Off-center, strangely enough, considering they only have one (a point made in dialogue both here and back in Silent Enemy).
[edit: three separate tpyoes in there... argh]
[ May 08, 2002, 08:21: Message edited by: The_Tom ]
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posted
I noticed an interesting detail in that close-up of the phase cannon port. Just to the left, you can see a feature which looks quite similar to the torpedo tubes. Which basically confirms that the NX-01 is equipped with aft torpedo ports that mirror the forward tubes. (They mentioned aft torpedoes in dialogue, but we haven't seen them directly yet.)
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-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
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posted
Probably the ship has four (or more) berths for phase cannon, but just three of the weapons were available for installation. Reed decided to put two forward and one aft, but no doubt the next overhaul at Earth will see the ship receive at least a fourth gun.
When the fwd guns were used, were the visuals of their deployment identical? Is the aft gun different somehow?
posted
As far as I could tell (and remember), the cannons were visually the same, just placed at different points on the hull.
Fortunately, the SFX guys thought to create a new shot of the deploying cannon rather than borrowing from the ones in "Silent Enemy".
-------------------- “Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha
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posted
I recall Reed saying that they were *supposed* to have three, but had only one - they assembled it plus built the other two from scratch. I'm pretty sure there's another hatch on the aft port quarter (at least on the model), but they just needed to mount one - perhaps for energy limitations? Also, from the place they mounted it, it could apparently cover the port side firing arc, so either side doesn't really matter.
And it just occurred to me that the rather obvious blind spots in the firing arcs must be accounted for somehow. You know what would be cool? If the phase cannons' internal mechanism allows them to flip over and then deploy from the dorsal side! Either way, I'd still prefer if they kept the old plasma weaponry as some sort of secondary defence, despite the only time we see them firing they didn't hit much...
posted
In terms of firing arcs, there isn't much on the dorsal, though, is there? The plasma emplacements are up there and I guess they must still rely on them if someone pounces on them from above.
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