Dilithium Crystals -- What's the Point?
- Thread starter CuttingEdge100
- Start date
Compared to the original ship, those hatches are about half the size.
The latter would be a nice mirroring of what happened to warship propulsion between WWI and WWII: the expensive battleship hulls were refitted with new powerplants that were one half to one fifth the size of the originals (while being vastly more powerful and fuel-economic), and some modern superstructures were also applied, but the fundamentals stayed the same.
Okay, to use that yellow roundel as an ejection port, one would need to eject something else than the vertical core, because that one can't go through the cargo area. In my first pic, the yellow hatch ejects antimatter tanks, while also theoretically providing access into the cargo area; perhaps that's consistent with the TOS-R treatment of the hatch in "Operation: Annihilate!", too? It might not be possible to eject the vertical "warp core" of the TMP ship any more than it is possible to eject the identical horizontal structure. So perhaps the only thing that is ejectable is the antimatter storage (much as in "That Which Survives"), or perhaps also the dilithium reaction chamber that sits somewhere down there.
And perhaps the E-A thick structure is placed above the yellow roundel then, replacing the original reaction chamber (because that's what it is in TNG, too) and occupying much of the cargo area (because it's an experimental new design being tested here on this old piece of multiply refitted junk) but still tying to the original power chain (hence the vertical plasma conduit that is in the style of the TMP vertical and horizontal conduits - it just ties into the general conduitry a bit differently on the E-A).
For the TOS ship, there'd be a similar reaction chamber somewhere deep in the bowels of the ship, too. And in TOS and TMP/ST2 ships alike, dilithium would be taken to that heavily armored reaction chamber via a dumbwaiter system that terminates in a heavily shielded floor hatch in one of the control rooms...
As regards the hatches on the E-A bottom, should we think that the TMP ship had those as well, only not color-coded? The surface finish of that vessel was different: perhaps she had been given a stealthy coating that had to be smooth and couldn't feature seams for these extremely rarely used emergency hatches?
As for the red square in the fantail undercut, it doesn't look much like an opening hatch. Unlike all the others, it's merely a set of lines drawn across the hull seams, and even across a major hull bump of some sort. Perhaps the role of this red outline, and of all red outlines on the ship, is one of an approach tracking aid? One would need that, perhaps, when docking with the aft shuttlebay or the ventral ejection/cargo hatch.
Timo Saloniemi
Okay, to use that yellow roundel as an ejection port, one would need to eject something else than the vertical core, because that one can't go through the cargo area. In my first pic, the yellow hatch ejects antimatter tanks, while also theoretically providing access into the cargo area; perhaps that's consistent with the TOS-R treatment of the hatch in "Operation: Annihilate!", too? It might not be possible to eject the vertical "warp core" of the TMP ship any more than it is possible to eject the identical horizontal structure. So perhaps the only thing that is ejectable is the antimatter storage (much as in "That Which Survives"), or perhaps also the dilithium reaction chamber that sits somewhere down there.
And perhaps the E-A thick structure is placed above the yellow roundel then, replacing the original reaction chamber (because that's what it is in TNG, too) and occupying much of the cargo area (because it's an experimental new design being tested here on this old piece of multiply refitted junk) but still tying to the original power chain (hence the vertical plasma conduit that is in the style of the TMP vertical and horizontal conduits - it just ties into the general conduitry a bit differently on the E-A).
For the TOS ship, there'd be a similar reaction chamber somewhere deep in the bowels of the ship, too. And in TOS and TMP/ST2 ships alike, dilithium would be taken to that heavily armored reaction chamber via a dumbwaiter system that terminates in a heavily shielded floor hatch in one of the control rooms...
As regards the hatches on the E-A bottom, should we think that the TMP ship had those as well, only not color-coded? The surface finish of that vessel was different: perhaps she had been given a stealthy coating that had to be smooth and couldn't feature seams for these extremely rarely used emergency hatches?
As for the red square in the fantail undercut, it doesn't look much like an opening hatch. Unlike all the others, it's merely a set of lines drawn across the hull seams, and even across a major hull bump of some sort. Perhaps the role of this red outline, and of all red outlines on the ship, is one of an approach tracking aid? One would need that, perhaps, when docking with the aft shuttlebay or the ventral ejection/cargo hatch.
Timo Saloniemi
Hmm...I may have to rethink my engineering arrangement...
Hey guys, I stumbled upon this. It explains that last hatch outlined in red. It looks as if it's a secondary shuttle entrance/exit possibly for work bees etc.:
www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/gs2/enterprise-ncc-1701-sheet-5.jpg
www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/gs2/enterprise-ncc-1701-sheet-5.jpg
I prefer Petri Bloomqvist's version, where that's a hatch for a couple of workbees.
The protruding bump with the navigation light (?) on it is a bit of a problem on the E-A, though. Sure, the hatch could be of irregular shape and open up while leaving the bump undisturbed. Or the bump could be a latch of some sort, although the "battery case" analogy is a bit too much to the silly side... 
Still, all the other markings on the E-A look like hatches, as they interrupt the hull grid lines. This red outline merely crosses the grid, without looking the slightest bit like a seam.
But one could argue that the TOS ship indeed had a workbee hive down there - and that the E-A would need one, too, because its shuttlebay was not refitted extensively enough and never came to feature the internal hive that we see in ST:TMP.
Timo Saloniemi
Still, all the other markings on the E-A look like hatches, as they interrupt the hull grid lines. This red outline merely crosses the grid, without looking the slightest bit like a seam.
But one could argue that the TOS ship indeed had a workbee hive down there - and that the E-A would need one, too, because its shuttlebay was not refitted extensively enough and never came to feature the internal hive that we see in ST:TMP.
Timo Saloniemi
"Workbee hive"....I like that....
The protruding bump with the navigation light (?) on it is a bit of a problem on the E-A, though. Sure, the hatch could be of irregular shape and open up while leaving the bump undisturbed. Or the bump could be a latch of some sort, although the "battery case" analogy is a bit too much to the silly side...
You could ignore it since it wasn't originally on the model. That was added by ILM for STIV, when they had to repaint virtually the whole model after the damage they applied to the piece for STII & III.
When depicting the refit NCC-1701, that section of the model was actually blank.
http://www.cloudster.com/Sets&Vehicles/STMPEnterprise/STMPent56.jpg
More photos:
http://www.cloudster.com/Sets&Vehicles/STMPEnterprise/STMPEnterpriseOverall.htm
Those pics always give me a really spooky vibe...
Well, it wouldn't be a TMP bump if it wasn't, now would it? 
Yeah: the ship seen in TMP never had the square, while a completely different ship first shown in ST4 did feature the square in this and two other movies. One could argue that the red square indeed marks a workbee hive, because the only incarnation of the ship that lacks the square is also the only incarnation of the ship known to have a hive in the main shuttlebay.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
The internal arrangement of the refit is pretty much a settled issue, contradictions and all, whereas the E-A is still something of a mystery, thanks to different sets being used and additional technical markings being added, implying more internal differences.
And that's where we can all have some fun.
And that's where we can all have some fun.
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