The Constitution class refit is the finest Starfleet ship ever made, looks wise.

Corridors: _Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise_ had a nice diagram showing all the safety gear tucked behind Every panel. So those nice wide hallways were filled in with equipment and emergency stuff.

I work in structural steel and mechanics, and I see this kind of thing all the time. It's just easier to tear the damn thing down and start new. Retrofits are ALWAYS going to bring all sorts of unexpected problems.

I showed my late Dad, an engineer, the blueprints to the TOS Enterprise. He (figuratively) ripped it apart, pointed out all the structural weaknesses and explained to me how it would fall apart trying to leave orbit. I later showed him the refit blueprints and he said it was much more structurally sound and he'd rather fly thru space in the refit than the old style 70's blueprints.

I think the Constitution-class Refet is basically the same thing what happened to the Essex-class of he real world. The Essex-class was a World War II Aircraft Carrier design and was made to fit the smaller propeller propelled planes with some of the low powered early Jet fighters and bombers also being assigned after the War. But the flight deck design wasn't usable for the first supersonic aircraft and post Korean War Jets. And since it'd cost an untold amount of money and time to create new aircraft carriers, the Essex-class were given a new design with the angled deck and greater aircraft carrying capacity, basically piloting what would later be in the first Supercarriers such as the USS Enterprise and the Kitty Hawke-class of Supercarrier. Like how the Constitution-class Refit basically was a testbed for new phaser designs, new torpedoes, and most importantly the new warp core which would become standard for future designs like the Excelsior-class. So the Constitution-class gets an extended service life like the Essex-class and would be phased out more and more when more Excelsior-class ships (like the Essex-class did) became available.

Me at the beginning of the video: "Okay let's see where he goes with this, I'm sure it's silly" Me at the end of the video: "Actually man has a point"

someone in Starfleet thought itd be funny to have a "design the biggest warp core you can possibly design" contest and then the Constitution refit went way too far with that

11:18 There is a radiation shield that comes down in the event of a serious incident to shield to crew. That shield is seen in Wrath of Khan. Since the horizontal and vertical reactor cores allow for proper protection during normal operation, the crew will not need to use the radiation suits all of the time, only during Yellow Alert or Red Alert situations. This design is prevalent for the next 75 years, since you never see Geordi Laforge or his staff wear a suit and you do see the radiation shield drop on the Enterprise - D on several occasions.

Thanks now I can never unsee the warp core

If you need a modern day example of technology upgrade with an old frame is the American aircraft carrier. The Nimitz class is a 50 year old design, 60 if you go back to the CVN-65 Enterprise and forestal classes of carriers, which was designed to be modular and to incorporate new tech when it comes available. Hell, the new Ford’s are predicted to be in service in till the next century and there are massive empty spaces that’s literally designed to incorporate future tech.

Even with these flaws, the refit enterpise had a good 5-10 years of service, then enterpise-a had another 5-10 years. And only reason the refit enterpise had to be self-destructed was: she was already crippled from fight with Khan and there was only 4 people operating her.

You have to keep in mind that the Refit era, is the era when they first built the Oberth out of explodium. It was engineering standard practice for the time. The Excelsior was "The great experiment", because they decided to try a design that would not go boom so easily.

Every warship has lots of weak points. The refit Enterprise is gourgeous.

To be fair, it doesn't really matter how far apart the warpcore and the torpedoes are. We are talking about antimatter here. If one of the two gets hit, the entire ship instantly vanishes in a bright flash of light.

The title is very brave. And that disclaimer at the beginning, I could tell you were (and justly) bracing for the comments section. I gotta admit I was gonna jump in there and also take my shots but... plenty share my unabashed love of the Connie Refit. Fair video. 👍

I am going to go out on a limb and say that photon torpedoes are essentially like modern nukes. You can empty a machine gun into a nuke, hit it with a high powered laser, hit it with a conventional warhead, blow it up with C4 and it will not go off. Even if it is armed, and ready to detonate, the specific chain of events necessary to get nuclear detonation is very very precise and needs the detonation sequence to set it off. Now this was not the case with naval torpedoes, or even naval guns, but we figured out that storing such things in a perpetual state of pre-detonation was a really bad idea. I cannot imagine that in the future we would go back to an unstable, easily detonated type of ordinance. In those cases one would merely need to hit the powder magazine, or the torpedo storage, and the entire ship was destroyed. There are many instances where sub commanders, facing imminent accidental detonation of a torpedo, would make a wild swing in direction to try and trigger the safety disarm of said torpedo. If humanity can go back to mistakes it corrected hundreds of years in the past, it deserves to blow up.

Its amazing how Khan knew the changes to the Connie in Star Trek II and the fact he hit the Enterprise in the sweet spot the torpedo lunchers and no big boom

I was an engineer on this ship, I am just happy for a shorter commute to work. That turbo lift ride on the OG enterprise took forever and I always had to ride with my coworkers. I will take some radiation in my hallway closet bed any day....

Brilliant episode mate! You make some absolutely amazing content and I can't express enough how amazing you are at your art.

I’ve always loved the refit, but “Shoot at the blue line”... 😂 so true.

This really fits into my head-canon that the Klingons had the Connie-refit pegged correctly as a “battlecruiser”. As you say the refit would have tremendously increased firepower and speed but at the cost of not reacting particularly well to actually being shot at. I can also see this mid-life refit taking her to more of a “frontier quick response” role, which would explain fewer crew amenities due to shorter duration missions. In this role she might intercept light raiding forces and pretty much handle anything that can’t immediately take her shields down, and use her speed to avoid a prolonged slugging match. Really I’ve always thought of the refit as a “glass cannon” relying on shields to survive the first blow and her firepower to end things before a second exchange. The TOS movies back this up: Reliant knew “exactly where to hit them” as the weak points you mentioned. The Bird of Prey only succeeds because of the disabled shields, when the shields are up in V and VI the Enterprise can take hits from a BOP all day (and only the cloak let the battle last that long). Meanwhile, Chekov points out that a single salvo from a K’T’Inga without shields would disable them.

I'll throw this in with everything; a long time ago when I was a kid I used to build models. I've built the OG enterprise, refit enterprise, voyager, bird of prey and defiant. OG enterprise has serious design issues. Yes, I agree that it looks cool and had great proportions..but it became very obvious while putting it together that it was a terrible design in real life. The refit was better but still has terribly bad weak points on the neck, and the saucer is so damned unwieldy in comparison to the neck that it killed any part of me that likes to belive that the constitution class is serious in any way Voyager was a fatty that made much more sense. The center of gravity was right under the main deflector and the obvious weak points were gone. Defiant was odd because so much of its mass was outwards in the nacelles. Honestly the bird of prey made more sense than any of them just how more sturdy it felt. That thing wants to go fast and kick ass. Anyways, 2¢ from the peanut gallery.

As far as the interior spaces being more confined in the motion picture era, that could be because of heighted tensions with the Klingon Empire, demonstrated by the deployment of the K'Tinga class Battlecruiser. Star Fleet tends to alternate between eras more focused on exploration and those focused on imminant military threats to the Federation. In the TOS era we see this as Star Fleet goes to a more robust ship design in the Motion Picture and later towards a more naval based uniform design and observance of military customs and traditions from TWOK onwards through Undiscovered Country.

Got a 2 Hour drive ahead of me, thanks for giving me something to listen to on the way

It’s an absolutely gorgeous ship with the multicolored aztecing.

The scene in ds9 where mirror Bashir is taking torpedoes through the engine room on the mirror defiant would make perfect sense here

Photon Torpedo's don't have their antimatter charge until just before they launch so they won't explode if they are just stored in the neck without antimatter.

No boom today, boom tomorrow, there’s always a boom tomorrow.

Not sure if anyone else mentioned this, but I'm going to. I can't remember where I read it, but that "Blue Line" is actually a heavily armored section because of the warp core. The same can be said for the blue (or green depending on which Enterprise) hardbacks on the topside of the engineering hull, it's similar to the armor belts of old battleships. There are even blue/green lines running up the back of the warp pylons, supposedly to protect the warp conduits.

The T.O.S. Connie was practically MAGICAL. Build ships with its layout, but with the most cutting-edge materials and components, and, it could probably have kicked ax even in the Dominion War.

11:30 they wear the suits in case there's an accident. The column has its own shielding. Engineers in all sorts of ships and vehicles are always wearing protective gear.Also it was a training cruise, so Scotty was probably training the cadets to work with their emergency gear on.

There are a lot of assumptions you're making here, but I'll stick to your #1 problem. The assumption you're making is that a hit to the torpedo room (assuming shields are down and there's no hull polarization) the torpedoes would go off. Modern US submarine torpedoes cannot be detonated via an explosion, so why would the torpedoes of the Enterprise do so? Torpedoes are some of the safest weapons to handle. The warp core being in the neck being a problem is also an idea that only thrives if the neck isn't reinforced... which is a pretty big assumption.

You’ve put together some valid points against the Conny Refit, but it gave us the most gorgeous looking starship in SciFi, not just in Trek. Such a beautiful evolution of the TV model.

Reason #5: With the warp core running from the top of the saucer section to the bottom of the secondary hull, the ability to separate the saucer section is at the very least made MUCH more difficult than Scotty having to reverse the polarity of his tool.

I'd always felt like the Constitution Refit class really was just a stopgap solution. Starfleet already had Mirandas in service, taking over survey and patrol duties, Oberths coming online to take over exploratory and science missions, and Excelsiors on the immediate horizon to handle combat and enforcement duties. Starfleet knew that there would be an entirely new generation of ships taking over, and rather than idle a bunch of crew people while the new fleet came together, they expended a few resources to upgrade their aging mainline ships into something that could serve as training and auxiliary vessels. The Constitutions that we do see are basically training and diplomatic ships, just tools to acquaint new officers and crews with the technology and protocols of the new fleet makeup for the immediate future.

I absolutely love the design of the refit, looks far more advanced to the Constitution class 😎

Ship didn't go boom when Khan raked the port side of the torpedo room and he was hitting them with their shields down. I'm assuming the walls between the torpedo room and warp core are armoured in some way, still I get your point, I would have moved the torpedo room slightly further forward or located a pod on either side of the secondary hull similar to Excelsiors.

Never mind the whole “torpedoes go boom and warp core go boom” argument, it’s still bad design to put a vital ship system directly next to an obvious battle target. Enemies wouldn’t have to decide between targeting weapons and targeting engines/power plant if they can take out both at once. Good ship design has to include isolated systems and redundancy, wherever possible.

Basically what I got out this video is that Starfleet basically built a new ship with leaving very little of the original Enterprise leftover

The fact that we never see a Constitution style refit happen again means that Starfleet LEARNED from it's mistake. Yes, they can be taught!

Basically, after the refit it looks less like a model someone's cobbled together with a couple of smarties tubes for engines. Big improvement

I can''t believe you missed one of the most important parts of the Enterprise's refit. They packed TONS of armor into the design... the entire ship is just insurmountably armored. Even the Photon Torpedo launchers are armored to the point that direct hits that should detonate the entire ship are easily shrugged off... how did you miss all this armor? It's all over the place. There's so much armor on the Enterprise refit, no other ship can destroy it, the only way to destroy the Enterprise refit is to self-destruct the damn thing... and even then, one has to question if you really blew it up. What armor am I talking about, you may ask??? Duh... plot armor.

Excellent analysis! Never thought about these details but when I watch TMP and TWOK next this will be in my mind for sure.

That image of the warp core and torpedo tubes is AWESOME and helps to really see how BAD of an idea it was

I love the refit connie. In my head canon, its my ship that goes places and sees all the things. It never occured to me that a clean shot through the neck could annihilate the entire ship. We certainly dont see this happening in Beyond, but that was a different universe entirely. I need more connie videos.

16:50 One weird sin I always had a problem with in almost every generation of Federation Starship is the "broad camera" they use when communicating with "potentially" enemy ships. Right behind the captain typically is weapons and damage control. "hi, how are you, we are transmitting the exact tactical readiness of our ship to you in the background, feel free to exploit this...."

I've seen a lot of data sheets giving the refit a new class name. I have always liked this and accepted it into my head cannon. For me the refit is the Enterprise Class.

Definitely a Federation bean counters decision. Trying to extract too much value out of a current design. Saving money. But in the end they probably spent more money having to redesign and refit the Constitution Class, than they would have if they simply replaced it after 15 or 20 years of service. You end up spending more money having to refit, and reconfigure new tech and other accommodations into old designs than you do by coming up with new current designs every other decade. The U.S. military is constantly running into this problem. The only reason the B-52 is still in service today, after almost 70 years now. Is because America has had the luxury of not being opposed by nations with a comparable airforce. The instant we have to fight a matched airforce, the workhorse B52 bomb trucks are gonna fall outta the sky on fire faster the you can say S400.

So on the Torpedo thing, I've heard/read somewhere that they actually "charge" the torpedoes with antimatter from the warp core as part of the arming process just before they're launched.

12:15 That location allows for greater energy generation as you mentioned, but also in the event of warp core failure the entire shaft can be jettisoned through the bottom of the ship. 14:50 That will only happen if the ship loses its deflector shields. Khan got his shots in when her shields were down.

Refit improvements 1)Pylons have more cooling surface area, even leading edge openings. 2) The vertical warp core can now be ejected, much better than blowing up the ship. Those colour plates are strongbacks, armor that keeps it safe. Even khan couldn't get through it Combat isn't visual, sensors are heavily used to shoot at ship vulnerability. These the most armored area that you went on so long about being vulnerable 😄

I have a theory. Starfleet wasn't ready to field the Excelsior, but the Klingons and Romulans are fielding really powerful ships that easily beats the Fed flagships. Scotty was put in charge of bringing the Enterprise up-to-date but it took longer than expected. It was still a great ship because the shields on the constitution refit also benefited greatly from the new warp core. Remember it took many more years before the Excelsior was retrofitted with normal warp drives and finally put into service by Star Trek VI under Capt Sulu. In the meantime, other Constitution class ships were refitted but without Scotty, it took even longer. That's how we got the Enterprise-A, a renamed USS Yorktown.

Vertical and nod spiral should makes no difference. Just change the gravitational polarity! WW II Imperial Japanese cruisers tended to blow up when hit because they carried a lot of torpedo launchers on their decks.

This might help explain why the Miranda Class served well into the era of the Dominion War, and the Constitution Class was no where to be found.

My favourite engineering design despite the flaws. Speculated by (I think) one of the later art guys who worked on TNG era to be incapable of breaching due to the entire thing being lined with dilithium, which makes sense given that the "main energiser" took several direct hits and was then essentially bisected by the emergency bulkhead. With that said, some suggest that what we all think is the core is in fact the primary EPS and the core itself hasn't been seen, with the injectors and reaction chamber being at the lowest point.

I absolutely love your videos

It seems to me that whatever problems the new vertical warp core created for the Constitution Class, they were still far more stable and structurally sound than the later Galaxy Class. There is no way a Galaxy Class ship could have taken so many unshielded phaser shots directly to main engineering as the OG Enterprise did from Khan's sneak attack without blowing up. Galaxy Class ships seemed to suffer warp core breaches if someone sneezed in the general vicinity of the warp core. Even having its shields up wasn't enough to stop the warp core from blowing up, as in Yesterday's Enterprise the ship was in the midst of a warp core breach well before its shields failed. I wonder if there was a change in Starfleet philosophy between the TOS movies and TNG, whereby in older ships the engines were designed to shutdown in response to damage, thereby limiting the power the ship could draw but preventing the ship from blowing itself up whenever there was damage to the engines, but later ships were designed to keep the warp cores functioning as long as possible so the ship could fight longer, but at the increased risk of the warp core blowing up the ship if it suffered any damage whatsoever. Because it really seems like Galaxy Class ships are in far more danger from their own engines than the Constitution Refits even though looking at the schematics it should be otherwise.

Decent video. I was just wondering if you have ever heard of a little publication called Mr Scott's guide to the Enterprise. It's all about the refit, and I think it's a pretty good book. In fact I think it might even help with some of the design flaws. And the reasoning for them. I don't know if you want you can check it out.

One interesting thing about the Constitution Refit is, the Starfleet removes most of the crew living and entertainment facilities in the Engineering Hull(espercially that giant full-scale bowling alley and swimming pool), also reduced the volume of deuterium tanks, to make rooms for larger hangar and cargo bay. This may indicate that the modification from Constitution to Constitution Refit is not only a renovation of onboard equipment and avionics, but also a change in design positioning: from a deep space exploration cruiser, focusing on independent operation, capable of supporting a 400-men small society in deep space by its own, to a patrol ship capable of carrying a large volume of payload and shuttlecrafts, more inclined to patrol inside Federation airspace.

Refit makes sense, as long as the refit is cheaper then a new development. But changing the saucer size, engineering size, complete interior layout (that's the critical point, as when it would stay more or less identical and they only weld some more ship to the frame you could talk from add ons, but they literally changed the whole framing), neck, pylons and nacelles (were those ones should actually just be plug and play) your actually building a new ship. You forgot one part: the emergency saucer separation is now a death trap . Doing that will cause "big boom" since the separation is underneath the saucer and the core reaches till the top of the saucer

This explains how Khan was able to disable the Enterprise so easily. So I guess Master of Orion 2's system of endless refits isn't particularly realistic.

The Constitution refit always bothered me, since it seemed like less of a refit and more like a complete rebuild. I mean, is there really anything of the old ship left? At this point they may as well have just built a whole new ship. It does actually put me in mind of post WW2 modernization programs, where naval warships were refitted to accept new systems and weapons and in some cases, required almost completely rebuilding the ship, certainly requiring extensive structural changes.

I absolutely love the channel Halfscreen , his videos are very detailed.

To be fair, the vertical warp core was only vulnerable when Kirk didn’t raise shields as he should have when Kahn attacked. A precision strike disabled the ship by damaging the core, BUT the odds of someone knowing where to hit and getting close enough for a point blank shot with shields down should have been impossible. Likewise, the bluish color of the hull along the warp core might be thicker/enhanced armor to better protect the core in the event of shield failure.

Photon torpedo go boom! Warp core go boom! Hilarious 😂😂😂 that alone made my night! Excellent video overall 👍

Honestly I hate how most SciFI series have their ships go from perfect to more perfect. You rarely hear about ships that have failed. I want to see something like I had thought of once. Where a star ship is rushed into service and turns out to be an absolute flop and dropped from service or have lists and lists of abandoned projects for new ship designs.

Upon seeing the title, I was about to scoff in your general direction lol! You made some really good points, one that you may not have noticed in TMP, when the isolation doors in Engineering came down, it automatically cut the plasma feed to the nacelles - I don't think that is something that you would want in a battle, in case you need to make a hasty jump to warp. The one big design gripe that I have always had with all Starfleet ships (keep in mind, I am a HUGE Trek fan), is the location of the main bridge. Talk about a giant bullseye! IMHO, the best place to put the bridge is deep in the heart of the saucer, this would make it a much safer location. Take for example, the location of the bridge in one of Roddenberry's other TV shows: Andromeda, the bridge was deep in the heart of the Andromeda Ascendant's hull. Just my two cents 🙂. Thanks for posting this!

Best part about the refit and Reliant....lack of glowing Bussard Collectors. Just looks more realistic.

I have the feeling that if an enemy weapon hit hard enough to penetrate to the photon torpedo bay, it would probably take out the warp core as well. I don't think the proximity makes any difference. And the main deflector is right there. It's probably one of the most heavily shielded areas of the ship. They had to make the warp core fit somehow. I honestly think that the Constitution was going to be replaced by the Constellation class, but the warp core needed to power that ship at that time was simply too long or not powerful enough to run those four nacelles. . So they decided after inspecting the original Connies that they would refit those instead because they could at least make the warp core fit properly. SO not all was lost. Later after the Excelcior class's eventual success and initial production, they needed a supplementary cruiser that could keep up with it for high warp fleet deployments because MIranda's and remaining connie refits would not be able to keep up. The Constellation class project was then reborn. That's my take at least.

So basically, all the flaws of the Constitution Refit are, don't put explosive weaponry and a warp near each other and 90-degree rotations of critical system components is ill advised.

After it was blown up in III, they made a whole new one that was garbage in V. Still way better than what was given in 2009.

As an engineer myself, what the ship seems to be missing is the correct scale. The best way to start is to look at the saucer section outer edge. There are 5 light and dark gray stripes. Each strip should represent a deck. That would mean that there are 5 decks and not all are designed for personnel. Don't forget that there is a ton of equipment that needs to be there for piping, air handling, pressure, floor gravity decking plates, thousands of miles of fiber optics (or whatever they use in the future), massive computer systems DCS, PLC, and new concepts. Point being, the scale should be about doubled to account for everything needed to keep people alive and to complete a mission.

There are several levels of containment fields that can be erected around a Federation starship's warp core. It can also be beamed into outer-space.

The change in warp core design I believe is mirrored in real world application of carburetors of performance engines. Not to be confused with fuel injection which is a totally different design. Basically, the carb introduces the fuel to air then the air/fuel components mix and are cumbusted once this mixture is introduced to the cylinders. To get the best air/fuel mixture, you need a longer passageway (intake manifold) to allow the optimal atomization hence "tunnel rams" were designed. They basically are the tall towers you see on engines today that the carburetor sits on. I've ready, but cannot verify that this is cannon, that the longer the intermix shaft of the core is, the more powerful said core is because of the this. Reinforces the position of why the Constitution class refit is more powerful than the Miranda class as the core of the Miranda is 4 decks tall where the Constitution is 13 decks tall. The vulnerability of the refit is answered by your own statement of the darker hull sections where the engineering components are. Have seen schematics where the dark section along the spine of the engineering hull was referred to as the "strong back". My view is that these darker sections of hull are of a material much greater in strength than the majority of the hull. I've even heard these section are a precursor to that later well known ablative armor of the Defiant. Another real world example would be the torpedo belts of battleships. A tremendous band of thick armor protecting the boilers,hull and magazines that is specifically positioned right where torpedoes would hit. Reinforcing these parts of the vessel make perfect sense as it would protect the valuable warp core components. As others have posted, the photon torpedo is stored inert. The torpedo is "primed" just before firing therefore the intermix shaft extending near the storage magazine poses no more of a threat than having the intermix shaft near a cargo hold. I do agree that the connecting dorsal could and should be wider but thats another debate.

Cheers mate hope your feeling better

Dr McCoy would agree with you. ‘Well Bones, do the new medical facilities meet with your approval?” “No, they do not!” Dr McCoy replies. ST:TMP (1979) That’s just after they had flown past Jupiter! Earlier, McCoy remarked that they had probably re-designed the whole sick bay after he was just beamed aboard!

Great analysis 😊

Khan and the Reliant does just what you suggest on its initial attack on the Enterprise in ST2 TWOK by firing phasers down the length of the plasma transfer conduit.

Starfleet Drwaing Board Guys: She's supposed to have a Vertical Warp Core. Scotty loccking over the "refit" plans: Eye and if my Grandmother had wheels she'd be a wagon.

You have to factor in how old these ships were when they were refit. They were thoroughly obsolete. The refit bought them another 10 years of life or so, but rapidly changing technology (the Excelsior was a huge leap forward in starship design) simply left them behind. They did the best they could with these old hulls, but there were limits to what could be done.

Also despite taking a hit on the torpedo firing bay Enterprise was still able to fire torpedoes at the Reliant in the Mutara Nebula, blowing off one of the Reliant's Warp Nacelles.

"Angry Typing, Angry TYPING!" Honestly, not bad, not bad at all. Enjoyed the show my man.

Matt Jeffries admitted that the reason you don't see any weapon emplacements on the TOS enterprise is that he forgot to add them on.

It's sad to think if the Constitution Class was refitted with systems along the lines of maybe the Excelsior Class it might've still been in service for a little longer or found a way to work out those design flaws that decommissioned the class in the first place.

After picking myself up off the floor from your statement "i've never seen the movie" you sir deserve time in the brig.😂

The Constitution class refit is a really beautiful looking Starship

I agree , very well done my friend.

What is a slow motion picture? I tried to look it up, but I only got an explanation of the slow-mo feature for video playback. Is this a difference between how we say things across the pond?

Halfscreens videos are great too! I love how there is ALSO the neck-airlock on the torpedo room deck.

Only one point. The real USS Enterprise (USN) was in service for around 50 years and under went refit(s). Keeping the bones of the ship is a lot cheaper than a full replacement.

Query- why does the warp core have to be vertical (in-universe)? I mean, the length of the core seems roughly equal to the length of the secondary hull- what is the reasoning to put it in the neck? (Aside from the Impulse tie-in, I don't see any real benefits to that configuration- and given that they can run plasma transfer conduits the length of the secondary hull, I'd surmise they could've run them up the neck just as easily.) Likewise, if it was essentially a spinal warp core, running the length of the secondary hull, it could be buried in the center, given plenty of physical shielding around it, and most of the problems associated with a Connie-refit vertical WC would be alleviated.

I must address problem #2. The Warp Core does not put out radiation during nominal operation. Its just just pumping out rads to all those around it. The hazard gear is protection for potential emergency, not basic everyday exposure, otherwise everyone would be wearing helmets too. We did see hazard gear in early TOS, but they only had budget for a few extras, and then could no longer afford it afterward (though that's a production reason). #3 As for the vulnerability off the warp transfer conduit, and simply "shooting the vessel amidships" to disable her... that all depends entirely on taking down her shields first. The original ship was just as vulnerable to a single hit. Lets not forget, it only took two unshielded phaser strikes on the USS Excalibur to completely disable her and kill most of her crew. And since this stronger Warp Core also helps facilitate far stronger shields, the issue no longer arises. It takes a set of extremely unlikely circumstances (or poor judgment on the part of a Captain) in order to catch a ship with her shields down. #4... yeah, bad design on the part of the production team. There is also a corridor that goes off from Main Engineering that does not fit within the structure of the ship. It would take you literally through the deflector dish and a good 10 meters outside the ship LOL But "one clean hit" is a moot point. One clean hit with a Photon Torpedo ANYWHERE on an unshielded ship would destroy it. This is why the arguments some make against the thin neck and pylons is asinine. Even if the ship were a sphere, with essential functions at its core, it would still falter to a torpedo or two if the shields were down. This is the thing most people forget, thanks to Wrath of Khan not only nerfing weapons badly, but presenting battle as armored hull vs. armored hull... the way it was never meant to be. Even though the Miranda's torpedoes are kept separate... if they explode, they would still destroy the ship. They are antimatter warheads, not conventional explosives (again... I'm looking at you with disapproving stares, Wrath of Khan). The only real reason they are kept where they are is so they could clear the bridge when fired. "Even if they blow up that pod, it doesn't necessarily mean..." actually, yes it does. That exploding pod should have blown so big that even the Enterprise would have felt it. Seriously... the poor excuse for Photon Torpedoes in that film do about the same damage as a sidewinder missile from a modern F-18 fighter jet.... THAT is the biggest design flaw, if you ask me. Weapons that barely deserve the name. If Photon Torpedos were still... y'know... PHOTON TORPEDOES, then it does not matter what ship you are flying. If your shields are down, you're screwed. But clearly the writers of the time didn't have any clue how to make an exciting action scene without showing explosions and scars on the hull.

Larry Niven and Jerry Poranelle wrote a novel on earth invaded by intelligences from Alfa Centuri. They came at sub light speed over seventy years. They picked up earth tv. And saw ‘impractical space ships’. In Sci Fi works we see some ‘realistic’ space ships and battles. But for some reason on screen we can’t get any ‘hard’ sci fi. I would love to see Mote in Gods eye as a movie, or Songs of a distant Earth. I THINK Rendezvous with Rama would be stunning on the big screen

Do you know what your glasses or contact prescription.

Listening to this, I hope that the torpedo magazine and warp core were heavily armored. That might be why the Enterprise didn't explode when Reliant hit the torpedo pod. It could also explain what the hull around the warp core is differently colored. The thing is, we would see this design philosophy continue of a more forward-positioned warp core with plasma conduits connecting it to the engines in the rear. Really, given the design of starfleet ships, a horizontal warp core is more sensible because it aligns the core with the largest dimension of the ship and especially the engineering section (its length).

Brilliant!

14:00 The addition of the photon torpedo bay adds a strong back to the connection between the neck and engineering hull- makes that connection much stronger, making it a good idea. And look at the blueprints and layouts of modern warships, tanks, fighter planes. All sorts of explosives are stored next to all sorts of precious goods. You only have so much space to pack a lot of stuff in, and compromises are always made.

But, just think of the BOOM you'd get if you needed to scuttle her! 🤪

Are the plans you are using in this video available somewhere online?

Another thing about the engine room. What is the "reactor room" (housing the ship's dilithium crystals) doing parked so far away from (presumably) the warp core?