-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Ditto. If the original "flying office room" design was indeed done at Roddenberry's insistence, I must withdraw from the heretofore defensible position that the man contributed nothing positive to Trek after TOS...
It's cool as a concept, stylish in execution, and would have looked really cute on screen. Especially if Wise played it for the surprise factor: Kirk and Scotty enter a furnished office, Kirk sits on a couch, Scotty presses a button, and the office flies away to meet the starship!
posted
That would have been cool. Hey, a sci-fi idea. For a sci-fi movie. What a concept. Though what would they have done for Regula in the second film?
It's great getting these inside stories on the production of the movies. It's little stuff. Insignificant, maybe. But I likes me some dirt.
Registered: Sep 2000
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Gives a whole new meaning to Extreme Makeover: Starship Edition I guess...
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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A workbee bulldozer makes sense. In ST:V when the shuttle crashes in the shuttlebay, a bulldozer would be handy for clearing the bay floor for future landings etc.
-------------------- I haul cardboard and cardboard accessories
Registered: Mar 1999
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I can't say I'm fond of the flying office concept, myself. It smacks too much of the whole 1970s-leisure-suit asethetic that so dates part of the film. Like, perhaps it is just me, but the series interiors look less out of date today than, for instance, the furniture in that lounge.
I guess I got off track a little, but my point, I think, is that flying around in a cubicle is pretty much the opposite of cool.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Maybe not a real shuttle office - but an office that can be detached from one ship that the engineer is working on and reattached to another makes a certain amount of sense.
I hang around at a shipyard these days and the engineers work in trailers that are moved from ship to ship with a crane (not very often) (everybody gets out first).
-------------------- Twee bieren tevreden, zullen mijn vriend betalen.
Registered: Oct 2000
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posted
I'd be happy if all the aux craft from TMP looked even slightly practical.
It's SPACE guys- shit is bound to happen,and TMP shows us all sorts of mechanical failures) so workbees and travelpods with paper thin hulls, no seats and no obvious emergency or EVA equipment just does not work for me.
I'd prefer the large detachable "office" module that could be outfitted for any munber of uses to several specalty craft (transport, repair, construction, cargo hauling, etc.).
The big office thing coud even serve as a dockmaster's platform to oversee the various construction efforts.
I see a job for the DAC forum.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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All kinds of failures? An untested ship that has one transporter failure and engines that don't work right cause they fire them up too soon is hardly "all sorts". Even they are isolated to the Enterprise. Everything else works fine.
And there's no reason to think paper thin isn't strong. I somehow doubt they're building out of aluminum.
-------------------- "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
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
There's also the question of acceptable risk. A warehouse forklift of today is a deathtrap if a shelf collapses on top of it: the protective frame atop the driver's seat won't help when the thing is lying on its side, like it will be after meeting said shelf.
Should the forklifts be built with greater gauge to prevent tilting over, and with reinforced side doors? Their operators would be the first to say no: that would defeat the purpose of these useful tools.
You don't wear EVA gear in a workbee any more than you wear a parachute when cleaning skyscraper windows or scuba gear when working on a bridge across a river. There are subtler safety measures available for such things.
TOS already sets a precedent on 23rd century attitudes towards working in space. The shuttles have no obvious EVA gear, either...
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