Ok...I know this has been touched on before...and, yes, I did go back through old threads to see if there was something I could add to, but I didn't find one... so here's my thing:
I was watching a taped episode of Enterprise yesterday and I happened to pause it as the last ship in the opening credits before Enterprise swoops down from above. And I noticed what looks like a saucer at the front of the ship. You can just barely see it, but it's fairly clear.
I don't remember anyone mentioning this before, but has anyone else noticed this? Anyone drawn up a preliminary schematic of this ship?
Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on December 04, 2001 04:54 AM:
Yes, I actually noticed this as well, but I didn't know if I was just seeing things or not.
I hope that this is actually an Earth Starfleet ship, because then the possibility of seeing it in an episode is good. However, it was shown after the Phoenix and before the Enterprise, so it could have been built any time between 2063 and 2151.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on December 04, 2001 05:18 AM:
I'm guessing that we'll see it show up as an Earth Starfleet vessel in a role similar to the Fortunate.
The use of a saucer and the similar nacelles would really fit in quite nicely as a pre NX class...
Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on December 04, 2001 06:49 PM:
It'd be nice if they could actually explain what made them start using saucers in the first place. . .
Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on December 04, 2001 06:57 PM:
I bet on some Vulcan pointing out that "Forbidden Planet" is a stupid movie because saucer is the most illogical spacecraft shape possible, and the Earth engineers getting all agitated and determined to prove otherwise.
Timo Saloniemi
Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on December 04, 2001 11:11 PM:
Works for me. 8)
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on December 04, 2001 11:57 PM:
Maybe people wanted even spaced quarters or people used to fight over who could have a 'window room' - so they made saucers so more people had access to a window!?! Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on December 05, 2001 07:46 AM:
with the orientation of NX-01 primary hull, some of those windows are skylights
Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on December 05, 2001 08:48 AM:
No kidding, huh. WAY to state the obvious. Anything else you'd like to clue us in on? Like, that you can't open these windows to let fresh air in? 8)
Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on December 05, 2001 09:00 AM:
Well, sometimes people need to state the obvious..
I did try to open one in fact.. i sure wish someone had told me!
Posted by Vogon Poet (Member # 393) on December 05, 2001 06:59 PM:
Yeah, I bet it really sucked. 8)
Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on December 05, 2001 09:10 PM:
No, actually it really blew.
But i could solve a lot of questions in the explosive decompression thread .. *massages eye sockets*
Posted by Alshrim (Member # 258) on December 06, 2001 08:57 PM:
I always thought that this was the ship that Archer (as a kid in the first episode) was buiding a model of. It was the ship his father designed and built.
But i did notice it looked like the saucer sections of the other ships...
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on December 06, 2001 09:05 PM:
The ship boy-Archer was building had no saucer. And I think that Enterprise was the ship his father designed and built. However, his father died before Enterprise was completed.
That's just what I picked up, I could be wrong though. They could've been talking about a different ship. But I think part of the emotional tie in was that Enterprise was the ship that Archer's dad was building but never got to see fly.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on December 07, 2001 06:58 AM:
It wasn't so much the ship that his father was building, as the engine. I mean, I'm sure the shape of the ship has something to do w/ the warp drive, so Archer the Elder probably had some say in that. But it was the the warp-five engine that was the main thing.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on December 09, 2001 09:22 PM:
I think you're probably right to an extent, TSN, but Archer the Younger specifically asked his father when his ship would be done and how big it would be. I think his pop then said somethign about having to design the engine first or or build it first or something... So it's probably somewhere in between. I think he was mostly concerned with the engine but probably had his hands in the opening phases of building the Enterprise.
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on December 09, 2001 10:55 PM:
About the saucer... the question is, if the hull shape has so much to do with speed, and Earth is building ships based on Vulcan technology, then why do Earth ships look so drastically different from Vulcan ships?
Really, using a saucer as an early starship form doesn't exactly make sense. The variety of alien starship designs proves that hull shape isn't THAT crucial. And a saucer is not the most logical shape to start out with; it limits the internal hull volume, for example, compared with a sphere or a cylinder.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on December 10, 2001 12:23 AM:
The answer is, "Because it looks really neat." And when they're in the middle of a battle, I think that Starfleet wants it's adversaries to stop for a second and admire the aesthetic qualities of the ship that is about to blow them to pieces. That's the kind of organization they are.
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on December 10, 2001 12:59 AM:
Oh, so they think their foes are like Ultra Magnus?
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on December 10, 2001 01:16 AM:
LOL!!! Exactly.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on December 10, 2001 05:39 AM:
"...and Earth is building ships based on Vulcan technology..."
Which we've repeatedly heard they aren't...
Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on December 11, 2001 01:20 AM:
Well, that's true, they're striking out on their own. But considering that the Vulcans have so far been the "guides" of Humanity into space, it would be logical to assume that many of the technical details and methods were gleaned from their own operations.
Of course, "ENT" and "logical" are about as opposite as can be...
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on December 11, 2001 02:40 AM:
Being their guides into this new era doesn't necessarily mean that they are their guides as far as technolgy, particularly space faring technology, goes. You could argue that they are helping them clean up the remaining social and political problems on Earth, helping medically, and preparing humanity to join the interstellar community. But from the evidence presented so far, it seems that the way they are specifically not helping them is in starship design and construction.
