Picard Season 2 Stargazer Deflector Crystals
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I think Mr. Drexler, like a lot of us fans and creative types, has strong personal attachment to his work that shows at times. In this case, it's to the tech that he helped invent for the NX-01, specifically the symmetric field governor.
I mean, Devil's Advocate, but why can't the TMP era's "deflection crystal" also be a "symmetric field governor"?
I mean, Devil's Advocate, but why can't the TMP era's "deflection crystal" also be a "symmetric field governor"?
^^^ While I agree in principle with that concept, the term was invented by David Kimble and Andrew Probert for the TMP refit (and approved by Roddenberry so he could syphon the merch royalties off of it 
), as shown in the official TMP schematics, and remained that benchmark standard nomenclature until the NX-01 appeared 20 years later, which used an identically colored and detailed ship-mounted greeble and retcon-named it something completely different, muddying the waters. If they'd just done something simple like made it a different color - orange instead of blue, it would have been fine. They wouldn't have needed to change the superstructure crystal housing design at all, as it would have been interpreted as a standard multi-purpose crystal containment module invented in the 22nd century, extending on into the 25th and beyond, and called it a day.
), as shown in the official TMP schematics, and remained that benchmark standard nomenclature until the NX-01 appeared 20 years later, which used an identically colored and detailed ship-mounted greeble and retcon-named it something completely different, muddying the waters. If they'd just done something simple like made it a different color - orange instead of blue, it would have been fine. They wouldn't have needed to change the superstructure crystal housing design at all, as it would have been interpreted as a standard multi-purpose crystal containment module invented in the 22nd century, extending on into the 25th and beyond, and called it a day.
I think there’s a little bit of Mandela Effect going on, as our memories of the refit/A are influenced more by model kits than how it actually appeared in the movies. The dome wasn't really blue, at least not as blue as the one on the NX-01.
In TMP it was unlit, except at full impulse, when it was orange.
It was its bluest in TWOK and TSFS, but even so, was more of a flat white than how its commonly depicted outside the movies, as a twin to the deflector with a white center fading to deep blue at the edges. It's not visible in TVH or TFF, and in TUC, it's either off or warm white.
Overall, the features on the NX-01 and the PIC ships look a lot more like how we imagine the deflection crystal versus how they actually looked.
True, the brightness of the TMP crystal did give it an occasional whitish glow, if not pale blue. Wasn’t it also briefly purple at one time as well, or am I thinking of the actual impulse engine emitters?
It reminds me of the old debates over OWK’s and Luke’s lightsaber colors in ANH. I knew people who swore on a stack of bibles that the blade was white but had a blue halo, when others (like me) felt the blade was a pale blue, otherwise it wouldn’t have had a blue glow. Case in point were Ashoka’s second set of twin blades that truly were pure white and had a halo to match, sans color.
So yeah, I could see where the impulse crystal color has been misremembered, with it possibly changing to be more blue with the introduction of CG models in DS9, that also displayed inboard blue warp coil glows that the original filming miniatures never had.
It reminds me of the old debates over OWK’s and Luke’s lightsaber colors in ANH. I knew people who swore on a stack of bibles that the blade was white but had a blue halo, when others (like me) felt the blade was a pale blue, otherwise it wouldn’t have had a blue glow. Case in point were Ashoka’s second set of twin blades that truly were pure white and had a halo to match, sans color.
So yeah, I could see where the impulse crystal color has been misremembered, with it possibly changing to be more blue with the introduction of CG models in DS9, that also displayed inboard blue warp coil glows that the original filming miniatures never had.
Could it change color with power flow?
In TWOK there was some variation. The Enterprise's crystal actually started as orange (because they re-used the impulse scene from TMP) and kinda hard to tell if it is white or blue after Khan's initial attack. When Enterprise is chased into the Mutara Nebula, it looks like the crystal is orange. In the nebula it looks white-purple (dvd) or bluish (bluray).
Reliant's was blue until the Enterprise destroyed it when the shields were overridden. However, later it looks like it was repaired again and lit as blue and then off again in the nebula.
In TSFS, the Enterprise crystal was unlit in the beginning but lit white (dvd) when she was stolen and later when she was attacked.
With the crystal thing lit and unlit at various times and in different colors I'm not so sure the onscreen lighting matches the description as an impulse deflection crystal. Heck I'm not sure why this wouldn't be instantly fatal if it were the top of the intermix shaft/deflection crystal unless it was something peripheral to intermix shaft like an energy reservoir or something... YMMV.
Y’know…. It occurs to me that the scene with the Enterprise approaching Spacedock without the crystal lit may actually be an AMT/ERTL kit! The crystal dome is way too big, and sitting way too high, relative to its surrounding circular structure, just like the kit. The bridge dome also has a definite kit feel to it and the shuttle bay doors just look kind of off. I think it was just painted up really nice with a couple of lights by ILM to match the original for that particular long-shot.
Do you think an AMT/ERTL kit was used for the self-destruct? It looks like it has the raised dome as well.
That one, definitely not. There have been photos of the destroyed model, and it looks like it was about three-quarters of the size of the hero version, much larger than the AMT model.
An AMT kit was built by ILM for TWOK, and apparently the same one was used for the rest of the movies, including that shot approaching Spacedock in TSFS (I'm not sure what shots they would've used the little one for in TWOK. Maybe a wide shot of the ship flying towards the nebula, or the distant shots of it at warp; it looks like one of the tell-tales is the missing windows on the back of the saucer). There was another model about the same size built for TMP that was used for the really distant shots of the ship flying over V'Ger, and that one was the source for the molds that were used to make the South Bend Enterprise toy.
Well the stargazer "crystals" are more or less a direct rip of the Tmp ones. Looks wise.
Maybe some ships need a bit of help in the warp fields.. or they just look cool.
Maybe some ships need a bit of help in the warp fields.. or they just look cool.
In one of his interviews for Trekyards, on Youtube, Doug Drexler explains that he intended the warp core to be in the place between the nacelles that he later renamed "symmetrical warp governor."
His ideas that the warp core could be changed out by using a module that could be adapted and replaced over time, and ejected in an emergency. Thus, what appears to be an "impulse deflection crystal" actually makes some sense.
The warp core was moved by the producers to the inside of the saucer. He explained that, other than being forced to use an overall shape like the Akira class, this change was one of the few asked of him, because the producers did not want writers to be able to eject the core in an emergency yet, to keep the show's apparent danger level up.
As such, the "symmetrical warp governor" is now a component that produces a low-level warp field to balance and control the other two from the nacelles, the old-style nacelles not being able to do this (but, I might add, Kirk's ship probably not needing them due to "better" nacelles).
The added bonus is that I understand Archer's father is the inventor of the symmetrical warp governor" which makes warp 5 travel possible, which gives the component a dramatic reason for being there.
I wish this explanation from Drexler was better known among fans, since it makes so much of the tech evolution from TOS make more sense!
The whole design of the NX-01 would make more sense if the warp core or equivalent was in the external module where the "symmetrical warp governor" is. There is no engineering hull, but that little area could be the beginnings of an evolution towards one. It also expands on the idea that the nacelles are dangerous since the engine core is then also away from the rest of the ship.
In the NX-01 refit design, there is also module like this in the secondary hull that actual is supposed to contain the warp core and expanded engineering systems.
If Probert's idea was that that crystal directs energy or warp plasma from the intermix chamber to the rest of the ship, then it makes sense that it could resemble the deflector in color.
I have supposed that the warp drive system created physical links between the nacelle endcaps, warp core/intermix shaft, and deflector; in TOS they are all orange, and in the movies they are all blue, most of the time,
So what is seen if what is seen in the movies is that the impulse deflection crystal changes color to match what the deflector is doing, that make sense to me. I had never noticed it being orange, but I had noticed that it is a sort of "bluish-white" in most of the movies most of the time and not the more blue color that the Reliant's is.
All this being said, I have not seen the show mentioned by the original poster, but my interpretation of the original Stargazer from TNG is that its warp core was transverse, with the impulse deflection crystal at each end, so that it has two impulse deflection crystals, not two warp cores.
Perhaps the impulse deflection crystals are able to do some of the job of the main deflector dish, but at a weaker level. Maybe his is why Reliant and Stargazer both have two impulse deflection crystals, as that allows them to get by without a main deflector dish.
I think the fact that Reliant's was blue and shown in close-up contributes to why fans remember the one on the Enterprise as bluer than it was.
I am going to again throw out my theory here that one Engine Room is at the back of the saucer in TOS and that the dilithium crystal seen in the structure on the floor is the TOS-equivalent of an "impulse deflection crystal."
The term deflection crystal isn't even canon. It's never mentioned on screen.
Yep, his idea was that the entire secondary hull could also be jettisoned in an emergency. The the original Warp 5 reactor was still in the saucer and could be reactivated if needed. That's also why the saucer deflector dish wasn't removed in the refit.
The post-Enterprise novels ignored (or didn't know about) that bit, and had the saucer engineering turned into more crew quarters IIRC.
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Apparently neither was "symmetric warp field governor", "symmetric field governor", "warp field governor" or any other combination thereof, according to every single transcript of ENT that I did a text search on today.
So, since one is neither more nor less canon than the other, this fact makes it all a moot point anyway.
So, since one is neither more nor less canon than the other, this fact makes it all a moot point anyway.
Could be either. I remember CLB explicitly saying he describe the Shuttlepod drop-bays being being moved to either side of the neck instead of remaining in their original position and the pod pilots just having to be very, very careful (though that was changed for the deck-plans that were eventually made, and the shuttle pods were moved to bays behind the big rolling doors in the back of the saucer, and the original drop-bays were just vestigial).
Fair enough, I thought it was.
Interesting, I was sure someone mentioned a field governor in "Enterprise" at some point.
I vaguely remember a discussion from this board years ago where it was suggested that maybe the deflection crystal, for lack of a better term, "deflected" a part of the warp field to allow the movie-era impulse engines to move the ship without the accelerator coils of the TNG design. In this instance, there would always be a low-level warp field in operation to help the ship move at sublight and it paves the way for the TNG-onwards impulse designs that have accelerators. Maybe in the Picard era there's an advantage to including this technology again? Maybe it did the same for NX-01?
I vaguely remember a discussion from this board years ago where it was suggested that maybe the deflection crystal, for lack of a better term, "deflected" a part of the warp field to allow the movie-era impulse engines to move the ship without the accelerator coils of the TNG design. In this instance, there would always be a low-level warp field in operation to help the ship move at sublight and it paves the way for the TNG-onwards impulse designs that have accelerators. Maybe in the Picard era there's an advantage to including this technology again? Maybe it did the same for NX-01?
Perhaps in pairing the two together they managed to tweak the warp fields for quicker response times, or less leadup to high warp speeds. Titan seems to just go to warp 9.9+ like its nothing major. Even the Galaxy-class and Intrepid-classes had to push up to the higher warp speeds after warp 9. And the refit Enterprise in TMP had to ease up to higher warp speed, and certainly needed to brief engineering to get the warp drive ready.
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