And that's why they're Cybertrucks: form over function.
In a catastrophic power loss, the nacelles will lose the magnetic field and go floating away. There's also no way to access them other than the transporters, which, again ... catastrophic power loss and you can't fix them.
So to reach engineering in an emergency in a California class, you have to run to the outer edge of the saucer section, take a turbolift down almost as far, then run to the center of the ship to get to the warp core.
yes, it is structurally dumb. Even given the speed turbo-lifts are supposedly going at exceeding highway speeds according to some technical manuals. The Oberth-Class doesn't even have enough space for a turbo lift to fit through those struts
So I think you're right that the California and the Oberth are the cybertrucks of Star Trek. I mean, they are cheaply made and incredibly dangerous ships.
And I feel like a warp core explosion is so big it doesn't really matter where the core is placed. If you're on or near the ship you're going up with it regardless.
I can't really see the Miranda as a low class starship- it's larger than a Constitution Class (yes it actually is), has a compact design, and has those funky huge phaser pods. And it's around 80 years later. It probably started out as a dedicated warship, and got adapted to other tasks.
In fairness to Star Trek, aren't the California class and Oberth class really really low end ships? As in, if an serious emergency breaks out on your ship, you're totally fucked, and you'd actually be lucky if another Starfleet ship comes around to pick through the wreckage days later?
Turbolifts can go any direction and at speeds of a fast car. But only one can fit through the shaft at a time so it is really badly designed 3D roads inside the ship
That wasn't supposed to be the engineering section, but there was a screw up in the art department. The intent had been for that bottom part to be a giant sensor pod, but someone drew decks in the schematics for it and it was never corrected.
Genuinely, in both cases, what was the point of there not being a central neck to the ship down to engineering? These might be constructed in space, but basic structural engineering asserts these as flimsier than thety need be. That doesn't get lost just because one goes into space.
To be fair, the Cali-Class is noted to be an old style of ship that was considered 'falling apart' at the beginning of Lower Decks. Hell, by Season 5, Billups was noted to retrofit whatever he could get his hands on to keep the engines running.
Given how many times other ships have dealt with that problem, including the Galaxy class multiple times, I think the loss of nacelles is the least of the problems. And Starfleet does do backups and redundancies all the time.
The holographic hull is the one I'm more concerned about.
I honestly think the Discovery looks better in the 32nd century than in the 23rd. Although that could be biased because that era defined all of Star Trek.
And Scotty still had to hack that one. Otherwise, we got two simulated warp core breaches, a couple thefts from junkyards, and a transporter duplicate. Picard and Riker even stole a ship by being an admiral and captain doing an inspection.
They’re the most obvious way of using CGI to communicate to an audience “this is the future of the future” without thinking about structure and function too much because it’s “the future.”
Eh, I can't really see the problem The magic star drive is now held on by a magic force field. It's like when JRPGs started drawing wizards staffs with the crystal floating at the end by magic, instead of being securely fastened on.
They've probably always had to be held on by force fields.
I think just like there’s no place where there isn’t gravity built into the floors, there’d be no place where hologrid/replicator wasn’t built into the walls.
I don't hate them, but yeah. And as a guy who likes his starship models, detached parts make things awkward, at best. I mean, look what Eaglemoss had to do to make those 32nd century ships: big, ugly clip-on bits, and it looks like if you breathe on them, they'll fall apart.
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In a catastrophic power loss, the nacelles will lose the magnetic field and go floating away. There's also no way to access them other than the transporters, which, again ... catastrophic power loss and you can't fix them.
Wtf is going on in that ship regarding center of thrust vs center of mass? Doesn't it just whizz around in little loop-de-loops?
How the fuck do you get to engineering from the saucer section?!
The. Fuck.
Because, y'know. Big potential antimatter bomb. Need to be able to get to it when things going "boom."
Not defending the design, I agree with the stupidity of it.
The holographic hull is the one I'm more concerned about.
"Sir, someone is stealing the Enterprise."
"Disrupt the magnetic field around the detached nacelles. Shut that shit down."
*theft averted*
They've probably always had to be held on by force fields.
Give me crew quarters with different saved configurations.
In addition to functioning as an actual holodeck, even if it's so small that it only handles one user.
"Intruder alert!"
*Every single person on the ship is immediately locked in a 4'x4' holographic room that they have to use their authorization code to get out of*