The Undiscovered Country Engine Room

[blssdwlf]

Hi All,

From what I've read and seen, the Enterprise-A's engine room in ST6 is a redress of the TNG engine room. While watching it recently, I noticed that when they were departing the starbase there is a shot of Scotty looking at the vertical tube and in the reflection the pulse is going in the up direction. Was that unique to ST6 or did that also occur in TNG as well?

Thanks,
Peter

 

[Timo]

I don't think we ever saw that happen in TNG, no.

It wouldn't be difficult to think that Scotty in ST6 is somewhere farther down than the Main Engineering we saw in TMP and ST2. Perhaps both the E-nil-refit and the E-A had this TNG-style warp reaction chamber down there, feeding its energies upward into the plasma conduitry we see at Main Engineering, and the unofficial talk about those conduits being actual reactors is untrue?

...Of course, the pulse direction in TNG doesn't indicate where the energy is going - it's supposed to indicate where the reactants are going before they meet and turn into energy. But Scotty could just as well be at the lower reactant tanks and monitoring how these reactants travel up to the unseen reaction chamber, which still lies a few decks down from the ST:TMP room. The camera angles in ST6 nicely hide most of the TNG features from our view, including most of the LCARS control graphics and the actual dilithium chamber...

Regarding a basic issue with the original question: do the pulses really travel upward in the reflection we see? That would mean they travel in the usual downward direction in the shaft, since the reflection is a vertical one, from one of the horizontal transparent catwalks.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Robert D. Robot]

In western movies, it often looks like the stagecoach wheels are turning backwards.... maybe the apparent direction of the pulse seen is not consistent with the actual direction, as a consequence of how the scene is being recorded.

(Note: This is an attempt at "humor".....)

 

[Mr Silver]

Its possible that since the Enterprise-A wasn't yet at Warp Scotty decided to do a diagnostic of some kind and maybe this was the reason for the "up-pulse"?

 

[JTK1]

In western movies, it often looks like the stagecoach wheels are turning backwards.... maybe the apparent direction of the pulse seen is not consistent with the actual direction, as a consequence of how the scene is being recorded.

(Note: This is an attempt at "humor".....)

Nah this would have been better.....
In the Northern hemisphere it goes up and in the Southern
hemisphere it goes down.
They are in the northern so it went up.......

Nah, still bad I'm sorry

 

[blssdwlf]

LOL

@Timo - thanks for the suggestions. I'll take a look into the reflection angle.

@madmatthias - it's possible as they were leaving the starbase at impulse. Could it be the reactor was feeding the impulse drive above it?

 

[FalTorPan]

...there is a shot of Scotty looking at the vertical tube and in the reflection the pulse is going in the up direction.

Perhaps the antimatter flux vector control was the last failed component (see Star Trek V) to be repaired.

 

[Captain Robert April]

I'll have to check, but I suspect the reflection is of the lower conduit, which does indeed feed up, from the antimatter pods to the intermix chamber. So in all likelihood, no error, just an odd reflection of the part of the assembly that's off-camera.

 

[Omega_Glory]

That was a special conduit ya see, where the energy goes up to the secret officers lounge above to heat the hot tub and the buffalo wings.

 

[Meredith]

They Voyager Warp core looks like they stole it from TMP and TWoK.

 

[Captain Robert April]

In those days, they didn't throw away a thing...

 

[Timo]

Just had a look at the live scene. The pulses do seem to travel up in the reflection of the upper part of the warp core, meaning they travel down in the upper part of the warp core, just like they always did in TNG. At a fairly high rate of fire, I must add...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[danellis]

In those days, they didn't throw away a thing...

When they struck the Voyager set they found graffitti in there dating back to when the Russians stormed the Reichstagg

dJE

 

[Captain Robert April]

As I suspected...

The shot is from the upper level, looking down on Scotty, thus the reflection is from the lower conduit, leading up to the intermix chamber.

 

[Timo]

A-ha - the reflection is from the curved vertical plexiglass, then, not from the horizontal catwalk. I read the brief YouTube snippet all wrong.

In either case, the lights are traveling in their usual TNG direction, so we can let go a collective sigh of relief.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[blssdwlf]

Thank you CRA for checking! My DVD is still with my buddy and I haven't been able to re-check. The screenshot explains it

 

[RapidNadion]

Crystal clear in that screengrab how they didn't retrofit the engineering console with 23rd-century graphics. Love seeing the engineering radsuits and the one officer jacket in that engine room, though.

 

[Timo]

Plus it seems they installed some spare wall sections on the background to alter the feel and fit the era... Hiding at least some of the 24th century Okudagrams from view.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Omega_Glory]

Crystal clear in that screengrab how they didn't retrofit the engineering console with 23rd-century graphics. Love seeing the engineering radsuits and the one officer jacket in that engine room, though.

Its the new post-Voyage Home Enterprise. She has new and improved engines/power systems and a fine new bridge, but half the doors don't work and the captains chair isn't as good as the old E.

I always thought the new look to the engineering decks and the new bridge showed that the Ent-A was a refitted/upgraded ship as compared to the earlier Ent-refit from TMP-TSFS. More power and an improved command section. The new engineering control consoles might just be the next best thing in Starfleet engineering control stations. Also a reengineered shuttle bay. Them dang new fangled PADDs weren't too good though...sounded a little like R2.

 

[Santaman]

I've always assumed that Ent-A was an oddball prototype, filled with stuff thats just a tad too new to be trusted on operational ships just yet, maybe even one that never was supposed to leave the test range but then Kirk blew up the Enterprise and they needed a new ship for him and the prototype was the only thing which could fit the bill, explaining all the tech and also the problems in ST-V and its early retirement.