Discovery at SDCC - Consolidated Thread
- Thread starter RAMA
- Start date
Blame TMP with their "#Snowflakeagenda"
:http://www.gian-cursio.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/TMP-Warp-iPad-1024x1024.jpg
It's too late to think about that. TOS already set the standard by putting the command and control center of the ship (along with the brain-trust of the crew) in a room in one of the most vulnerable parts of the ship.
And yeah -- as 'RAMA' pointed out above, they do have shields, but it's not as if established Star Trek TV and movies never had hull breaches.
The problem is not that I think the connecting struts are too "weak". Star Trek has futuristic materials from thousands of planets and civilisations. If the thin nacelle struts of the TOS Enterprise were strong enough to withould all warp forces, you can also built your bridge on top of a saucer.
The problem is personal transportability. It would be really annoying to get from one point of one donut ring to another point on another ring. You'd have to walk a shitton of detours!
Three things:
1. I don't think the nacelles are providing any "thrust force" themselves that needs to be countered by the struts. Granted, TOS never really explained the propulsion, but from what I gather from TNG, the ship moves because a warp bubble is generated around it, and that warp bubble moves through space.
There is no "rocket type" thrust force coming out of the back of the nacelles that needs to be countered by extra strong struts.
2. As I mentioned above, there has in fact been hull breaches that have occurred in established Star Trek TV and movies, so a hull breach at the bridge should be a concern -- if in-universe designers of starships (or we, the fans) really wanted to worry about such things.
3. You mentioned the inconvenience of going from one ring to the other, [with only four points of connection between them]. However, even if the saucer was one piece (and if it was a real vessel rather than an imaginary one
), it would not surprise me if there would still only be four radial corridors connecting the concentric corridors....EDIT TO ADD:
...Well. at least near middle or center of the single-piece saucer. I suppose as we get out closer to the perimeter, there might be more radial corridors.
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While you were writing your response, I was editing my post to add:
"... at least near middle or center of the single-piece saucer. I suppose as we get out closer to the perimeter, there might be more radial corridors."
Seriously, if I were designing a round building floor plan, I would not waste a lot of usable floor space with too many radial corridors.
Of course, I would also not waste usable space with cut-outs -- but that would at least provide more windows; everyone (even starship crew members) likes windows
.
Yeah, having five main radial halls isn't that strange when you look at any deck plans people have done for Trek saucer sections. As far as turbolift chokepoints, well, this ship is much better than any version of the Constitution, because it looks like you can actually fit a shaft or two in without making the entire neck decks unusable. In fact, depending on how thick those radial connectors are, it would be better that direction too because the Constitution has the undercut that leaves only one deck to run horizontal lift tubes out to the rim.
I'd go with each spoke having a turbolift shaft, a hallway, and a maintenance crawlway, with the turbolift shaft acting as an auxiliary hallway in emergencies when the lifts aren't operational, yet four for a ship that looks bigger than a Connie, is not moving a high volume of people quickly when the situation warrants. I'd go with two more.
Seriously, if I were designing a round building floor plan, I would not waste a lot of usable floor space with too many radial corridors.
Of course, I would also not waste usable space with cut-outs -- but that would at least provide more windows; everyone (even starship crew members) likes windows
4 radial corridors would be enough on a saucer. On every single deck!
As it is, there'd be max. 4 corridors in it's entirety. Meaning if you're on another deck, you'd either have to take one hell of a detour, or change decks twice. That's stupid. And even that is assuming the connecting struts are thick enough to contain corridors. Which I'm not so sure of. They have exactly the height of one deck, meaning there would be no space above or below for artificial gravity (that'd be akward), and they are so tiny, if they additionally are also hollow, it would extremely diminish their structural bearing power.
I could accept the cut-outs themselves. But please, for believability, make the supporting struts at least as tall as the entire saucer, and wider than tall.
The design's as believable as the TOS ship.
I like to over-analyze the technology and story continuity on Star Trek, but at the end of the day I still understand that it's just a TV show.
It's my right as a fan to be pedantic; it's fun. However, I don't let it get in the way of enjoying a well-spun tale.
Consider that the TOS Connie saucer IS two decks thick at the rim, but the lower of those two decks is itself not a full deck, as it contains a depressed undercut that is not a full deck in height. As such, anyone who wants to go from the edge of deck seven to its core has to go up one deck and then traverse inwards before going back down. In practice, no one should have to make that sort of trip unless they lived in one space and had their post in another.
And furthermore, looking at deck six on at least one set of Constitution class deck plans plans shows that there are four turbolift shafts plus four corridors that are used to get to the outer deck from its core. Applying that logic to the Discovery and assuming the connecting bridges can have , our new ship is actually one up on them as they have the actual dorsal superstructure to get from one ring to the other.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/a4/22/f2/a422f2d004e8d5385852c0778f0c63e7.jpg
http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/enterprise-deck-plans-sheet-6.jpg
Given that our heroes only EVER get from one major place to another on the ship by using the lifts, when it comes to practicality versus at least one other starship poncing about in this era, it's effectively no different in terms of how they would access different parts of the saucer anyway. It's just that there's literally nothing between corridors instead of rooms, or inaccessible greeblies.
Mark
And furthermore, looking at deck six on at least one set of Constitution class deck plans plans shows that there are four turbolift shafts plus four corridors that are used to get to the outer deck from its core. Applying that logic to the Discovery and assuming the connecting bridges can have , our new ship is actually one up on them as they have the actual dorsal superstructure to get from one ring to the other.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/a4/22/f2/a422f2d004e8d5385852c0778f0c63e7.jpg
http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/enterprise-deck-plans-sheet-6.jpg
Given that our heroes only EVER get from one major place to another on the ship by using the lifts, when it comes to practicality versus at least one other starship poncing about in this era, it's effectively no different in terms of how they would access different parts of the saucer anyway. It's just that there's literally nothing between corridors instead of rooms, or inaccessible greeblies.
Mark
I'm not one to research the particulars of these more technical aspects of the franchise, so I'll simply drop in and say it looks nifty. Very unconventional, but it's grown on me considerably.
The Pentagon has the same problem, and that is a real life building.
Have you ever seen the Pentagon? It has 10(!!) buildings(!!!!) orthogonally to connect all different layers of building:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Pentagon_January_2008.jpg
Because this is an issue...
But the Pentagon is also considerable larger then Discovery. There are ~ 23,000 people working there. I would assume the the quota of bridges to people/distance is better with Discovery.