posted
The revised layout also contradicts the turboshaft chart graphic from the movies. I'd still rather forget about those and go for something that makes the greatest possible sense dimensionally.
Which my revised cutout does not. I restored the separation charges and removed the extra deck, and noticed that this necessarily splits the planned deuterium tank in half. Oh, well. Perhaps the upper part goes with the saucer for impulse propulsion in case of separation, even though both are interconnected in attached mode.
I'd still defend a deuterium tank somewhere up there, just so that the impulse engines could be easily fed. But if there are separate tanks for that, then things change. The deuterium volume would be a function of the relationship between warp and impulse travel during a typical mission - impulse would call for relatively more deuterium. But if impulse engines have their own tanks in the saucer, then the warp deuterium should not take up much more room than the warp antideuterium.
The "impulse crystal" need not be at the upper end of the shaft, or connected to it, canonically speaking - it isn't there on the Constellations or the NX-01, and the Mirandas, Soyuzes and Excelsiors are still open to speculation in that respect. The Sydneys seem to have a big shuttlebay beneath the crystal...
The greatest problem with side-by-side torp decks would seem to be, not the width issue, but the fact that the upper deck balconies seem almost as wide as the lower bays. Very little can be done to help that.
(Just to gloat on that layout I did, though, it would also explain why the port side torpedo bay docking ports are preferred. The "waiting niche" for turbolifts is on that side... )
Many thanks to Griffworks for inviting me to come to this board and take a peek.
I've enjoyed your posts concerning the interior layout of the movie Enterprise. You guys sure know your stuff, and I've really had fun reading through your thoughts on the vessel's theoretical innards
When I wrote 'Mr. Scott's Guide,' there were several restrictions I was asked to abide by. One was some measure of adherence to prior licensed materials such as FASA's stuff and the earlier Spaceflight Chronology, as well as the Kimble cutaway poster. I also incorporated design suggestions given me by Probert (the computer core) and Okuda (corridor specifics, among other things).
Some elements, such as the torp bays, simply couldn't be done as implied on-screen. The clear implication in ST II was that there were two separate bays resting side-by-side, with docking port access foyers placed outside of those. Can't happen -- Irwin Allen would have been proud. After all, the set originally was created as the Klingon bridge for TMP, and was redressed by Meyer as a budget-saving feature. Despite all this, since the room was so prominent in the film, I wanted to include it in MSG -- so, I created the single-bay 'horseshoe launcher' compromise. Even THAT is a stretch, but it worked well enough to provide a plausible entry in the book.
It's been a long time since I did MSG (some 17 years), and there are things in there I'd now do differently given the chance (but then, there always are -- I tend to edit my novels right up to the last minute, and even after publication I continue to find things I feel could be made better). It's been a good while since I even read through the book, so I don't immediately recall everything in it, or the thinking behind some of its content. But I do know that I produced the best interpretation of the Enterprise I could at the time, given the short deadline I was working against and the other creative guidelines to which I was asked to adhere. The Trek universe, of necessity, requires authors such as myself to do a lot of gap-filling -- there's a lot of square-footage inside that ship that barely had been hinted at, or had gone unmentioned altogether.
It is 'only a movie,' as they say, and the sets and design elements are created only to look good on-screen and remain within budget. Like you, however, I cannot resist the creative desire to attempt to make all the puzzle pieces fit together into a cohesive whole. Sometimes it works (a testament to the skill of the original production team), and sometimes it doesn't, but in either case folks such as you and I enjoy contributing what we can to the overall 'realism' of the ST universe.
posted
Hot damn!! Shane!! Good to see you again, sir! I've missed our conversations ever since the e-mail addy you were using at the time started bouncing. What the heck have you been up to these last couple years?
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
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-------------------- joH'a' 'oH wIj DevwI' jIH DIchDaq Hutlh pagh (some days it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps in the morning) The Woozle!
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posted
LastGuardian, in MSG, you showed the turbo-lift going down the neck, in a stepped affair, others have suggested having it go down the front of the neck, and Engineering, or down the middle of the neck, with one step, and just AFT and Starboard of Engineering. Would you still put it as shown in MSG?
-------------------- joH'a' 'oH wIj DevwI' jIH DIchDaq Hutlh pagh (some days it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps in the morning) The Woozle!
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posted
If I remember correctly, the elevator shaft cannot drop down the front of the dorsal if the intermix shaft is centered under the deflection crystal. It would fall directly in the center of the Main Engineering entry foyer, and there is no place on the torp bay decks above for it to run sideways and back.
So yes, I believe I would keep it much as it is shown in the book.
quote:Originally posted by thelastguardian: If I remember correctly, the elevator shaft cannot drop down the front of the dorsal if the intermix shaft is centered under the deflection crystal. It would fall directly in the center of the Main Engineering entry foyer, and there is no place on the torp bay decks above for it to run sideways and back.
Hey Shane. Just curious, but do you recall what the sources were that you used for things like the deck numbers? And did you talk to Andy Probert about things like the corridor outside of engineering?
-------------------- "Well, I mean, it's generally understood that, of all of the people in the world, Mike Nelson is the best." -- ULTRA MAGNUS, steadfast in curmudgeon
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posted
And another question that has burned the minds and hearts of MSG afectionados since time immemorable:
What is the story behind the design of the one-man lifepods? Were those an original Probert creation for the movie, or added by you to flesh out the book? Was that instruction sheet perhaps included in the set design for the cargo bay catwalk?
It's very difficult to discern the design of the red lifeboats we see in the cargo bay set/matte, but they do look a bit larger than the one-man pod...
Hey Shane. Just curious, but do you recall what the sources were that you used for things like the deck numbers? And did you talk to Andy Probert about things like the corridor outside of engineering?
I don't recall specifically concerning the deck numbers, but factors such as the cutaway poster and deck-to-deck measurements were taken into account.
In referring to the corridor outside engineering, I assume you're alluding to the fact that said corridor (seen in TMP) cannot exist according to the ship exterior as established. I don't think I discussed it with anyone -- there was really no need, since the placement shown was a physical impossibility and everyone knew it. That is one of those instances where easy access and placement on the soundstage floor overrode the supposed, fictitious layout of the ship. Again, elements in films are meant to look good on screen -- if they also fit into an overall, logical scheme, that's gravy.
quote:Originally posted by Timo: And another question that has burned the minds and hearts of MSG afectionados since time immemorable:
What is the story behind the design of the one-man lifepods? Were those an original Probert creation for the movie, or added by you to flesh out the book? Was that instruction sheet perhaps included in the set design for the cargo bay catwalk?
It's very difficult to discern the design of the red lifeboats we see in the cargo bay set/matte, but they do look a bit larger than the one-man pod...
Timo Saloniemi
I believe no lifeboats were seen in TMP, and to the best of my knowledge none were even sketched in pre-production. I asked about that at the time, and was told that only the closed 'lifeboat station' door was visible on-screen (it stands screen right, next to the turboshaft tube through which Kirk first enters the Enterprise). If I recall correctly, the door is gray with red and white markings, and says simply 'Life Boats' or some such on it. Since the lifeboats themselves had not been designed for the film, I got what input I could from my Paramount sources and created the drawings in the book.
posted
Yeah! Glad you made it, Shane. The guys here are all great and very Treknology minded.
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capped
I WAS IN THE FUTURE, IT WAS TOO LATE TO RSVP
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posted
*bows* mad props man, on being published..
now.. Ti-Ho?
aaanywho.. i have a feeling you are going to be inundated with questions regarding the 1701-A transwarp graphics and the rec deck proposed sketches... i just gotta say, good work on everything
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posted
Shane, may I...? Or would it be too presumptuous? Based on what you told me, I made sure to include the Ti-Ho in my ship list, as a matter of respect.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
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quote:Originally posted by Peregrinus: Shane, may I...? Or would it be too presumptuous? Based on what you told me, I made sure to include the Ti-Ho in my ship list, as a matter of respect.
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Good to see you again, sir! I've missed our conversations ever since the e-mail addy you were using at the time started bouncing. What the heck have you been up to these last couple years? 
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