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Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :

Made this 'cause I was bored and felt like it. What do you guys think?

Posted by targetemployee (Member # 217) on :

The Mighty Monkey of Mim,

If you show the rear of these ships, I give you the following information on the impulse drive configuration.

First configuration
USS Constellation, NCC-1017
"The Doomsday Machine"
This ship's impulse drive is hidden, like the USS Defiant's of 2370's.

Second configuration
USS Enterprise
early episodes of TOS
The USS Enterprise's original configuration was nine holes in a line. This is seen very clearly in "The Enemy Within".

Third configuration
USS Enterprise
later episodes
This is the best known configuration. There are two trapezoidals on the left and right side of the impulse drive. Between these openings, there is a 'chevron'.

If someone can get screencaptures of these three configurations, I would be very appreciative.

Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :

I also did these quickies on Adobe.

Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :

Well, I went looking for pictures of the impulse engines, but all I could find from The Original Series are these two. Both I found over at Star Trek In Sound and Vision:

This first one is of the USS Constellation going into the maw of of the planet killer in "Doomsday Machine." As you can see, the engines are hidden.

USS Constellation Impulse Engines

The only differing impulse engine I could find is this one. The best picture I found was this closeup from "The Immunity Syndrome."

USS Enterprise Impulse Engines.

I found a fuzzy picture of the Enterprise from "Where No Man Has Gone Before," but it looked to have the same impulse engine configuration as the picture from "The Immunity Syndrome." I know it was a WNMHGB picture because the Enterprise is headed for the Great Barrier and the afts of the nacelles are grilles, not the domes.

For good measure, here's a picture of the refit Enterprise's impulse engines: Refit Enterprise's Impulse Deck

Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :

Oh, and before I forget, here's a link to a website with reference pictures for starship model makers: Trek Modeler's Reference Site

Posted by targetemployee (Member # 217) on :

Thank you Siegfried for correcting my mistake on the third configuration. Later today, I will get the information for "The Enemy Within", so that you and others can get a good look at the second configuration. This configuration is thrown in with the newer configuration many times. I apologize for not being clearer.

Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :

Hmm. The first configuration was shown in WNMHGB? So when was the Enterprise modified to the second, and third configurations of the Impulse Engines?

My understanding was that the TOS model had existed in 3 different versions. The Cage version, with the large bridge, deflector dish, and grills on engines; the second pilot version (WNMHGB, I'm not sure of the specific differences, but I know it had black strips painted around it's running lights on the saucer that weren't on the other two versions), still with grills; and the main series version, which had the small bridge and deflector, and bubbles on the ends of the warp nacelles.

We saw the Enterprise fly away from us at the end of The Cage. Were the Impulse engines the same as the new shots from WNMHGB? I'm curious if the impulse engines were changed for the second Enterprise model version, or the third.

Posted by targetemployee (Member # 217) on :

"The Enemy Within"

The episode begins. There is space. The USS Enterprise appears to the right of the screen. We see her port side. As the saucer passes in front of the camera, there appears the impulse drive. For a brief second, we see the full impulse drive. There are eight rectangular openings and one circular opening in the center of the impulse drive. The nacelles appear next. They don't have the 'white' dome at the end. The grills can be seen.

I notice while watching this segment of film the change from this design to the better known design. The two outermost rectangular openings port and starboard were removed. Innermost rectangular openings, four in all, were combined into two larger rectangulars. Circular opening is unchanged.

I suppose that we can do a brief conjectural history.

2253 to 2265
USS Enterprise has configuration one impulse drive.
USS Constellation is given an 'experimental' impulse drive.
2265 to 2270
USS Enterprise impulse drive is refitted. She will use this refitted impulse drive through her five year mission.

[ July 23, 2001: Message edited by: targetemployee ]

Posted by Timo (Member # 245) on :

Umm.. I'd ditch one of the designs outright. The Constitution with tilted nacelles is seen only as a tabletop model. Specifically, it stands on the tabletop of a woman who's married, with children. Admittedly, these kids are probably very young at this point, but that's all the more reason for them to mangle the scale model so badly. Mum still proudly displays it at work, even if it looks nothing like the real thing...

The re-scaling of the fancy light cruiser from DS9 TM is also suspect - we have no reason to trust any of the length figures given for the ships, not after the obvious gaffes in earlier entries. The ship is acceptable as a non-upscaled variant, though.

The Excelsior and Intrepid mongrels are probably portrayed grossly incorrectly, but could be taken to exist anyway (even if they weren't really spotted in the episodes). Both would establish upscaled Constitution nacelles, yet I don't see this as sufficient reason to assume that the saucer for that light cruiser was also upscaled. (It couldn't have been, since it incorporates a docking ring, which is a scale-defining feature whose size cannot vary from ship to ship!)

Timo Saloniemi

Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :

I agree withe Timo. This "rescaling" in the Star Trek universe is ridiculous. Try scaling up your car two or three times its original size and then see how easy it is to drive it.

Posted by Spike (Member # 322) on :

Why didn't you include the Miranda and Constellation-class?

Posted by Veers (Member # 661) on :

Now that the chart finally downloaded, I can say that it is very interesting. Maybe more charts could be made like this...
I noticed that the two Constitution Variants from the 2370s (not the Curry) have nacelles that look almost exactly like those of the Miranda's. Ever since I got the TM, I've been thinking that it would make more sense for the Intrepid/Constitution to be called an Intrepid/Miranda. Where would they find working Constitution nacelles? Miranda nacelles would make more sense.

Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :

This is semi related, I started it a while ago but I've never gotten around to finishing it. Its actually based on an much simpler animation done by someone else (I forget who).

I know its not 100% accurate...its just a little bit of fun

Posted by Spike (Member # 322) on :

I thought the Miranda-class has the same nacelles as the Constitution-class (apart from that some Mirandas have red-blue nacelles IIRC).

Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :

Yeah, the Mirandas used the same nacelles as the Constitution, its just that the support pylons connected to the top of the nacelle instead of the bottom. The Constellation's nacelles are similar to the Constitution nacelles; however, the ends are shaped differently.

Here's a somewhat fuzzy picture of the Constellation nacelles so that you can see what I mean: Constellation Nacelles

[ July 24, 2001: Message edited by: Siegfried ]

Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :

Reverand!!!!!!! LOL! That is BRILLIANT! Please finish it!

Andrew

Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :

Actually, the Curry has the most Miranda-like nacelles of all. In fact, they're so Miranda-like that they actually came off of a Miranda model... *rolls eyes*

Posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim (Member # 646) on :

Yeah, I think the theory is that they used the rollbar for the Centaur and the nacelles for the Curry.