They were deployed when they approached the ion storm.
They were to be jettisoned.
They were able to go to at least Warp 1 when someone was in them
They were located in the Engineering Section.
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Homer: I'm gonna miss Springfield. This town's been awfully good to us.
Bart: No, it hasn't, Dad. That's why we're leaving.
Homer: Oh, yeah. [pokes his head out the window] So long, Stinktown!
We often see a 'different' version of the Enterprise without the 'balls' at the ends of the nacelles.
We see 'early' versions (i.e. as seen in Where No Man Has Gone Before) and then again in stock footage...
So could those little balls - be infact ion pods. They could be jettisoned and they are at an exterior part of the ship to be susceptible to problems during ion storms.
Just another thought on the 'grill' version of the Enterprise nacelles. They remind me of the sort of 'grills' that we see at the back of the Defiant. Although we don't see the Enterprise's grills glowing blue...
This might be a form of the nacelle grills that we usually see along the length of later nacelles, until the defiant made it necessary to have the length of each nacelle completly enclosed like the TOS nacelles, so back to the 'grill'?
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Homer: I'm gonna miss Springfield. This town's been awfully good to us.
Bart: No, it hasn't, Dad. That's why we're leaving.
Homer: Oh, yeah. [pokes his head out the window] So long, Stinktown!
[This message has been edited by AndrewR (edited April 15, 2001).]
Intended SP
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"One's ethics are determined by what we do when no one is looking" Nugget
Star Trek: Gamma Quadrant
Star Trek: Legacy
Read them, rate them, got money, film them
"...and I remain on the far side of crazy, I remain the mortal enemy of man, no hundred dollar cure will save me..." WoV
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Homer: I'm gonna miss Springfield. This town's been awfully good to us.
Bart: No, it hasn't, Dad. That's why we're leaving.
Homer: Oh, yeah. [pokes his head out the window] So long, Stinktown!
And no, it can't be those aft end-balls. There's no socket where the rest of the sphere should be in the shots of the flat endcap variations, and how exactly did you intend Ben Finney get back there past the fully energized warp coils? He'd be an irradiated husk before he got halfway.
I always figured the "ion pod" to be something deployed from completely inside the ship -- maybe it's behind the big round marking on the belly of the secondary hull...
--Jonah
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"It's obvious I'm dealing with a moron..."
--Col. Edwards, ROBOTECH
lol HUSK indeed I just was thinking maybe a ganway sort of thing be- oh stuff it you're right.
They could also be those (hatch?) triangles under the saucer-section although people have reserved them to be hatches for landing pads.
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Homer: I'm gonna miss Springfield. This town's been awfully good to us.
Bart: No, it hasn't, Dad. That's why we're leaving.
Homer: Oh, yeah. [pokes his head out the window] So long, Stinktown!
Same with the function of all the markings on the ventral secondary hull surface.
--Jonah
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"It's obvious I'm dealing with a moron..."
--Col. Edwards, ROBOTECH
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"Replicate some marmalade, Commander - helm control is toast!"