Please tell me the off-centre bridge dome and general warped look of the saucer are a weird perspective trick and that the saucer is round with a bridge in the middle?
Which is why I qualified my statement with the last sentence of my post: "Of course, this only matters since combat in the Star Trek universe is restricted to the highly restrictive 3-D "pizza box" model with a clear up and down that everyone slavishly adheres to."
I remember arguing this back in the mid-1970s with my dumb ol' brother (than whom I am supremely more intelligent
).
My assertion was exactly what you said: "How stupid is it that every ship they encounter seems to go through space in the same orientation as the Enterprise, instead of, for example, upside-down relative to the Enterprise...Or is always at the same 'level' relative to the galactic plane, instead of approaching from somewhere above them along a diagonal path?"
My brother's response was to rebut me with a scoff and say, "Why would another ship want to fly through space upside-down?"
Clearly he missed my point.
The "theory" behind the warp nacelle pylons is that the drives emit a certain amount of lethal radiation, so they need to be kept a good distance away from the manned areas of the ship. And apparently they're made of an incredibly tough tritanium alloy that can withstand significant stresses. But yes, I agree, it always bugged me. The Intrepid class (Voyager) solved this problem rather well.Well, if you want to get technical about vulnerabilities:
It's 2 km long.
Not everyone got the memoExplain the Oberth and Defiant classes, then.
The principle I cited was one considered in the very early designs... all the way up through the Galaxy class. After this, some newer shielding technology was developed that enabled the warp drive engines to be more closely mounted to the fuselage. So why didn't the Sovereign class adopt that technology? Well, rather than a complete redesign, they were just extending the proven existing design of the Galaxy class.Explain the Oberth and Defiant classes, then.
I'm not a specialist in Star Trek domain starship designs... I'm only conveying my opinion, not any kind of declared facts. It is all up for interpretation anyway, as that's what we're trying to do -- find some plausible explanation for designs related to warp engine technology. The Oberth class has warp nacelles closer to the primary hull, but still in distinctly separate containers. That may have been the main technological requirement, more so than distance, at least at that point in time.
Here's what my guess what we are seeing in the poster image version of the ship: Assuming the ship is distorted by a warping effect, I made it so the saucer was round again and compared it to the 3D model someone made around the time the teaser was released.
The biggest changes seem to be made around the secondary hull, which is much smaller. To me it looks like the nacelles are actually above the delta now and not on the same level, which is something I welcome (my eyes could play tricks on me, however). Overall though – and I never thought I would say that – I liked the teaser version more. But I remain open-minded until I see a clear shot of the ship.
That was actually pointing towards the bridge/command center being on the top of the ship.
