posted
The first model ship also appears in TNG First Contact.
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posted
That was the sonic plunger he used to beat wesley with.....until Beverly arranged his little "acciadent".
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posted
Judging from the shadow, I think it's F-19. You know, from that old Microprose game, "F-19 Stealth Fighter". God, I loved that game. I once managed to land safely without any fuel left
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
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posted
Well, I don't know of any fighter with inward-slanted tail fins, so I suppose it could be the Tester Corporation's plastic model of the F-19, making a stealthy cameo appearance... or a dimensionally warped SR-71 silhouette.
[ February 20, 2003, 04:31 PM: Message edited by: E. Cartman ]
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posted
The first certainly isn't the Discovery. the long body appears to be merely framework, unlike the Discovery's large triangular cooling vents that ran along the spine. Also there's no comm dish in the center of the spine, and whatever those bits are at the end of the spine aren't on Discovery.
My guess would be something from the early 21st century, but with the Daedalus in mind.
-------------------- "Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
-Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney, LeMans
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Umm, triangular cooling fins? Those were omitted from the Discovery model early on, on grounds of silliness. I believe the study model that had the wings (as per Clarke's original concept) did not survive.
Certainly this model is an homage to the Discovery, but probably no more than that. AFAIK, it was specifically created for "First Contact" the TNG episode, where it was to be a very primitive warpship - so the modelmaker obviously liked to make a connection to a famous primitive Earth space vessel.
As for the aircraft silhouette... A "Starbase Earhart" would be a perfect place to display historical Earth aircraft, of course. So it's very likely that the prop people indeed dug out whatever model aircraft they had lying around, perhaps spraypainted them, and mounted them on pedestals everywhere. We could be looking at a model of Firefox for all we know.
posted
I guess fins was the wrong word. I was talking about the triangular structures that are along the spine of Discovery. There's three per section, about a dozen sections along the length. If I remember correctly, at least as described in the book, they had some use that was connected with the reactor with the back, I merely thought it was something to do with cooling.
-------------------- "Lotta people go through life doing things badly. Racing's important to men who do it well. When you're racing, it's life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting."
-Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney, LeMans
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posted
Oh, right. I have heard them called fuel tanks at times...
The person who built the "First Contact" model probably had access to some sort of a Discovery kit (or an Aries kit, for that matter, since the bow sphere doesn't seem completely Discovery-like), and might have only partially built it and then added extra parts like the warp nacelles. In any case, the model and the computer rendering thereof were a plot point and rather prominently shown in the episode, and were thus probably built with greater care than most Trek tabletop decorations.
posted
There is another possibility for the first ship. This ship could be based on a ship seen in a Space 1999 episode titled "Alpha Child". The sphere of the command section is closer to the design of the alien ship in that episode than the Discovery of 2001.
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![[Frown]](frown.gif)
but that was my first guess. Second guess would be some sore of relay station or starbase![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
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