Minimalism of Star Trek...

POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Wednesday, June 23, 2010 21:58
VIEWED: 4857
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CHRISISALL

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 5:46 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by traveler:
The bridge on the JJ Abrams Enterprise gave me a headache.

But it *would* make for a fine Apple computer store.
Hey....

The laughing Chrisisall

11THHOUR

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 9:23 PM

Star Trek TOS had to come up with creative choices to make up for a small budget. Some of the episodes were lit in such a cool way. Those plain walls could have a few areas of intensely colored light thrown across them to provide swaths of neat Sci-Fi colors as backdrops for the actors. Color TV was a big deal in the mid 1960s and the art director/lighting made good use of it. A color gel on a light doesn't cost much and gives a grey wall a vibrant Sci-Fi feeling.

The original bridge was a well thought out design, it did work both functionally and visually overall. The one and only access situation was a liability, but that aspect did provide drama for a few of the stories. However, the main thing that didn't really make sense was to park the bridge right up on top of the saucer section where it made a great (unprotected) target for that week's enraged aliens' battleship. Since the bridge crew really didn't need to look out a "window" to see what was going on (thank you view screen!), it would have made much more sense to locate the bridge more deeply inside the ship, with lots of extra protective bulkheads, so that "Let's aim for the bubble on the top!" didn't become the enemy battle cry.

Of course the bridge "here we are!" on top design was a continuing theme with later Trek incarnations, so it appears the placement had more to do with a symbolic 'crown of the ship' than actual tactical and safety matters.

Star Trek TOS still has a spirit and energy that is timeless. The chemistry of the actors was classic, and future incarnations did what they could to try and replicate that.

11th Hour

CHRISISALL

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 9:41 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 11thHour:
However, the main thing that didn't really make sense was to park the bridge right up on top of the saucer section where it made a great (unprotected) target for that week's enraged aliens' battleship. Since the bridge crew really didn't need to look out a "window" to see what was going on (thank you view screen!), it would have made much more sense to locate the bridge more deeply inside the ship, with lots of extra protective bulkheads

Starships weren't made to go into battle without shields. Phasers cut through bulkheads like butter. Even shielded, the M-5 computer successfully killed a starship.
I submit that without shields, it doesn't matter WHERE the bridge is.
It was only in the later movies that phasers & photo torpedoes were toned down to just "mess a ship up" without shields.

The laughing Chrisisall

CITIZEN

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 9:43 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
But it *would* make for a fine Apple computer store.
Hey....

Really? I thought the new film was all form over function, over priced, over hyped and lacking in substance.

Actually you might be on to something.

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If you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear demonic voices. The scary part is that if you play it forwards it installs Windows.

CHRISISALL

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 9:46 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by citizen:

Actually you might be on to something.

The laughing Chrisisall

CITIZEN

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 9:48 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Quote:
Originally posted by 11thHour:
However, the main thing that didn't really make sense was to park the bridge right up on top of the saucer section where it made a great (unprotected) target for that week's enraged aliens' battleship. Since the bridge crew really didn't need to look out a "window" to see what was going on (thank you view screen!), it would have made much more sense to locate the bridge more deeply inside the ship, with lots of extra protective bulkheads
Starships weren't made to go into battle without shields. Phasers cut through bulkheads like butter. Even shielded, the M-5 computer successfully killed a starship.
I submit that without shields, it doesn't matter WHERE the bridge is.
It was only in the later movies that phasers & photo torpedoes were toned down to just "mess a ship up" without shields.

The laughing Chrisisall

Nothing about those ships makes sense from a design point of view. The Impulse engines are meant to be some sci-fi fusion rocket, where they it on the saucer section all you'd get is the ship spinning in circles because they're well away from the centre of gravity. Also, two big chunks of Hull separated by spindly little neck.

Seriously those ships are not up to code, they don't even carry enough life vests or fire extinguishers.

Also, I'm pretty sure Scotty isn't Scottish, why would he pretend? Probably an illegal immigrant.

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If you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear demonic voices. The scary part is that if you play it forwards it installs Windows.

CHRISISALL

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 11:55 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by citizen:

Nothing about those ships makes sense from a design point of view. The Impulse engines are meant to be some sci-fi fusion rocket, where they it on the saucer section all you'd get is the ship spinning in circles because they're well away from the centre of gravity.

Nice to hear from a silly silly British man with a backwards 21st Century education.

They happen to BE in the centre of the mass of the ship, or do you know nothing of gravimetric dispersal design? No. Of course you don't.

"Fusion rocket." LOL. Very quaint.

The laughing Chrisisall

CITIZEN

Wednesday, June 23, 2010 9:24 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Nice to hear from a silly silly British man with a backwards 21st Century education.
They happen to BE in the centre of the mass of the ship, or do you know nothing of gravimetric dispersal design? No. Of course you don't.
"Fusion rocket." LOL. Very quaint.

Technically I'm not British, my species merely spawned in Britain after we came here from what you would call the 29th century. Originally we were going to conquer you and make you our slaves, but as it turned out, you're not worth it; we get the same benefit buying Nike trainers.

Anyway, our scientists have conclusively proven that "Gravimetric Dispersal Design" does not, in fact, exist, and is merely a figment of an over active barrel of Romulan Ale acting on some Andorian Flu Medicine the design engineers were taking at the time. In fact Federation Star ships have been literally flying in circles for two hundred years, apparently no one has noticed.

Except the Klingons, but they were wiped away before they could tell anyone.

Our ships are designed around the much more efficient four dimensional hyper-dodecahehexon. A shape that happens to appear, in three dimensional space, as a large Halibut and chips. It moves through the use of imaginary numbers stored in a quantum matrix, manipulated through the power of reversed negative positive thinking in higher dimensional feng shui space. This is probably impossible, so works quite well.

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If you play a Microsoft CD backwards you can hear demonic voices. The scary part is that if you play it forwards it installs Windows.

CHRISISALL

Wednesday, June 23, 2010 9:45 AM

I have been out-technobabbled.

TRAVELER

Wednesday, June 23, 2010 9:02 PM

Chrisisall:

You need to put a fish in your ear and then you will understand. Of course no fish would ever enter my ear do to the wax build-up. I just nod my head and smile. This gives the impression I understand or I have something caught in my throat. Either way it seems to make everyone around me pleased.

http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=28764731
Traveler

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