Some more Star Trek Rendered Art.

Oh, wow, you kind of put a picture in my mind, with your turn of a phrase, “sparkly stars within it”. It made me think about the visual effect of seeing a singularity inside of the nacelle dome.

I know it’s nowhere near being canon for TOS, but I can’t get it out of my head. Maybe I’ve been watching too much “Foundation” on Apple TV, so their jump drives have burned themselves into my head.

I mean, if the Romulans can do it in the TNG era…

 

That is some amazing work!

Don't know that I can remember anyone besides me and my brother using that term in forever.

 

TNG truly defined the technical schematics to everything Star Trek; so much Treknobabble became a thing while find them as "White Noise". TOS schematics was very simple and easy for me to accept. Propulsion Units, I believe it stick for me because I saw the word on a diagram of a Starship Class blueprint.

 

I remember it from the Star Trek Technical Manual of the 70's. Up until then, we just called those things on the back of the ship 'the warp engines'. "Propulsion Units" was the 'technical' name for those things that would later be called 'nacelles'.

 

It’s in “Elaan of Troyius” and “The Ultimate Computer” they are called “warp engines”.

In “The Apple” they are repeatedly called “antimatter pods”. Also in “Errand of Mercy”. In “I, Mudd”, “matter-antimatter pods“. In “The Changeling” they are called the “matter-antimatter propulsion system”. In “Elaan of Troyius” they are also called “matter-antimatter engines”. In “The Doomsday Machine” it’s “warp drive pods”.

And finally, in “One of Our Planets is Missing”, they become “antimatter nacelles” But in “The Survivor” and “More Tribbles, More Troubles”, simply “propulsion units”.

 

Very True, TNG era really did define all the modern TrekNoBabble.

I'm glad that whomever came up with it was pretty internally consistent given how expansive & detailed it was and how well planned out it was for trying to imagine how the 24th century worked.

They came up with regular bog standard WiFi communication for the PADDs & the ComBadge in the late 1980's / early 1990's.

That of course is analagous to modern WiFi and Tablets and basic Planet to Space Radio Communications.

That's part of the basic TrekNoBabble along with the ODN (Optical Data Network) which is just standard Fiber Optic Cables used in modern Professional/Enterprise Grade Server Networks.

Basic things like that was all created by the folks who helped define the ST:TNG Technical Manual and how everything worked together.

It's amazing how many things seemed confusing back then when I was a child, but now make alot more sense now that I'm an adult and understand how most of the tech works based on IRL equivalents.

 

It's just white noise for me and my friends because general audiences don't really care about that stuff. Just redundant to be talking the talkie talk to say the ship doesn't work and the engineer has such and such time to fix it. Obvious it has to be done before the climax of the episode. Scotty said it right, fuses are low or engines are damaged, it was enough for me to get the Enterprise was in peril; no need for a treknobabble lesson of non-sense which in terms would be considered Sci-fi technical magic.

Still believe it is absolutely ridiculous for post TOS vessels have a warp core; I thought it was intelligent to keep the engines away from the crew. Any leak or damage would be seal and isolated by the vacuum and temperatures of space.

 

I guess that's why the TrekNoBabble appeals to a different, more geeky / techie audience.

=D

 

There is at least one instance, in “Day of the Dove”, when Spock says “Alien detected in the engineering section, near reactor number three.” I have taken that to mean one in each nacelle, one in the ship. So the idea that there was a reactor in the ship was there at least by season 3. It’s the idea that the nacelles were powered by THAT reactor that changed by TMP. I’m not sure that Jefferies had a problem with a reactor onboard. What he said was the nacelles had to be fantastically powerful to warp space. That is talking about what they do, not what powers what they do. I think there is a misconception that because matter-antimatter reactions are so powerful, they are what cause space to warp. But black holes warp space. Stars warp space. There is some magic BS going on that takes x amount of power from a matter antimatter reaction, multiplies it millions of times, splits it into gravity and antigravity effects, and somehow focuses it on just one part of space. I think Jefferies would have insisted THAT part was in the nacelles.

 

Its one thing to visually expose sci-fi crap for the geeks but when those folks start to knock down on TOS because of the lack of technical prowess and stamp treknobabble or new Trek as "REALISTIC" is where I draw the line. TMP movies, TNG - PICARD continue to date themselves because I look at a console and I know how those spacecrafts work, all about the details from modern times and influence from present day tech. Contrast to TOS, TO THIS DAY I look at the consoles from the helm and navigation or even many of the stations on the Enterprise I have no clue how it works??? Those colorful buttons the crew is punching are a mystery but it operates the ship, for me that is futuristic and real because it can't be achieved yet; what was done on TOS was far and still is more futuristic than the modern Treks we know.

I think the pioneers of Star Trek were not rocket scientists but had a clear understanding whatever is out there they didn't want their Enterprise to have consoles explode on crewmembers faces or bulkheads appear to be made of plaster so we see wires and steel collapsing on people. This thing needed to outdo and wrestle anything that would hit them so it couldn't show signs of construction, you know, hull plating falling apart like the space shuttle. Interior and exterior the spacecraft had to be solid and safe aka the starship Enterprise, whatever X is to equate how the ship conjures Space Warp should remain a secret for futurians to one day achieve. That used to be the magic of Star Trek, it makes us continue to wonder.

 

Nobody should be knocking down on TOS. TOS was the starting point for everything, we'll should be greatful that it existed and was the beginning point for everything else.

The writing was a product of it's time, so I'm ok with it because that's what it was.

The TrekNoBabble didn't come until the TNG era, by then Gene was thinking of ST:TNG as ST 2.0.

As for what is a "Futuristic" aesthetic, that's a personal value judgement; so if the TOS aesthetic works for you, more power to you!

What works for me and you will be two different things.

For me, Transparent Floating Holograms is a DUMB UI design, regardless of era, it's a pain in the arse to read and not a smart way to implement 2D floating Holographic screens. Hollywood & DISCO needs to get away from Transparency ASAP. If you're going to have a floating screen, the back needs to be completely Opaque so the content of the screens are readable. Like this:

That makes reading, viewing, & understanding the contents easy since you're not looking through the screen or having whatever is behind it interfering with the clarity of the image/picture/video.

If you've ever tried to read/view the content on real Transparent TV's, they're a PITA because of the transparency.

There's a good reason why nobody uses Transparent Screens for IRL practical purposes.

And same with having everything in life being "2D Touch Screen".

The more realistic solution moving to the future will be a Mish-Mash of various different types of interfaces.

That means, buttons, switches, & knobs when appropriate.
2D Touch Screens when it makes sense.
Floating Opaque Holographic UI when it makes sense.
Same with 3D Holographic displays.
There will be other UI's like Synaptic Transceivers that have already been demonstrated where the machine reads the users thoughts and executes commands. Just like in the end of ST:Voyager "End Game" where Admiral Janeway had that interface. Hopefully future designs won't need the user to have a surgerical implant for a microchip into your brain.
I know that's probably the lowest latency design, but not everybody wants to have a microchip placed inside your skull.
I'm more than willing to have a slightly slower interface of a few milli-seconds if I don't need surgery.

And let's get away from the stupid Star Wars Monotone/Gray-scale Scan-line Holograms.

Star Trek can do so much more with Holography. We should be setting the standard, not copying.

 

Those are all pretty awesome

 

thank you.

 

I don’t want to steer the coversation further away from gmd3d’s awesome artwork but I gotta throw this in: If the warp engines are so frickin dangerous for Starfleet meatsacks, I feel bad for anyone visiting the aft port and starboard lounges in the saucer section.

 

^^Pff, come on, second degree radiation burns are doable in shifts..

As for the art in this thread, well, said it before: Really awesome. btw, ever had people walk on the engineering hull? or just dangling their feet into space from the open hangar?
Just a question, not asking, just wondered.

 

I would believe the propulsion units would conceal such dangers, but I guess a warp core inside the belly of the engine room be more safe??? A leakage would kill people instantly, but oh well, apologies to gmd3d and you guys. The work is fantastic.

 

Which one is canon?

IIRC the engine, (core or nacells) giving off dangerous radiation wasn't even a thing until TWoK? Spock tunes the suddenly radioactive matter/antimatter matrix with his hands and dies.

Then later in TVH, they need a way to recrystallize the dilithium, Spock mentions a "dubious flirtation with nuclear power....", during our times (and everyone completely forgetting that is what killed him! ) ....implying it is NOT a thing in their time!