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Fitz is right. John Eaves designed all the new ships in Insurrection. Eaves has been the primary illustrator for all the TNG movies, so it won't surprise me if he's used for the next movie - in fact, I hope he is.
------------------ "Forgive me if I don't share your euphoria!" (Weyoun to Dukat, Tears of the Prophets) Dax's Ships of STAR TREK
posted
Well, yeah I like seeing new ships - but seeing new STYLES every two years is getting annoying... there is no more "Technology Unchained" that we got with the Connie Refit -> Exxie -> Ambie -> Galaxy and its links you can see with even the Runabout...
Andrew
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Alpha Centauri
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posted
Anyway, I think Eaves did a pretty good job designing the new ST:I ships. The scout ship, the E-E shuttle, the captain's yacht and the Son'a ships look soooooo cool! But the holoship is too box-shaped to me.
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ALPHA CENTAURI
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posted
The holoship is intentionally box-shaped. It's supposed to be an ugly ship. It's probably a converted freighter.
------------------ "The kingdom of God is inside you, and all around you; not in a building of stone or wood. Split a piece of wood, and I will be there. Lift a stone, and you will find me." -The Gospel of Jesus, Stigmata
posted
I was just going to post a thread about this.
I assume that Starfleet has not built a class of landing-capable starships purely for the purpose of providing holodeck capability to non-spacefaring worlds.
I was wondering what the vessel was converted from - what kind of ship would be designed with these features: - box-shaped - a single large main compartment (although no doubt partitions/decks could be installed) - routine landing-capable
I came up with: - freighter (needs bigger doors!) - colony transport - passenger liner (windows are passe when you have holos)
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posted
I always assumed that it was a once-off design that was built specifically for that Ba'ku job. And I've got a few reasons for that:
Holoemitters may work well, but it'd be difficult to retrofit them into an entire ship. I hate to reference such a horrible VGR episode, but "The Killing Game" made that clear.
The ship had such a strange shape -- for any Starfleet vessel -- that it was probably also designed with the cloaking device built into the ship. (It wasn't just a holographic "duck blind" thing since the E-E crew's tricorders also couldn't find it.)
A flying holodeck isn't the kind of thing that Starfleet is in the market for, but such a limited design for a flying cargo container doesn't seem too feasible IMO, either.
Picard and co. didn't even appear to recognize the ship at all when they first unearthed (or unwatered?) it. One would think they'd at least realize it was a Starfleet-shaped ship from the outside...
Unlike some of the early design sketches, the final version didn't even have any markings AT ALL. The conspirators could probably have tried to cover their trail by giving the ship some Federation (civilian?) markings for while it was flying through space with its unwitting sentient cargo, but they opted for the cloaking device instead. Personally, the only reason for that option that I can think of is if the entire design is unique and they wanted to keep it COMPLETELY out of view. Heck, they could've retrofitted a colony transport instead if they wanted, and the officers on the bridge could've identified themselves as such if any other Starfleet ships passed by...
(Not only that, but this movie DID happen at the height of the Dominion War, so the decision to use a cloaking device could very likely have been a risky one, if any patrolling Starfleet ships got a hint of some cloaked vessel cruising around inside Federation space... that says to me, again, that this ship is a unique design that they wanted to hide completely.)
It does seem possible, depending on its internal capacity, that the ship could be altered in design and be used as a modern cargo ship inside Federation space. It's obviously got a huge carrying capacity, and apparently a small (but functional) bridge or control center on the dorsal surface, meaning it would be piloted, not automated.
With a few modifications, that ship type might actually make a pretty cool general-purpose transport to replace the undoubtedly-aging transports of various classes (like the Deneva, etc).
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posted
I always figured that is was a converted deuterium tanker, given the vast empty volume and apparent lack of correspondingly large cargo doors.
Or alternatively it was a new ship, who's class was designed as a tanker but this particular hull had some custom modifications made, under the orders of the Admiral no doubt.
As for the cloak, it never made sense to me that Picard didn't comment on the violation of the Treaty of Algeron, in fact I'm not sure if the treaty still exists given this ship and Starfleet's use of cloaked mines. Perhaps the "Defiant Amendment" was expanded to include all anti-Dominion operations which could be how the Admiral got his hands on the ship, by faking a top secret operation against the Dominion and diverting the resources into the Briar Patch.
posted
I don't remember all the specifics of the movie, so help me out: is there any indication of how long this mission was in the making? Considering travel times, ship refitting to operate in the patch, and establishment of the duck blind... I'd say at least a several months. Probably enough time to pull out all the bulkheads and stuff from a ship and replace the main area with holo-emitters, but doubtfully enough time to design, test, and construct a brand new ship.
I've always assumed it was a cargo ship of some kind that was gutted.
But I don't understand why they needed such a large space... According to DS9, holographic technology somehow alters dimensional reality somehow so it's possible to fit two baseball teams in a tiny room with space enough for them to run and swing their arms and move about freely....
posted
I had always thought they were using at least two holosuites in tandem. We never see anyone actually use the door in that episode, so it could be any number of holosuites. Heck, assuming the T'kumbra downstairs had typically Starfleet holodecks, they could easily have been in there and just not told anyone.
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