posted
Is there any kind of consensus as to what the markings on the bottom of the engineering hull of the TOS Enterprise mean? You know the ones - the big yellow circle, the gray squares, etc. I searched a little bit but couldn't find anything addressing this specific question.
posted
The markings are repeated on the Enterprise-A from ST5:TFF onwards. Since we have at least an inkling of the innards of that vessel, we can probably deduce the corresponding functionings of the TOS vessel.
The circle is just aft of the ventral phaser cluster, and of the arboretum windows. That's too far aft to be the warp core exit point, as it's directly below the vast open cargo hold. I'd wager this is where the tractor beam emitter emerges from (speculative diagrams aside).
The greyish T-shaped bit comes aft of that, followed by a lighter-colored rectangle and a square. Antimatter ejection ports? Again awkwardly aft in comparison to the vertical warp core. Lifeboat ejection ports? Dunno. These features could well be assigned to various umbilical connector functions, corresponding to the sort of greeblies that TNG-era ships have on the opposite (dorsal) side of their secondary hulls.
So there. Doesn't help much, I'm afraid. It would have been convenient to directly associate the features with major engineering components, but that doesn't work with the E-A. Perhaps the TOS ship had different innards - but I'm one of those who prefers to think that the differences to the TMP-refitted version were largely cosmetic. Certainly it would make little sense for the E-A to share these hatches if she had completely different innards...
Unless those shapes are merely targeting aids of some sort, and not actual physical hatches. Or perhaps they are what counts for Microgamma Bold Extended lettering in Tellaritean or Andorianese.
posted
I didn't realise that they were on the A. Are there any clear shots of them in ST V or VI (it's been a while since I've watched them)?
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posted
I always thiught the yellow circle was where the tractor beam emitter came from. I'd have sworn that was in Mr Scott's Guide.
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Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Then again, Mr Scott's was written before there WAS a circle at the bottom of the refitted Enterprise...
Shane Johnson places the tractor beam emitter much farther forward than the circle: the emitter is just ahead of the arboretum, and the vertical warp core segment is even farther forward. There's no real indication on the exterior that those would be the preferable locations, and the interior suggests that the core at least should be farther aft. But as said, it can't be so far aft that it would emerge through the circle.
posted
Considering we've never seen anything emerge from the TOS Enterprise (not that anything couldn't), I'm inclined to think that the yellow circle is not a hatch for the tractor beam emitter. Besides, it seems much too big for that. However, it could be like a cover similar to a radome over the emitter, complete with special paint job that won't interfere with it. That way, it never has to be outside the ship (like Jeffries' intentions). The size of the circle could be necessary to provide a wide enough targeting arc.
I'm still not sure about the other markings, except maybe the one under the shuttlebay - perhaps a blowout panel in case the shuttlebay doors are damaged?
posted
The red rectangle has been pointed out to me by fellow modelers as the ship's cargo hatch.
Makes sense- TOS would have taken forever to beam stuff aboard and the shuttlebay's pretty cramped (gigantic interior shots notwithstanding, obviously).
I've never seen anyone explain the grey recatangle though...it'd be cool of that serviced the ship's computer core somehow (yah, it's in the wrong location)...or possibly it covers the ship's duterium tank hatch.
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posted
What is that structure above the clamshell doors? Could it be the shuttle dock control like on the Enterprise-E?
Registered: Sep 2002
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That is, Probert drew it that way, and the modelmakers built it that way, and Shane Johnson documented it that way. It's a three-windowed traffic control booth (with more windows towards the inside, IIRC) that is reached through a corridor running along the landing bay ceiling.
However, the red and green and yellow "approach vector cue-lights" (carrier deckhands here, fill in the correct jargon!) that were on the TOS ship just below the bay doors are no longer there in the refitted ship. That's a pity: it makes little sense that Starfleet would have moved from visual aids to something invisible in TMP when apparently visual aids were good enough for hundreds of years AND invisible means must have been available for most of that time.
posted
I always thoght those landing bay markings were a taunting bullseye to KLingon captains: "Fire a torpedo in here with the doors open and gut the entire ship!"
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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posted
Maybe the guys at the San Fransico shipyards had some decals left from an airfix model they didn't want to waste.
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