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Star Trek XI theories

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davemetlesits's avatar
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Hi folks!

I came up with two theories regarding the new movie. One deals with the oversized hangar and engineering bays, the other with general aspects on time travel.
First of all: the hangar bay. As I was studying the basic shapes and dimensions of the ship (thanks to the wonderful 3D model of Madman1701A I was granted to convert to 3DS Max format), I got this strange idea that the hangar bay stretches through the whole length of the engineering hull. That is, it stretches from the hangar doors (obviously) to the main deflector assembly. Some parts of it, especially the front end, is interrelated to the engineering units, connected to it via the maze of pipes.
Over the hangar bay lies the engineering bay. It is probably a bit shorter than the hangar bay due to the curved shape of the engineering hull, and is at least three decks tall. It is one large room, without any walls or other separating structures. The warp core pods (by the way, about the pods: I think the pods ARE the real cores, they are probably 1, provide power to separate subsystems 2, can take over the power supply if one or more of them fails 3, the question is whether one core is still able to power the ship) are located somewhere a bit past the middle of the chamber (closer to the neck than the aft). The engineering chamber thus includes the Warp cores, the waste recycling system and other subsystems, probably air recirculation, raw material storages, etc.
I support my theory on these two large chambers by the window placement of the engineering hull. On the upper side of it, no windows are placed, due to these parts are normally off-limits to non-engineering personnel and no living quarters are located there. Furthermore, on the lower side of the engineering hull, there are at least two decks with rows of windows. One row s similar to the "botanical garden" windows on the Classic Connie Refit.
Some other theories of the space arrangement of the ship: I somehow think that the living quarters are located in the neck section. How do you place 1100 people there? I don't know, although the neck stretches almost as far to the ft end of the engineering hull, providing at least two times the space as the neck of the Classic Connie.
Also, when observing that large room, where Uhura is stationed and where a swollen-tongued Kirk looks after her, is slightly curved. I think this is due to this room being situated in the main saucer. I think that all these science/intelligence stations are located in the saucer, all of them are some three decks tall. I support this idea by the turbolift scene: after Kirk finds Uhura, they run for the turbolift and are on the bridge after a few seconds, so the science chambers must be close to the bridge.

Now, let's move on to a more fluid topic: the timelines and time travels.
First of all, I'd like to say that my theory is inspired in a way by Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy (I highly recommend these novels for reading, really!). So, according to my theory, we can speak of three timelines in Trek, two of which are almost the same and definitely interrelated.
The distinction between these first two timelines comes with the first time travel in Trek. Not chronologically, but the time travels in TOS. The TOS crew went back to the 20's and 60's and the 80's and they made some alterations to the timeline. Not significant details, but, yes, details. It is known that you can't even observe without affecting the surroundings. Yet the timeline remained intact. Then comes one of the most important time travels in Trek and that was Sisko's "Gabriel Bell" stunt. The original Bell died and Sisko took his place. What is the meaning of this event?
The meaning is that time can be considered a living, organic entity. It "heals" the breaches that time travels have inflected upon it. That means that even if Sisko had not taken Bell's place, the social unrest still had taken place. The leader would not be Bell (or a man who calls himself Bell) but history would have marked that event even so. With a simple word, we can call this "destiny". History/the timeline was destined to have a riot that opened the world to the poor masses in the 21st century.
Then comes the second major time travel, which had more effects on the timeline which made a lasting impact, creating alternatives but keeping constant with the original variant of the timeline. This time travel was Picard's anti-Borg move in First Contact. Cochrane saw the Enterprise-E and was inspired by it. So some sort of technological advance was made compared to the original timeline. Warp cores were present on starships from the beginning (oh, the arguments I had on whether the pre-ENT timeline TOS ships *Connies* have had Warp coils and Warp cores or were the nacelles the independent drive units themselves) and saucer-based ships pre-dated sphere-based ships.
This timeline was subjected to severe temporal incursions. First of all was the Temporal Cold War with the Sulibans. Than the temporal parasites in Twilight. Than the focal point of many possible timelines when Enterprise went against that Sphere in Zero hour. And this was only in ENT. Than all TOS time travels occurred here again (because, like I said, they were part of the timeline, they were "meant" to be done). Picard went back again and, as a predestination paradox, set off this timeline. And then there was Nero and the Narada.
Before talking about Nero, let's move back to the timeline as being an organic entity. Timeline 2 was subjected to really severe time incursions. Imagine all the damage inflicted upon it. That last time travel, Nero's, was just too much.
When Nero attacked the Kelvin, something changed. The timeline was damaged beyond repair. It became incapable of correcting temporal errors, so that things that were meant to happen did not happen or not happen in a way like it as supposed to occur. Some events happened even so: there was a USS Enterprise NCC-1701 of the Constitution class and it had a crew of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov, but it was a different ship and its crew had different backgrounds and personalities. Also, events happened which did not happen in the previous two timelines. I'm talking about the destruction of Vulcan. What's done is done. This is how the new timeline exists. This means that if Old Spock had gone back before the singularity bomb, he would have failed, no matter how hard he tried. In this timeline, the destruction of Vulcan is inevitable.
My last theory for now is that this timeline will develop itself in one way or another, because time is linear (take that, Prophets!), and new time travels will occur. This will go like it went before, with some alterations until the thread of time will again won't be able to repair itself and the second great shift occurs.

So, these are my ideas. I don't know whether they can really be applied to Trek but I hope they can answer a few questions.
The things I have time for... :D
© 2009 - 2024 davemetlesits
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Nolhekh's avatar
Interesting note, all the engineering level sets were filmed at a Budweiser Factory. The large tanks seen throughout the movie are full of beer.

And the dimensions of new enterprise are (according to experience-the-enterprise.com)
Length : 762 m
Beam : 335 m
Height : 190 m

The increased scale of the ship may account for a seemingly larger shuttlebay, and crew capacity. The design of the new ship wasn't intended to fit into any existing timeline, but simply to look grander, and appeal to a modern audience.