Ferengi Battle Cruiser Design Question

Shy Khan

I've been curious, on the various shows, did we ever see the Ferengi ships with the pop-top battle platform the way they have it in the Timelines arena? Was this detailed in a technical manual somewhere along the line, or is this an addition of Disruptor Beam?

Kaitee

It does happen a tiny bit in 'The Last Outpost' - the Marauder model was intended to have these very impressive moving parts, but when they actually tried to film it I think the model's parts moving damaged the internal wiring it needed to stay lit up, and they eventually just gave up and subbed in a second model, with the parts already extended. That combined with the camera angles they use, usually looking at the Marauder head-on through the viewscreen, I can't honestly say I ever noticed the difference watching the episode, but if you compare photos you can see things have moved.

I believe (might be wrong) extending the battle platform, along with lowering the claw weapons and extending the 'neck', was meant in that episode to be a gesture of surrender - it exposes the unarmoured bits, showing the ship's not going to fight. But since it wasn't really clear on screen or in dialogue (I think Picard and co. don't actually understand the meaning in the episode?) it's kind of up in the air what it really 'should' mean.

Shy Khan

Very cool, time to take a look, if I can find a pre-remastering version.

DScottHewitt

Kaitee wrote: »

It does happen a tiny bit in 'The Last Outpost' - the Marauder model was intended to have these very impressive moving parts, but when they actually tried to film it I think the model's parts moving damaged the internal wiring it needed to stay lit up, and they eventually just gave up and subbed in a second model, with the parts already extended. That combined with the camera angles they use, usually looking at the Marauder head-on through the viewscreen, I can't honestly say I ever noticed the difference watching the episode, but if you compare photos you can see things have moved.

I believe (might be wrong) extending the battle platform, along with lowering the claw weapons and extending the 'neck', was meant in that episode to be a gesture of surrender - it exposes the unarmoured bits, showing the ship's not going to fight. But since it wasn't really clear on screen or in dialogue (I think Picard and co. don't actually understand the meaning in the episode?) it's kind of up in the air what it really 'should' mean.

Found this online. Interesting how they describe the "Surrender Pose" looking "Threatening". Might be what they were going for was the Marauder surrendering looking different than a surrender to Hooman observers.........

http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/marauder.htm

[7TW] UnkieB

I saw something with one of the creators saying it's for ship maintenance, not surrender. Shrug


EDIT: IIRC it was here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoaVczrBmk4

Kaitee

[7TW] UnkieB wrote: »

I saw something with one of the creators saying it's for ship maintenance, not surrender.

Could be both - like, mechanically, it's for maintenance, but because it involves opening up all the gubbins and maybe disengaging the weapons from the powerplant so they can be worked on, effectively it's rendering the ship defenceless, so if you do it during a face-off it's obviously the equivalent of rolling over. Assuming you don't run into a bunch of humans who assume it's a threat and open fire (did the Ferengi sell the idea to the Minbari maybe?)