What's Wrong With "Mr. Scott's Guide To The Enterprise" by Shane Johnson ------------------------------------------------------ By 'James Dixon' copyright 1991 Page Comments ---- -------- 12 First of the incorrect F**A/Spaceflight Chronology dates. The Enterprise's 5-year mission came to an end in the 2260's (2265 by "tech fandom"). NOT in 2212, over 50 years early... The stardate of the end of the 5-year mission conflicts with the stardate given in the beginning of "The Lost Years." "Mr. Scott's Guide" claims the Enterprise was the only Constitution class ship to return--all others were lost or destroyed. This conflicts with all other "tech fandom" which explaines that the remaining Constitution class ships were upgraded. The only ships of the Consitution class to be lost by the end of the Enterprise's 5-year mission were the Valiant, Con- stellation, Intrepid, and the Defiant (though not technically of the Con- stitution class--see Tech Manual). The Farragut (mistakenly listed as de- stroyed) was also uprated and was in service in the 24th Century (TNG novel: "The Captain's Honor"). The "Guide" states that the Enterprise was 25 years old. All "tech fandom" as well as "The Making of Star Trek" and "Star Trek Log 7" state that the Enterprise was over 40 years old. The Valiant was lost on a voyage to Eminiar some 50 years back indicating the age of the Constitution class. Unfortunately, the TNG "Tech Manual" gives her commissioning date as 2245 --not too keen on researching the facts... Now comes the heavy duty F**A: Leeding Engines Ltd. (company invented by F**A that makes warp engines) and the naming of the Enterprise's engines FWG-1 nacelles (stands for 'F'ederation 'W'arp engines, look up chart 'G' and naturally the Klingons call their engines KW-- and the Romulans RG--) There's also mention of FWF-1 engines and Shuvinaaljis--another company that makes these engines. All used strictly in gaming, not in reference works... The "Guide" goes on to say that impulse drive is used to propel the ship through warp space, despite episodes like "The Corbomite Maneuver" which clearly indicate that impulse and warp are two seperate propulsion systems Jesco Van Puttkamer in "The Making of Star Trek-The Motion Picture" states that a reaction to the warping of space propels the ship, which is the whole principle of the warp engines. The bottom of the page has a photo of the Enterprise in "Drydock Facility Three (July 2216). Not only is the date wrong, but Spacedock 4 was employed for her upgrading in "A Flag Full of Stars." 13 Here, the "Guide" states that the Enterprise's computer was an M-4... In "The Ultimate Computer" Kirk asks Daystrom why the M-5 was not called M-4 or M-1. The answer is that Multitronic units M-1 through M-4 were failures. M-5 can be added to the list. "Tech fandom" states that the old Enterprise had a Duotronic computer which is quite consistent with the episode and Daystrom's Duotronic Breakthough. The page also mentions another F**A contrived company: Daystrom Data Con- cpts. Probably the most acceptable of contrived company names. As well as Kloratis Drives. "Tech fandom" uses the names Daystrom Duotronics and Cochrane Warp Dynamics. This computer was supposedly replaced with a "central core shaft 8 feet in diameter" which extends through the entire saucer section, as opposed to being housed on 2 decks at the center of the ship. Doesn't seem very logical, it appears in only one "tech fandom" product: Ships of the Star Fleet's USS Belknap class strike cruiser cutaway. Though in retrospect, with TNG's Enterprise using computer cores, and the NCC-1701-A Deck Plans employing same, perhaps it should be accepted. The F**A gaming name for the impulse drive in use is mentioned here too: FIE-2 (yes, you guessed it: 'F'ederation 'I'mpulse 'E'ngine...). 14 Here's Shane Johnson's description of the new "untested defense system, verified by computer, chosen to protect Enterprise from whatever hostile action she might encounter: "In this new technology, a coil of diburnium-osmium alloy was placed with- in a reinforced titanium/transparent aluminum mount, scanned at the sub- atomic level, then replicated and projected as energy at an adjustable point beyond the vessel's outer hull. This energy layer, acting as a solid, in effect became another layer of metal on the ship's exterior. Insulated from the true hull by a small space, the invisible shield was designed to replenish its 'molecular' structure continually for as long as source energy was available." Just goes to show how much of an imagination he has, as well as how much he understands science, or in this case at least, the science of the Trek Universe. The second half of the page describes the Enterprise's destruct system and it's two modes which Johnson claims are selected by the last words, either "destruct one" for antimatter containment shutdown or "destruct zero" for detonation of charges. Thing is, we've never heard the first statement. Line Officer's Requirements Manual (again, "tech fandom") explains that self-destuct will always be the second scenario unless the safety inter- locks on the antimatter bottles are removed, in which case when destruct reaches 0 the force fields will cancel out. This explanation neatly explains why Kirk orders Scotty to arm the self destruct system in Engine- ering in both "One Of Our Planets Is Missing" and ST-TMP to ensure the destruction of the intruder. In fact, it's the only explanation. The remaining bottom of the page, as well as the next five pages, are accurate specs from Andrew Probert, chief designer of the Enterprise model and were published in the ST-TMP blueprint pack shortly after the release of the film. "Tech fandom" agrees with these 100% except for Leeding FWG-1 tagged on to the Nacelles description from Johnson's F**A gaming sources. 18 Note that the bow and stern views of the Enterprise are NOT drawn to 19 the same scale as the three previous drawings. 20 This page shows an original, cutaway of the Enterprise, showing her computer core extending through the primary hull and a tractor beam extending out of the base of the secondary hull--yet there's nothing in the previous external views of the ship to suggest a tractor beam extending from the base. "Tech fandom" states it was relocated below the forward torpedo tubes, where a very visible "shutter" can be seen. Sources: Files of Star Fleet Command and Line Officers Requirements. However, in the old Enterprise, this was the location of the tractor beam. Also take note of the turbolift shafts--they Do Not match up with the shaft display grid first seen in ST-TMP and every other film through ST III to feature the Enterprise. The navigational deflector monitor is a station located behind the forward tractor beam shutter. 22 Preproduction sketches of the aft topside of the primary hull. Fine ex- cept for mentioning F**A's Chiokis Starship Construction Corp. and the date of 3 Jun 2212--over 50 years before ST-TMP. 24 Duty Uniform screwups: It's a very popular myth that each ship in the fleet has its own unique uniform insignia. "Court Martial" proved this wrong with Kirk meeting "old friends" on Starbase 11, complete with arrowhead shaped insignias. "The Eye of the Beholder" also has the crew of the USS Ariel wearing identical insignias. Lack of space prevents full explanation of the system in use here. The Technical Manual clearly shows that the arrowhead is the standard insignia worn by Star Fleet Armed Forces. Star Fleet Merchant Marines ("Pirates of Orion"), Science Probe/Survey vessel personnel ("Charlie X") and flag officers ("The Dooms day Machine") wear other insignias. This has always been the case in Star Trek, despite misinformation from Trimble's otherwise excellent Concordan- ce, and F**A. I guess this is why Johnson and co. decided to blow up all other Constitution class ships--in order to justify a "change" in insignia Too bad that the TNG "Technical Manual" also suggests that the Enterprise insignia was adapted after the 5-year mission instead of individual ship insignias. Well, if you ever wondered where misinformation comes from... Dates here are, as always, way off. Also note Johnson's dismissal of the ST-TMP uniforms: while he illustrates the ST II design he completely neglects them, no doubt because he does not understand the color-coding and ranking systems. These are exhaustingly outlined in the "tech fandom" Federation Reference Series, covering all ST-TMP uniforms, with illust- rations of each one being more pleasing to the eye than Johnson's typical "coloring book" quality drawings of uniforms on the next few pages.Though they Are better than the shoddy uniform drawings in the Line Officers Requirements Manual... 31 Service Bars. There has been quite a bit of talk about how these slashes and pips add up. While Johnson's explanation seems sound, it does not hold up with the actual arrangements worn by our officers in ST II and onwards. McCoy and Chekov would have served in Star Fleet for the exact same number of years! And even as late as ST VI, they have not changed by one pip. We've come to the conclusion that the pips and bars worn on the sleeves represent commendations and citations earned by the officer, and not service length at all (despite what the constume designers preliminary notes say, as indicators of service lengths, they do not hold up at all). 32 Typefaces: more F**A dates plus an outright false statement that the Star Fleet banner was red and yellow and painted on starship hulls. To be exact, the banner is silver on red as seen in "And The Children Shall Lead" and in the Technical Manual. Johnson is describing the Star Fleet identification pennant, also seen representing Star Fleet Command, hanging on walls in the background of Star Fleet H.Q. whenever commodores decide to chit-chat with Captain Kirk... The typestyles are fine except that there is at least one page of typefaces missing, representing interim ship lettering used between the series and films. 42 Johnson claims that the sphere located on the ceiling in the center of the bridge is a "navigational sensor input system," which transmits all input from the sensor dome above to the astrogator console below via laser. This does not seem very bright, considering that the commanding officer will constantly obstruct the data pulses as he enters and leaves the con. Lawrence Miller's Bridge Blueprints say this globe is a Colission Sensor Alarm Strobe. In ST III it seemed to function very much like a lamp, perhaps an alternate mode of the warning strobe. 43 Here we see a typical Johnson drawing. It is of the bridge. It lacks the professional style of Franz Joseph and others and the numbering of stations listed on the Opposite page is not needed. As all his drawings, it's scaled in feet as opposed to the traditional "tech fandom" metric scale. It is overly simplistic with emphasis on between-wall bulkheads than in proper labeling with no use made whatsoever of shading in selected portions. Between the turbolifts and the outer hull are large unlabeled spaces--for what? If for piping/wiring he could have indicated so. What's also troubling is the lack of an inspection corridor or crawlway around the bridge perimeter, included in the Miller prints. All previous starship bridges contained such an access, even the new Galaxy class ship ("Brothers"). Then there's a curious "emergency hatch" lodged in the deck just in front of the helm which I don't recall seeing any indication of, although the NCC-1701-A prints have a service tube that may lead to a hatch. The "rotating" portside turbolift something else new to us. He also deliberately ignores mentioning the original bridge layout seen in ST-TMP which differed drastically from the ST II layout by station locations. No explanation is given, as if the Enterprise of the movies has always had one bridge design... 44 Basically the same as page 22. 45 Basically the same as page 22. 48 Johnson claims B Deck to be the "main security level." This runs contrary to all "tech fandom" and The Making of Star Trek book which describes the old ship's deck 2 as consisting of science labs and such. However, "The Enterprise Incident" has Mr. Spock escorting the Romulan Commander to Deck 2. I suppose there could be a security facility on the new ship there but placing such a facility directly under the main bridge is asking for trouble! The only real complain regarding the V.I.P. Officers Lounge layout is a slight difference in the preproduction sketch vs. Johnson's. The spacing between the privacy area viewing screens and sunken observation area is double what it should be. 50 Meal Service. "Nutritech Corporation" designed food processor. Nice name, did it come out of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? The old ship also did not rely entirely upon "mini-turbolifts" as Johnson suggests. The "food processor" also resembles something out of 2001: A Space Odyssey or perhaps Alien, not Star Trek. It is overly complex in design, unlike the cartridge activated ones of the original series or the voice activated units seen in "The Practical Joker" and TNG: display screens, special beverage dispenser bins, tray disposal slot, trash disposal slot, utensil bins... The units we have seen only required one lone dispenser. Also disturbing is Johnson's naming it a "food processor unit," he never once refers to it as a food synthesizer as in the old series. It looks like a step backwards in design... 52-57 Here's Johnson's idea of shipboard living quarters. Oddly, they seem to be fusions of the quarters seen in ST-TMP and ST II. Details of both layouts seem to be missing, but with greater emphasis on ST II's designs. Junior officers quarters and crew quarters also seem more cramped and uncomfortable than ever before, possibly due to the redesign. Particularly disturbing is that the only way to reach the toilet is to walk through the sonic shower booth! I doubt their accuracy. The "dining booth module" is also some thing completely new to me--and completely lacking in the 1701-A Deck Plans. 58 Turbolift Car. This page makes use of Shane Johnson's famous human outline for scaling purposes. At a first glance the drawing looks fine, but at a second glance, there are problems. First, turbolift cars as illustrated in "tech fandom" prints and manuals, as well as seen moving through tubes in ST-TMP, are more rounded on the top and bottom. Second, the turbolift starship layout locator grid panel is missing. Lastly, the right side elevation suggests that the car number plate & maintenance crew door controls are a part of the turbocar when they are in fact a part of the wall/corridor and are stationary! Johnson seems to be suggesting that the wall and all move with the car... 60 The Main Gangway Hatch differs from what we see in the films. Johnson decided to jazz it up a bit and so added two hatch windows, manual hatch controls, and even a Star Fleet insignia. 62 Again, a disappointing drawing due to Johnson's amaterish style, this time of the Auxiliary Control Room. Although, this time, he chooses to contain the station numbering to one page, the drawing could easily be improved by selective shading and the addition of more detail. For a page of this size, simple circles and blocks for chairs and stations are unacceptable. The Emergency Life Support System room, for instance, is given the label and an interior of 4 unexplained circles. The 1701-A Deck Plans also don't make use of this layout. 63-65 His corridor drawings are better. Unfortunately he goes Too far. I find it hard to believe that while the corridors have been halved in size, they've been lined with survial suits and compartments, not to mention "food, communications, and waste management facilities for one crew member." The idea of the blinking display panels hanging from the corridors being "personnel locator displays" is a neat idea, all Trek films which feature Enterprise corridor activity clearly proves this one also wrong. 67 Again, an over-simplistic drawing, this time of sickbay. Unfortunately, taking into account the FJD drawings of the old Enterprise's sickbay, this drawing simply CANNOT be the whole of sickbay, especially for a complement of 500 persons. We are shown one lab, one examination room, and one intensive care unit. The 1701-A Deck Plans fare better, using only the basic (screen-accountable) layout and doubling it in size. 68-69 The standard 6-person transporter. This is what the page should be called, as in all other tech books. Instead: Transporter Room. Here, as with the living quarters, we are shown a fusion of the ST-TMP and ST II designs and not one, the other, or both. ST-TMP, ST II, and ST III suggests that both these rooms are in use, as the design of ST-TMP resurfaces in ST III as our officers abandon ship. "A redesigned field generator matrix is mounted into the rear wall..." Thi is also something new. All drawing of transporter rooms simpy call the wall a "protective barrier." More seriously: "In the new system, transporter energies are transmitted and received from any of several transmission points on the outer hull. These points, less than two feet across, are protected by seperate deflec- tor shield units which allow beaming to take place while the remainder of the ship is fully protected. This feature is particularly valuable during combat situations." Indeed it would be a valuable feature, unfortunately no such system exists as has been proven time after time and more recently in ST V. Although less than 2 feet across, they would still show up on the most detailed of outboard blueprints and obviously don't. 70-71 The jackets illustrated here are clearly better drawn than in the Line Officer Requirements Manual, but again the given dates are incorrect and the splitting up of colors is annoying. He also doesn't include the jackets worn in ST III... 72 Johnson's communicator drawing, while neatly labeled for a change, is not 100% true to the screen version. We also see another of Shane Johnson's consistent inconsistancy trademarks here: the "velcrite pad" on the back of the communicator. Dating back to the beginning of "tech fandom," the pad has always been called a "magnatomic adhesion surface." Johnson either deliberatly ignores this fact or has never studied the Technical Manual... 73 Here the same is true of the Tricorder. It is not all that consistent with the model seen in the films. It also contradicts the "tech fandom" drawings based on info from the Technical Manual. 74-77 As with the deflectors, Johnson feels that the diburnium-osmium alloy of "That Which Survives" is the ultimate alloy in use aboard the Enterprise and is used in the bulkheads of the armory. What ever became of rodinium, the hardest substance known to Federation science? Or tritanium or tri- titanium (used in starship hulls), or even a thin coating of neutronium? He then goes on mentioning the tenth anniversary of phasers, Transtator II physics and other such fluff, topped off by the usual incorrect years. Then invents another company, Atalskes Phaser Corporation (F**A?), and Sestra Weapons. Then there's his drawings. Here, he not only contradicts the production sketches, the Technical Manual phaser data, the "tech fandom" phaser drawings, but also his OWN phaser drawings in his "Weapons And Field Equipment Technical Reference Manual" (not wholy Star Trek, but featuring the best Johnson tech drawings I have ever seen)! First off, is Phaser IV. The numbering alone is disturbing. The palm pha- er (regardless of model or generation) was always known as Phaser One or Hand Phaser Type I, and the interlocked pistol configuration as Phaser Two or Hand Phaser Type II. He calls the ST-TMP pistol a Phaser IV when a more logical name would be Phaser II-A. In his previous "Manual," Johnson calls the rear disc the lock release for the Phaser I unit. Here, he calls it a dilithium crystal housing--as it's stated in production sketches and is consistent with "tech fandom." On the Phaser One unit are the settings and here he blows it badly. In the classic Technical Manual, the 4 basic phaser settings are Stun, Heat, Disrupt, and Dematerialize. The production sketches drawn by Probert of the Phaser setting keys indicate that these 4 settings are selected by the 4 keys on the left, two "tech fandom" draw- ings agree with this, Johnson has them in this order from top to bottom: Stun Select, Disrupt Select, Dematerialize Select, Enter Key! This goes back to His old "manual" where the user operates the phaser like a comp- utr, keying in the exact intensity level and such. The buttons on the right are fine, but in his original "manual" they are labelled Setting Intensity Select, Power On/Off, and Safety. Then in error he splits the fire button into two halves (a throwback to his "manual" where it's used to select wide and narrow beams. There is ONE button, it's the trigger for the Phaser One unit), the lower blackened area is a Thumb Rest he states, in his earlier work it was the "Phaser Three Trigger". You can see how confusing this is, how he's tried to cover his mistakes and has made more. Personally, having read the original one and only Star Fleet Technical Manual, I thought it blind obvious that the four buttons running down the left corresponded to the four settings. Another thing is the Phaser One unit. In his "manual" it plugs in BACKWARDS into the Phaser Two unit, with a shutter falling down to seal off the Phaser One barrel (facing the operator) and another barrel which is used when operating seperately... His Phaser IIB is just as bad. He seems to be changing things as he goes along. The only correct control in common between with this phaser model illustrated in his two references is the Trigger! In his first "manual" The area above the trigger is split into two sections for selecting wide and narrow beams. Below the trigger is a silver safety button. A force setting wheel is inset on the BACK of the phaser (just above the "velcrite pad"). In the "Guide": the beam width switches are an "energy focusing matrix" and below the trigger on the left is a beam force setting switch and on the right is a switch for beam width. In his "manual" when inter- faced with the Phaser Two unit, special switches mounted on the right side of the grip serve to lay in the settings, a "speed setting" system--which although mentioned in the "Guide" is noticably missing from the drawing! The "tech fandom" drawings assume a flat control layout almost identical to the ST-TMP phaser. On all phasers, Johnson calls the side-mounted grid lines Heat Sinks, unfortunately for him, in the classic Tech Manual they are deflector shield grids. I seriously believe that Shane Johnson had never seen the Tech Manual at the time of these drawings. 78-79 Here, Johnson only draws the lower level of the Rec Deck. It lacks the usual detail (No Shading!) and the individual games and facilities provided should have been named and labeled. I'm also not too sure about the male and female rest rooms. There never before was any seperation of sexes between rest rooms on the old ships. They were smaller one-man cubicles. What of "sexless" beings? 82 "Housed within the connecting dorsal, between H and I Decks, is a three- feet thick hull seperation system layer. This unit uses magnetic repulsors to widen the initial gap between the seperating hulls." Here's more imaginative speculation. If such a system does exist I don't believe that magnetic fields would be employed, more like tractor beams set to repel. He goes on to say that the dorsal section on decks I, J, and K houses special passenger cabins for non-Humanoid passengers. All the prints on the older vessels state that these are observation lounges. The Enterprise class is a heavy cruiser like her predecessors, not a courier ship although it may function as one from time to time, 3 decks reserved for exotic non-Humanoid passengers may be going a bit too far... This is especially true when one considers the limited room in the dorsal areas. Unlike in the Constitution class, the intermix chamber runs through the dorsal decks which must be well-shielded, not to mention the turbo lift shaft and an emergency "ladder tube." The "Guide" also adds a Jeffries Tube running along the aft end of the dorsal. The 1701-A Deck Plans more logically allocate various engineering support systems to these dorsal decks, as well as the traditional observation lounges shoved in... Johnson continuously calls Photon Torpedoes "Photorps." Again, can't he stick to normal terminology? Again he adds more F**A talk: companies, dates and such. He calls the torpedo in use a FP-4 torpedo (yeah, stands for 'F'ederation 'P'hoton...) and even brings in the Arcturus Firing Range from Space Flight Chronology. He suggests that 7% of all launches were aborted by an overheating auto-arming system so that's why it was replaced with manual loading. Reading between the lines, he also states that the Enterprise in ST-TMP fired the same torpedoes as in the old series. They DON'T look the same... 83 The torpedo handling is done by magnetic carriers, the "Guide" says. Magnetics are a thing of the past in Trek, aside from magnetic bottles for antimatter storage, magnatomic fields are in use. Too bad that the TNG "Technical Manual" sticks to plain Magnetics rather than Magnatomics. 83 "At the rear of L Deck, surrounding the Jeffries tube, is the photon exhaust system. Whenever a torpedo is fired, the mechanism forcefully ejects superheated gases aftward through a vent matrix in the outer hull, this countering the inertial forces created by the departing photorp." Nope. Never. That's why the ship has reaction-control thrusters for attitude control. Files of Star Fleet Command, Starship Design, USS Menahga layout sheet etc. all state otherwise. When the magnophoton force field of the torpedo comes in contact with the neutronium-lined launch tube, radioactive gas is released which must be disposed of. This was one reason for the relocation of the photon torpedo banks to the dorsal section, the other reason was a cancelling effect upon the deflector shields of the locallized section of the ship during firing. The photon exhaust vent IS an EXHAUST vent, thus the name. "Matrix" is also another one of Johnson's annoying "filler" words: this matrix, that matrix... Always something-matrix. 84 Again, Johnson fails to give us a complete drawing. The dorsal section is not very thick, he could easily have drawn the whole section but didn't. The 1701-A prints show this Torpedo Deck as doubled in depth: one bay for each tube. Logical, especially (as noted in the prints) the torpedo bay was destroyed in one scene of ST II, making Spock's space burial scene impossible if it weren't for another Torpedo Room (the one adjacent to it). Instead, Johnson flanks the chamber with a storage bay and lounge. 85 Photorp [Mark VI]. What's wrong with "Photon Torpedo" and "Mark VI" sub- titled? Magnetic loading plate should be "magnatomic adhesion loading plate." Then he deliberately makes up "duranite casing." There's duranium (from "The Menagerie Part I") but not duranite. In ST III, the screen clearly said that the casing was composed of terminium. Yeah, the drawing is rather lacking. Drawing the shell a bit smaller would have enabled a cutaway view showing the internal arrangement of the torpedo--which would have been a first. Too bad. The scale in feet at the bottom of the page also appears to be slightly off. The equivalent photon torpedo drawing in the Line Officers Requirements Manual, while unspectacularly drawn, is far more informative: Just one page and we have 14 different spec listings as well as top and side views. 87-88 Disappointing "Warp Engine Room" should be called "Main Engineering Deck" except Johnson only draws a small section of it. As usual he ignores the layout presented in ST-TMP, not even mentioning the changes and additions added on except for the "dilithium reactor room" which should be termed "main energizer chamber." There's talk here about "dilithium couplings" and radiation hazard. It's almost apparent that Johnson knows little about the purpose of the chamber. Line Officer Requirements Manual is needed to get any understanding of this. He also adds that the transparent wall contains "radiation dampening gases." Why not use a force field barrier to contain the radiation? It works fine on the old life support belts. "Systems status display consoles" is also hardly adequate for explaining seven large consoles--why not label each one independently and their functions? Only antimatter is contained in magnetic bottles. Line Officers Require- ments states that it's integrated with neutronium pellets (which explains the "neutronic fuel carrier" in ST II, despite the fact that the original Constitution class vessel integrated matter plasma generated from H2. 92 "At the forward end of the deck, on either side of he vertical intermix shaft, are twin energy converter units. These large, rounded devices translate the shaft's raw matter/antimatter power into a form which is usable by the vessel's shipboard systems, thus providing electricity and field energy for daily use." Wrong. The dilithium crystal converts--trans- tates--the raw radiation into electrical energy. It functions as an energi zer, gauging the amount of energy to be fed to other shipboard systems. The 1701-A Deck Plans allocate this forward region to a thruster control room for the secondary hull's forward RCS, energizer, and subspace nav- igation unit (no doubt tied into the space-energy field attraction sen- sors mounted around the external hull at this region)... 94 Again: Chiokis and bad dates. Then Johnson starts fabricating. The warp- sled shuttlcraft in ST-TMP for instance he claims is propelled by an "advanced magnetic field drive." It does explain why it needed the warp sled, but it was Designed to incorporate the sled. "Four shuttle craft are carried aboard the Enterprise. These are numbered One, Three, Five, and Seven, and are named for famous astronomers of the past: Halley (1), Herschel (3), Copernicus (5), and Galileo (7)." Quite wrong on the numbering (why not sequentially? 1, 2, 3, 4?) and also wrong on the individual numbers and we saw in ST V. 95 Shane Johnson's modified Warp Sled shuttlecraft. He added "humps" onto the aft port and starboard sides which supposedly house the "magnetic drive units." 96-97 No problem here on these Travel Pod drawings, not suprising since Johnson didn't draw them (thus the details!). He got them from the ST-TMP blue- print pack, which modern "tech fandom" of the 80's is based upon... 98-101Nothing wrong here, again with these sketches, as before they are from Production. Just that the release dates and "Patterson-Massey" add-ons aren't needed here. It's also a shame that Shane didn't mention the latest Bee module designed by Star Fleet: the Killer Bee assualt craft utilizing a slightly modified Work Bee interfaced with a skate-like propulsion pack/ weapons pod... 102 Major discontinuity here. The description of the lifeboats in the "Guide" as being one-man pods "for those persons who are unable to reach the pri- mary hull before emergency seperation takes place" is illogical. There are only 8 of these units, for 8 people. 8 out of 500... The Line Officers Requirements Manual spends several whole pages discussing the lifeboats. Lifeboats, not escape pods as Johnson's concept should be named. Each of these boats, once deployed, can house up to 60 persons for 30 days. They are employed when the primary hull structure is damaged beyond its ability to make a safe planetary landing. Space limits a detailed description of them here but they are essentially immense versions of the Personal Rescue Enclosure "rescue balls" currently carried aboard NASA space shuttles. Except these are capable of achieving planetfall. The Starfleet Dynamics Manual (and consequently the 1701-A Deck Plans) have these lifeboats re- placed with an upgrade, the ELSE-6 units which house At Least 2 people and fall away from the ship through thin-hull blow-away panels. They're located on all the major decks, well over 100 of them. The TNG "Tech Manual's" lifeboats are based on these. 103 See 102! 104 See 102! 105 See 102! 112 Here comes the NCC-1701-A rot. The Constitution class was launched in 2217 not the Enterprise class. Again: 50 years. Again, F**A again with the Salazaar shipyards. More damaging: the false statement that the Transwarp drive is based on the discovery of the interphase in "The Tholian Web." The Transwarp principle, according to Line Officers Requirements, is based upon the harnessing of a wormhole's effects. Johnson claims that "intri- cate warp and transporter field matrices" are used to generate a doorway through dimensions. F**A at least has the guts to say it straightout: that Transwarp is done by beaming the warp field in front of the ship by transporter beam!! More F**A shipyards are named including a new engine for roleplaying purposes: FTWG-1 (yes, 'F'ederation 'T'rans'W'warp...). There's even more rot about two shipyards building transwarp engines: one for the larger Excelsior and one in the Enterprise class nacelles. Even though it was obvious in ST III that the Transwarp drive was still quite experimental. Even though Gene Roddenberry and the TNG technical staff all agree that the Transwarp drive project was a failure. Johnson then outdoes himself by making up the name USS "Ti-Ho" which was chosen to be the host ship for the new transwarp and was renamed "Enterprise" following ST III... The "tech fandom" explanation: the USS "Levant" was to be the class ship of the new Levant class heavy cruiser, externally identical to the old Enterprise class but incorporating all new systems. With the destruction of the Enterprise, the ship was renamed Enterprise and the class named Enterprise (II). The ship has a more refined warp drive system, NOT trans warp, but can achieve warp factor 13 as maximum warp. Johnson also adds the names of the ships Saratoga II and Kitty Hawk out of F**A which tested the new "M-6 Mark II" computer performing pefectly. Then why was there a massive computer breakdown in ST V? The "tech fandom" explanation is that the Duotronic IV computer system was installed for the first time aboard NCC-1701-A and a peripheral interface failure was responsible for the shipwide malfunctions... 113 Taking the cheap way out, Johnson just used the same bridge drawing from page 43, improving on it by incorporating the station names to match up with the numbers. The only difference otherwise: "structural supports" added around the bridge perimeter. 114 Another bad date, even though it happens to be my birthday (minus the year ). Johnson also types "time-speed breakaway factor." It's light-speed breakaway factor as stated in "Assignment: Earth." There's more bunk about Transwarp being so far pefected that the ship has Transwarp radio. Then if things aren't bad enough, he goes on to say that NCC-1701-A has an AFT torpedo tube, which it clearly does not. The USS America, Enterprise (II) class ship, illustrated in Ships Of The Fleet shows what she would look like with aft tubes: they would mirror the forward tubes and wouldn't be invisible. The remaining 7 pages of bridge screen graphics were provided by Mike Okuda who is presently responsible for the graphics on ST:TNG. One would believe that these pages are accurate and that the references to Trans- warp on pages 122 and 123 represent conclusive proof that NCC-1701-A has Transwarp. Both Okuda and technical illustrator Rick Sternback of TNG claim the graphics were altered by Johnson for the "Guide." Since this is the case, it's not known how accurate the remaining graphics are...