Klingon Battle Cruiser
- Thread starter ZapBrannigan
- Start date
TOS starship combat ranged at thousands of miles between ships, and that's appropriate for phaser and disruptor type weapons. But that also has opposing ships well out of visual range (although not sensor range).
If two ships are 7000 miles apart, beyond visual range, would orientation and profile matter? At those distances when the ship isn't visible without sensors, would skinny pylons or narrow necks or broad saucers make a difference?
It's not as if one ship is close enough to manually target the other and has to line up a reticle crosshairs on a D-7's neck boom, so the battlecruiser profile comes into play (TWOK battle was an exception, not the rule).
If a ship can target and hit an enemy vessel so far away that it can't even be seen, then would factors like "low profile" and "minimal aspect" ship orientation make a difference?
If two ships are 7000 miles apart, beyond visual range, would orientation and profile matter? At those distances when the ship isn't visible without sensors, would skinny pylons or narrow necks or broad saucers make a difference?
It's not as if one ship is close enough to manually target the other and has to line up a reticle crosshairs on a D-7's neck boom, so the battlecruiser profile comes into play (TWOK battle was an exception, not the rule).
If a ship can target and hit an enemy vessel so far away that it can't even be seen, then would factors like "low profile" and "minimal aspect" ship orientation make a difference?
The idea behind a lot of the TOS ship designs was that materials and construction techniques had advanced way beyond our understanding- things like the neck boom and the Enterprises nacelle pylons demonstrated this. I think it is interesting that early Klingon ships shown it ST-Enterprise have additional external supports with cables and trusses on the ships as the engineering was not up to the TOS levels yet.
The forward bridge is a big psychological impact- like having the bridge pod up and exposed on the Star Destroyer. The demonstration of pure power and confidence by having your command section 'in the face' of the enemy, showing no matter what the enemy could attempt nothing was to be feared.
The forward bridge is a big psychological impact- like having the bridge pod up and exposed on the Star Destroyer. The demonstration of pure power and confidence by having your command section 'in the face' of the enemy, showing no matter what the enemy could attempt nothing was to be feared.
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@ Forbin
@ Richard Baker
Interesting idea! Indeed, the head of the Klingon Battlecruiser rather strikes me as the head of a venomous snake in comparison to the Enterprise's saucer which reminds me rather of a turtle...
Bob
@ Richard Baker
Interesting idea! Indeed, the head of the Klingon Battlecruiser rather strikes me as the head of a venomous snake in comparison to the Enterprise's saucer which reminds me rather of a turtle...
Bob
The crude way their ships appear could be a culturally driven look, deliberately cramped, misty and with low light levels. When Kirk ordered his ship out of Romulan space at warp 9, the D-7 chasing him was able to match his speed.
One of the things implied in TNG, is that one of the aces in the Federation hand that helped bring about the permanent Klingon/Federation alliance, was the superior Federation engine technology. In "Yesterday's Enterprise", for example, the alternate Picard notes to his crew that they could outrun the Klingons, but they needed to cover the Ent-C while it reentered the wormhole. This shows up in a few non-canonical novels, as well.
I built only a single D7 kit, but mine and those owned by two different playmates were cast in a very pale olive green. The ship looked close enough to that color when broadcast in Birmingham (AL, not England) that we assumed that was meant to be the color of the ship.
Sincerely,
Bill
Sincerely,
Bill