Any news from the "secret source"? Any reason why it's being kept secret in the first place? If someone knows, why not just tell us? It's not like someone is revealing the Nuclear Codes to WikiLeaks or something. Oy vey!
Excelsior neck details.
- Thread starter Robert Morgan
- Start date
Let's just say that certain internal drawings became available and the source wants to remain anonymous.
I would have guessed large-scale industrial replicators...but I'm guessing replicators still weren't like *a thing* by TSFS.
There are tractor emitters all over the Ent-D. If those things on Excelsior were tractor emitters, theyre pretty big ones.
I could see the simlar detail at the back being just that, so maybe they could tow a large ship without any shear to the beam, but why have them in the front? And again, kinda partially blocked by the saucer.
Whatever the doodad, we can safely forget about the "blocked by" part. Starfleet doesn't mind "blocked by". Pretty much everything Starfleet puts on its ships is "blocked by". The phasers on the saucers are hard pressed to fire forward; the sensors excel at staring into hull parts; the impulse engines blast at warp engine pylons; and the best placement for torpedoes apparently is one where hits on the ship's own engine pylons (the common Constitution configuration, for aft torps), one's bridge (the rousing Reliant rearranging) or ventral primary hull (the famed Voyager fashion) are the easiest to score.
Line of sight is so 21st century, it seems.
Timo Saloniemi
Line of sight is so 21st century, it seems.
Timo Saloniemi
But if these were phasers, say, they would seem to be more like the AGT Enterprise Dreadnought's mega-phaser (ie: not moveable in any way), so line-of sight would be an important factor.
A bit of turning would account for it - and a bit of turning is what you have to do with a fixed gun, no matter where it's fixed. 
Then again, the Defiant appeared to have fixed guns, too, and those in fact could fire more than 45 degrees off-boresight, as in "Paradise Lost".
The idea that these would be weapons is significantly diluted by the fact that they never fire at anything, even in that spinoff show where everybody fires a lot. But "then again" again, the Miranda also has lots and lots of apparent weapons that never see use (this even when such ships fire from places where there are no weapons by designer intent, and no features we could interpret as weapons!)...
Timo Saloniemi
Then again, the Defiant appeared to have fixed guns, too, and those in fact could fire more than 45 degrees off-boresight, as in "Paradise Lost".
The idea that these would be weapons is significantly diluted by the fact that they never fire at anything, even in that spinoff show where everybody fires a lot. But "then again" again, the Miranda also has lots and lots of apparent weapons that never see use (this even when such ships fire from places where there are no weapons by designer intent, and no features we could interpret as weapons!)...
Timo Saloniemi
Odds are they're just greeblies the original model makers put on there to fuck with our heads 33 years later.
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No no NO! There MUST be a purpose for them! A PURPOSE, I say!!!
There is a purpose, to screw with the fans' minds.
Maybe these guys realized how anal us fans would be all those years ago.
Maybe these guys realized how anal us fans would be all those years ago.
The Enterprise-E tractor emitters are pretty big, and if we scale from Wesley and his mini-tractor beam emitter to the size of a person, that ratio would give an even bigger emitter for a ship size person. Same for the tractor emitters used for handling shuttles, those are big emitters.
I like this idea of them being tractor emitters, because the same idea can be used for the rear doo-dads, instead of them being torpedo tubes.
For me, as others have already pointed out the forward torpedo launchers are in the known location recesses on the forward secondary hull. These details look different enough that I would attribute the neck doodads to be something else.
Failing sensors or refuel points of some kind, I personally like them as some type of heavy phaser, analogous to the "roll bar" phasers on the Miranda class. Presumably the warp core or other power stuff is located in the neck, and these things could be powered directly from it.
As an aside, I do like the idea of the neck fins being some sort of radiator, potentially for cooling deuterium tanks or the warp core itself. Thereby, the ones on the secondary hull nacelle pylon "hump" could perform a similar cooling function for the plasma conduits to the warp nacelles.
Failing sensors or refuel points of some kind, I personally like them as some type of heavy phaser, analogous to the "roll bar" phasers on the Miranda class. Presumably the warp core or other power stuff is located in the neck, and these things could be powered directly from it.
As an aside, I do like the idea of the neck fins being some sort of radiator, potentially for cooling deuterium tanks or the warp core itself. Thereby, the ones on the secondary hull nacelle pylon "hump" could perform a similar cooling function for the plasma conduits to the warp nacelles.
We'll never really know until the so-called "anonymous source" tires of being amused watching us all jump around like apoplectic monkeys desperately searching for answers on one of our favorite filming miniatures. Some people really enjoy pretending to be chess-masters.
I do. I've been to his house.I know how we can settle this! Anybody got Bill George on speed dial?!?
(Kidding! Mostly.....)
And, pffft to the idea that somehow people would be secretive about some detailing on a 35 year old model. Mostly that stuff is there "because it looks good". Or sometimes there's just pop-in details to cover holes where there are bolts and stuff for the internal armatures.
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Go to the queued spot here (at 2:33):
In Generations, at the christening of the Enterprise-B, you will see a workbee with attached cargo pod exiting the portside opening. It's obvious (to me) that the two indentations on the neck are cargo loading doors/hatches. Below it and to the right, you'll see the portside torpedo tube (the same place where torpedoes were fired from the Excelsior in ST6. Those torp tubes are on the sides of the secondary hull, as mentioned before, just forward of the insignia and registry.
To me, seeing it right there in a movie negates any blueprints or speculation.
To me, seeing it right there in a movie negates any blueprints or speculation.
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