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Comparing two 1/350 scale USS Enterprises

I don't think it's that simple. For one thing, while the dimensions of the two ships are comparable, the shape of the starship means there is far less actual volume, with even less of that being usable as standing space. For example, the saucer is over 100m wide, but only one deck actually spans 100m, the rest of the decks in the saucer are half that size or less, with volume decreasing by 8x for every 2x reduction in width.

1/3rd of the starships's length is all engine. The neck is only about as wide as an aircraft fuselage, the entire back half of the engineering hull is made up of hangar bay and pylons and the hangar deck itself is too small IMO.

Comparing the aircraft carrier, the island alone is about equivalent to the central decks of the saucer or the forward part of the seco hull. The flight deck and hangar decks are huge, but they're also manned, habitable areas.

And the other big problem is the one I mentioned earlier about density. Do a Google image search for "nimitz class CIC" or "Nimitz class bridge" and you'll see images of extremely dense, cramped rooms compared to the spacious, sparsely populated sets we saw in TOS, and the corridors on a carrier are at most 1/3rd the width of the TOS sets. Also, they use ladders, not turbolifts.

And then there's the question of crew quarters. As far as I remember, the only time we ever saw bunks on the Connie was in The Undiscovered Country, and even those dorm rooms were downright luxurious compared to what most officers (let alone enlisted staff) could expect on a modern naval ship. From seeing Uhura's quarters, we can infer that everyone down to at least Lieutentant had their own cabin on the Enterprise.

Like many fans, Gene Roddenberry thought the ship was a lot bigger than it was. In one of his writer's guides or promotional brochures, he hyped the Hangar Deck as being able to hold a dozen modern airliners (if I recall). He called the Enterprise a "city in space." So apparently he hadn't really studied MJ's scale drawings. The mindset was that the Enterprise was huge, so of course the interiors are roomy, and that's all you need to know.

Even so, Star Trek's architecture and scaling hold together better than a lot of sci-fi shows.
 
Like many fans, Gene Roddenberry thought the ship was a lot bigger than it was. In one of his writer's guides or promotional brochures, he hyped the Hangar Deck as being able to hold a dozen modern airliners (if I recall). He called the Enterprise a "city in space." So apparently he hadn't really studied MJ's scale drawings. The mindset was that the Enterprise was huge, so of course the interiors are roomy, and that's all you need to know.

Even so, Star Trek's architecture and scaling hold together better than a lot of sci-fi shows.

Well, at the end of the day it's a TV show and aesthetics always will always come before functionality.

Even if we put that aside, MJ's original plans were made before much of what Star Trek became had been fleshed out. Sticking to the original 100 man Enterprise (or was it Yorktown?), with no room for a hangar bay, no transporters, and cramped compartments would have severely restricted what the writers, directors and actors could do, and perhaps even stifled the show's eventual success. I'd rather they built the ship around the show they wanted to make, not the other way around.
 
Well, at the end of the day it's a TV show and aesthetics always will always come before functionality.

Even if we put that aside, MJ's original plans were made before much of what Star Trek became had been fleshed out. Sticking to the original 100 man Enterprise (or was it Yorktown?), with no room for a hangar bay, no transporters, and cramped compartments would have severely restricted what the writers, directors and actors could do, and perhaps even stifled the show's eventual success. I'd rather they built the ship around the show they wanted to make, not the other way around.

Well said and agreed.

Uhura might have had her own quarters because of position, not rank. Same for Garrovick.
 
While not canon, I did count all the beds and work stations on Franz Joseph's blueprints. There was enough room for 430 people to work and sleep plus a few guest quarters.
 
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