The battle bridge was on Deck 8 of the 1701-D – at the top of the Drive Section. So, when the ship separates and the lower part with the engines goes into battle (which they did, like, twice), the battle bridge is still exposed. The Tech Manual says this facilitates a total replacement of bridge modules, which also explains why we saw different bridge sets when visiting the same class of starship.
Oh, and we did see some 22nd century TV in Star Trek V, but it was on Nimbus III, so it might’ve been a Klingon or Romulan network (though the guy on the screen looked like a human car salesman, IIRC).
Ooh, but what’s worse is the very first episode of DS9 established that every time a ship went through the wormhole, it disrupted the entire reality of the beings living inside it. Possibly this was quite dangerous. But at the end of that episode they just ignored that completely and said, “they’re letting us go through anyway.”
One of the early DS9 novels suggested that they agreed to put some hardware on the shuttle engines that would protect the wormhole beings; it’s too impractial an idea to have been the solution they arrived at in such short notice, but at least it was something!!
A physics grad student I once knew theorized that some sort of particles circulated out of one nacelle, around the front of the saucer, and into the other nacelle. This created a spacewarp effect similar to a rotating singularity without needing the huge mass of a black hole. Thus, the saucer and nacelle configuration is vital to the whole system.
This guy was totally pissed off at the idea of the 1- and 3-nacelle ships in Franz Joseph’s original Technical Manual, since they didn’t work with his theory.
Of course, this doesn’t explain all the different configurations seen outside of Starfleet, but I’ve always liked his explanation.
As a former trekkie I advise against getting into Star Trek unless you truly don’t give a rat’s rear about continuity or any kind of technical accuracy. If you want those things I suggest Babylon-5.
I think Gene Roddenberry was fairly adamant about warp nacelles coming in pairs. You see a few four-engined ships, but none (clearly) with an odd number.
AFAIR, the impulse engines are at the back of the saucer section, at least in the original design, and do have some sort of vents, so presumably there is some exhaust … supposed to be some sort of deuterium fusion drive, isn’t it? I guess the exhaust just doesn’t show up in the visible spectrum (something to do with the special effects budget…)
There was also an episode of the original series where Kirk and them found “Adam and Eve,” two glowing orbs that claimed they created all life in the universe (or at least, sentient life, I don’t really remember). This kind of helps with the explaination as to why 99.9% of all alien races look humanoid. Of course, “It’s just a t.v. show with a limited budget” is probably a better explaination.
I do recall and episode of the cartoon where there was a shape changing alien who’s natural form looked something like a five foot tall squid. It had the hots for the nurse (but then again, who didn’t?). And they also had that strange orange skinned alien guy with four legs, but he was still humanoid for the most part. Come to think of it, I don’t know if he ever spoke…
Well I don’t think it’s that contrived. They have remained more or less consistent with this fact, at least. Almost all of the mainstream space vessels have nacelles that are extended from the main body of the craft (even if only a little, à la Runabouts). One notable exception is the Borg. I always figured the Borg don’t mind if their drones get their atoms rearranged by frequent exposure to warp fields.
It always struck me as being an EASY way to design a ship. If you assume that the Enterprise needs basically three sections:
The place where people sleep and live and do scientific experiments
The engine
The warp nacelles
The having them sort of separated is a convenient way to design and construct a ship. There’s no particular reason why it shuld be all one big blob. The turbolifts seem pretty fast.
Also, don’t rule out the issue of looks. This is a mostly human-designed ship. Humans like pretty ships.
In space, rocket engines of all sorts generally don’t leave visible traces as they fly through space.
Easier on the audience. It’s easier to visualize.
Technically, the “galactic axis” thing would explain everything except why you don’t get a ship 180 degree upside down. The galactic axis has a horizontal plane of reference, but no distinction between up or down.
There’s no good reason for this at all.
-When ship A fights ship B, why doesn’t ship A just calculate ship B’s shield frequency so that it can penetrate it?
Budget!
Actually, there probably is, but the reason you don’t see it is the same reason you don’t see the washing machines; it would be boring. It’s not the show’s point.
Most everything I can think of replying to has already been answered in one form or another so I’m going to have to drag out the really pedantic Trekishness… there can’t be a Trek post without at least one post in it by me. I won’t allow it.
I can’t tell you the engineering reasons behind its design since there is none but I can tell you that Gene Roddenberry specifically asked for a spaceship that combined the cigar and saucer shaped UFOs that people kept ‘spotting’ at the time. Matt Jeffries came up with all sorts of designs and the Great Bird picked one but had some qualms about its design… he thought it looked a little weird so he flipped it upside down and voila, you have the USS Yorktown! Soon to be known as the Enterprise, of course.
Roddenberry specifically did not want Flash Gordon like lightning trails across space.
