Question about those docking stations

[writergal]

Hi all,

I saw the movie for the third time last weekend, and I have a question.

Remember the scene where McCoy and Kirk take that shuttle to the Enterprise for the first time, and they see the docking station outside the shuttle window?

It looked to me like the docking station had a huge round area at the center (like DS9), and all of the starships were nudged up against that area, with the front edge of the saucer bumped up against the edge of the round area. Made me think of a litter of tiny Enterprises nursing against a mommy Enterprise, but anyway!!

My question is: since there doesn't seem to be any frontal doors in the saucer that would allow a crew to enter or exit the docking station, why are the starships arranged that way? Wouldn't it make more sense for the starships to be "butt first" against the docking station, so people could travel through what would be the shuttle bay? Or am I missing something? Are there doors and they're just too small to see on the publicity pics?

 

[Falconfire]

Hi all,

I saw the movie for the third time last weekend, and I have a question.

Remember the scene where McCoy and Kirk take that shuttle to the Enterprise for the first time, and they see the docking station outside the shuttle window?

It looked to me like the docking station had a huge round area at the center (like DS9), and all of the starships were nudged up against that area, with the front edge of the saucer bumped up against the edge of the round area. Made me think of a litter of tiny Enterprises nursing against a mommy Enterprise, but anyway!!

My question is: since there doesn't seem to be any frontal doors in the saucer that would allow a crew to enter or exit the docking station, why are the starships arranged that way? Wouldn't it make more sense for the starships to be "butt first" against the docking station, so people could travel through what would be the shuttle bay? Or am I missing something? Are there doors and they're just too small to see on the publicity pics?

Could very well be doors and you just dont see them, or they blend seamlessly into the hull.

Truth is I think they didnt think about that, made for a neat scene but they forgot the doors later on the model. Or even they came up with the concept after they did the effects for a lot of the movie. Not unheard of, just think about 10 forward, and the fact that the windows are missing on all but 1of the D models.

 

[Hyperspace05]

They might just be connected with umbilicals (fuel, power, communication) while at the stations.

But of course, better closeups would have been nice!

 

[Hyper]

It's the forerunner of the system Defiant uses to dock with DS9.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

The docking doors are camouflaged into the saucer similar to a bookcase door on a bookcase which you can't tell it's a door cos it's mingled in.

 

[Kpnuts]

It looks cooler to have them connect that way.

That is the reason they face forward

 

[Richard Baker]

It looks cooler to have them connect that way.

That is the reason they face forward

Visually it does look better. I think the idea came after the ship's design was finalized and they didn't care about the hardware for docking.
People could just beam on board and the connectors would not really transfer anything, just keep the ship in one spot instead of a bunch orbiting the station like K-7. If they backed in as suggested then the shuttles from Earthcould not land.
Boith Voyager and the Enterprise D had servicing connectors along the top back spine fron th eprinmary hull to the secondary hull- they just were never seen in use. Htere was a nice diagram in one of the books which showed the Galaxy class docking arrangement using that spinal connection set-up.

 

[Crusher Disciple]

Maybe they were all getting gas and Starfleet put the gas tanks on the front.