posted
I don't particularly like cross-overs. Perhaps it's because they seem like the very worst of all possible excesses of that sub-culture known as the "fandom". It always apalls me to imagine how much better spent all those creative energies would have been if the authors had written their own original works instead, rather than blowing all that time and nervous energy on putting money in someone elses pocket rather than pocketing their own royalties. Oh well. Keeps 'em off the streets
However, I will admit to having read one or two very well written short stories based on TOS.
But on with this post: of pretty much all space based, starship porn filled sci-fi, Trek stands out because it has a relatively loosely defined set of rules by which the physics of propulsion and spacecraft design are... generally... governed. So, on occassion, I leaf through my mental library of spaceships I have seen on TV and imagine which of them would be equally at home in the Trek universe if their designs were re-interpreted.
One such is pictured below. The Mimbari Sharlin Warcruiser from Babylon 5. One of the most impressive looking things ever to cruise majestically across a starfield.
If you observe the images, I will describe how I have trekified the Sharlin.
- First, a dilema. Clearly the fins can serve as warp nacelles. They even have grills along their length similar to Movie era nacelles. But there are three of them, and one of them is stuck right out on it's own.
- Deflector. The hangar bay is located right were you might expect to place it, in amongst all those antennae (most of which are beam weapon emitters). However, there is that big open flower head style thing mounted on the upper fin which, in B5, was simply another beam weapon. However, trekified, I've turned it into the deflector!
- Now, because it's got the deflector integrated into it, I specify that the upper fin is only a part time nacelle. I suppose the inspiration comes from the integrated deflector and nacelles of the Dauntless from Voyager.
- The lower two fins (which are our primary warp nacelles) have beam weapons integrated into them. Not a problem. These two are among the vessels really big guns. They're analogous to the phasers in ST: The Motion Picture which are powered by the warp drive to increase power or something.
- The hangar can stay put. I'm not bothered by that.
- Ideally, I'd like to make certain minor adjustments to the design, like making the upper fin more distinct from the lower fins by removing the grill effect, perhaps, or smoothing out the join at the top or something. Also, the two side mounted weapons with big leaf shaped flares would be turned into omni-directional podded weapons instead of having everything pointing forwards only.
posted
If you want to see a nicely done "Trekified" ship, go find the U.S.S. Galactica in the 2D WIP section of the scifi-meshes.com forums. Instead of just dropping it into Trek as-is, he completely reworked the design.
posted
A goofy design that has zero weapons coverage for 3/4 of it's surface (target) area. Long pointy fized weapons are best for fighters, not giant starships. (I feel the same way about the KBOP and AGT Klingon ship)
Hmmm...it might be nice, and keep the "fish" design estethic, to add on several rows of small "cannons" to give a blowfish effect and cover the sides...
Personally, I think the Vree cruiser works far better in a Trek environment.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
