USS Enterprise-J

[All Seeing Eye]

Does the USS Enterprise-J utilise TARDIS technology?

In an episode of ENT there was a supposed ship from the future that was bigger on the inside than the outside (it was that episode where the Tholians and Suliban were after it). I notice from the ship schematics shown on screen and the art created from that schematic shows the saucer of the Ent-J as flat as a pancake.

Dose anyone believe it utilises this kind of technology on the saucer? Does anyone remember what time period that future ship with TARDIS technology was from? What time period is the Ent-J from?

 

[The Badger]

According to MA the time ship in 'Future Tense' was from the 31st century. The Ent-J on the other hand comes from the 26th.

Whilst the saucer section of the Ent-J is very thin, it might simply appear to be flat compared to it's length and width. According to designer Doug Drexler the Universe class is two miles long. So whilst it may look flat, it's probably got a lot of decks in there. One correspondent to Dexter's blog speculates the saucer section could have about 100 decks.

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/enterprise-j-search-redux/

 

[F. King Daniel]

The thing that I dislike about the Enterprise-J is the warp nacelles. Not only are the J's ugly (cut them off, the plain 'wings' would look nicer) I don't think a ship that far in the future would use anything like current Trek. In the (non-canon but who cares?) novels set in 2381 the first Quantum Slipstream Federation ships are appearing. In an old novel called Crossroad, an evil Federation ship from the same era as the -J (the Federation having turned evil by then and being contolled by a group called the Consilium) has something called a Psion-Jump drive.
In short: Warp drive is going the way of VHS.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

The thing that I dislike about the Enterprise-J is the warp nacelles.

I rather like them.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I've been kind of torn about the Enterprise-J because I always felt it came from an alternate timeline/possible future in which the Delphic Expanse continued to exist past the 22nd-Century, and that the ship may ultimately turn out to look completely different in the original (or Prime) universe.

Comparisons to a pizza cutter aside, I could see how the thin appearance of the saucer section is relative to its sheer size and could probably actually fit a couple of small starships inside. But the saucer interior being dimensionally transcendental, I kinda doubt it. I just think it's overall just a gorran big ship...

 

[F. King Daniel]

The -J is definitly from an alternate future. Considering how the 2009 Enterprise is *huge* compared to the 1701-prime, and history diverged only 25 years previously, I'm guessing the "real" -J (saying "real" about stuff like this just feels silly) might be totally different.
It's possible the J we saw was designed specifically to fight the Sphere Builders, in much the same way the alt-1701 was designed to fight the Nerada (see: the missile-stopping pulse phasers)

 

[Wingsley]

This article on Memory Alpha discusses the Enterprise-J and may hold some of the answers to I Am Legend's questions.

Assuming that the Enterprise-J shown in ENT's "Azati Prime" was indeed a "Prime Universe" Federation cruiser-type starship from the 26th century, we can make some assumptions:

By the looks of the saucer surface, and the perspecitve from which Archer looks out of her, the "J" must be huge. She must dwarf even Picard's Enterprise-D. The saucer takes on the appearance of a small city.

Doug Drexler's images of the "J" seem to reinforce this ideal, with super-thin, long nacelles and struts. The only way these make sense would be if these parts are thin only relative to the rest of the ship's design. If, say, the struts were indeed thick enough to house at least one full-height deck or maybe more, then they would not really be paper-thin; they could have substance to them.

What I strongly dislike about the "J" is that silly deflector dish mounted on the nose of the saucer. The saucer looks so smooth. Why ruin its lines with that snout?

 

[C.E. Evans]

What I strongly dislike about the "J" is that silly deflector dish mounted on the nose of the saucer. The saucer looks so smooth. Why ruin its lines with that snout?

It possible that the Enterprise-J's design lineage stems more directly from the NX-class than perhaps the Constitution-class.

 

[T'Girl]

Looking at the windows of the saucer section, to me it appears that the decks are at 90 degrees to the usual orientation. Like the grooves in a phonograph record. So that if you're standing on the deck, instead of there being a port and starboard side, there would be a dorsal and ventral side to the deck.

Might be interesting to think that there is only "one" saucer deck that winds around and around until it reaches the core area.

I like the deflector, maybe it's the main weapon too. They've gone back to using a deflection crystal on the impulse engine.

 

[F. King Daniel]

There's a chance it's a slipstream generator and not a deflector.
And rather than decks rotated 90°, perhaps the rooms have window ceilings?

It annoyed me that Enterprise tried to show that humans, Klingons and the rest had exactly the same technology in the 2150's as in the 2370's (we even found out what spiecies they got holodecks from!). I would like to think there's *something* amazing and new several hundred years further forward.

 

[publiusr]

There is only one problem. In the interior shot here:
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/File:Enterprise-J_corridor.jpg

--it looks as if Archer is looking out of a curved forward section of secondary hull, as shown in the Congo class: http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/congo-class/

No torpedo tubes there, but observation section. Also, I distinctly remember Archer seeing the underside of the saucer dome, and there was no rib running through it.

The CGI model has the underside of the model flush, offering no impeded view of the underside of the saucer we saw in the window. Congo would have afforded Archer the view, however.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

What I strongly dislike about the "J" is that silly deflector dish mounted on the nose of the saucer. The saucer looks so smooth. Why ruin its lines with that snout?

It possible that the Enterprise-J's design lineage stems more directly from the NX-class than perhaps the Constitution-class.

Not surprising, really. The Ent-J as we saw it, comes from a timeline where the war with the Sphere Builders continued for hundreds of years (and is still going on in the 26th century, with the Delphic Expanse taking up 1/4 of the galaxy). It stands to reason that in this timeline, starship design would be put on hold - i.e. technology wouldn't be as advanced in such a war-ravaged timeline as it would be in the normal one. So it makes sense that the J would be little more than an uprated NX-01 - no time to make anything better than that.

In the real timeline, of course, the Sphere Builders have been wiped out, the Expanse destroyed, and the war stopped before it starts. So, whatever Enterprise exists during the real 26th century (it may or may not be the J) wouldn't have to look anything like what we saw.

 

[danellis]

If anything, it would be likely to be the opposite.

Wats generally advance technology. The atomic bomb, computers, daleks, and radar are just "top-of-my-head" technologies that got invented during the Second World War.

dJE

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Daleks?

 

[Wingsley]

Don't you remember Hitler's favorite saying?

Exterminate! Exterminate!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Okay, now you lost me.

 

[Mytran]

A reference to the latest Nu-Doctor-Who episode perhaps?

 

[bryce]

^ Daleks?

Well they were known by their more common name, "Ironsides" during WWII...


Perhaps that rings a bell now...?





(Look people, timelines change! it's not *my* fault if you all didn't pay attention during your Revised History classes in high school...)

 

[danellis]

Yes, a refence to next week's episode of Doctor Who:

Spoiler: Dr. Who Spoilers

Winston Churchill summons the Dr. because one of his people has "invented" the Daleks

 

[Dukhat]

Not surprising, really. The Ent-J as we saw it, comes from a timeline where the war with the Sphere Builders continued for hundreds of years (and is still going on in the 26th century, with the Delphic Expanse taking up 1/4 of the galaxy). It stands to reason that in this timeline, starship design would be put on hold - i.e. technology wouldn't be as advanced in such a war-ravaged timeline as it would be in the normal one. So it makes sense that the J would be little more than an uprated NX-01 - no time to make anything better than that.

In the real timeline, of course, the Sphere Builders have been wiped out, the Expanse destroyed, and the war stopped before it starts. So, whatever Enterprise exists during the real 26th century (it may or may not be the J) wouldn't have to look anything like what we saw.

Oh yes, the Enterprise-J is most definitely not what the Prime universe J would look like. As a matter of fact, I doubt that by the 26th century they'd even get up to the letter J; more likely G or H.

Let's for argument's sake say that the Enterprise-E survived until at least the beginning of the 25th century. If the J was the Prime J, then there'd be six Enterprises existing in the span of only a little over a hundred years. That's a horrible track record (a little over 15 year lifespan for each ship!). But in the "Sphere-builder universe" it would make sense. If the war had lasted from the 22nd century to the 26th, that would make 12 Enterprises (including the NX-01) in the span of 400 years, fighting in the war (and those Enterprises would look nothing like the Prime Enterprises because as you say, they'd take their design attributes from the NX-01).