Has anyone ever been able to make sense out of the Orion ship's design?
TASPirates of Orion
- Thread starter Lieut. Arex
- Start date
Here are a couple screencaps from TrekCore:
http://tas.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x01/thepiratesoforion_041.JPG
http://tas.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x01/thepiratesoforion_101.JPG
http://tas.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x01/thepiratesoforion_041.JPG
http://tas.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/2x01/thepiratesoforion_101.JPG
It was some new type the Enterprise had never encountered before. It must have been large enough to carry a lot of cargo while maintaining speed. A privateer for Orion rather than pirates. But only if they have specific targets, as Orion isn't at war with anyone based on there strict neutrality, yet repeated attacks of ships and interest in certain Federation interests.
All those angular tentacles remind me very much of certain other pirate vessels of Trek - namely, the one from "Gambit" and its reuse in "Vortex". I'd argue it's the same manufacturer/designer, and also that the tentacles are good for piracy somehow.
http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s7/7x04/gambitpartone181.jpg
http://ds9.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/1x12/vortex281.jpg
I could see this as the big sister of Baran's or the Miradorn's ships, with more hold space for loot (those big boxes around the waist - great for quick loading directly from the crippled victim ship floating nearby), but with the same layout of torpedo armament in the forward middle "maw", death rays in the inner tentacles, and possibly grapples and cutters in the outer tentacles.
Heck, even the big Ferengi marauder has this tentacle thing going on, with "claws" at the tips of the forward-arching main body. Mechanical grappling may well be a good piracy tactic in Trek.
Timo Saloniemi
http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s7/7x04/gambitpartone181.jpg
http://ds9.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/1x12/vortex281.jpg
I could see this as the big sister of Baran's or the Miradorn's ships, with more hold space for loot (those big boxes around the waist - great for quick loading directly from the crippled victim ship floating nearby), but with the same layout of torpedo armament in the forward middle "maw", death rays in the inner tentacles, and possibly grapples and cutters in the outer tentacles.
Heck, even the big Ferengi marauder has this tentacle thing going on, with "claws" at the tips of the forward-arching main body. Mechanical grappling may well be a good piracy tactic in Trek.
Timo Saloniemi
What's to make sense of? It's kind of a standard alien ship design, with wings and pointy bits (even though the execution is different, the elements resemble the pirate ship from "Gambit") and a cool red paint job. I thought it was one of TAS' best ship designs, and was very disappointed when ENT cooked up yet another generic green ship for it's Orions.
Let's see.
The wings (as with the Klingon BOP) contain the warp drive.
The yellow triangle on the centerline is the deflector.
The two arms below are docking clamps to hold a victim's ship against the Orion's lower docking port.
The two "pods" below the wings are energy weapons. It would have weapons more powerful than a merchantman's, the idea would be to intimidate and disable, not destroy.
The oval thing between the "front mandibles" looks like a deflector or sensor dish.
Agreed. Even jives with the oval dishes sported in later shows, starting with the E-D.
The Yellow triangle, I suppose, is probably just neat paint, but if you want to tag it with technobabble, perhaps it's some sort of extra passive sensor array to operate without giving away position, like how the Orion ships in SFB have those flat hexagonal passive arrays on their wings.
Also, the ship is quite a bit bigger than Enterprise, so I imagine they have no problem finding cargo space.
--Alex
In case it isn't as obvious as it seems to me to be, it reminds me of a dragon.
The extended 'wing tips' probably enable atmospheric entry.
The extended 'wing tips' probably enable atmospheric entry.
That would be this: http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/schematics/tas-kukulkan.jpg
I wonder if the winged defender was inspired by all that.
I wonder if the winged defender was inspired by all that.
I tried drawing up this ship a few years ago. The attempt nearly drove me insane. The ship is basically a 2-D graphic that was designed to look good only from the front. Here's as far as I got. A 3-D modeler might have a better chance at success (i.e., getting all the views to line up and matching the onscreen appearance), but I think he'd end up with a weird-looking ship.
Yeah, I agree.
Probably, but those are just place-holders anyway.
If any one can do better, please, be my guest! I'm through with this ship.
From the perspective shot facing the hero ship, I actually get the impression of a very long vessel: the upper "rails" on the wings are already as long as the Enterprise nacelles (and perhaps serve the same function), and the first set of "cheek containers" extends as far back as the aft tips of those "rails". Aft of this follows the large tail with the lozenge cross section.
Basically, what we might have here is the Batris with some bat-wings on top of the very bow, and some droop on the cheeks.
Timo Saloniemi
Basically, what we might have here is the Batris with some bat-wings on top of the very bow, and some droop on the cheeks.
Timo Saloniemi
Hmmm...I might give it a shot. It's a cool design (at least from the front). You gave it a good try, Masao. I agree that it was likely never intended to be realized in 3D form. There was the other picture of this ship facing off against the Enterprise that showed it canted slightly - not quite a 3/4 view, but it gives a few extra visual cues.
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