Why the long, long neck in the battle cruiser?

[Maurice]

I suppose one could argue that there's equipment in the forward hull that operates best outside certain range of equipment in the mail hull and engines. TMP aside, on TOS there's no actual indication of what the internal arrangement of a battlecruiser is. Maybe the front hull is an AWACS type facility full of scanners and stuff, and the rest of the crew lives/works back in the back.

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

With regards to elevators, I recently did some research and many modern warships do HAVE elevators for a variety of reasons. Aircraft carriers have lots of them, mostly for the movements of planes and their equipment up and down (and for weapons from the stores at the bottom of the boat). I was on the USS Midway last year and asked just that. These elevators are also used in combat for transporting the injured, and for cargo up and down.

Sailors don't use elevators not because they don't want to, its because they don't NEED to. For the most part, the crew only needs to move around a few areas on their own, and not that vertically. The only people that would need to traverse the whole ship are the medical and repair teams, and they can take the lifts if they have to. No one else really needs to walk the length of the ship on any regular basis, and to be honest it's not THAT hard to do. On my two-hour tour of the Midway, I traversed the ship bow to stern, top to bottom, several times.. And I'm not a prime physical specimen.

It's STARFLEET ships that are 5-42 decks or more high. If anyone needed to run to the other end of the saucer, it's not a big deal. If you needed to get from the bridge to Engineering in a hurry, you really should just tap your combadge and get someone THERE to do whatever it is you need.

Ref. "Good Shepherd".

Mark

 

[Christopher]

^^All true. But we're talking about Klingons, who are obsessed with doing everything the hard way to prove how tough and macho they are (which if you ask me is a sign of extreme insecurity, but that's another discussion).

 

[Forbin]

Mark_Nguyen said:If anyone needed to run to the other end of the saucer, it's not a big deal.

True! I compared the building I work in with the Enterprise-A once. Our building is almost exactly as wide as the saucer, and significantly longer than the ship, engines and all. A walk across the width of the building is but a minute or two. From my office to the cafeteria is roughly the distance from the hangar deck to the nose of the saucer, and it really only takes a few minutes. One circuit around the interior corridor is ten minutes exactly. It ain't no big problem!

 

[ancient]

Forbin said:

Mark_Nguyen said:If anyone needed to run to the other end of the saucer, it's not a big deal.

True! I compared the building I work in with the Enterprise-A once. Our building is almost exactly as wide as the saucer, and significantly longer than the ship, engines and all. A walk across the width of the building is but a minute or two. From my office to the cafeteria is roughly the distance from the hangar deck to the nose of the saucer, and it really only takes a few minutes. One circuit around the interior corridor is ten minutes exactly. It ain't no big problem!

Except for that one time, when your building was attacked by Klingons.

 

[jayrath]

Christopher said:
^^All true. But we're talking about Klingons, who are obsessed with doing everything the hard way to prove how tough and macho they are (which if you ask me is a sign of extreme insecurity, but that's another discussion).

Good lord, and here I thought _I_ was obsessed with canon and ret-con.

Look, I'm tickled to death that you've written a couple ST novels and I hope you write many more, but if I may say so, a dose of humility would be becoming. Some others of us may be able to make a valid point once in awhile.

The only thing I am convinced of so far is that the long neck looks really neat. There seems to be no other real reason for it, and I'm happy to accept that it was a pleasant design for 1960s TV, and nothing more. I was hoping for some fun in-universe suggestions otherwise, and not multiple exclamations of heresy.

 

[Forbin]

ancient said:

Forbin said:

Mark_Nguyen said:If anyone needed to run to the other end of the saucer, it's not a big deal.

True! I compared the building I work in with the Enterprise-A once. Our building is almost exactly as wide as the saucer, and significantly longer than the ship, engines and all. A walk across the width of the building is but a minute or two. From my office to the cafeteria is roughly the distance from the hangar deck to the nose of the saucer, and it really only takes a few minutes. One circuit around the interior corridor is ten minutes exactly. It ain't no big problem!

Except for that one time, when your building was attacked by Klingons.

Worse yet! It's currently under attack by DoD security auditors!

 

[Christopher]

jayrath said:
Good lord, and here I thought _I_ was obsessed with canon and ret-con.

Look, I'm tickled to death that you've written a couple ST novels and I hope you write many more, but if I may say so, a dose of humility would be becoming. Some others of us may be able to make a valid point once in awhile.

The only thing I am convinced of so far is that the long neck looks really neat. There seems to be no other real reason for it, and I'm happy to accept that it was a pleasant design for 1960s TV, and nothing more. I was hoping for some fun in-universe suggestions otherwise, and not multiple exclamations of heresy.

Huh?



I think you've completely misconstrued the intent behind my posts. I'm just trying to engage in light-hearted analysis and speculation about a rather trivial issue. If I've given the impression of something else, I apologize.

 

[Manticore]

Christopher said:

jayrath said:
Good lord, and here I thought _I_ was obsessed with canon and ret-con.

Look, I'm tickled to death that you've written a couple ST novels and I hope you write many more, but if I may say so, a dose of humility would be becoming. Some others of us may be able to make a valid point once in awhile.

The only thing I am convinced of so far is that the long neck looks really neat. There seems to be no other real reason for it, and I'm happy to accept that it was a pleasant design for 1960s TV, and nothing more. I was hoping for some fun in-universe suggestions otherwise, and not multiple exclamations of heresy.

Huh?



I think you've completely misconstrued the intent behind my posts. I'm just trying to engage in light-hearted analysis and speculation about a rather trivial issue. If I've given the impression of something else, I apologize.

I'm kind of wondering why he decided to attack you too all of a sudden... I think that you're awesome, and I always appreciate your commentary on a subject.

 

[jayrath]

Christopher said:

Huh?



I think you've completely misconstrued the intent behind my posts. I'm just trying to engage in light-hearted analysis and speculation about a rather trivial issue. If I've given the impression of something else, I apologize.

I sincerely apologize as well. In retrospect, I think I have misread your posts on this and other boards. I appreciate your input and, again, I apologize.

 

[rotorbotor]

jayrath said:


And does the front bulb detach, as in Starfleet vessels?

I noticed in ST:TMP what look like multiple impulse engine vents on the triangular plate above the bulbous sphere pointing backwards.

 

[Colonel Midnight]

^ If so, there's your tie-in to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy universe... Assuming one acceptss the movie version/design of the Heart of Gold ship.

I always suspected the Trek universe was a bit wackier than most, so this makes sense!!

Cheers,
-CM-