posted
If it has double torp-launchers I'd say it's a successful successor to the Constellation, but the neck is a bit long! I'd shorten the mid-section so it gets a little more compact! Of course, that's irrelevant if they were only going to use it as a "science"-ship.
------------------ I'm not an atheist, I'm a maybeist�
posted
I think it is a cool ship. I have always favoured ships with more than two nacelles. This design might be a high-speed courier since it looks a bit too fragile for battle. Is it just me, or does it look like the entire ship is 'retractable'? By that I mean that it looks like one can 'push' the entire midsection into the saucer so that the nacelles comes up to the saucer-edge. Interesting feature if true, something like Voyager�s folding nacelles perhaps? Improved warpfields, that is.
------------------ "The Starships of the Federation are the physical, tangible manifestations of Humanity�s stubborn insistence that life does indeed mean something." Spock to Leonard McCoy in "Final Frontier"
[This message has been edited by pIn'a' Sov (edited June 20, 2000).]
posted
That would make sense, seeing as where it's supposed ot be a transwarp ship...
------------------ "When you realized that your website is your business and your software can't handle the traffic, that was an epiphany." -Avery Brooks, IBM commercial
------------------ Ready for the action now, Dangerboy Ready if I'm ready for you, Dangerboy Ready if I want it now, Dangerboy? How dare you, dare you, Dangerboy? How dare you, Dangerboy? I dare you, dare you, Dangerboy...
posted
Wow, I really like this ship now. Anyone care to guess what that giant bubble is? Maybe it's part of the transwarp core.
------------------ "The things hollow--it goes on forever--and--oh my God!--it's full of stars!" -David Bowman's last transmission back to Earth, 2001: A Space Odyssey
posted
Weird that to this point no-one has mentioned that the ship seen on screen has the top 2 and bottom 2 nacelles closer to the middle. Like the Prometheus the distance between top and bottom nacelles is clearly shorter than between the left and right nacelles.
But the model shows an almost square configuration.
------------------ "Do you want to be President?" "Yes." "Put you hand on the book and say 'I do'." "I do." "Good, done. Let's eat!"
Alpha Centauri
Usually seen somewhere in the Southern skies
Member # 338
posted
Black Knight: I hope for you that Okuda doesn't get to seen that pic on *your* website... Goodbye agreement!
------------------ "Alpha Centauri is a beautiful place to visit, you ought to see it" - Kirk to 1969 USAF officer Fellini, "Tomorrow is Yesterday" (TOS)
posted
One could always chalk some of this up to battle damage and bent pylons
Seriously, I think the arrangement is still square for the picture on the left - the ship is simply seen from an angle that distorts the image. Note how confusingly the port side of the saucer lurks in the shadows - it's difficult to even tell where the bow is pointing.
As for the picture on the right... Hands up, those who can as much as SEE the lower pylon pair! There's no question, though, that the model is the same, even if we don't see much of it.
And the ship is probably the same, too... Qualor II could be the final resting place of the Wolf 359 ships. At least the proto-Nebula is identical (two ships could not have received identical battle damage, now could they?). We know that Qualor II is near the Romulan Neutral Zone and Galorndon Core - and we also have reason to believe that the RNZ is relatively close to Earth, and thus to Wolf 359. Perhaps it was chosen as a surplus depot back in the days of the Romulan war, close to the front lines, and has been accumulating ships ever since.
posted
Can I just say... WOW! I've been on exams, and so haven't been around as much and look at what I come back to! Lovely. Thanks Mike Okuda! WOW!
I think its a pretty ship. I don't think its a warship but rather an exploration ship... long term
Oh and AT LAST another ship that has Oberthesque nacelles!
I could just see a beauty pass of this ship as you first see the the saucer and then as it passes over you in front of a beautiful cobalt blue nebula... its neck and then its nacelles... WOOSH!
*looks around*
huh hmmmmm
Anyway thanks Bernd thanks Mike.
Andrew
------------------ "chocolate cherries allamanda" - Datura, Tori Amos
posted
Hey, pIn'a'Sov and Black Knight, I'm beginning to think you have something there. The ship certainly does look like it was specifically designed to be "retractable" - the supposed shuttlebay is just a cavity to retract the aft hull ridge into (that photo rendering is pretty convincing). Probably one of the gimmicks that would have told the ship apart from the old Enterprise. Never mind that the feature makes most of the saucer interior useless - perhaps this ship was only intended to be a testbed without any mission gear.
But there could be further variable geometry built into the model as well. Just look how the pylons are mounted to the aft hull - lots of open space as if to allow for movement. Perhaps the nacelle pairs can move closer to each other from that perfect cruciform arrangement in certain flight modes?
In fact, the nacelle shape suggests that perhaps the upper ones were intended to fit perfectly against the lower ones, creating a hemispherical forward end where now there are 1/8-spherical endcaps. The mounting of the pylons on the nacelles does not exactly support this kind of extreme variable geometry, since there are no cutouts in the inner walls for fully horizontal pylons - but perhaps BG intended to introduce them to the final version, were it to be built to these specs.
I must ask Okuda if he can perform a little experimentation with the ship. And when it is ruined beyond repair, you can all come and stab me if you can find your way to Finl... I mean, Madagaskar. I just recently moved. Boy, it's hot in Tananarive.
If this ship really is variable-geometry, then it probably was not intended for operational use at all. Perhaps it was a simple VG experiment predating Intrepid, or perhaps an early transwarp testbed that paved the way for the real NX-2000...
posted
This is a bit off topic, but, Timo and Bernd, have you thanked Okuda on behalf of everyone on the Forums? I mean, this is really very, very nice of him.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
