Of steam pipes and fork lifts.....

[sojourner]

Well, to be fair, I get the impression that the only cost for site use was to have Uhura order a Michelob. So there may have been some real cost savings involved. I wish they had thrown up a few curved walls or something in the background to at least intimidate that engineering was inside the hull of a ship.

hmmm, "intimidate" does not seem to be the right word, but I have a mental block and can't think of the word I really mean. You can sus it out from the rest of the sentence....

 

[Jimmy_C]

Here's a post from the other thread.

i thought the ejection came from the bottom of the neck of the ship? The engine room does look more functional than a room of bleeping lights. and more like the bowels of the titanic, i love this about it. I hope the designers of the ship will publish blueprints and get an overall length for the ship. i need these things to update my scaled ship charts!

I cant agree with you more, people dont seem to like this design, but as someone who has worked on a REAL engine room, I cant help but smile wide at a engineering room that actually looked PRACTICAL.

No Trek has ever given us a realistic engineering section, ever. If the ship is meant to be repaired on the fly, its going to be exposed at all times, and not hidden away behind walls and bulkheads.

 

[ancient]

After seeing the movie and the shots of the hangar, the ship does indeed appear to be about twice as big as the TOS ship, My guess: around 2000 feet long.

I thought it was strange that they moved the bridge down to deck 2 or 3. That was really unexpected for me because the actual bridge dome area looks more or less the same complete with turbo shafts at the back. And yet, that's not the bridge. It's the...whatever. I saw that there were many other rooms on the same deck as the bridge because there was a shot through a corridor straight into the bridge.

As for Engineering, it didn't look futuristic at all. There was at least one shot I remember where the boiling tanks were a wee bit too recognizable.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Here's a question then: why didn't they just use a real engine room? It isn't like they couldn't have gotten the cooperation of the U.S. Navy, and most people wouldn't have recognised the engine room of a CVN - especially if they dressed it up a little.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I saw that there were many other rooms on the same deck as the bridge because there was a shot through a corridor straight into the bridge.

Yeah, that puzzled someone I knew who was on the set - it turns out, though, since the bridge is embedded somewhat lower, that it's not the problem they thought at the time.

 

[MadMan1701A]

Well, we're not talking about the story, plot, characters, trek tech, or acting. We are discussing what parts of the production design works and does not work. Regardless of whether we love it, hate it, or are somewhere in between. This movie will be influencing fan art for years to come. So, why not talk about it?

Because you're supposed to be hostile to it.

Odd, isn't it then, that nobody has been hostile to Madman's modeling work, huh? He's not hostile to the new flick... but he's doing what this particular forum is supposed to be about.

Or haven't you read this?

Trek Art Post your fan art here, including hobby models and collectibles.

I think it has to do with perception... too many people (I'm not pointing at anyone here, specifically, I'm just talking generally, about some of the other forums ) are convinced that their way is the right way. I'm not one to do that... I like what I like, and others like what they like.

Give it a few months, and everyone will calm down. This movie was a big deal, and it's a lot to take in.

 

[Timo]

Forklift - no problem with. It wasn't just a forklift - look at the wheels. They looked like it had some kind of greeble on it. Maybe manipulating gravity some but using the wheels to propel the thing forward like a moon buggy.

I think this is a very real 1970s-vintage technology that was supposed to see common use aboard aircraft carriers and the like. With wheels that consist of smaller wheels, various carts and tractors could maneuver in all directions without ever turning. I'm not sure if it ever was applied on a forklift, but I wouldn't wonder a bit if that 'lift was 100% genuine and functional.

Ah, found it: "Mecanum Wheel". And yeah, the tech appears to be in production. I wonder if anybody can track down the specific forklift used in the movie? AirTrax looks like the leading candidate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecanum_wheel

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Gagarin]

Forklift - no problem with. It wasn't just a forklift - look at the wheels. They looked like it had some kind of greeble on it. Maybe manipulating gravity some but using the wheels to propel the thing forward like a moon buggy.

I think this is a very real 1970s-vintage technology that was supposed to see common use aboard aircraft carriers and the like. With wheels that consist of smaller wheels, various carts and tractors could maneuver in all directions without ever turning. I'm not sure if it ever was applied on a forklift, but I wouldn't wonder a bit if that 'lift was 100% genuine and functional.

Ah, found it: "Mecanum Wheel". And yeah, the tech appears to be in production. I wonder if anybody can track down the specific forklift used in the movie? AirTrax looks like the leading candidate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecanum_wheel

Timo Saloniemi

oooh, yup, that's what I saw =)

 

[TIN_MAN]

I just saw the film today, and I wasn't bothered by the engineering as much as I thought I'd be, after all the bad press it's gotten here and elsewhere. But I'd still like to see some kind of recognizable control room?

 

[ncc-1017-e]

I just saw the film today, and I wasn't bothered by the engineering as much as I thought I'd be, after all the bad press it's gotten here and elsewhere. But I'd still like to see some kind of recognizable control room?

The "refinery' sucks! The film just show that the film makers did not do their homework!

 

[Cary L. Brown]

I just saw the film today, and I wasn't bothered by the engineering as much as I thought I'd be, after all the bad press it's gotten here and elsewhere. But I'd still like to see some kind of recognizable control room?

The "refinery' sucks! The film just show that the film makers did not do their homework!

Well... to be entirely accurate... it's nothing whatsoever like a refinery (which would actually, if an "indoor refinery" existed, better resemble a "Trekkian" engine room than this would, I think).

What this was... is a brewery. The "engine pods" you see all over the place are, quite literally, full of beer, during the scenes in which you see them. The pipe you see are full of beer.

And, evidently, so were the folks who decided it looked anything like an engine room.

 

[ncc-1017-e]

I just saw the film today, and I wasn't bothered by the engineering as much as I thought I'd be, after all the bad press it's gotten here and elsewhere. But I'd still like to see some kind of recognizable control room?

The "refinery' sucks! The film just show that the film makers did not do their homework!

Well... to be entirely accurate... it's nothing whatsoever like a refinery (which would actually, if an "indoor refinery" existed, better resemble a "Trekkian" engine room than this would, I think).

What this was... is a brewery. The "engine pods" you see all over the place are, quite literally, full of beer, during the scenes in which you see them. The pipe you see are full of beer.

And, evidently, so were the folks who decided it looked anything like an engine room.

God I love you!

 

[largo]

ahhh... an engine room full of beer. what could be more perfect?

 

[USS Mariner]

I just saw the film today, and I wasn't bothered by the engineering as much as I thought I'd be, after all the bad press it's gotten here and elsewhere. But I'd still like to see some kind of recognizable control room?

The "refinery' sucks! The film just show that the film makers did not do their homework!

Well... to be entirely accurate... it's nothing whatsoever like a refinery (which would actually, if an "indoor refinery" existed, better resemble a "Trekkian" engine room than this would, I think).

What this was... is a brewery. The "engine pods" you see all over the place are, quite literally, full of beer, during the scenes in which you see them. The pipe you see are full of beer.

And, evidently, so were the folks who decided it looked anything like an engine room.

Given what at an actual carrier's engine room looks like, I'd wager that Jefferies knew what he was doing.

http://www.uss-hornet.org/exhibits/photos/

Honestly, all the Hornet's engineering rooms need are some colored lights and a fresh coat of paint.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

The "refinery' sucks! The film just show that the film makers did not do their homework!

Well... to be entirely accurate... it's nothing whatsoever like a refinery (which would actually, if an "indoor refinery" existed, better resemble a "Trekkian" engine room than this would, I think).

What this was... is a brewery. The "engine pods" you see all over the place are, quite literally, full of beer, during the scenes in which you see them. The pipe you see are full of beer.

And, evidently, so were the folks who decided it looked anything like an engine room.

Given what at an actual carrier's engine room looks like, I'd wager that Jefferies knew what he was doing.

http://www.uss-hornet.org/exhibits/photos/

Honestly, all the Hornet's engineering rooms need are some colored lights and a fresh coat of paint.

Uh... pardon me? From what I just read, it almost sounds like you think Matt Jefferies designed the new engine room. But I'm sure... even if you're less than half my age... that you know better than that!

(FYI, for anyone reading this who isn't aware... Walter "Matt" Jefferies designed the original, TOS ship... including the original TOS engineering set.)

 

[USS Mariner]

I meant to say that, given how much that the Hornet's engine room resembles what Jefferies did in TOS (which is why I mentioned COLORED LIGHTS), the new engine "brewery" isn't really an improvement in realism.

 

[RoJoHen]

I was fine with Engineering, but I do agree that there should have been something resembling a main control area. Engineering...and MAIN Engineering.

 

[Timo]

This is all a bit confusing, because the 1940s engine room photos show a facility that's not all that different from the STXI one. Exposed pipes and naked supports are all the vogue, while control panels are scattered here and there instead of covering all the walls.

It almost seems as if Jeffries completely dropped the ball originally, and later generations had to correct his mistakes...

Granted that vanity covers will probably increase in number and coverage when reliability of the tech beneath improves - eventually giving us something like the TNG engine room. But the trend in control panels is one of diminishing size, because controls become more and more abstract and do not have to be built into the same giant cowling where the machine itself resides.

Also, the exposed brewery looks ergonomically superior to the model where all important machinery is hidden behind panels, and those panels in turn are hidden in really awkward corridors or crawlways. Granted that TNG got exceptionally bad with the all-fours Jeffries tubes - but as the name implies, Matt himself was the first to introduce this idiocy, and in an absurdly tilted configuration to boot.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Psion]

I worked for the company that designed and built that Anhueser Busch plant and worked on one of the renovation projects. It was instantly recognizable for what it was, and Simon Pegg looked like someone goofing off around equipment you shouldn't goof off around. Sticking radiation warnings on a brewer's vessel does nothing to make the vessel look like a warp core.

Mind you, I love the idea of lots of exposed pipes and wiring and stuff to make engineering look more real, but this looked too much like plants I've wandered around in to be anything but hokey.

Now those pictures from the Hornet ... hmmm, that's starting to go someplace. Just that little stretch, replacing all the mechanical gauges and diagrams with Trekkian displays, would look amazing. Replace the flooring with an open grate over a green-screen so other levels could be shown, and the size of the engineering set could be smaller than the original, yet vastly more believable.

 

[Timo]

I worked for the company that designed and built that Anhueser Busch plant and worked on one of the renovation projects. It was instantly recognizable for what it was, and Simon Pegg looked like someone goofing off around equipment you shouldn't goof off around.

Pardon the expression, but doesn't that sound more like a personal problem? Only a tiny handful of people in the world would recognize this particular facility, and even if they did, they could ignore the specific familiarity just like they can ignore a familiar Los Angeles street corner in a thriller taking place in San Francisco.

Sticking radiation warnings on a brewer's vessel does nothing to make the vessel look like a warp core.

Why not? There are no rules about what a warp core should or shouldn't look like. The various shows and movies have already offered too much variety for that sort of a rule.

Besides, TOS cheapskated its way out of actually showing what it was telling: an entire hull full of mazelike machinery where Evil Kirk or Ben Finney could hide indefinitely. When we finally see this maze, it can hardly be expected that we'd spot familiar structures in the exact spots that we happen to visit, while it seems likely that we'd see many unfamiliar ones. Most of the TOS engineering remained unseen due to budgetary reasons (and limitations of imagination?). It could well have housed equipment like this.

Timo Saloniemi