Starship Enterprise from TMP rebuilt on Earth or at Mars ?l

[Kirkunit]

Okay, then... can you give a reasonable explanation for why they'd be "pulling inside" of a big enclosed space with a heavy-duty door system?

Any logical argument whatsoever? I mean, besides the "it looked cool on-screen" argument... which may be true but is utterly pointless, unless you assume that Starfleet designs things not so that they do the job they're supposed to do but instead so that they're "kewl looking."

Unfortunately, I believe that is the reason. There needed to be some obstacle for Scotty to narrowly overcome and showing the Enterprise squeak out that door without even scratching the paint was their solution. If you want a practical solution, how about the Transwarp project was sooo super top-secret that Starfleet, in their infinite wisdom, decided final assembly should be done in an enclosed facility. Thus, spawning the creation of Spacedock. For that matter, maybe any ship that is the first of her class is assembled here for security purposes.

Honestly, I can't imagine ANY reason to have a big enclosed environment like that...

Me either, really. I always found the notion that Earth would build a structure like Spacedock a bit ludicrous. Maybe we can chalk it up to ILM designers bringing some of their Star Wars design language to Star Trek. I personally found TMP's dry dock to be much more elegant & practical.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

If the area within Starbase One that contained the ships was pressurized, then each times the doors opened, the area would have to be depressurized, and then pressurized again. We never hear this happening. Even with all of Scotty's tricks, I don't think he could have depressurized that area of space in the one minute it took the Enterprise to get from where it was stationary to the doors. I would think it would take a much longer time than that.

Not at all. We know that in the TMP era, there are air-tight force fields. Look at Andrew Probert's design for the 1701(r)'s hangar deck facility. He put in doors (on sliding tracks) to subdivide the interior, but in the scene were we see it, we see all the way down the bay, and out into space... and it's fully pressurized. There are forcefields present.

The Starbase One interior maintenance facility (that's what I call it... no idea if anyone else would use that term!) would very easily be protected during the brief periods when the door was opening or closing by exactly the same sort of forcefield.

Perhaps one of the reasons for such a vast area was protection.

Ah, but protection from what? Starships are undeniably quite secure from the low levels of radiation and meteorite damage which they might see in Earth orbit. For defense from attacks, the ships would most likely be used IN that defense rather than sitting inside and being essentially useless. For defense from spying eyes... possible but by no means requiring such a robust structure.

I agree it provides protection... if what it's protecting the ship from is the possibility of explosive decompression during major maintenance and overhaul situations (like you'd expect the Enterprise to be scheduled for after getting the crap kicked out of her by Khan).

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

It never occurred to me that Spacedock was pressurized, and I can't imagine why anyone would assume it was.

 

[Akiraprise]

It never occurred to me that Spacedock was pressurized, and I can't imagine why anyone would assume it was.

Nor I. I just figured the big space doors kept stuff out of the dock area they didn't want in. Like space garbage, or stray disruptor bolts. Forcefields are fine and dandy until the power goes out.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

It never occurred to me that Spacedock was pressurized, and I can't imagine why anyone would assume it was.

Nor I. I just figured the big space doors kept stuff out of the dock area they didn't want in. Like space garbage, or stray disruptor bolts. Forcefields are fine and dandy until the power goes out.

Well, that argument applies no matter what "different environment" you're looking at inside versus outside.

I never had any doubt that it was intended to be pressurized... simply because the visual evidence clearly indicated that it was. Okay, argue that it was a "scientific error" with the beams of spotlights being visible... it's still on-screen so it's still canon, and there is no rational explanation for them being visible except for the presence of an atmosphere. The beams were visible, therefore there is a medium to defract and disperse the light.

As for protecting from "stray disruptor bolts" ... how often does that happen in Earth orbit except under circumstances where you'd want all your fighting ships out and FIGHTING?

Space garbage and so forth... would be easily protected by a far less robust system (after all... wouldn't you expect every bit as much, if not more, garbage near the drydocks?)

The only rational reason to have a big enclosed space is for it to be an isolated, different environment. It may not have a BREATHABLE atmosphere (though I can't imagine why you wouldn't have one), but there are so many sound, valid technical reasons to want a zero-gravity, fully-pressurized WORK ENVIRONMENT that I can hardly imagine it being anything else.

And of course, the only time we saw Enterprise go in was for major repair work (after Khan) or with the A, just as she was getting a paint job touch-up. Both of which are reasonable situations to want an atmosphere to work in, I think.

It's OK that other people have different ideas... but it seems so utterly obvious that it makes me wonder about why people seem to be so inflexible about even considering the possibility.

So Dennis can't imagine why anyone would assume it was. I've already explained it more than once... if he still can't imagine it, that's not anybody else's fault.

 

[Jon1701]

Personally, I never really gave it much thought. Although, I think I assumed that there wasn't any atmosphere in there.

Looking back on the scene now - it does seem to suggest that there could be, although frankly - one suspects the ILM guys didn't really think about it that much.

You could pretty much argue it either way really. The sound mix suggests that there is, but then again - there are whooshes, bangs and booms in space - when we know there isn't...

 

[StarTrek1701]

Would the refit of the Enterprise we saw in TMp have been dome primarily at the Mars Spaceyards with the ship only brought to earth for the final stages of Refit and overhaul ?

now that teh Trek universe has been expanded to include the Utopia planitia Spaceyards...

Wow. Who would want to create such a stupid hassle? The magical warp drive can make a ship go back and forth under a second to Mars, but why undertake such a lengthy project when it can be finished at one thirds the time on Earth?