I noticed that in Star Trek V, the Enterprise had something like 75 decks. How was that possible? Did someone goof?
Enterprise in Star Trek V
- Thread starter Josh_Lyman
- Start date
It looked more impressive when our heroes rocketed up a 75-storey shaft than a 21-storey one. They also reversed the deck numbering scheme to make things more intuitive for the audience: never before had the numbers explicitly grown from bottom to top.
We can try and explain it away in three different basic manners:
1) The ship really is much bigger than we think. Quite plausible, in fact, as the ship ended too small to contain its interior sets in ST:TMP. But she shouldn't really be three-four times as big as the backstage material claims. Twice as big, perhaps. Or 1.5 times.
2) A drunken worker or a malfucntioning robot mislabeled the decks.
3) The shaft was really only about ten decks high, as would fit within the vertical neck of the ship. Towards the bottom were decks 12 and 13, both seen in the film. 13 was below 12, and the fact that we saw 13 after 12 during the supposed climb up was merely because the fatigued McCoy had slipped and slid down a deck when the camera looked the other way. And at the top of the shaft was the level that fit between the saucer decks 7 and 8, thus labeled "DECK 78". Turboshaft levels in the saucer were all labeled that way, to allow the lifts to travel horizontally between decks without obstructing the decks themselves.
:P
Timo Saloniemi
We can try and explain it away in three different basic manners:
1) The ship really is much bigger than we think. Quite plausible, in fact, as the ship ended too small to contain its interior sets in ST:TMP. But she shouldn't really be three-four times as big as the backstage material claims. Twice as big, perhaps. Or 1.5 times.
2) A drunken worker or a malfucntioning robot mislabeled the decks.
3) The shaft was really only about ten decks high, as would fit within the vertical neck of the ship. Towards the bottom were decks 12 and 13, both seen in the film. 13 was below 12, and the fact that we saw 13 after 12 during the supposed climb up was merely because the fatigued McCoy had slipped and slid down a deck when the camera looked the other way. And at the top of the shaft was the level that fit between the saucer decks 7 and 8, thus labeled "DECK 78". Turboshaft levels in the saucer were all labeled that way, to allow the lifts to travel horizontally between decks without obstructing the decks themselves.
:P
Timo Saloniemi
I like this one the best. It actually makes sense.
My favourite solution
...Of course I have always rationalised it as those levels counting all potential stops for the turbolift - so there are various bits of pipework and jeffries tubes in the neck as well as actual "decks".
Maybe it was a case of a non-drunken robot? As poor a worker Bender was when he was topped-off with alcohol, he was even worse when running on empty.
Except, arguably, in DS9's "Emissary," when the Saratoga's bridge on Deck 1 is seen to be hit, while in the exterior shot, the bottom of the saucer is hit.
And, just possibly, in "Day of the Dove" where Klingons, supposedly in control of the bottom half of the ship, reign supreme on Deck 6 but only hold half of Deck 7, as if that were the topmost battlefront against the heroes. And "The Enterprise Incident" where ride from the bridge to Deck 2 takes forever.
Of course, all those instances can be explained away. Perhaps the Saratoga was hit in multiple places. Perhaps the Klingons did not literally hold the bottom half of the ship but only parts of the bottom half of the saucer, in addition to islands elsewhere. And perhaps the lift ride didn't really take forever - Spock simply held the lift forever after the ride had already ended.
Timo Saloniemi
Of course, all those instances can be explained away. Perhaps the Saratoga was hit in multiple places. Perhaps the Klingons did not literally hold the bottom half of the ship but only parts of the bottom half of the saucer, in addition to islands elsewhere. And perhaps the lift ride didn't really take forever - Spock simply held the lift forever after the ride had already ended.
Timo Saloniemi
trevanian
Rear Admiral
Makes me think of NEM, where the reman guy 'falls' to his death from the bottom floor of the starship, which suddenly looks like it is set atop the emperor's tower from JEDI.
...But we should remember that the Reman was on his way to the bridge of the ship, at the very highest deck. And he was in a hurry. Even though he originally came in through the lowermost deck, we have good reason to think that he met Riker's defensive posse somewhere halfway up at the very least. And during those moments when Riker lost sight of him and the camera went elsewhere, we should assume the Viceroy continued to struggle upward and Riker chased after him.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
I love all of Timo's explanations, but my favorite is the one suggested by the late USS Pioneer years ago: the turboshaft is actually diagonal to the rest of the decks on the Enterprise. It runs from the notch at the bottom of the secondary hull fantail (where our heroes enter it) through the centerline of the ship at an angle, all the way up through the neck to just below the bridge (where they were trying to reach). Although much longer than 12 decks, I still don't think it adds up to 78, tho'.
Best,
--MyClone
Best,
--MyClone
Whatever happened to USS Pioneer? He was cool, as was The Great Mambo Stinky Pants God Chicken Thing.
