Or that the nub was never actually the turbolift housing to begin with (it's not tall enough in any case) and the the entire Bridge complex is actually housed part submerged into the teardrop section? That way, the nub can be removed as part of any "spacedock upgrade" without a problem!
I always thought that nub as an escape pod or dock. In TMP's drydock, a tube could lower to that and turbolifts go outside the Enterprise. The Refit lost that capability
IIRC, a similar feature on Voyager’s bridge was intended by Sternbach to be a turbolift docking port so you could take the elevator between the ship and the station.
Personally, I was never a fan of re-purposing the turbolift nub, it's pretty clear that that is what Jefferies intended it to be. But I do think the turbolift cars double as escape pods, and therefore the top of the T/L shaft behind the bridge is one of the locations they can eject from. Of course this also leaves open the possibility that it could be a docking/connecting port for a tube from another ship or station.
As it's the one version of the hero ship that doesn't have any other visible external docking port for foot traffic, that seems like a good idea.
"Ensign, release docking clamps." "Sorry, Captain, we're waiting on a few turbolift cars to be returned from the starbase."
What if you have one too many? One that is never in use? There's a story idea for you. For years, I have wanted to see crew members walk into the turbolift---and it be the TARDIS.
Or the new bridge module is now sunk all the way to Deck 2 and there technically isn't a Deck 1 anymore.
We've seen the port side in "Dagger of the Mind" and "The Alternative Factor", courtesy of Tallguy's catalog Enterprise's docking ports are probably hidden behind panels on the ship.
I knew someone was going to mention that. I just didn't expect the citation. TBF: at the scale and resolution that we saw the 11 foot model on screen there could be some very distinct hatches and covers that would never show up to the eye. (Insert complaints about the E-D 4 foot model here.) What thread is this?
LOL. Your catalog is one of the best go-to references for TOS. Yeah, at certain distances details just vanish. For example when the Enterprise is flying away the impulse ports become invisible. However, there are a few shots where the camera gets very very close to the model so for me at least, those areas are detailed enough to say that there are no visible ports there. The Enterprise is full of surprises like ports behind panels so I'm okay if they aren't all visible