About the Ent-D's shuttle bay's 2 and 3 doors....

[Timo]

Also noteworthy are the small pimples above the bay doors in the newer, smaller model. We saw a tractor beam coming from above the bay door in "Time Squared", now didn't we...?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[AnyStar]

all the ST models are covered in those coffee or soda looking stains... i've often wondered about them myself.

i have no clue what happened to the 4' model, but the larger one was sold off at the christies auction.

 

[Gepard]

...but the larger one was sold off at the christies auction.

And is currently hanging from the ceiling of the Seattle Science Fiction Museum & Hall of Fame.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I belive the forcefield was still in place when LaForge and Dr. Crusher were stuck in the shuttle bay.

Sorry to pick an off-topic nit, but I think they were in a cargo bay. I remember it being a pretty small area.

On the actual topic, I think it's another example of the left hand (set builders) not knowing what the right hand (ship builder or CGI people) was doing.

 

[Tomalak]

I belive the forcefield was still in place when LaForge and Dr. Crusher were stuck in the shuttle bay.

Sorry to pick an off-topic nit, but I think they were in a cargo bay. I remember it being a pretty small area.

On the actual topic, I think it's another example of the left hand (set builders) not knowing what the right hand (ship builder or CGI people) was doing.

Yes, it was a cargo bay. Which still begs the question of where the hell that door was supposed to be.

 

[QuinnTV]

Yes, it was a cargo bay. Which still begs the question of where the hell that door was supposed to be.

Didn't the TM or the Sternbach plans mention that there were cargo bays under the large doors on the ventral side of the ship? I thought, perhaps, that there might be smaller cargo bays in there that were protected, overall, by the large outer doors, and that's where the Doc and Geordi were.

 

[Tiberius]

The doors really are slanted. It's an optical distortion from the forcefield that makes it look vertical.

See? There's always an explanation.

 

[Mytran]

I've used the same excuse to explain away the forced persective tubes in the TOS Engineering set.
Forcefields are brilliant!

 

[Guartho]

Or the entire shuttle bay slides out, through the exterior door, before opening the interior flat door.

 

[Tiberius]

Guartho, that just doesn't work.

I mean, think about it. My explanation has the benefit of being barely plausible and pretty dumb when you think about it. Your's actually makes more sense, and as such, it has no place in STar Trek!

 

[AnyStar]

these are the only cargo bays i know of that have a vertical door on them, they are way down underneath the fantail on the lowest decks. the markings on the model i highlighted in red are what i assume to represent the outer hull covers for these bays.

on the deck plans, all those decks the back end lines up with each other, ignoring the curve of the outer hull down there, but i can understand that geometry being used as non habitable storage or machinery.

 

[Timo]

Those would be ideal for basically all of our TNG cargo bay scenes. As you say, the highlighted panels would have to be covers that hinge up like a section of a cargo aircraft hull to reveal the vertical doors. Once we accept this, the vertical doors can then be of any desired size and shape, including the size and shape shown in the set (rather than the not so satisfactory sizes suggested in the blueprints). And once the protective covers fold up against the hull and the vertical doors slide out of the way, one would indeed see a completely unobstructed starfield beyond.

Hell, one could even use these for the "The Child" scene with the Hood flying in formation. But one shouldn't get too complacent: it just wouldn't do that our heroes always use this shuttlebay and never one of those that are prominently built into the model...

Also, by the same logic of protective outer panels, one could postulate similar cargo bays in the neck area of the ship, possibly close to the neck docking port or the neck shuttlebays. Deck 19 features "consumables storage" in addition to "VIP guest accommodations", creating interesting possibilities for the location of the events in "Mind's Eye"...

OTOH, Deck 15 on the saucer has those giant fan-shaped cargo doors on the ventral side. With those open, any cargo facility inside would still need its own airwalls, which might well be solid vertical walls with solid vertical doors; once both sets of doors were open, one would again see an empty starfield.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[QuinnTV]

OTOH, Deck 15 on the saucer has those giant fan-shaped cargo doors on the ventral side. With those open, any cargo facility inside would still need its own airwalls, which might well be solid vertical walls with solid vertical doors; once both sets of doors were open, one would again see an empty starfield.

Yes - this is exactly what I was thinking.