EDIT: If you are wondering why I brought up the turbolifts, look at the ship. The engineering section is in between the nacelles, not attached to the saucer.
Turbolofts are basically Wonkavaters. They go in every possible direction needed. Which always makes me wonder how much of the ship is just turbolift shafts.
California-class ships are weirdly huge. The way people talk about their missions and status , I initially thought they’re meant to be smallish starships, like Intrepid-class, but they’re almost Nebula-class size. Plenty of room inside those pylons for multiple lift shafts.
One thing they rarely touched on is the ship focus. It seemed that each California-class had a focus that was designated by the division strip on the saucer. So since Cerritos had a gold strip, it was Engineering. The
FirstSecond Contact race in season 3 is where we see this in action the best.
Has anyone though about the fact that the turbolifts are voice controlled, but don’t announce where they’re arriving?
Lots of times we see people joining other people already in the lift. People always just announce their destination as they step into the lift, and presumably it figures out how to most efficiently get to each place the people in the lift are going, and whether to pick up more people on the way. But not once is anyone confused about whether to get off when the lift stops somewhere. And would it not be more efficient to announce where you’re headed at the door, before a lift arrives, so that the system can group people going in the same direction?
Does everyone just “know” the different decks and locations by sight? Is there a display that shows the current deck/location, or what direction a lift is headed?
There is exactly 1 time they were confused when the turbolift stopped, and that was csused by spacetime folding in on itself around the ship causing non-Euclidean fuckery to happen so when they got out, they weren’t where they were supposed to be.
Didn’t this happen in at least TNG and VOY?
… I’m struggling to recall the episode names and numbers though. Spent too long trying to memorise the rules of acquisition. Not enough time memorising trek episodes.
Maybe ENT too? And DS9 even? Wait, has every Trek had an episode like that? Cheap to churn out. The captain steps out of the turbolift, “this is not engineering”, steps back in. Sci-fi accomplished.
Or maybe my shoddy memory’s imagining it.
I think Reg Barclay (or someone) may have stepped off the turbolift at the wrong location at least once too. Probably too distracted by some social anxiety mountain-out-of-a-molehill to notice the location noted on the LCARS panel.
TNG had an episode where the computer is having problems making the doors do weird shit, or voice commands getting incorrectly parsed and what not, and IIRC it took Picard somewhere other than the bridge a few times, while Voyager was the spacefolding thing and the solution to get out of the problem was to just… Let it happen and pass through it while they are all holding each other scared shitless in the cafeteria.
Oh shit! I remember.
That actually confirms though, that they somehow “just know” when a stop is their destination. Even when there are multiple people in the lift going to different places.
i always imagined the turbolifts were also capable of moving sideways, so they could take you to any turbolift entrance
They do, just don’t ask why the ones on DISCO involve a Doctor Who “bigger on the inside” paradox.
Sure puts the complaints about the erroneous deck signage in Trek V into perspective, doesn’t it?
And a galaxy class only has 42. Hmm.
What a dumpster fire. That series is like the last two (okay, maybe just the last one) Star Wars movies.
I take that back. The intro scene (I think intro?) of Pike was good.
They based a lot off real navy ships…
So there’s probably a tiny doorway off to the side everyone walks by but never notices. And 5-10 stories of stairs later, boom, you’re in engineering.
I can’t expect anyone is allowed to walk through the nacelle catwalks.
Anyone and everyone were free to walk willy nilly around those low railings and high drops on DS9. If that much is fine for any non-starfleet people, I’m sure those starfleet sorts, who are used to crawling through jefferies tubes, are allowed to walk the nacelle catwalks.
And yes. Turbolifts.
These are great for inspirational posters in the office
Got to protect those military secrets.
On TNG there’s a wide corridor that links into that circular one.
But well, the ship is supposed to have several levels, isn’t it? IDK what is in that place on the other levels.
Also, shouldn’t engineering be lower than the saucer? And shouldn’t the circular corridor be on the saucer? Maybe the corridor goes “up” and gravity just works differently there.
Look at the ship. Engineering is located between the nacelles, away from the saucer.
Oberth class is the worst offender.
At least theoretically you can walk through the pylons to get to engineering. On the California-class it seemed like you COULD ONLY walk through the nacelles.
Obviously the turblift cabin is simply beamed in its entirety when crossing the gap.
Those nacelle struts are pretty large, that’s not an issue. I have always wondered what the point of the design was, but getting to the secondary isn’t a problem. They aren’t going through the nacelle.
Ship Designer: “Here you go, Engineering. That problem of nacelles too far away? Solved.”
