The idea of up/down is in respect to objects that have a gravitational force (real or artificial), but in interplantary and interstellar space there is no such thing as up or down, therefore there is no right way up for vessels to approach each other, and as such the probability of two vessels being the same way up is low.
why are vessels always the same way up?
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All Seeing Eye
Admiral
Well, it only takes one to tango in this case...And, of course, for species such as the Klingons, politeness is a high priority.
Timo Saloniemi
As usual Timo your wisdom is absolute.
Would it? At TNGish speeds, it would take years before the ship hit "ceiling" or "floor"; the galactic scale might be too vast to be practical for navigation. It might make just as much sense to use Earth's equatorial plane as the universal standard of Starfleet maneuvers, or the orientation of the biggest mountain ranges on Qo'noS as the Klingon standard...
Timo Saloniemi
It was all entirely coincidental.
Buckminster Fuller would have written it all off to Earthbound thinking. 99% of the viewers an 100% of the TV execs couldn't handle anything else.
Alternatively,
Federation and other advanced civilizations all incorporate into their viewer technology circuitry that always makes view ships appear upright on the screen.
Aside.
Only a few space battle video games are free of Earthbound thinking.
Alternatively,
Federation and other advanced civilizations all incorporate into their viewer technology circuitry that always makes view ships appear upright on the screen.
Aside.
Only a few space battle video games are free of Earthbound thinking.
The same reason the ships bank like airplanes during space battles.
You don't think you're the first person to notice this, do you? Answer: They thought maybe people would not be super jazzed to see Klingon BOPs upside down on the viewscreen or whatever, and they were right.
Sure, there could be standard contact protocols where the smaller ship adjusts orientation to the big one or something. But this wouldn't explain the fleets all being lined up the same way (and there were enough problems with those blocking one another's paths and "breaking through the lines" and so forth that it doesn't appear the DS9ers were thinking very three-dimensionally), so we have to resort to real-world explanations.
There are lots of things like this that would be more "realistic," but wouldn't really improve the show. For example, the Universal Translator would have to wait until the end of many sentences to produce an accurate translation, but I don't want to see that. More of the chicks would be ugly. Stuff like that.
In "The Wrath of Kahn" while the Enterprise is doing battle with Kahns ship, Spock mentions that Kahn is not thinking in 3 dimentions and that is a tactical advantage for them, and it eventually leads to the Enterprise defeating Kahn ship. In intersteller space navagation one must think in
3-D, so, it makes sense that ships may approach each other from different angles. I think in Trek, the reason that ships all seem to be on the same plane is that it makes it easier for the viewer to relate to the scene.
It's the same reason that we hear ships flying by and weapon fire is also audible. To use the tag line from "Alien" In space no one hears you Scream" That is what made "2001 A Space Odyssey" so cool, it was one of the first films that made being is space a silent experience, no air/no noise...
Resistance is Futile
3-D, so, it makes sense that ships may approach each other from different angles. I think in Trek, the reason that ships all seem to be on the same plane is that it makes it easier for the viewer to relate to the scene.
It's the same reason that we hear ships flying by and weapon fire is also audible. To use the tag line from "Alien" In space no one hears you Scream" That is what made "2001 A Space Odyssey" so cool, it was one of the first films that made being is space a silent experience, no air/no noise...
Resistance is Futile
All Seeing Eye
Admiral
I think they were talking about the Galactic ecliptic. The Milky way is a disc shape so it's quite easy to determine a position and direction in space relative to the galactic disc. If you catch my drift.
But why would you pay any attention to the galactic plane? It's of too large a scale to feature in your everyday navigation; you'd be better off inventing some local coordinate systems instead. And there wouldn't be any pressing need to turn your ship to match your reference plane anyway.
OTOH, it would be trivially easy, and usually beneficial, for any two ships to orient the same way when they meet. And it would be sensible for a fleet of ships to all orient the same way, so that "port", "starboard", "up" and "down" have the same meaning for every ship in the formation. There is no pressing need not to do this, anyway.
Timo Saloniemi
OTOH, it would be trivially easy, and usually beneficial, for any two ships to orient the same way when they meet. And it would be sensible for a fleet of ships to all orient the same way, so that "port", "starboard", "up" and "down" have the same meaning for every ship in the formation. There is no pressing need not to do this, anyway.
Timo Saloniemi
Though I always wondered why Kirk didn't just pull Enterprise's bow "up" and blast away at Reliant's bg cross-section target of a saucer, instead of coming up elevator-like to shoot at her from astern.
I think you may be on to something, there.
--Justin
Apart from "it looked cooler that way", one could argue that Kirk wanted a clear shot at Khan's weapon pod first and foremost, rather than a lethal hit at the main hull. He just guessed wrong on which way the Reliant would be oriented when she sailed past the Enterprise...
FWIW, note how the Reliant is indeed shown rolling a bit to match orientation when she first meets Kirk's ship... Something rarely shown in Trek, but admittedly also something that rarely needs to be shown because ships in approach aren't usually viewed until they are right next to the hero ship (or then are seen on viewscreen which may do the reorienting automatically). The next time we see something like that done by a big starship in an explicit manner, it's the Rotarran returning to SB375 after "Rocks and Shoals"!
Timo Saloniemi
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