Questions about Reliant design, where is the Nav Dish?
- Thread starter Lord Garth FOI
- Start date
The compact Reliant, with its dedicated weapons bar carrying four automatic torpedo tubes, and four super-mega-pulse (whatever) phaser cannons, and twice as much small-craft hangar space is less of a combat vessel than the Enterprise, which has only two manually-loaded torpedo tubes, no SMP phasers and 14 science labs?
Ummmm....
This is incorrect. If you create a cone out from the main dish it will be restricted in it's angle, but go out far enough and it will eventually cover the entire front aspect of the ship.
There could very well be a marked difference in power generation and distribution ability that makes a ship like Enterprise "heavier" than Reliant.
I recall that the original design of the Reliant was originally "upside-down" - that is - the engines were above the saucer and the roll bar below the saucer.
Which would have placed the weapons pod more or less in the same place as the secondary hull on the Enterprise - implying that there might be some sort of "deflector" there too.
So - maybe the "missing" navigational deflector is somewhere up in the weapons pod - perhaps in the same central space as the photon torpedo tubes?
Which would have placed the weapons pod more or less in the same place as the secondary hull on the Enterprise - implying that there might be some sort of "deflector" there too.
So - maybe the "missing" navigational deflector is somewhere up in the weapons pod - perhaps in the same central space as the photon torpedo tubes?
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The purpose of the dish is threefold. It's a:
1. Navigational deflector
2. Long range sensor array
3. Communications antenna
This might explain why explorer type ships have them. Galaxy-class even has a backup on the saucer section.
In my opinion, any of the lights on the front of the Reliant's saucer could be navigational deflectors, in addition to a deflector shield bubble that all ships probably have anyways.
Think you meant Intrepid class.
No, the row of four rectangular lights facing forward on the underside of the Galaxy-class saucer is labeled on the ST:TNG Blueprints as the "saucer deflector array."
...Which is a clever retcon in many ways, even though they still look basically like the windows they were originally designed to be.
The newer 4-ft model of the ship does away with most of the large windows, replacing them with sets of narrower ones (so that they could semi-plausibly be represented by interior sets featuring very narrow portholes). This makes the four rectangles stand out all the more. It's a shame they don't get a distinct (say, "deflector blue") hue in the process, though. Although it does make sense for them to remain dark in most shots, considering the main deflector is probably doing all the work when the two hulls are combined.
What sort of a glow do these things exhibit in the later CGI Galaxies?
Timo Saloniemi
The newer 4-ft model of the ship does away with most of the large windows, replacing them with sets of narrower ones (so that they could semi-plausibly be represented by interior sets featuring very narrow portholes). This makes the four rectangles stand out all the more. It's a shame they don't get a distinct (say, "deflector blue") hue in the process, though. Although it does make sense for them to remain dark in most shots, considering the main deflector is probably doing all the work when the two hulls are combined.
What sort of a glow do these things exhibit in the later CGI Galaxies?
Timo Saloniemi
The Deep Space Nine: Technical Manual identified the Miranda-class starship as a medium cruiser.
I don't think the deflector dish is in the rollbar, as the rollbar can be removed from this class of ship. I think the deflector is in the main body of the ship.
I think there may be a male and female line of starships. The male line of starships would have the deflectors in full view, whereas the female line of starships would have the deflectors hidden.
I don't think the deflector dish is in the rollbar, as the rollbar can be removed from this class of ship. I think the deflector is in the main body of the ship.
I think there may be a male and female line of starships. The male line of starships would have the deflectors in full view, whereas the female line of starships would have the deflectors hidden.
^That's giving me all sorts of disturbing mental images.
Especially if you need to decide whether you want your deflector dishes to be standard sized or reduced in diameter.
The cost of having the Starfleet Corps of Engineers up to perform a bris in Spacedock must be expensive.
Dare I even bring up the suggestion of "Deflector Implants"?
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If you extend the curve of that dish out and up, it intersects the primary hull just aft of the lower sensor dome. Now perhaps it just shotts whatever energy a deflector uses right through the hull, but that would seem to raise potential health hazards for the crew.
I believe those three large circular area along the forward edge of the Connie-class primary hull are the actual forward deflectors. they're way too large to be view-ports, anyways.
But that doesn't matter, because the hazards in question don't come from that angle. Given how the nav deflector is supposed to work, we're talking about deflecting things that are thousands or millions of kilometers in front of the ship. After all, we aren't talking about things dive-bombing a stationary ship from above. We're talking about bits of rock and dust that are just floating there in space while a starship careers toward them at unimaginable speeds. So pretty much everything the deflector beam has to deflect is directly in front of the ship. And if you're directly in front of the ship at any distance, then you can see the entire deflector dish. The saucer doesn't get in its way from that angle. Anything high enough to be in the "shadow" of the saucer overhang is not going to be in the ship's direct path as it moves forward through space -- not unless you tilted the bow downward relative to your direction of flight for some strange reason.
Well, there's a possibility that SF explored the option of having designs that don't utilize the deflector dish and as a result may operate in a bit deficient capacity compared to ships that do use them - but have other uses that SF found usable.
But if we take a look at things from another angle... the USS Prometheus didn't have the deflector dish on all 3 sections either, and the initial combat with a Nebula class ship took place at warp (as did re-assembly).
All 3 sections sport nacelles though, suggesting that each is capable of achieving Warp speed without any assistance.
However, Voyager suggested that losing the navigational deflector (the big dish) would effectively prevent the vessel from achieving Warp speed altogether.
So, we kinda have a contradiction in terms of canon - or, the ships that lack a visual deflector externally may have internalized components that allow them to do the same thing - although this might suggest the method is inefficient compared to ships that have a big navigational deflector - which is why it's present on just a few SF designs.
But if we take a look at things from another angle... the USS Prometheus didn't have the deflector dish on all 3 sections either, and the initial combat with a Nebula class ship took place at warp (as did re-assembly).
All 3 sections sport nacelles though, suggesting that each is capable of achieving Warp speed without any assistance.
However, Voyager suggested that losing the navigational deflector (the big dish) would effectively prevent the vessel from achieving Warp speed altogether.
So, we kinda have a contradiction in terms of canon - or, the ships that lack a visual deflector externally may have internalized components that allow them to do the same thing - although this might suggest the method is inefficient compared to ships that have a big navigational deflector - which is why it's present on just a few SF designs.
Perhaps the big glowy deflector is a combination deflector/high-powered sensor beam, wheras the less visible designs are a simple deflector behind a radome-like arrangement.
The obvious solution...
The Miranda class has the same sort of dish as all the other ships. it's at the front of the saucer, much like the NX class.
The Miranda class just has a covering on it that looks like the rest of the hull, but is transparent to whatever energy thingies the dish emits. So as far as the dish is concerned, there's nothing in front of it. As far as everything else is concerned, the dish is covered.
Just like how your car headlights work even though there is a layer of shaped plastic in front of them.
The Miranda class has the same sort of dish as all the other ships. it's at the front of the saucer, much like the NX class.
The Miranda class just has a covering on it that looks like the rest of the hull, but is transparent to whatever energy thingies the dish emits. So as far as the dish is concerned, there's nothing in front of it. As far as everything else is concerned, the dish is covered.
Just like how your car headlights work even though there is a layer of shaped plastic in front of them.
Or the deflector might be a device so small that we easily miss it. On Kirk's old ship, it sits in the middle of a big dish that is unrelated to deflecting, but gets its name by association: it's the dish that happens to be next to the deflector, hence "deflector dish". On other ships, the device sits in some other location; the Reliant might have a "deflector box" or a "deflector groove" associated with the device.
That is, the deflector dish would get its name that way if such a name were associated with it. But the association is just a fan/backstage idea, not part of the dialogue or onscreen graphics of TOS. The name first appears on screen in TNG "Best of Both Worlds", IIRC...
Timo Saloniemi
That is, the deflector dish would get its name that way if such a name were associated with it. But the association is just a fan/backstage idea, not part of the dialogue or onscreen graphics of TOS. The name first appears on screen in TNG "Best of Both Worlds", IIRC...
Timo Saloniemi