I was informed by one of the visual effects guys who worked on the film that the eyeball on top of the ship is in fact the deflector dish and that this is a single nacelled vessel. Also, the Enterprise as seen in this film has the domes over the engines.
I figured someone would ask. The information is not priviliged, you just have to know who to ask. Due to the NDA situation I don't want to give his name. I will say this, if you look hard enough you'll find him. He likes physical as well as CG models and frequents those boards. I know it's not much, I really don't want to be the one to get this guy in trouble. I thought you guys might want to know. If you don't believe me that's fine, we'll all know for sure in seven months and counting.
*shrugs* I don't know you, and I've seen people make that mistake before. I see what you mean, but there's nothing that makes it stand out as a window as opposed to just a surface detail. Its not transparent that we can see, and its a different size and shape than the viewscreen inside the bridge.
I wasn't saying it was a window, just saying that the design features were similar, perhaps intentionally.
Thanks for the inside info mate. It puts paid to my over/under nacelle theory. I guess Mr. Knowles over at AICN really can't tell the difference between a nacelle and a deflector pod/secondary hull. I'd say that Franz Joseph and his Hermes/Saladin class ships have had a hat (with a big eye on top) tipped to them.
Do people think the windows are more critical a deviation than the interior of the bridge or the command crew seeming to be roughly the same age?
No, that definitely bothers me more, but I'm willing to accept it if its presented well. I have a hard time believing that these people all graduated together - some of them before Kirk, maybe - and yet years later he's in command and many of them are still junior officers. We know Kirk was a Wunderkind, but still...
I don't get where the idea that they graduated together is coming from. According to Kevin Smith's comments, the characters are introduced one at a time, not all in a bunch. And the film clearly spans many years.
Perhaps, but the AICN footage seems to suggest that Kirk, Spock, Uhura and McCoy all leave the academy at the same time and go to the Enterprise while its under the command of Pike. Sulu was already there. I don't think its likely to show any time frame much later than Kirk's first deep space mission - certainly nothing with him being a commissioned Captain in official command of the Enterprise, as we saw him in TOS.
^^What do you mean by "AICN footage?" I've heard some rumors from there, but AICN rumors are notoriously unreliable. And the photos we've seen show McCoy with Commander's stripes on his uniform. There's no way he'd earn that rank just out of the Academy. Besides, the producers and others have repeatedly said in interviews that this film is consistent with what's been established in past canon. Canonically, Kirk's first ship out of the Academy was the Farragut under Captain Garrovick.
Not a problem, I wish the guy wasan't so tight lipped. Of course, if I were facing possible legal action from NDA violation I would be too. As for Harry Knowles, I understand he's more of a Star Wars fan so I can't disparage his ignorance.
If Starfleet is anything like our military, Doctors don't GO to the academy. They go to med school, enlist, and get a short stint in officer's training. And as a rule they enter service as a mid-level officer (captain or major in the army, or lt.senior or lt cdr in the navy) due to their being professional people with YEARS of work past normal college graduation. Tony
...Of course, plenty of the other officers aboard yer average starship appear to be gifted academicians, too. Despite his grease monkey facade, Scotty might well be twice as educated as McCoy, for example. Being a MD might not be quite that special in the 23rd century any more. Timo Saloniemi
I originally thought the two little blue lights on the rim were windows, however I've changed my mind and believe they're part of the RCS. I also noticed the 3 forward darkened sensors/windows/whatever they are calling them- and assumed they were "shut" for battle... On the bridge, I noted that the shadows are cast to the right of the gribbles (the light coming from the left obviously), and seemed to look like phaser nipples. So that's what I'm sticking to until things become more clear.
Shadows, or motion blur? The dots on "U.S.S." seem to have the same sort of shadowing... Timo Saloniemi
Simon Pegg has described Scotty in interviews as an "astrophysicist." Which seems an odd label for an engineer, so maybe he used the wrong term. But it does imply that Scotty does have academic cred in the movie's formulation.
"Scotty came up through the ranks and his practical education is as broad as his formal training in Engineering." - Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek Writer & Director's Guide (Bible) dated April 17, 1967. I am perfectly sanguine with the idea of Scotty having earned a PhD in astronautical engineering while on an academic sabbatical from Starfleet, but there is really no indication in TOS that he possessed any particular fascination with strange astronomical phenomena beyond how their proximity negatively impacted upon the smooth operation of his beloved Enterprise. On the other hand, Pegg - being a mere actor - undoubtedly couldn't tell the difference between astrophysics and astroturf even if you put a loaded gun to his microcephalic head. TGT