One Nacelle Down...

[Timo]

We don't really know squat about how warp fields are created. There's no obvious need for two nacellefuls of coils, that much is clear, since most ships don't have any nacelles at all. Only Starfleet's designs and certain select Klingon and Romulan ones seem to favor the two-naccelle setup, and there doesn't appear to be any maneuverability handicap or anything for those ships that don't.

So the idea of having "double hardware" inside one nacelle seems unnecessarily complicated. A single row of warp coils should work all right.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Jeri]

We know they're projected in front of the ship, and they plot the course before they go to warp. Unless there is a point to focus on, there will be no course. Somehow there is an intersection of at least two lines in space to make a point.

 

[Timo]

Doesn't make much sense, IMHO. I've never heard of warp fields being "projected in front" or anything like that: they are shown to be bubbles around the engines, nothing more. And there's no "focusing" going on that would be evident in the shows, either.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Candlelight]

Doesn't make much sense, IMHO. I've never heard of warp fields being "projected in front" or anything like that: they are shown to be bubbles around the engines, nothing more. And there's no "focusing" going on that would be evident in the shows, either.

Timo Saloniemi

No they don't; the warp field makes a bubble around the ship and the deflector dish clears the way ahead of the ship of the bubble to pass through.

 

[Stephen!]

What was the point of the nacelle folding before warp anyway?

Supposedly to prevent damage to subspace, as happened in TNG's "Force Of Nature"

 

[Timo]

...It might be prudent to remember the original purpose was to make the ship look cool. When Rick S got the assignment of introducing this coolness, he then went one step further and invented an in-universe rationalization for this feature, namely "it prevents subspace damage".

But neither of these "purposes" was ever part of the Star Trek universe itself, as it was not mentioned in dialogue, or shown in schematics, or demonstrated in an episode involving subspace damage or lack of it. So while the "because it's cool" and "because it protects subspace" explanations are valid and true, in real-world terms, we're free to come up with other explanations in terms of the Trek universe...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Jeri]

...I've never heard of warp fields being "projected in front" or anything like that...

Yeah, I'm sorry, I can't point to a reference. I heard it a long time ago and thought it was common knowledge. Maybe someone else has heard of it...

 

[Candlelight]

...I've never heard of warp fields being "projected in front" or anything like that...

Yeah, I'm sorry, I can't point to a reference. I heard it a long time ago and thought it was common knowledge. Maybe someone else has heard of it...

Are you confusing the warp field with the deflector dish, like I mentioned in the post above?

Or maybe the episode Timeless, where Voyager had to send the Delta Flyer ahead of itself while using that fancy shmancy warp drive thingy.

 

[Jeri]

^ ^ No, I don't think so. I thought I heard that a long, long time ago; like sometime in the last 40-odd years. The nacelles project a warp field ahead of the ship, so there are dimensions and direction to it.

 

[kimc]

fancy shmancy warp drive thingy.

Could you please refrain from using the ultra-techy jargon for those who may not be able to follow?

kimc, doing the mod dealio

 

[Candlelight]

fancy shmancy warp drive thingy.

Could you please refrain from using the ultra-techy jargon for those who may not be able to follow?

Nacelles - The two blue and silver things attached to the big silver and grey thing.

 

[Akiraprise]

Nacelles - The two pink and silver things attached to the big silver and grey thing.

I thought we were going with hot pink now.

 

[Jeri]

Green; Borg green.