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Donny's Refit Enterprise Interiors (Version 2.0)

Rick Sternbach could answer that, but I agree, it looked like it was mostly illuminated jets of smoke.
The Voyager warp core was inspired by the one from TMP (I suspect our Production designer liked the look), and IIRC the lighting effect was achieved in a similar way - a slightly frosted tube, rotating lights, mirrors, and a ton of poly fluff to diffuse the light. - Rick
 
I think that the Voyager warp core looked spectacular. The Motion Picture's looks great, too, though.
It's altogether a really nice set. It's obviously predominantly the same as the TNG set, but manages to look like a much busier place. I get that the TNG set had to double up a corridor with the various plugs they could put in, but Voyager really benefited from widening the set and installing more consoles along the sides. Plus the expanded upper level, even though we didn't see it much.
 
I understand the appeal of cool-looking sets, but I still think it would realistically be an incredibly dumb idea to put a matter-antimatter reactor right in the middle of a pressurized, inhabited part of the ship with people standing right next to it. Logically it should be in a separate, outboard module to shield the crew from its heat and radiation, which I imagine was Jefferies's intent in putting the engine nacelles out on the ends of long pylons. A realistic engine-room set would look more like the control room of a nuclear plant, just a bunch of consoles and status display screens. Which is basically the thinking behind the TOS set, although they eventually established that the dilithium crystals were stored/accessed through that assembly in the middle of the set, implying that the engines might be right below that deck (which is how Doug Drexler's cutaway from "In a Mirror, Darkly" portrayed it, with a horizontal intermix shaft running under main engineeering).

Still, the needs of entertainment and cool visuals come first. I sometimes wonder, what would be an alternative way to design an engineering set that didn't have an engine physically inside it but still looked visually impressive and dynamic?
 
I suspect it would be assumed that any exposed engine elements would be shielded enough as to not make a big deal to be around. Which is why the reactor room that Spock entered in TWOK was so significant.
 
I just figured there were pressure doors on every deck that had access to the warp core/intermix chamber in the secondary hulls of these ships.
 
I suspect it would be assumed that any exposed engine elements would be shielded enough as to not make a big deal to be around. Which is why the reactor room that Spock entered in TWOK was so significant.

Yeah, but the simplest form of radiation shielding is distance, and the simplest form of heat shielding is vacuum. And good engineering is about keeping it simple. It's just good sense to keep the engines and the habitat section of a starship in separate modules with a fair amount of distance between them (which is why 2001's Discovery has such a long, long middle section between the inhabited sphere at the front and the nuclear engines in the back).
 
Considering that the TNG crew fire phasers all around engineering all the time - VOY too, for that matter - the assumption is that the delicate-looking machinery in the center of it all is considerably more durable, and shielded, than it's initial appearance would suggest.
Yeah, but the simplest form of radiation shielding is distance, and the simplest form of heat shielding is vacuum. And good engineering is about keeping it simple. It's just good sense to keep the engines and the habitat section of a starship in separate modules with a fair amount of distance between them (which is why 2001's Discovery has such a long, long middle section between the inhabited sphere at the front and the nuclear engines in the back).
For the same reason starships can magically stop on a moments notice or can jump to FTL speeds without the crew disintegrating: the drama of a TV show requires the sacrifice of scientific plausibility; forget about accuracy.
But lest we forget; the engineering section is in the secondary hull; which is mostly facilities; and the habitat section is in the primary or saucer hull, half the ship away.
 
Considering that the TNG crew fire phasers all around engineering all the time - VOY too, for that matter - the assumption is that the delicate-looking machinery in the center of it all is considerably more durable, and shielded, than it's initial appearance would suggest.

Again, I'm not talking about rationalizing what they did. I'm trying to encourage speculation: if they had gone for a more realistic design that kept the actual engine well away from any inhabited section of the ship, what could they have done in terms of engine room set design that would still have been visually interesting?
 
Again, I'm not talking about rationalizing what they did. I'm trying to encourage speculation: if they had gone for a more realistic design that kept the actual engine well away from any inhabited section of the ship, what could they have done in terms of engine room set design that would still have been visually interesting?
I didn't catch that from the earlier comment, sorry.
It's cool to speculate "what ifs" on production, especially in light of what we know now on how groundbreaking TOS was with set construction and design for it's time.
 
Considering that the TNG crew fire phasers all around engineering all the time - VOY too, for that matter - the assumption is that the delicate-looking machinery in the center of it all is considerably more durable, and shielded, than it's initial appearance would suggest.
Except for that one stray phaser shot that put a hole in the transporter control casing in The Enemy Within:
SCOTT: Mister Scott, sir, on the lower level of the Engineering deck. I've found a new trouble with the transporter. The casing has a wide gap ripped in it. The main circuits have been burned through. The abort control circuit is gone altogether...
SCOTT: The transporter unit ioniser. Nothing much left of it, sir.
KIRK: How bad is it?
SCOTT: We can't repair it in less than a week.
Yes, phasers and engineering don't mix. Good thing Scotty moved that exposed line out of the way. In Season 2, the transporter control circuits were moved up into the Emergency Manual Monitor Room. :techman:
 
Since when is an engine room not alongside the engines? If it's separated it's a control room, innit?

The only way to make it match Jefferies idea of keeping the engines separate from the main ship would be to put engine rooms up in each nacelle, which means no corridors leading into it.

That said, isn't speculating about this kinda off topic?
 
Except for that one stray phaser shot that put a hole in the transporter control casing in The Enemy Within:
SCOTT: Mister Scott, sir, on the lower level of the Engineering deck. I've found a new trouble with the transporter. The casing has a wide gap ripped in it. The main circuits have been burned through. The abort control circuit is gone altogether...
SCOTT: The transporter unit ioniser. Nothing much left of it, sir.
KIRK: How bad is it?
SCOTT: We can't repair it in less than a week.
Yes, phasers and engineering don't mix. Good thing Scotty moved that exposed line out of the way. In Season 2, the transporter control circuits were moved up into the Emergency Manual Monitor Room. :techman:
Rule of Plot, my friend. ;)
 
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