posted
So how the hell does anybody get on or off the ship? NX-01 was the first with a transporter (I know, that's safe for people to use). The Eric the-half-a-ship has got no visible shuttle bay, so what do they do?
Maybe they let out a long rope and drop it to the planets surface. It'd be quick to get down, but a bugger to climb back up!
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:Originally posted by The Mighty Monkey of Mim: Which, confusingly enough, is far enough out even a century later that Kirk felt he could safely leave Khan and his flunkies to run around on it.
How long did it take them to get there? Wasn't the episode set a good 20 years in the future?
Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
I'd think a location close to Earth is actually preferable: Kirk would want to dump Khan ASAP, and the spot where the supervillain was picked up was necessarily close to Earth, considering the supposed low speed of his sleeper ship.
The Ceti Alpha system could remain unvisited (and so poorly charted that a missing planet doesn't raise any eyebrows in ST2) because there simply isn't anything of interest there, Save for a habitable planet, of course - but those are thirteen in a dozen in the Trek galaxy.
As for how the Intrepid sends people up or down... Perhaps she doesn't. Her mission profile simply might not include any sort of planetary stuff, be it exploration, exploitation, SAR, or ground combat. We're spoiled by having seen so many multipurpose ships, but the pre-ENT era Starfleet might have decided to pour its meager resources mainly into effective space-to-space combatants, with the engineers chanting "not a pound for space-to-ground".
A space-only ship could be seen as a great technological advance in comparison with the older, clearly planet-oriented lifting-body ships, even if later experience would cause the designers to backpedal a bit. Or then there's a division of labor there, with the deltas handling all planetary stuff.
posted
OTOH, have you ever seen what they use instead of a trnsporter in Stone Trek? That sure gives a new meaning to the expression "away team"...
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
It's probable there are large-ish transport shuttles (20-30 people- like a city bus) that can dock with ships like the "elta" via a common gangway hatch (like NX-01's side docking ports).
With surface to orbit launches being safe and commonplace, a transporter is just a convience.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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quote:Originally posted by The Ginger Beacon: So how the hell does anybody get on or off the ship? NX-01 was the first with a transporter (I know, that's safe for people to use). The Eric the-half-a-ship has got no visible shuttle bay, so what do they do?
Maybe they let out a long rope and drop it to the planets surface. It'd be quick to get down, but a bugger to climb back up!
Aren't those like four shuttle bays on the back-end of the half saucer? Looks like two on each side with impulse engines at the ends.
-------------------- "Well, Sergeant? Aren't you going to say that it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside? Everybody else does."
"It's pretty obvious, isn't it?"
The Doctor and Sgt. Benton, in "The Three Doctors"
Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
I thought that too initialy, but then I went back to the NX and they are there too. I thought they were cargobay doors, bot mayby not.
Just because we've never seen a shuttle exit from there, doesn't mean it can't. Perhaps thats where they keep the spares.
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Oh dear. I seem to have quoted, rather than edit.
I thought that too initialy, but then I went back to the NX and they are there too. I thought they were cargobay doors, but mayby not.
Just because we've never seen a shuttle exit from there, doesn't mean it can't. Perhaps thats where they keep the spares - it's a bit silly only having two shuttles that can take, say 10 on them. Even with the two on 'hot standby', thats still only half the crew.
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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