, illustrators, directors or composers, and when he departed Star Trek departed with him.

TGT

This is well put. I wish I'd written it.

As for Reliant, if the saucer cannot slip loose of the aft structure it undermines the idea of the saucer as a lifeboat. I don't see any problem with the impulse engines having a different configuration on this design, permitting internal thrusters that are part of the external works we see. But the saucer must be able to separate, or the undercuts aren't for aerodynamic lift.

I think I know why Minor added the aft structure. I believe he was starting with a Jefferies design -- this one (the starship, not the tug):

We know the ship was originally to have the engines above, not below. I suspect Minor looked at this and decided that the nacelles needed some added structure to support their function and mass. One clue might be that at the time Minor said he intended this ship to have the older, TOS nacelles and style.

If the aft section is separable then it is a modular design, with habitation and support modules and propulsion units. It's just a more tightly integrated design than Enterprise. For the final design they stumbled into something with a more-menacing appearance -- more Klingon-esque than Federation, more pugnacious battleship, less graceful figurehead, but still arguably in keeping with Jefferies modular plan.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Either the thing comes apart like the yacht in "Thunderball" or the determination was made that the ability to jettison the core and/or the nacelles was enough.

 

[Timo]

It doesn't really look as if the presence or absence of the rear structures would affect the aerodynamics of the hull much. Undercut or not, the saucer isn't exactly a frisbee: any lift it generates must be due to angle-of-attack, in which case the shape isn't really relevant.

Granted that the separation lines for the nacelles aren't particularly evident here - but they could exist, just like the nacelles of a Constellation or an Oberth could be ditched before atmospheric play. What I might have wanted done differently is the way the pylons and the roll bar attach to the ship: they are a bit too integrated to really spell out "modularity" or "emergency jettison", but not integrated tightly enough to satisfy my aesthetic sense...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[aridas sofia]

What I might have wanted done differently is the way the pylons and the roll bar attach to the ship: they are a bit too integrated to really spell out "modularity" or "emergency jettison", but not integrated tightly enough to satisfy my aesthetic sense...

Timo Saloniemi

http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/starship-design-sheet-19.jpg

 

[Plecostomus]

I think you need Valium. And to take Star Trek waaaaaay less seriously.

No no, keep encouraging him! Makes the rest of us seem FAR more sane.

 

[trevanian]

It's embarrassing enough to justify - with varying degrees of success - some of the more questionable creative decisions made by Gene Roddenberry on TOS (S1&S2), TAS (which I still haven't made my mind up about), The God Thing (from what little I know about it), Phase II (in the form of scripts, treatments, production memos and artwork) and TMP (or such as it could have been under competent studio management), so I am sure as fuck not going to squander what miniscule level of self-respect I have left by cleaning up after Harve "Time Trax" Bennett.

TGT

I think you need Valium. And to take Star Trek waaaaaay less seriously.

I think it is cool he takes the credibility aspect seriously; he just needs to take folks like you less seriously.

 

[Gepard]

^Since when does anyone take me seriously?