posted
I want a Canyonaro class Runabout. Bad antimatter milage, but it seats 36!
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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I've never liked some fans' propensity to make up new words like that. Works sometimes, but for the most part it's pretty groan inducing. Not to mention confusing... Ever notice how regardless of its canonicity, no one has EVER used "photorp" in dialogue?
Starfleet seems to be a pretty curious working environment in the respect that no abbreviations, groan-inducing or otherwise, are substituted for full-length technobabble. The various Tech Manuals thus ring a bit untrue with their assorted TLAs. Apparently, Starfleet does not believe in "EVA"s but in "spacewalks". Which, IMHO, is a positive thing...
I completely agree that shuttles shouldn't get formal "class names". They should get nicknames, though - AND fancy manufacturer names optimized for marketability, even if Starfleet does not adopt those. "Clydesdale" could be of the latter sort. Something similar to "shutug" would no doubt emerge as well, although spelled out like all technobabble and not abbreviated.
Any reason to think this actually is a tug of some sort?
posted
It would explain the strange rear end with the nacelle ends protruding and the weird looking discs at the rear. Maybe they're some sort of magnetic shoes for locking on to stuff? It also explains why spacedock is pretty much the only place we seem them in action in numbers.
Can I just say that the word 'Shutug' is one of the worst things I've heard in years. Awful. And wasn't the word 'PHOTORP' written in big red letters on screen on the top of Spocks makeshift coffin?
I would think that shuttles would just be known officially by type or design numbers, like the Type-9 cargo, Type-7 Personnel, etc. I imagine designers would name them though, and that might well become the unoffical name amongst pilots, or they might invent their own such as the Clydesdale.
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Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
I had always assumed that those nacelles were extra powerful, focused impulse thrusters. For me the weird feature is that bloody great radiator looking structure on it's back.
Again, I still have a slight problem with this being a pure bred tug, since we also see it parked outside UFP HQ in ST:IV and it's also one of these that apparantly rescues the crew from the sinking BOP, so there has to be room for eight passengers plus the two blokes sat up front. Aside from that there's also the fact that we never see these "tugs" actually towing anything, just flitting about like all the other light craft in spacedock. Not that I even pretend to have an intellegent solution or anything, yet the problem remains.
posted
If only filmmakers would have some consideration for us poor fanatics who try to make sense of their creations, instead of just going "oh, that would look cool. Put one of those there!"
I rather like the idea that it's a tug, since no other shuttle looks quite like it. I'm sure with a little brain sweat any number of explanations could be contrived for why one would be on the ground, or used for a water rescue. For instance, maybe it was the same tug--it was on the ground, say, for Academy engineering cadets to study tractor emitters hands-on, and because it was on the ground, it was under the still-clearing storm and able to reach Kirk & Co before anyone else.
posted
I thought the big red glowy things were tractor beam emitters for towing starships around the dockyards. Like the newer shuttle seen towing an Excelsior Class out of the combat zone during the Dominion War. (Opening shot of a season opener.)
posted
I've always considered that tug to be Klingon in origin. It's hull is green with red glowing engines and in a fleet of both federation and klingon ships after all.
Not too many Fed ships fit that bill.
The "spacedock shuttle" may also be for hauling a string of Workbees to their daily assignment (stuff is pretty spread out in earth orbit for those lil' yellow coffins).
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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