So... where are the phaser/laser banks and torpedo tubes on the Daedalus-Class? I've been looking over the orthos posted on DrexFiles, and can't find them yet.
Daedalus-Class Question
- Thread starter BolianAuthor
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Well, you've seen where I put the torp launchers fore and aft. But someone else built a plexiglas see-through model and placed them pretty much the same. And when dealing with a sphere and a cylinder, there isn't much leeway there.
http://lcars24.com/schem61.html
http://lcars24.com/schem61.html
^
Okay... I fully agree with that torpedo tube placement, but that leaves the phaser banks... not sure where those go... unless they're on the bottom sphere dome.
Okay... I fully agree with that torpedo tube placement, but that leaves the phaser banks... not sure where those go... unless they're on the bottom sphere dome.
...Of course, it's possible the ship is completely unarmed.
I mean, there aren't any obvious weapons emplacements on the Oberth class, either, and no plot requirement for that ship class to carry armaments.
Since the Daedalus is supposed to be in existence in the time between ENT and TOS (although it may have been introduced earlier and may have survived longer), it's also easy to argue that the weapons of the ship are carefully hidden. Maybe they are behind gunports, like in the ENT ships, and those gunports are so smooth that they are virtually invisible, like in TOS. Any arbitrary placement would be possible, then.
Timo Saloniemi
I mean, there aren't any obvious weapons emplacements on the Oberth class, either, and no plot requirement for that ship class to carry armaments.
Since the Daedalus is supposed to be in existence in the time between ENT and TOS (although it may have been introduced earlier and may have survived longer), it's also easy to argue that the weapons of the ship are carefully hidden. Maybe they are behind gunports, like in the ENT ships, and those gunports are so smooth that they are virtually invisible, like in TOS. Any arbitrary placement would be possible, then.
Timo Saloniemi
The Matt Jefferies design philosophy. IIRC, he actually had to fight off attempts by others to add stuff to the original Enterprise's hull. In addition to protecting various systems from natural and deliberate space hazards, I think he also believed that having "retractable" or concealed systems would be easier for the crew to maintain and repair from inside the ship...
Although that was probably drawn from his experience in aircraft. Some types of ww2 vintage featured retractable " Dust Bin" turrets. Personally, I've held that the TOS Enterprise had 2 turrets (Non retractable) on the saucer ventral, which we never really got to see up close. Anyone ever agree on where her torpedo tubes were, by the way ? 'Cause the more I look at the rim of her saucer, the more I suspect that the two holes on the the very front ( Divided by this nub type thingy ( Tarctor beam?)) are her fore torpedo tubes. This explanation has the added advantage of explaining why the tubes move to the neck in the refit : the extensive saucer reconstruction ( As postulated by Brend on Ex Astris Scientia) would have necessitated the removal of the fore torpedo tubes.
Along that same train of though, would the original 1701 have docking ports and so on hidden behind unseen hatches as well? Which would mean a docking port or fore/rear torp tubes could be located anywhere. Is that a good or bad thing?
Most certainly, IMO. The same thing could be said for various other "hull embedded" systems (lateral sensors, communication arrays, transporter emitters, etc.--it may even apply to "hull flush" reaction control thusters too).
Good for storytelling purposes. Bad for people who obsess over it.
Problem is with the original TOS Enterprise, there was never shown any kind of turret in that area, even when that portion of the ship was shown in close detail during fly bys.
I hold that what the Enterprise Prime actual possesses is "flat panel" phaser emitters, like the modern day US Navy's phased array radar, the phaser fire being "electronically steered" would mean that there is no rotating ball turret, nothing moves on the exterior of the ship's hull. Providing that the panels themselves are flush with the hull, this would explain why we never have seen any form of emitter.
Also having the phaser fire come from a flat panel emitter gets away from pumping all that energy through a moving/rotating ball turret only a couple of meters across.
We couldn't see docking ports on the Enterprise Prime, meaning that either she lacked them, or they were present but concealed. Placing them behind hatches, perhaps armored hatches, might be a product of the experiences a century before with the NX-01. The NX was almost routinely boarded by anyone with a comparable docking interface.
Subsequent Starfleet designs might have taken the practical steps of simply camouflage the location of any docking ports and also situating said ports behind thick external hatches which could only be open from the inside.
An Intriguing hypothesis, but several diagrams and pictures from cannon sources would seem to dispute this :
(See Memory Alpha : Phaser Banks article for more)
You're gonna go the "canon" route and not post any pictures of the actual filming model in action?An Intriguing hypothesis, but several diagrams and pictures from cannon sources would seem to dispute this :
(See Memory Alpha : Phaser Banks article for more)
The top image is vague at best (yes, I know where it originated), the middle image could be a couple of random pieces of hardware in the "Primary Phaser" system, and the bottom image isn't even the Enterprise.
Personally, I don't mind the subtle turrets in that picture but I can understand those that do. To each their own...
An image of Franz Joseph's blueprints used in TMP as V'Ger downloaded the Enterprise's records, problem with these blueprint being shown on screen is that a subsequent usage (during TSFS) depicted Mr. Spock living quarters to be located in the ship's brig.An Intriguing hypothesis, but several diagrams and pictures from cannon sources would seem to dispute this
:
It doesn't matter if it's not the Enterprise, Defiant is a Constitution class starship! And yes, I know that Joseph's blueprints weren't perfect, but they were still shown on screen, and thus cannon. I do concede, however, that none of the proof points to " Non-retractable"phaser aboard Enterprise, and given Jefferies background this was most likely his
intention. Furthermore, the arm-ish accoutrements on the " Primary Phasers" seem to support this.
Also:
Make of it what you will.Frankly, it could be any of those dots on the ventral of the saucer, but the two next to the rectangle look most likely. Perhaps the rectangle is a radiator, used to help dissipate heat after firing ? Sorry about relying so heavily on Mem.A, but it seems to the best source, so far for these photos.
intention. Furthermore, the arm-ish accoutrements on the " Primary Phasers" seem to support this.
Also:
Make of it what you will.Frankly, it could be any of those dots on the ventral of the saucer, but the two next to the rectangle look most likely. Perhaps the rectangle is a radiator, used to help dissipate heat after firing ? Sorry about relying so heavily on Mem.A, but it seems to the best source, so far for these photos.
But then we'd have to explain why we don't see the flush panels.
And if we claim that flush panels are impossible to see, then we can get back to the argument that there are retractable phasers behind them, and that no TOS shot exists that would be accurate enough to show the absence of extended phasers when the bright phaser beams actually emerge and blind our view.
The Franz Joseph blueprints may have many inaccuracies or questionable creative choices, but the placement of phaser turrets there is a very good fit for what we had in TOS (and of course got more or less canonized when it was used as the basis of the more explicit TMP ship). We need four sets of forward-firing phasers (as "Paradise Syndrome" dialogue dictates), we need amidships and aft phasers (from walla in various eps), and we need phasers on the topside of the saucer (from how the Constellation model was shot in "Doomsday Machine"). FJ's layout (at least in its "In a Mirror, Darkly" adaptation) covers most of those bases: three saucer and one secondary hull ventral banks for forward firing, secondary hull ventral bank for amidships phasers, and secondary hull dorsal stern bank for aft phasers.
FJ's torpedoes don't meet the specs, alas. But ENT sorta corrected that, showing how one could have the right number of tubes in the right place and then fudge the exact details by having the torpedo glare obstruct the moment of launch.
Timo Saloniemi
