External Consistency?

[Tholian_Avenger]

Theory: The use of warp engines nacelles on long pylons, and a raised forward saucer portion of Starfleet vessels give some benefit in warp travel that is more advantageous than a more soundly engineered starship would be.

I have at some point come into contact with that theory. Is this theory cannon? Is that design school ever seen from other species?

[Mikey]

There have been all sorts of configurations on alien vessels, which could mean a different means of generating a warp field or some other divergence in propulsion technology. As far as UFP designs, we know that Roddenberry's rules of design said that nacelles must come in pairs, and must be at least partially visible over or under the primary hull from the front. Of course, Roddenberry created those rules basically in order to screw Franz Joseph; and further, they've been broken in subsequent canon.

[Mark]

As we see newer model ships, we see nacelles being pulled in more closely and saucers and stardrives losing that long neck feature. Perhaps ship of the 25th and 26th century will look more tactical in appearance. Remember, between the 23rd and 24th century Starfleet redesigned its warp engine granting greater speeds, and wasn't really thinking about conflict overly much. Perhaps speed trumped tactical sense IU????

[Atekimogus]

As with many things this changed over time.

For example, originally they where set apart from the rest of the ship because during TOS they where supposed "power units" (The Art of Star Trek book has quite a few nice original concept art) which were better kept a bit away from the rest of the ship.

During TNG afaik it has something to do with warp-field efficiency which becomes less of an issue the smaller the ship becomes. (I always pictured it as the equivalent or similar of hull speed/displacementspeed for nautical ships where you have a speed/length ratio)

[Graham Kennedy]

The TNG TM suggests that the shape of the hull is dictated in broad terms by the shape of the warp field, thus :



The reason ships have become more "streamlined" over time is that advancing technology has allowed the field to be more "squashed" and thus more efficient.

Other warp field configurations are possible, leading to other hull shapes - hence the characteristic Klingon design, alien ships, etc. But this one is the one Starfleet finds best suited to their needs.

A degree of canonicity for the field shape can be seen in the TNG episode Deja Q, which shows the field on a diagram :



But there's really been nothing I know of in canon to suggest that any of it is true. I tend to accept it, provisionally, on the same basis I accept a lot of Trek things : it's an answer that makes some degree of sense, and is what the folks behind the scenes have come up with.

[Coalition]

You also have the warp cores putting out all sorts of weird radiation, so I'd want to put them away from the hull on a safety principle. Similar to a high-energy fusion plant being kept away from the crew spaces. When a war starts protecting the ship over the next year becomes more important that keeping the rate of cancer over the next ~50 years down.

[Teaos]

We know there are Carly different means of warp drives as well. The rimland use a contained singularity which would be dramatically from the federations matter antimatter drives.

[McAvoy]

The thing is that Starfleet's starship design is entirely unique. We don't seem anything similar to the saucer and secondary hull with nacelles design. We have seen alien ships of all shapes and sizes with nacelle placements inside, outside or nowhere to be seen. We can put that up to different warp theory ideas and maybe exotic materials. But I mean, I doubt the Fed warp drive IS THAT different to have a totally different starship shape than anyone else.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Well, the OOU answer is each faction has their own general design so viewers can tell them apart better, at least.

[Mikey]

@Teaos - dude, you can't let your iPhone autocorrect raze your posts.

In general, though, it seems safe to say that ship form follows warp dynamics. That said, the core itself has little to do with the warp dynamics - whether the core is a Fed-style M/AM one or a Romulan-style artificial singularity matters precious little. The warp core is merely the primary form of power generation. Each species'/faction's version of warp dynamics is more likely based on how they developed its ship/nacelle configuration as much as the reverse. That is, the UFP's version of warp dynamics is as it is because of the way they began down the road of the dual-hull, separated-nacelle aesthetic at least as much as the design is dictated by "absolute" war field dynamics.

[McAvoy]

@Teaos - dude, you can't let your iPhone autocorrect raze your posts.

The iPhone autocorrect is Satan's joke on the world. Fuck autocorrect it should burn in Hell where is belongs.

In general, though, it seems safe to say that ship form follows warp dynamics. That said, the core itself has little to do with the warp dynamics - whether the core is a Fed-style M/AM one or a Romulan-style artificial singularity matters precious little. The warp core is merely the primary form of power generation. Each species'/faction's version of warp dynamics is more likely based on how they developed its ship/nacelle configuration as much as the reverse. That is, the UFP's version of warp dynamics is as it is because of the way they began down the road of the dual-hull, separated-nacelle aesthetic at least as much as the design is dictated by "absolute" war field dynamics.

That is what I suspect. But that being said, warp field dynamics seems to be flexible enough for any shape or size it seems. I mean, usually designers will try to cut every corner they can get maximum efficiency but there are real world cases where design went over function. Examples would be the French pre-dreadnoughts. Or another example is the HMS Dreadnought being originally designed with straight stem (bow), but someone (I think Fisher) said it didn't look right so a ram bow was designed instead even thought it wasn't technically a ram bow (incidently the Dreadnought did ram a U-boat, her only real contribution to WWI).

[Graham Kennedy]

I guess the ultimate example of how different hull shapes can be is the Borg, who apparently put very little thought into it beyond "make a big box".

Even they got creative later.

[Teaos]

Considering 7 once said there are extream force in a Borg hulk while in corridors it's a wonder they didn't put less effort into Stuctusl integrity field and more into stream lining.

[Captain Seafort]

Err, Teaos, could we have that again please, in English this time? Even by your standards that's gibberish.

[Sonic Glitch]

Considering 7 once said there are extream force in a Borg hulk while in corridors it's a wonder they didn't put less effort into Stuctusl integrity field and more into stream lining.

Err, Teaos, could we have that again please, in English this time? Even by your standards that's gibberish.

I think: "Considering 7 once said there are extreme forces in a Borg hull while in [transwarp?] corridors, it's a wonder they didn't put less effort into structural integrity field and more into streamlining [their hulls?]"

(apologies to Teaos if I got this wrong)