My "FIGHT" with Captain Kirk!

[Poltargyst]

Star Trek shorthand. In TOS, they didn't need to spell it out with detailed explanations. Scotty knew what to do

It's not just about Scotty knowing what to do, it's about the audience knowing what Kirk is telling Scotty to do. If it's to detach the saucer section and allow the secondary hull to be destroyed, the dialog needs to say that. Kirk could tell Scotty to separate the saucer section, but he doesn't. He says jettison the nacelles.

 

[Poltargyst]

I'd forgotten about this:

The Star Trek Transcripts - The Savage Curtain

The Savage Curtain

KIRK: Scotty, inform Starfleet Command. Disengage nacelles, Jettison if possible. Mister Spock, assist them. Advise and analyse. Scotty? Scotty?

So apparently the nacelles can be disengaged and jettisoned as separate actions. But no mention again of any saucer section separation.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I'd forgotten about this:

The Star Trek Transcripts - The Savage Curtain

The Savage Curtain

KIRK: Scotty, inform Starfleet Command. Disengage nacelles, Jettison if possible. Mister Spock, assist them. Advise and analyse. Scotty? Scotty?

So apparently the nacelles can be disengaged and jettisoned as separate actions. But no mention again of any saucer section separation.

Now we have to think about what these 1960s writers thought of as "nacelles," not what we fans think of today, in an age Starfleet ships live by a decades-known set of established terms.

Google returns this for "define nacelles":

1. a streamlined housing or tank for something on the outside of an aircraft or motor vehicle.
• the outer casing of an aircraft engine.
• the car of an airship.

They thought "nacelles" included the secondary hull. It IS a casing held to the saucer by a pylon. "Jettison the nacelles," to those writers, just meant "Get away in the saucer" I'll betcha.

Also, in "The Apple," Scotty says "We're losing potency in our antimatter pods." By that he meant the two obvious warp engines that we call nacelles. [I had to learn, years later on this very board, that aircraft guys call engine housings pods.] So that's another data point, meaning the engines only, without the secondary hull, go by "pods."