To Andrew Probert: A Non-Trek Generation Ship?

[FalTorPan]

Andrew,

I thought I'd post this here rather than email you, in case the topic is of interest to other TrekBBSers.

One of my favorite aspects of the Enterprise-D is the idea that the ship is designed for a very long-term mission -- perhaps 15 to 20 years in length. In that sense it's almost a "generation ship."

I also like the idea of family members living on the ship. (TrekBBSers, if you want to criticize this aspect of the Enterprise-D, please do this in another thread. Thanks!)

If today, a TV producer wanted to make a non-Trek sci-fi show about a large generation ship on a long-term mission of exploration (not darting around from member planet to member planet, as happened too often on TNG), and said producer were to hire you to design the ship, then what might you do that was similar to what you did with the Enterprise-D? What might you do differently?

I'm not talking form so much as functions and features.

Thanks!

 

[wakachukie]

Not totally sure if its really needed, but I would think that you would want an expanded hydroponics section for simple air and bio-matter for the replicators

Oh, and a completely renewable powersource. Warp is great for planet hopping, but you are still consuming matter and anti-matter.

Plus everything would have to be redesigned with security locks and safety gates to keep the kids out of non-safe sections.

 

[Probert]

Andrew,

One of my favorite aspects of the Enterprise-D is the idea that the ship is designed for a very long-term mission -- perhaps 15 to 20 years in length. In that sense it's almost a "generation ship."

I also like the idea of family members living on the ship.

Yup,... all Gene's ideas.

If today, a TV producer wanted to make a non-Trek sci-fi show about a large generation ship on a long-term mission of exploration (not darting around from member planet to member planet, as happened too often on TNG)...

Well, first of all, it would be pretty risky, staying on a ship all the time if that's what you mean, unless the ship was ten miles long. Even at that, the show would start to feel pretty claustrophobic. The advantage of visiting a 'planet-of-the-week' is of course to provide a variety of story possibilities with peoples of a comprehensible nature, more or less. Now if you're term "mission of exploration" means landing on a planet (in one way or another) from time to time, that would be much better regardless of the occupants, if any.

... and said producer were to hire you to design the ship, then what might you do that was similar to what you did with the Enterprise-D? What might you do differently?

My first task would be to give the ship's exterior it's own visual identity. It isn't a Colonial Battlestar nor a Federation Starship, nor a Firefly-class freighter,... it's a large generation-ship explorer. In other words, I would have the simple task (LOL) of creating another icon. Gene always said his Enterprise was another character in the show and he was right. Nobody can think of Star Trek without picturing (one of) the Starship: Enterprise(s). And you will never see a picture of a Starship: Enterprise without thinking of Star Trek.

So... my first task, as with any project of this nature, is to list 'what it does'; what it's "function" is and how does it do it? The forms in my designs are dictated essentially by the items' function. That method is nothing new, which is why a battleship and a luxury cruise liner look different as do a truck and a sports car. With that in mind, I can start sketching a bunch of 'new & different' shapes... or I can go to my 'list' and lay out the various departments/functions in a logical manner, assuming this ship will never actually land on a planet. If it does, then the layout has to accommodate that contingency as well. Using that first layout as a rough guide, I can then go to an 'add-skin-to-it' stage and analyze the results, comparing them to any first shape-sketches I might have done. Eventually the cool shape and logical layout will come together.

All of the above methodology is, of course, offered as an example of THE perfect working environment. The real world adds the element of working under a Production Designer or Producer (whose preferences can be, at times, incomprehensible) which means your designs are really for them to decide what works for their show. And that's fine, that's okay,... they're paying the bills and, besides, it all works great, assuming everyone has the same goals. On TNG, working with Gene was a dream as was working with Herman Zimmerman.

As to your question of what I would do similarly to the Enterprise-D,... I would keep it visually clean. Today's office buildings or luxury liners, heck, even warships don't have corridors filled with a lot of greasy, drippy, steaming pipes so why would Starships? I would have windows, although not nearly as many as was "requested" (not by Gene) for the E-D. My bridge controls would be similar, touch-panels of some sort although my bridge layout would be a bit different. Everything else is all pretty logical, meeting rooms, crews' quarters, lounges, etc., all of those would be similar.

I hope that helps,
Andrew-

 

[FalTorPan]

Andrew,

Thanks for replying. I'm sure that others appreciate you sharing your insight as much as I do.

If today, a TV producer wanted to make a non-Trek sci-fi show about a large generation ship on a long-term mission of exploration (not darting around from member planet to member planet, as happened too often on TNG)...

Well, first of all, it would be pretty risky, staying on a ship all the time if that's what you mean, unless the ship was ten miles long. Even at that, the show would start to feel pretty claustrophobic. The advantage of visiting a 'planet-of-the-week' is of course to provide a variety of story possibilities with peoples of a comprehensible nature, more or less. Now if you're term "mission of exploration" means landing on a planet (in one way or another) from time to time, that would be much better regardless of the occupants, if any.

Agreed. What I should have said is "a non-Trek ship on a mission like the Enterprise-D's was supposed to have been." In TNG the Ent-D seemed to do a lot of starbase hopping, and not a lot of boldly going where no one has gone before.

... and said producer were to hire you to design the ship, then what might you do that was similar to what you did with the Enterprise-D? What might you do differently?

My first task would be to give the ship's exterior it's own visual identity. It isn't a Colonial Battlestar nor a Federation Starship, nor a Firefly-class freighter,... it's a large generation-ship explorer. In other words, I would have the simple task (LOL) of creating another icon. Gene always said his Enterprise was another character in the show and he was right. Nobody can think of Star Trek without picturing (one of) the Starship: Enterprise(s). And you will never see a picture of a Starship: Enterprise without thinking of Star Trek.

Excellent points. A "hero ship" needs almost to be an icon.

So... my first task, as with any project of this nature, is to list 'what it does'; what it's "function" is and how does it do it? The forms in my designs are dictated essentially by the items' function. That method is nothing new, which is why a battleship and a luxury cruise liner look different as do a truck and a sports car. With that in mind, I can start sketching a bunch of 'new & different' shapes... or I can go to my 'list' and lay out the various departments/functions in a logical manner, assuming this ship will never actually land on a planet. If it does, then the layout has to accommodate that contingency as well. Using that first layout as a rough guide, I can then go to an 'add-skin-to-it' stage and analyze the results, comparing them to any first shape-sketches I might have done. Eventually the cool shape and logical layout will come together.

This description of the process has reminded me of how much I look forward to the Probert Designs book!

As to your question of what I would do similarly to the Enterprise-D,... I would keep it visually clean. Today's office buildings or luxury liners, heck, even warships don't have corridors filled with a lot of greasy, drippy, steaming pipes so why would Starships? I would have windows, although not nearly as many as was "requested" (not by Gene) for the E-D. My bridge controls would be similar, touch-panels of some sort although my bridge layout would be a bit different. Everything else is all pretty logical, meeting rooms, crews' quarters, lounges, etc., all of those would be similar.

There is another thread in the Trek Tech forum called "Clean Slate: Design the Bridge." Some of the posts in that thread have been very thought-provoking. I'd be interested in your thoughts on that subject.

Thanks again!

 

[Christopher]

Agreed. What I should have said is "a non-Trek ship on a mission like the Enterprise-D's was supposed to have been." In TNG the Ent-D seemed to do a lot of starbase hopping, and not a lot of boldly going where no one has gone before.

I've had the thought that the best thing for that kind of long-term deep-space exploration would be not just a starship, but a sort of movable space station, something that would move into an unexplored area and then serve as a command base for multiple smaller explorer and defender ships. That way, you could do the "bring the families along" thing without sending them into harm's way, since you'd choose a safe location (selected by advance scouting) for the mothership/base to stay while the explorers brave the hazards of the unknown. Then, once a region is sufficiently explored, the base travels to a new location and starts over.

 

[DEWLine]

Akin to the Death Star, but swapping out the Big Frakking Cannon with deep-range scan arrays and so on? (Yes, I am oversimplifying. Big time.)

To Andrew: This book's in the works?

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

I would think more like the Mothership in the Homeworld series. Mobile refineries, construction facilities and command centers contained within one large vessel, which is capable of settling down and becoming an impromptu station.

 

[Christopher]

Akin to the Death Star, but swapping out the Big Frakking Cannon with deep-range scan arrays and so on? (Yes, I am oversimplifying. Big time.)

Well, sort of, in the broad sense of a mobile space station. Also with elements of a carrier, since it would have multiple ships of various sizes and types in its complement.

 

[Albertus]

'Generation Ships' are a widely used construct in science fiction, The E-D is a 'generational ship' and should be seen in all future Trek voyages. Originally, the Saucer section had town squares and a whole load of civic amenities.

The life of the E_D was put at 50 years.

 

[DEWLine]

50 minimum, 100 ideally. No?

(Knowing that we're getting off-track from the original question...)

 

[arch101]

I still think Christopher's notion of the Enterprise-D as a "college town in space" (The Buried Age) was a spectacular idea. Gave me a whole new impression of the ship and it's sense of community.