Star Trek: 10 Secrets About The Original Enterprise You Need To Know 

Omg omg omg omg!!!!

I’m an original Trekkie and to this day I still get the shivers when I see the USS 1701 streaking across the screen. It’s just so beautiful!

The reason Kirk got promoted after the 5-year mission is that he was the only captain (of the original 12 Constitution class starships) to successfully bring his ship home.

7:42 "The Enterprise attained sentience minutes before it was destroyed. It realized what it was, what was going on and what was about to happen." "Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell with the Enterprise was 'Oh no, not again'."

If I remember right the novelization of Star Trek the Motion Picture said Kirk had the lowest causality rate for a 5 year mission...

Actually, Jeffries did receive one other instruction: "It couldn't look like a rocket."

Many years ago back in the early 70's I had a blue print of the Enterprise so I was aware of the 37 degree offset to port(I believe it was 37 degrees at least... And behind the screen was an emergency exit) Anyways, a tidbit of information. I heard the US Navy was impressed with the bridge and thought they might could use the design on some of their ships. My fellow Trekkies and I were working aboard a class of destroyers our company was building and though it wasn't on the bridge which was typically like so many other bridges before it, but instead, we we noticed on the deck below it in the CIC (Combat Information Center) that the consoles were installed in a circular pattern with them facing the watch commanders chair (usually the 1st Officer). These, unlike the Enterprise, were generally aimed more towards the starboard side with the chair being placed slightly port of centerline. That way he could immediately keep track of everything going on around the ship and from what station from his chair. Before that many were just placed in rows so they would have to identify which station was reporting. Also, behind him was a long row of tables with chart boards located over the top of them so he could easily spin around to look at the other information he needed. I do not know if they used similar designs in other ships but at least on these they did which was kind of exciting to see how the science fiction show had influenced real life naval vessels.

@11:07. Whoa now. How can you say Kirk asked Spock to take over in Star Trek 2? It was literally the opposite. Spock offered the ship when they were ordered to go investigate and Kirk turned him down. Spock insisted, noting that if they were to go on actual duty it is clear the senior officer must assume command. Kirk then still attempts to turn it down on the basis the problem may be nothing and it's only when Spock reminds him that he has no ego to bruise, that Kirk relents.

Interesting Enterprise fact: Even in TOS, the saucer could be separated from the "drive section" (the ability was mentioned in the episode "The Apple") but only in emergencies and would act as a kind of lifeboat. The "eyebrows" (two triangular pieces) on the underside of the saucer were actually landing gear and, along with the interconnecting dorsal, would allow for it to land on a planet's surface.

As a kid, I can remember the destruction of the Enterprise feeling like my best friend had died. I simply could not believe it was gone.

Destruct sequence 1, code 1-1 A." Destruct sequence 2, code 1-1 A-2B."Destruct sequence 3, code 1 B-2B-3."The computer would then reply:Destruct sequence completed and engaged. Awaiting final code for (time interval) countdown."The commanding officer would then state: Code zero zero zero. Destruct. Zero." So there are 4 codes not 3

"My God, Bones ... what have I done?" "What you had to do. What you always do. Turn death into a fighting chance to live." Those are the words, Adam. For some of us, those words are seared into memory, and we can quote them verbatim as if it was 1984 and we'd just come out of the cinema, shaken, pallid and sobbing.

I agree with you about the Enterprise stealing scene from "Search for Spock", it is the best scene. Not because of the actual theft but because of the love and loyalty that Ohura, Checkov, Sulu and Scott show.

Lore Reloaded with the casual destruct order is a mood.

Capt.April fun fact: in an early ST encyclopedia, Gene Roddenberrys image was used with him wearing a uniform, not the animated series. Great video!

Been watching all the TV shows plus all the movies for 51 years. Currently streaming all on CBS all access. I will probably die watching a Star Trek of some kind. Was lucky to have met William Shatner and James Doohan. It was an honor to do so.

Heck, I knew about Captain Robert April when I was 7 years old! That episode of the cartoon series was my introduction to Star Trek!!! It was the very first episode I ever saw, on a Saturday morning! Of course, the best-known episode is when Spock went back in time and saved his own life when he was 8. I think the producers knew what they were doing when they made the animated series, they introduced a whole bunch of kids to Trek, and we became life-long Trekkies!!!!

I've actually read/heard a couple of variations of the "upside-down" story. Jefferies was given the crew complement and that it couldn't be shaped like a rocket or a saucer. He made several designs which kept being rejected and changed until this design. Since the original idea was for a part of the ship to go to the planet surface (in this case, the saucer section), he had it designed saucer down. However, when he showed the drawing to Roddenberry, he saw it upside-down from the original orientation and said that was perfect. Later, when a three-foot model was created and shown to the network execs, the model flipped over because it was top-heavy. They had to convince them of the correct orientation. Later still when the budget for the show was realized, Roddenberry found the landing and takeoff sequence were going to be too expensive to film, so he came up with the Transporter.

Kirk: "Destruct sequence 1, password" Spock: "Destruct sequence 1, password" Scotty: "Really?" shakes head. Scotty: "Destruct sequence 1, Uppercase K, l, i, n, g, o, n, s, uppercase A, r,e, uppercase A, s, s, h, o, l, e, s, !"

Stealing the Enterprise is the greatest scene in franchise history! Doogie howsers dad chasing them , the music! , My goodness that music! Kirk you do this you'll never sit in the captains chair again! Warp speed!

And as the enterprise plummeted to the planets surface, it's only thought was "oh no, not again"

Just a couple of additional technical things about the bridge being skewed at an angle... First off, it wasn't just something that "could have been fixed with one phone call." There was a very specific reason that the turboshaft had to be at the exact rear of the bridge on the model: symmetry. For budgetary reasons, the production wanted the ability to film the Enterprise from only one side, and then flip the shots when they could get away with it, to "cheat" the ship traveling in a different direction to the camera. This allowed them to minimize the number of effects shots they had to produce as much as possible. Likewise, on the physical set of the bridge, not only did putting the turboshaft doors where they did keep William Shatner from having to turn all the way around, but it also created simpler framing. They wouldn't have to move the camera around as much, and could get away with building less of the bridge set. So whether the crew building the model knew what the crew building the set were doing or not, the outcome very likely would have been the same. They fixed this "problem" with the refit Enterprise for Star Trek: The Motion Picture by building TWO turboshafts onto the bridge. This allowed the bridge to now be rotated forward, and still kept the symmetry of the model for flexibility while filming.

yes, 94 crewmembers died and Kirk was promoted to admiral. And bonus secret: Kirk was promoted because when he returned from his 5 year voyage, it was with the lowest casualties of the 5 year missions so far!!!

Robert April was also mentioned on Discovery when Saru was researching past starship captains.

I knew about Robert April everybody knows about Robert April! Where’s my prize?

If that's not the same ship, then you're not the same person either. None of us are. All our cells swap out all new material every 10 years. :-/ Try again. hehe.

Didn’t Spock offer the Captaincy to Kirk in Wrath of Kahn?

We can all thank Desilu productions and Lucille Ball and her misunderstanding about what Star Trek was actually about for greenlighting such a groundbreaking show. Thanks Lucy 😙

Actually, Adam Spock offered to relinquish command of the Enterprise toin Kirk Star Trek II:The Wrath of Khan, after being informed about Khan commandeering the Reliant and attempting to steal the Genesis torpedo Kirk didn't steal the ship

Interesting fact: "Robert April" was originally one of the names on Roddenberry's list of names for consideration to be the captain's name for the show before production. That's where it came from for the animated series.

I've been a trekker for almost all my life and I'm 58 now. Way over qualified for this video lol

In all fairness, the Enterprise under Captain Kirk had a much better survival rate than some of the other ships of the day of the same class. USS Constellation - lost with all hands to the Doomsday Machine. USS Intrepid - lost with all hands to a space amoeba. USS Defiant - lost with all hands in or near Tholian Space in an inter-dimensional temporal rift. USS Farragut - lost half her crew to a gaseous entity, including Captain Garrovik. USS Excalibur - All crew aboard killed and left adrift when the M5 computer takes complete control of the Enterprise. USS Exeter - All hands, except Captain Tracy, lost due to a bacteriological disease. Ship was left in orbit, abandoned, of Omega IV. So, assuming a crew of 400 per vessel (the numbers fluctuate between 400 and 500, with an average of 428-430) , that means 2,200 men and women lost their lives who were not serving under Kirk, however, Kirk was present for the 200 or so killed by the gaseous cloud entity. Thats all I could find/remember.

If you read the book “Final Frontier” that you talked about Kirk’s father named the “Enterprise” because when Captain April took the ship out it had no name and they were calling her the “Empress”. The ship was also filled with the engineers who designed and built the ship and fresh from the shipyard with no markings of any kind. It was almost stolen on that first mission but by the Romulans.

Matt Jefferies had parts of the Enterprise name after him-The Jefferies tubes allowing access to various engineering areas

"turbolift centered, bridge points angled left" If that section seen (from outside) at the rear of the bridge dome is supposed to be the top of turbolift shaft, it's not a problem. It's wide enough to accommodate the lift doors being off-center inside with the centerline front-to-back axis running from Communications through the Captain's chair to the main viewscreen. In fact, it needs to be that wide to have space to shunt excess turbolift cars. Remember the episode "The Squire of Gothos" - After their second escape from Trelane, they beam up and take the turbolift to the bridge. The door slides open, several of them pile out of the lift car to their posts, the door closes, the door slides open again a second later and the rest of them emerge from the lift. The empty car must have been shunted aside to a holding spot - not enough time for it to have gone down past a junction and the next lift car to come up.

The design of the USS Enterprise is simply one of those moments in art where the result surpassed even the artist's hopes. It's been redone several times and had its components moved about to construct different Federation ships, but that original design...the prominent saucer section leading, a smaller hull with two proud nacells trailing ... so beautiful, so iconic, so well known. Someday, when humans have the ability to actually build such a ship, we will. Someday, a day we will likely not live to see, the Enterprise will actually exist. It's too beloved not to.

George Kirk was First Officer again in the novel 'Best Destiny' as well.

Kirk in a yellow shirt, Spock in a blue shirt, McCoy in a blue shirt, and Ensign no name in a red shirt, are all beaming down to a random planet. Guess who doesn't survive the away mission?

5:46 Adam, you're turning to starboard, not port.

Also the ship was originally gonna be called Intrepid Forgot to say Code 000 destruct 0 Forgot about the swimming pool and the Bowling Alley

So the Enterprise achieves consciousness and dies shortly afterwards? How very much of a Douglas Adams thing to have happen.

Fun fact... The "Jefferies Tubes" that appear in just about every Star Trek incarnation was named for its creator...Matt Jefferies. Another fun fact (that has absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand)...When Picard straightened his uniform, was referred on the set as the "Picard Maneuver"!

There is no up or down in space, so technically the _Enterprise_ can be in any direction you want to think of it as. Although I do think that upside-down version looks cool.

Don't know if this counts, but originally the Enterprise was built in space... Until Nero's time-travelling caused it to be built on the planet surface for Reasons (really just because JJ Abrams wanted an emotional side of a young Kirk watching it being built)! Which most likely means that Robert April also did not exist in the Kelvin timeline...

My first time on your channel, I found it very entertaining and refreshing the way you presented the information. Way to go. New subscriber here. I've been a Star Trek fan since it first aired back in the 60s. Watched everything and attempted to read everything. Thanks for the entertainment.

When Adam tried to show how the ship's bridge was angled to port, he sat facing starboard.

Who doesn't know about Captain April?!

I knew about the turbo-lift thing from either reading "The Making of Star Trek" in 1968 or looking at the blueprints. But the bit about "the 2 departments didn't have ONE phone call" reminded me of something I dealt with myself. Some years ago, I built some 3D computer models for a low-budget direct-to-DVD film for Nick Cuti. He originally wanted 2 different people working on a pair of ships-- one of us to do the interiors, the other the exteriors. Which, to me, MADE NO SENSE. Fortunately, the other guy dropped out, and when it came time to built the exterior of this GIGANTIC alien ship, since I'd already built the interior, I just built the exterior shell RIGHT AROUND the already-existing interior corridors. SO IT ALL FIT! I'm proud of the work I did on that thing, even though Nick proved to be (frankly) not the most organized when it came to being in charge of such a project. At one point, he asked me to add an elevator, which would have been there to begin with, except he didn't supply me with the story until after the thing was built. Further, I supplied him with several short ANIMATIONS-- without being asked. Without them, there would not have been any shots of the ships except completely-STATIC ones. I swear, if he'd ASKED me to STORYBOARD the action of that film, I could have done a far-better job than he-- THE FILM'S DIRECTOR-- did.

The person who doesn't deserves any awards is you for doing a video with a bunch of old trivia that any true Trekie has already known for years and years

They left the password as the default without changing it for 25 years. Kirk's crew was definitely 50s rock and roll kids in service. Picard had such an incredibly long and arcane password he had to record it in LastPass (code named Data) for later retrieval. That was of course hacked and used without his permission. Definitely a Boomer.

I doubt the ship becoming self aware before it blows up is canon.

I personally like the angled bridge fact it makes it feel more real world

Thank you! My favorite "heist" of all time is Kirk stealing the Enterprise, but didn't realize it was a "third" time. The MUSIC makes it awesome!

I thought the better version of the "Theseus" bit was at the beginning of "John Dies at the End." Axe beats mop.

You forgot the Captain's final authorisation code - "Code Zero. Zero. Zero. Destruct. Zero."

DS9 is my favorite, so I’d love to see secrets of the Defiant next. Also the Reliant (Miranda class) from The Wrath Of Khan was supposed to be upside down as well. It was drawn with its engines on the top. But was inverted for the movie.

Great video! Keep up the great work, Trek Culture! Keeping me occupied while I'm stuck inside.

The Strange New World's series you guys referenced for the Enterprise achieving sentience are actually collections of fan fictions. Yeah...

0:33 The original USS Enterprise NCC1701. No damned A, B, C, D, or E.

Didn't notice this mentioned- In one of the many 'Definitive Tome of All Things Trek,' there is an entry for Captain April. Big deal, yeah? Except there's a PHOTO of April in the entry! It is, of course, Gene Roddenberry, sitting at one of the science stations, sporting a classic cardigan sweater, being a favorite item of clothing of April's. I learned about the sweater in either the Star Trek novel 'Final Frontier,' or 'Best Destiny,' both by Diane Carey

Yes, I read about him in the old book The Making of Star Trek. Very interesting. And he was in the animated The Counter-clock Incident. Good stuff.

Uhhh.... You forgot the final command code, to start the 60 sec countdown... Code: 000 destruct 0 ✌️❤️

I have to say, from the point of view or realism and professionally, the Christopher Pike from the reboot ( which I just happened to hate ) was the best looking and most commanding captain ever in any movie or series. I wish they had made the movie about him, being the captain, but I guess they thought promoting a juvenile delinquent up through the ranks and blowing up Vulcan was a better idea. What idiots.

Lore Reloaded!!! I lived your destruct sequence bit!!!

Good job as always! Next videos: Enterprise-A, B, C, E, Defiant, DS9...

Actually, with some tweeking, the upside down Enterprise looks like it could work. Shorten the neck a little and it looks remarkably like the Akira class.

"Somewhere in canon Kirk was relieved by Captain Zarlo" Well.... no. Canon is what appears on screen. Most of what appears on screen, anyway. (They're selective with what they treat as canon from TAS) Next level below that is the studio-published reference stuff - The Making of Star Trek, Mr Scott's Guide, The Encyclopedia, Next Gen Tech Manual - and the novelizations from movie script drafts. Those are pretty good footing until they have some important reason to contradict it on screen. Next level below that is the licensed novels and comic books. Most of them. They're not bothered by ignoring any of that. Definitely not canon, studio not bound by them, but usually written in close conformance to canon and the studio's writers guide as a starting point, and sometimes things can end up canon or close to it. Admiral Dunsel, errr.... Rasmussen is a good example. Somewhere some unknown number of levels below that, we have Gold Key Comics. They hold a special place in my heart. But if canon is the Federation, Gold Key is in the Delta Quadrant. Captain Zarlo is the proto-Jellico.

The worst thing that could ever happen to a Federation Starship during a shakedown: Being the only ship in the quadrant during an emergency.

I have been a fan of Star Trek since it began back in the 60s. Sometime ini the 70s I bought an officially licensed floor plan of the Enterprise and I was amazed at all the amenities onboard the ship that nobody seems to talk about, i.e. swimming pool, theater, bowling alley, arboretum, gymnasium etc. Even with the addition of Holodecks, Im surprised they never really explored these types of settings, TNG did some in like an arboretum

I love Adam and Bronzy .. But Bronzy is underrated I feel .. He's like Archer. Adam cleary is like picard

On a side note to the Ship of Theseus at what point does a decades old band change from the original to a glorified cover band?

A small detail on the "Ship of Theseus" question. There was one odd thing that I remembered (and had to double check) from Search for Spock that lets you know that a lot of the original parts are still in the old girl. During the intruder alert (before space dock), the screen displays the old 1700 USS Constitution. Considering stable parts of a frame are one of the main things to stick around in a refit and it was only after the mysterious damage she took in between movies that decommissioning was thought of, it would be pretty safe to assume a good chunk of her bones are still original.

Some of it I did not know or realize, thanks!

About the bridge and which direction it faced: As far as the folks making the show were concerned, including Matt Jefferies (who, remember, designed the bloody ship), the bridge faced forward, and the turbolift kind of slid around behind Uhura's station on occasion (seriously, there are a few times when the motion indicator is going HORIZONTALLY before opening onto the bridge). Also, remember that famous shot of the ship banking towards the camera, zooming into the bridge? They ain't facing off to the side, and the turbolift doors don't even come close to lining up with that exterior tube. This subject has been a source of major debate, discussion, and sometimes jihad, for decades. So what about that tube on the back of the bridge dome? Putting aside that nothing contemporaneous with the production of the actually calls it out as the turboshaft (yes, it probably was intended as such, but nobody in the art department bothered to write it down, so it's not out of bounds to decide it's actually, say, the subspace radio transceiver array), one of the aspects of the model was that the port side (i.e., the left side, for you landlubbers) wasn't finished, and in fact had the wiring for the lights coming out. On those rare occasions where they wanted to show the port side of the ship, they had reversed decals made, so they could film it, flop the negative, and voila, you see the other side of the old girl (most noteworthy of these times was in "Mirror, Mirror", when our heroes jump dimensions; courtesy of unused footage from "Where No Man Has Gone Before"). However, for this to work, the ship has to be symetrical, and an offset tube on the bridge dome would give away the whole gag. Remember, they were shooting a sci-fi show in the mid 60's, not making a NASA documentary, a few of the details got shoved aside for expediency. As for some of your choices of references, seriously? One of the Gold Key comics? I wouldn't line a tribble cage with those. And the stories from the Strange New Worlds series were written by fans. It's a showcase for fan fiction. I submitted a couple myself, that didn't make it (you would've loved my Capt April story; the Enterprise meets the Borg on her maiden flight, only to have the whole thing covered up by Section 31 at the end).

It was Trigger's broom in Only Fools and Horses not a Mop

Great video, dude. I’d love to see a list on the various insignias and comm-badges.

Two different points to compare with what we know from all the Star Trek sources: 1) The ( tos/movies ) Enterprise was indeed; retro fitted, updated, modified several times during her long career. Though we know from things like current Naval practices, as much usable original materiel is retained as possible ( i.e. all kinds of internal structures, sub flooring, components and subsystems ). So even when Enterprise gains sentience, there would be some of the very first parts of the ship inside of all the newer parts we can observe. 2) The Enterprise returned from Kirk's ( first of two? ) 5 year mission, with *75%* of his crew *alive* . The Original Series itself shows and mentions other *entire* ships of the same class as the Enterprise being destroyed ( i.e. when Spock felt and then confirmed the complete loss of the Intrepid ). Nice list and presentation Trek Culture (:

I don't wanna be "That Guy", but most of this is non-canon. It's basically professionally written fanfic.

Trigger's broom, not mop :)

Gene Roddenberry created Robert T. April in the tv series "Have Gun Will Travel" John Larch played him as a prison chaplin the first time and Larry J. Blake played him the second time where he dies after helping to carry a wounded man down a mountain side. The character "Paladin" said he was the finest man he had ever known. Mr. Roddenberry said He had been Paladins commanding officer in the civil war, when asked at a show back in 79'.

Casualties aside, the Enterprise seems to be one of the few ships in it's class to actually complete it's five year mission without being destroyed outright or having it's entire crew killed.

DEFIANT! Come on ya got to do Starfleet's Hot Rod, Ol Gene would be turning over in his grave if he had saw that break all his design rules lol.

The bridge is not offset. There is actually space between the bridge and, well, space. It's filled with life support systems, etc. The turbolift pod slides starboard, within this internal space, then back, into that tubular outcropping, and only then down.

I can't be the only one who checks out this guy's bookshelf every time he does a video to see if anything's changed, and if I have any of the same books.

Interesting point of fact: They patterned the running and building of the star ships in the star trek universe off of Naval vessels. That means that it is likely that during the BUILDING of the Enterprise, it has a captain assigned to it to oversee the work being done. that means that there was likely yet another captain we don't know about that handed it off after the building was complete.

I would like to know how do you figure the Enterprise became a sentiment life-form or self-aware that's before its destruction can you please explain more on that thank you

Actually... Trigger’s “mop” is a broom

In the early 1970s Bjo Trimble published the Star Trek Concordance, filled with diagrams showing everything from the official Federation lettering style (in both English and Vulcan variants) to patterns for the uniforms to blueprints for parts of the ship. When you look at that turbolift on the bridge, there's a panel to the left of the door with a diagram of the Enterprise (probably says "you are here" somewhere on it). According to the Concordance, behind that panel is...a bathroom! That's presumably so people who need it can "go where no man has gone before".

A couple of corrections about the story Countdown: 1. The story does unfold in the last 10 seconds but the ship clearly states that it (she) has been self-sware for some time. 2. In its (her) thoughts the ship says "I do not have the power to abort the destruct sequence"

Yes, I knew about Robert April. Yes, I want my damn props lol kidding. Not about knowing about him, but about the prize. Pike was second, Kirk was third.

Don't be absurd. Robert April was not the original captain of the Enterprise: he lacks a hard "k" sound. KirK and Spock, PiKard and Riker, SisKo and Daks or Kira (you figure it out: I gave up years ago), Katherine Janeway and ChiKote. Jonathan BecKett Archer (stretching, I'll admit, but he was played by Bakila), Lorka and Mikael Burnham. PiKard again with Kris Rios. Pike goes in there somewhere. Kirk, of course, also had his worthy adversaries and lovers Kor, Koloth, and Kang. Then there's the movies, which gave us Kirk and Decker, put KlarK and CheKov on the Reliant, which was then stolen by Khan, who went after the Regulus station commanded by Karol MarKus and Peter Kirk. HiKaru Sulu got a command of his own. No "k", no Kommand. It's that simple.

Slight correction, Adam. In Star Trek 2, Kirk doesn't want to take command of the Enterprise. He says at the start of the movie that "galloping around the cosmos is a game for the young". After Kirk gets the message from Dr Marcus, he approaches Spock about what's going on. Spock offers to relinquish control to Kirk, which sets up a fairly lengthy discussion between the two. Spock: Of course, the ship is yours. Kirk: No, that won't be necessary. Just get me to Regula 1. Spock: As a teacher, on a training mission, I am content to command the Enterprise. If we were to go on actual duty, it's clear the senior officer on board must assume command. Etc etc etc

That was fun and informative, thanks 👍🏻

Sentient? Contemplating it's life and demise in a few brief moments before destruction? Sounds a little like a whale and bowl of petunias I heard of once.

If you look at the original pilot episode, you'll see the turbolift doors are, indeed, directly behind the captain's chair. The section immediately below the bridge was on deck which included the captain's quarters. However, they changed the top part of the model between the first and second pilot which gave the ship a more streamlined look and, effectively, made the ship bigger. I'm guessing after these changes were made, it was realized that having the turbolift doors directly behind the captain's chair wasn't going to work and changed it to be slightly to his left. Since the turbolift nodule was kept between model changes, this lead some people to think the bridge orientation is to the left of center (which is silly, really). Neither the ship size discrepancy nor the turbolift interior-to-exterior orientation discrepancy was never officially addressed (I was quite surprised to find out Jefferies had nothing to do with the Star Fleet Manual). Originally, Roddenberry wanted a shot of the exterior of the ship that flowed into the interior through a window of some sort. His original intention was to go through the main view screen (there's a special effects test shot zooming in on the bridge of the Enterprise which has a white rectangle on the front of it). For one reason or another, it was decided this wasn't going to work, so they changed it to the opening shot going through the top dome into the bridge (admittedly, this, too, didn't work quite right. I guess it was good enough, except he never tried to recreate the shot in the second pilot nor the rest of the series). It was implied in "Catspaw" that you could see the bridge crew from the outside, but there doesn't seem to be an actual way to do so.

When I was in the Air Force in the late 80's, I worked with F4 Phantoms that were as old as me. It's the "airframe" that was the same, but they end up changing just about everything over time.

"Will i ever run out of things to watch" Not so long as the (Culture) guys keep creating

Sorry, stop counting comic books and stories as canon.

I'd heard that the "upside-down" moment was a magazine or newspaper printing a photo that way, and the Great Bird of the Galaxy giving his approval.

Thanks for that informative video. I learned a lot and I like your presentation style too.