Excelsior Technical Manual: Grand Finale

[Mytran]

Hope y'all are doing well. A quick update this morning as I give the engineering hull much-needed attention:

Feedback and questions always welcome. More to come!

Having direct turbolift access to the aft shuttlebay is certainly convenient (as well as a nice callback to ST5) but it does come at the cost of any corridor access for the port/starboard facilities along the length of the deck (and the only other access being via main engineering!)

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I'd chalk it up to brute force versus finesse.

The Borg probably have the power for energy fields and other systems that can negate the need for streamlining and other such concerns, whereas all the other races go with a finessed approach.

So StarFleet uses "Refined Engineering", AKA Japanese/European Elegance & Balance in SuperCar engineering.

While Borg uses the "Brute Force", AKA American Muscle Car philosophy of shoving a bigger/more powerful engine, AeroDynamics & Weight Savings be damned.

 

[Praetor]

Having direct turbolift access to the aft shuttlebay is certainly convenient (as well as a nice callback to ST5) but it does come at the cost of any corridor access for the port/starboard facilities along the length of the deck (and the only other access being via main engineering!)

You figured me out on the ST5 reference.

Deck 13 suffers from a similar problem as Deck 07 in the saucer, being the main turboshaft deck. I'm contemplating adding an aft port-to-starboard cross-corridor on this deck by having a crossover on Deck 14 below, similar to the Deck 06/Deck 07 relationship in the saucer.

 

[Mytran]

You figured me out on the ST5 reference.

Deck 13 suffers from a similar problem as Deck 07 in the saucer, being the main turboshaft deck. I'm contemplating adding an aft port-to-starboard cross-corridor on this deck by having a crossover on Deck 14 below, similar to the Deck 06/Deck 07 relationship in the saucer.

I wondered about that, but then the "express" turbolift from the shuttlebay would have to duck down and then up again on its way to the bridge.
What's really needed is an extra deck above!

 

[Praetor]

A quick update this morning as I start to fill in Junior Officers quarters:

This is Deck 05, which comprises most of the Junior Officers quarters, as well as on Deck 04 above.. After doing some calculations which I posted upthread, I estimate there to be about 80 junior officers aboard Excelsior, needing at least 80 quarters.

I've taken the basic Junior Officers Quarters layout established by Lora Johnson in "Mr. Scott's Guide" based on the set plans - the sleeping area of the set built for TMP, with the addition of a bathroom and closet - and changed it a bit to make it less wedge-shaped so it can fit in both the inner and outer curves of the corridors. The design of the quarters is by no means done, and will likely be refined a bit as I continue laying out quarters through the ship. I will likely tailor them more towards the version shown in TUC, as well.

Each sixth of the saucer where I've designated quarters on Deck 05 currently would fit about 20 quarters, resulting in about 120 on this deck alone, 50% more than is needed. I will likely aim for around 100 overall Junior Officers Quarters, and end up packing them less tightly than I have previously done as a result. I may also not place them on the inner curve of the main corridor. Remaining space will be filled with things like battery rooms, inertial dampers, structural integrity generators, and the like. Generally though you can see how I plan to add rooms and then gray in the background of unoccupied space behind them. I plan to still keep the compartmental divides, as I think a fully open plan is too advanced for Excelsior.

I generally have in headcanon the idea that for whatever reason on the Enterprise-A all quarters looked generally like the Junior Officers quarters - which I chalk up to the Enterprise-A being a newer experimental ship and hence its short life - but I do not feel beholden by this on Excelsior. I do think that Senior Officers quarters will have their own food synthesizer, though.

Feedback and comments always welcome. More to come!

 

[137th Gebirg]

Were the crew quarters with the bunk beds (in TUC) for the enlisted personnel - senior non-coms and below?

 

[Praetor]

@137th Gebirg That's my understanding and the way I'm planning to handle it.

Here's a quick rundown of my crew and quarters estimates again:

Type / Count / Quarters
Senior Officers / 9 / 9
Junior Officers / 80 / 80
Enlisted Crew / 661 / 110
Visiting Personnel / 130 / 65

The enlisted crew quarters number is based on the idea that each room has six total beds.

Visitors quarters will have a pair of twin beds each.

 

[Praetor]

Short weeks at work are always the best. The same amount of crap crammed into even less time.

Anyway, here's a quick update as I continue to work through quarters placements:

This is Deck 04 and Deck 05, which I've estimated will contain between them 96 total Junior Officers Quarters (24 on Deck 04 and 72 on Deck 05) which is I think a reasonable amount more than the 80 required. To decrease the number I was getting with the quarters tightly packed, I have spaced them less tightly and also begun general crew quarters on Deck 05 on the outer ring. I figure these would likely be the most senior enlisted personnel. There will be about twenty of these rooms on Deck 05, housing 120 crew.

However, the crew quarters as shown by the TNG senior officers quarters in TUC present a bit of a challenge:

This is Deck 07, and you can see where I've highlighted more of these quarters need to go but the curve is prohibitive. I am currently thinking I'm going to either....

1. Create an "inboard" version of the quarters that curve the opposite way, or
2. Redraw the quarters to be less like the actual set and more able to fit in either curve

The former has the virtue of still being somewhat faithful to the set, but the latter makes more sense to me. I may also redraw the corridor wall to be more angled like the actual set either way.

Feedback and opinions always welcome. More to come!

 

[Mytran]

I am currently thinking I'm going to either....

1. Create an "inboard" version of the quarters that curve the opposite way, or
2. Redraw the quarters to be less like the actual set and more able to fit in either curve

Why not both? If the walls are supposed to be part of the saucer structure they would need to be angled towards the centre in any case

 

[Henoch]

Enlisted Crew / 661 / 110

The enlisted crew quarters number is based on the idea that each room has six total beds.

Where does that one, extra crewman sleep?

 

[B.J.]

Where does that one, extra crewman sleep?

They have a bedroll tucked in behind the warp core. Very toasty back there.

 

[Ithekro]

Guy at the bottom of the turbolift system?

 

[Praetor]

I took a pass at redrawing the crew quarters in the reverse curve and I kinda hate it:

I think I'm going to just redraw the room to look like how I want them, actual set plans be damned.

 

[Mres_was_framed!]

Deck 24 isn't really a deck and is a support level.

It is stunning that the Excelsior ends up having as many decks as the TOS Enterprise was claimed to have in the 1970's blueprints.

I am using a more TNG-style deflector and related systems on purpose, though.

Would you tell us a bit more about the differences you see between the types of deflectors from those eras?

P.S. I'm very annoyed to discover that it seems Trekore has removed all standard definition screencaps from shows that have HD versions. Comparing the standard definition screencaps to high definition screencaps was a major reason I used them as a resource

This applies to the current topic because the deflector now looks less green in the HD versions that it did in standard definition, but there is now to way quickly compare.

This is Deck 07, and you can see where I've highlighted more of these quarters need to go but the curve is prohibitive. I am currently thinking I'm going to either....

1. Create an "inboard" version of the quarters that curve the opposite way, or
2. Redraw the quarters to be less like the actual set and more able to fit in either curve

The former has the virtue of still being somewhat faithful to the set, but the latter makes more sense to me. I may also redraw the corridor wall to be more angled like the actual set either way.

I like option 1 better, but either option could work, as the room is pretty well disguised since I did not even realize that it was the senior officers quarters set until someone pointed it out on this thread! The room does look pretty square the way it is filed even the the set was curved. It makes sense there would be different shaped version of this room to fit the curve, since it is really just a bunk room, plus some amenities that could be "made to fit" anywhere necessary. The actual layout of the walls would not matter much to the room's purpose.

 

[Mres_was_framed!]

I took a pass at redrawing the crew quarters in the reverse curve and I kinda hate it:

I think I'm going to just redraw the room to look like how I want them, actual set plans be damned.

Have you thought about putting more bunks in the window bays which are not for windows on this ship? That would not contradict what we saw onscreen but would fill more space. Otherwise, what would be in the window bays? Showers? Bookshelves?

 

[The Librarian]

I took a pass at redrawing the crew quarters in the reverse curve and I kinda hate it:

I think I'm going to just redraw the room to look like how I want them, actual set plans be damned.

I encourage you to do that and not feel bound by a two-second glance. As it stands it's a really weird layout and wastes a lot of space, especially in the interior where there's no slope. If you put the bunks directly against those alcoves they'd make a lot more sense, and offer the crewmen at least a little privacy, which is seriously lacking even by today's standards.

 

[Bernard Guignard]

Would look better if the bunks were vertical between the dividers so you could access the bunks from both sides

 

[The Librarian]

Would look better if the bunks were vertical between the dividers so you could access the bunks from both sides

I disagree on that. If you look at the bunks on real ships, even the older / more cramped ones have them against the wall so they can be curtained off, and pretty much anything built since the eighties have wall cubbies closer to what we see on the Defiant or Cerritos. (Mostly closer to the Cerritos in size for recent ones.) Those sort of out in the open, accessible on both sides bunks are the sort of thing you only see in training barracks, because they lack any privacy, and it's hard to see why anyone in the 23rd century would put up with that when officers get entire rooms to themselves.

 

[Bernard Guignard]

More I think of it why not use the space between the dividers as bunk space.

 

[Praetor]

Apologies for the lack of progress this week, it's been busy at my job. This one's much more fun, though.

I appreciate all the feedback and suggestions on this particular challenge.

Would you tell us a bit more about the differences you see between the types of deflectors from those eras?

It's my general thought that for the TOS Enterprise the rings behind the sensor dish represented the bulk of the deflector hardware, representing an externalized design paradigm. There would likely be numerous good reasons to have it on the outside of the ship, not least of which I imagine to do with having a shielding wall behind it to project the hull.

When TMP rolls around, I envision this as essentially the same tech but modernized and having the technology enclosed within the engineering hull "cone" where the clear thing we see on the outside is probably a "lens" for an internal sensor dish and the other deflector machinery.

By the time of TNG - and I imagine this probably was prototyped on the Excelsior class and her contemporaries - we see a removal of the internalized deflector "ring" structure. For some reason I think of this new technology as being more like a sensor/deflector "cannon" in that rather than having rings there is a directed device at the heart of the mechanism.

I like option 1 better, but either option could work, as the room is pretty well disguised since I did not even realize that it was the senior officers quarters set until someone pointed it out on this thread! The room does look pretty square the way it is filed even the the set was curved. It makes sense there would be different shaped version of this room to fit the curve, since it is really just a bunk room, plus some amenities that could be "made to fit" anywhere necessary. The actual layout of the walls would not matter much to the room's purpose.

You make a good point here - I didn't realize it either. I think that does help the case to change things up.

Have you thought about putting more bunks in the window bays which are not for windows on this ship? That would not contradict what we saw onscreen but would fill more space. Otherwise, what would be in the window bays? Showers? Bookshelves?

I did think about this, but I'm thinking that the window bays would contain the storage lockers for each pair of beds.

Anyhoo, I've taken another pass and I'm generally happy with the result, though I think I may narrow it somewhat:

In this concept, the "window wall" would be vertical, retaining the wall braces in a likely altered form for compartmental bracing, and the credenzas would mount wall lockers above them. You'll notice of course that there is no provision for food slot here. Junior Officers and Crew all eat in the mess halls, while Senior Officers Quarters will have a food slot, though I have yet to determine where.

I agree with @The Librarian's excellent suggestion that this arrangement lends itself well to privacy curtains and may add some semblance of them.

Thoughts and opinions always welcome. I hope to have somethin gmore to show soon.