Mr. Sternbach, I have several questions regarding the Defiant that I'm hoping you may be able to shed light to. I realize that it was not your original design but hopefully since you created the DS9 Technical Manual which describes its facilities pretty fully your knowledge should be (as always) pretty definitive.
Many (in fact, basically all) of the inconsistencies regarding the Defiant have been discussed at Ex Astris Scientia and it's primarily those that are the fuel for my questions. Here is a link to Memory-Alpha's comprehensive article on the class if anyone has any questions in need of clarifying so I don't post a billion pictures.
1) Size
I realize that initially the beefy runabout turned starship and resulting confusion no doubt led to no one - writers, designers, producers - being just how sure the ship was after she was introduced. I know for the most part the ship was shown as being around 120 meters long in man FX shots, although others (notably in 'First Contact' where perhaps the FX team wasn't as familiar with what size the ship should be) sometimes make it seem both larger and smaller. Special affects inconsistencies aside, how did you (or did you) and the others arrive at the decision of the ship's size, or was it arbitrary?
2) MSD
The cross section of the ship that was shown both on screen and in the TM which I presume to be by Mr. Drexler shows only 4 decks but there was at least one mention of there being up to five decks and an Okudagram that showed listing for six... additionally many features mentioned in the TM weren't shown in the diagram. I'm wondering if this MSD was created before or after the ship's size and features were settled on, and if so, where, if anywhere, did you intend deck five to be? Also, do you believe that the small lights resembling windows visible on the ship's ventral were originally intended to be windows when the model was built, and if so, what do you surmise they 'actually' are?
3) Impulse Engines vs Torpedo Tubes
I always thought that the two glowing red lights on either side of the ship were the impulse engine until seeing in the TM that the impulse engines were actually in the ship's tail and aft torpedo launchers appeared to be located in the glowing red slots. I was curious why you chose to place the impulse engines at the tail rather than where it seemed like they would be?
4) The Forward Airlock(s)
Would the two yellow hatches on the warhead nose be the two airlock hatches for docking with the station, and if so, why two? Is this just a case of forcing something that must be there to line up with the model's pre-existing details? I had theorized that perhaps this would have been devised in-universe by Starfleet as a means of penetrating Borg shields, but that's just me justifying.
5) Forward Torpedoes
I was curious if the forward torpedoes, which seem to always fire from the dorsal notches between the triangular sections and the regular hull, could also fire from the ventral notches, or if it was your intention that there were two tubes in each 'pod'?
Thanks for your expertise!
Many (in fact, basically all) of the inconsistencies regarding the Defiant have been discussed at Ex Astris Scientia and it's primarily those that are the fuel for my questions. Here is a link to Memory-Alpha's comprehensive article on the class if anyone has any questions in need of clarifying so I don't post a billion pictures.
1) Size
I realize that initially the beefy runabout turned starship and resulting confusion no doubt led to no one - writers, designers, producers - being just how sure the ship was after she was introduced. I know for the most part the ship was shown as being around 120 meters long in man FX shots, although others (notably in 'First Contact' where perhaps the FX team wasn't as familiar with what size the ship should be) sometimes make it seem both larger and smaller. Special affects inconsistencies aside, how did you (or did you) and the others arrive at the decision of the ship's size, or was it arbitrary?
2) MSD
The cross section of the ship that was shown both on screen and in the TM which I presume to be by Mr. Drexler shows only 4 decks but there was at least one mention of there being up to five decks and an Okudagram that showed listing for six... additionally many features mentioned in the TM weren't shown in the diagram. I'm wondering if this MSD was created before or after the ship's size and features were settled on, and if so, where, if anywhere, did you intend deck five to be? Also, do you believe that the small lights resembling windows visible on the ship's ventral were originally intended to be windows when the model was built, and if so, what do you surmise they 'actually' are?
3) Impulse Engines vs Torpedo Tubes
I always thought that the two glowing red lights on either side of the ship were the impulse engine until seeing in the TM that the impulse engines were actually in the ship's tail and aft torpedo launchers appeared to be located in the glowing red slots. I was curious why you chose to place the impulse engines at the tail rather than where it seemed like they would be?
4) The Forward Airlock(s)
Would the two yellow hatches on the warhead nose be the two airlock hatches for docking with the station, and if so, why two? Is this just a case of forcing something that must be there to line up with the model's pre-existing details? I had theorized that perhaps this would have been devised in-universe by Starfleet as a means of penetrating Borg shields, but that's just me justifying.
5) Forward Torpedoes
I was curious if the forward torpedoes, which seem to always fire from the dorsal notches between the triangular sections and the regular hull, could also fire from the ventral notches, or if it was your intention that there were two tubes in each 'pod'?
Thanks for your expertise!
