What is in the neck?

[Uptightgirl]

I am new here.I live in Montana and I was sent here by a link.

My question is the disc is attached by a neck and in the neck you can see windows in the TOS enterprise.So is it living quarters bearing in mind the neck looks very small and fragile compared to the mass of the saucer?
Surely the neck should be solid to take the weight of the saucer and also to push/pull it.Making it hollow would weaken it,and windows would weaken it further.

 

[Jamee999]

The neck doesn't need to support the weight - no gravity in space.

 

[cultcross]

Star Trek also has fictional concepts called 'inertial dampeners' and 'structural integrity fields' which help the ships survive the stresses of space travel.

As for what precisely is inside the 'neck' of the ship, I'm not 100% sure, beyond turbolift shafts.

 

[Forbin]

Franz Joseph's 1975 plans say there are lounges in the neck.

In the Wrath of Khan we see the photon torpedo room and boarding airlocks are in the base of the neck.

We know it obviously has to have a turboelevator shaft going down thru it, and with the Motion Picture mods, the power core goes up thru it to the impulse crystal.

I'd venture that the spaces are so narrow that, in the real world, it would probably be full of nothing but machinery spaces and conduit runs. I've always thought it was a mistake to show any windows there at all.

 

[FalTorPan]

Jamee999 said:
The neck doesn't need to support the weight - no gravity in space.

Nope. Just mass.

 

[Uptightgirl]

When they do separation why not separate from the base of the neck instead,making the secondary hull look less ungainly.This would make it more balanced.

 

[Rarewolf]

You's think it would be a weak spot really - enough damage to that area and your ship's broken in two.

 

[cultcross]

Uptightgirl said:
When they do separation why not separate from the base of the neck instead,making the secondary hull look less ungainly.This would make it more balanced.

I disagree, I think the saucer would look ridiculous with the neck sticking down and the secondary hull wouldn't look much better just being a sausage shape with nacelles.

But the original Enterprise didn't separate anyway (not that we saw: mentioned in dialogue but we never saw separation planes)

the TNG Enterprise, if that's what you meant, is a different matter - that most certainly had decks in it's 'neck', including an impulse engine and a shuttlebay.

 

[C.E. Evans]

IMO, the interconnecting dorsal is a product of the late 22nd-Century/early 23rd-Century when it may have been necessary to put warp engines as far away from the primary hull of a ship as possible because of unacceptable subspace radiation levels in those older ships (in a way, the catamarans on the NX-class were simply twin horizontal necks doing the exact same thing).

I don't think it's no longer necessary to have nacelles far away from the main body of a ship anymore these days and many of the newer 24th-Century ships have accordingly abandoned those interhull dorsals...

 

[Sisu]

I always thought different environment crew quarters. Makes sense to fill a small area with a non-terrestrial environment.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Forbin said:
Franz Joseph's 1975 plans say there are lounges in the neck.

In the Wrath of Khan we see the photon torpedo room and boarding airlocks are in the base of the neck.

We know it obviously has to have a turboelevator shaft going down thru it, and with the Motion Picture mods, the power core goes up thru it to the impulse crystal.

I'd venture that the spaces are so narrow that, in the real world, it would probably be full of nothing but machinery spaces and conduit runs. I've always thought it was a mistake to show any windows there at all.

Perhaps the neck is bigger on the inside.

 

[Gary Mitchell]

By the way, welcome Uptightgirl .

 

[captcalhoun]

hope you're not too up tight...

*waves*

 

[Squiggy]

C.E. Evans said:
IMO, the interconnecting dorsal is a product of the late 22nd-Century/early 23rd-Century when it may have been necessary to put warp engines as far away from the primary hull of a ship as possible because of unacceptable subspace radiation levels in those older ships...

Then they failed miserably, since the neck puts the saucer section closer to the nacelles.

 

[Uptightgirl]

captcalhoun said:
hope you're not too up tight...

*waves*

I choose this nick as it describes me.I am very anxious as I was on crack cocaine and had to go to rehab.I am off it now but my friends keep pushing it to me.I am constantly on the edge.My father who is standing behind me supports me in my battle and gives me solace.

**waves back**

 

[Therin of Andor]

Uptightgirl said:
I am off it now but my friends keep pushing it to me.

Dare I say they are not true friends. Hope you have better luck with your new friends here. Welcome aboard, and stay strong!

 

[C.E. Evans]

Squiggyfm said:

C.E. Evans said:
IMO, the interconnecting dorsal is a product of the late 22nd-Century/early 23rd-Century when it may have been necessary to put warp engines as far away from the primary hull of a ship as possible because of unacceptable subspace radiation levels in those older ships...

Then they failed miserably, since the neck puts the saucer section closer to the nacelles.

Not necessarily. I think the main thing was that primary hull (or secondary hull, for that matter) wasn't in the line of sight between the nacelles in the way the Defiant-class and other newer ships can now.

 

[EEE]

Originally, the saucer was to detach and land on planets each week. Thus the need for a neck and a primary hull to support the warp engines (which had to be separated from the crew and each other). But that idea was scrapped very early on for budgetary reasons (and thus transporters were borne!).

Personally I like to think it's all empty after they removed the GIANT hydraulic reservoirs for the no-longer-needed saucer locks. *grin*

Another interesting trivia is that when Franz Joseph put out the Technical Manual which included single engine scouts/destroyers, Roddenberry was reportedly unhappy and commented that there should never have been any ships with an odd number of engines.

There was also a FASA role playing game that had an addon of blueprints of the Enterprise. If I recall, all the decks were there(?). It was never cannon and was often in contradiction with then-known cannon (not to mention post printing cannon). But it was an interesting idea.

 

[aridas sofia]

Sisu said:
I always thought different environment crew quarters. Makes sense to fill a small area with a non-terrestrial environment.

My thinking as well. That, and lounge/bunk space/ready room for saucer and "down below" engineering crew to share.

 

[comsol]

Aridas, one thing that I have been meaning to ask you about this part of your cross-section, you have the standard Burke chairs, and a couple of Ovalia chairs, but there is a third design that I don't recognize - is it a real-world design or an original of yours?