Tomorrow's Enterprise.

[Doodler]

http://www.neutralzone.de/database/Federation/Other/USS_Enterprise_NCC-1701-J04a.htm


The writers may need a break, but I'll be darned if the art staff shouldn't be getting bonuses.

That's just plain pretty.

[soylentgreen]

When a new Enterprise is 'commissioned', do they incorporate the saucer element out of plain 'ol sentimentality, or are there practical results to be had?

I can see the concept of a "spoked" layout(a la Washington DC or Paris)helping keep movement about the ship efficient. Is there anything else that Starfleet(from a show, movie or attendant book source)has mentioned about the usefulness of the shape?

My exposure to the wealth of published materials on the Star Trek universe is minimal :o , so I'm sure this must have been addressed somewhere that I just haven't run across yet.

[SMEaton]

That's one heckuva flat saucer section judging from the pic. Looks cool, though.

[Doodler]

Not much, other than the nacelles are usually outboard for field efficiency and protection of the crew.

http://www.neutralzone.de/database/Federation/Other/USS_Enterprise_NCC-1701-J02a.htm

A few mass models of it. The big reason for the swept back design would be a low profile to incoming fire from the sides and front.

The saucer design is usually an abandon ship mode. In the original and A, saucer separation was permanent, and done with explosive charges in the event of a catastrophic failure within some reasonable distance to a planet. The B version like the others of the Excelsior class, didn't appear to have it, but then, who can tell? Never much cared for that class anyway. I don't know enough about the Ambassador class to comment on the C, but from what I see of the design, its feasible to believe it was separable in emergencies. The D was apparently the first design with deliberately intended saucer separation capability, though it was extremely rarely used.

The Enterprise-E was a pure battleship with no documented separation capability. Nothing was spared on such rarely needed abilities, her singular focus, like that of the Defiant class, was making other ships blow up first (preferably Borg ships). The Sovreigns was in the design phase, a part of the same series of fleetwide upgrades that Commander Shelby had been working on after the Enterprise-D's first Q triggered run in with the Borg, when the Battle of Wolf 359 shredded the bulk of Starfleet's core strength.

[Ronald Brak]

When Star Trek the Next Generation was about to be shown for the first time and I learned that the saucer section seperated from engineering, I was most upset. I thought it meant that each episode would be like a Japanese children's cartoon. "Form saucer and engineering and nacelles! Activate wave motion phasers! Engage extremely low frame rate animation!"

[Doodler]

I always thought it was an odd capability, given the level of precision maneuvering required to use it. Not something you're doing at the drop of a hat in a combat situation.

Of course, this capability was apparently expanded in the USS Prometheus introduced in ST:V with multi-vector attack capability (i.e., the ability to split into three very capable independent units REAL quick).

[hhEb09'1]

http://www.neutralzone.de/database/Federation/Other/USS_Enterprise_NCC-1701-J04a.htm


The writers may need a break, but I'll be darned if the art staff shouldn't be getting bonuses.

That's just plain pretty.Is it just me, or does the central lit area of the more-or-less concentrics seem offset from center?

[Tog_]

Something else I think I read once said that having a round saucer section would allow for wedge shaped bits to be replaced with mission specific modules. I want to say it was in the Tech Manual under future designs.

[NEOWatcher]

Something else I think I read once said that having a round saucer section would allow for wedge shaped bits to be replaced with mission specific modules. I want to say it was in the Tech Manual under future designs.
One simple reason...curved hallways. With the hallway disapearing around a curve, the set doesn't have to be so big. :rolleyes:

[SeanF]

I always thought it was an odd capability, given the level of precision maneuvering required to use it. Not something you're doing at the drop of a hat in a combat situation.
The separation for the Enterprise-D in "Encounter at Farpoint" seemed pretty quick, although it was apparently not intended to be done at warp velocities.

The reconnect required some precision maneuvering, but that's only because Picard ordered Riker to do it manually rather than letting the computer do it.

[publiusr]

I love the look of the Trek starships.

[novaderrik]

1701-J?
i thought they were only up to E...

[Van Rijn]

1701-J?
i thought they were only up to E...

Time. Time is the answer.

[Doodler]

1701-J?
i thought they were only up to E...

Apparently one episode of Enterprise had a little piece of the 26th century featured, which is where they picked up this little gem.

[NEOWatcher]

Apparently one episode of Enterprise had a little piece of the 26th century featured, which is where they picked up this little gem.
Besides, that leaves F,G,I for time travel episodes like TNG did with the "B" version in "Yesterday's Enterprise".

[Roy Batty]

'Computer, just give me the bridge of the Enterprise, no bl*y A, B C or D'
Hic! :)

[NEOWatcher]

'Computer, just give me the bridge of the Enterprise, no bl*y A, B C or D'
Hic! :)
http://www.cosgan.de/images/smilie/nahrung/a025.gif Imagine having to go through the entire alphabet in that condition. :p

It is [snif]... It is[snif]... It is...Green.

[Doodler]

Besides, that leaves F,G,I for time travel episodes like TNG did with the "B" version in "Yesterday's Enterprise".

No H? :p

[NEOWatcher]

No H? :p
That's what I get for working and posting at the same time. :doh:

[parallaxicality]

Hmmm. Is this a plan to move forward another century? A "Next Next Generation"? Since there were 100 years between A and D, I assume there would be 150 years between E and J. That would put the time roughly at 2530. According to the choronology of the show, at this point the Klingons and the Xindi are part of the Federation. It's also the departure time of Berlinghoff Rasmussen's time travel pod.

[Doodler]

Not to my knowledge. The movie in production is looking more like a Battlestar Galactica-esque reinvention rather than another jump forward. The next big thing in Trek is going to be the MMORPG, which is set sometime around the first decade of the 2400's. I don't know how canon the game will be considered, but they're talking about a new uberthreat from the Beta quadrant as the primary opponent.

[parallaxicality]

It seems unlikely that something as open-ended and fluid as a morpeg could ever be canonical.

[publiusr]

Not to my knowledge. The movie in production is looking more like a Battlestar Galactica-esque reinvention rather than another jump forward. The next big thing in Trek is going to be the MMORPG, which is set sometime around the first decade of the 2400's. I don't know how canon the game will be considered, but they're talking about a new uberthreat from the Beta quadrant as the primary opponent.

The vegan tyranny?

[Doodler]

The vegan tyranny?

I keep hearing about them in various books, but supposedly they were a cybernetic race that up an offed themselves collectively in battles against the Federation in the early days when they were finally on the verge of losing. Vega is a colonized system in the Federation, and the virus Vegan choriomeningitis was thought to be a Vegan bioweapon that got loose in the planet's environment after they were gone. That's all apocrypha, but its repeated enough that someone's going to tap it someday.

[Weird Dave]

I keep hearing about them in various books, but supposedly they were a cybernetic race that up an offed themselves collectively in battles against the Federation in the early days when they were finally on the verge of losing. Vega is a colonized system in the Federation, and the virus Vegan choriomeningitis was thought to be a Vegan bioweapon that got loose in the planet's environment after they were gone. That's all apocrypha, but its repeated enough that someone's going to tap it someday.
Thanks for explaining that. I honestly thought publiusr meant aliens who didn't eat meat, fish, milk or eggs. :eh: That would probably be very scary for a lot of people.

The Borg should still be the uber-enemy. If they hadn't been almost tamed in Voyager, they should still be capable of giving us the screaming heebie-jeebies.

[Gillianren]

Thanks for explaining that. I honestly thought publiusr meant aliens who didn't eat meat, fish, milk or eggs. :eh: That would probably be very scary for a lot of people.

That's what I thought, too. I went to college with the vegan tyranny.

[Roy Batty]

Well at least they wouldn't kill us for our hides :)