Ponderables - SF movie/series division

Discussion in 'SciFi & Fantasy' started by Jeeves, Jan 11, 2020.

  1. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,089
    Why do spaceships and space stations have such stupid internal doors?
    Who designs these angled, jaw-like, overcomplicated things?
     
    RainbowSingularity likes this.
  2. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  3. RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    7,447
    interlocking scales hanging like strings of pearls that divide in the middle

    would be much better than massive cumbersome sliding planks of who knows what.
     
  4. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  5. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,089
    Steel, apparently. And they're really thick. It takes a whole 15 seconds to phaser them open.
     
  6. Google AdSense Guest Advertisement



    to hide all adverts.
  7. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    18,914
    Iknowright?

    I've been thinking of starting a gallery of dunbest spaceship door designs.

    Here's my contribution:

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    James R likes this.
  8. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    18,914
  9. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    18,914
    Jeeves likes this.
  10. RainbowSingularity Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    7,447
    and they are not recessed into the floor

    a sliding wall appeals to the human instinct of someone else doing the work.
    while removing a boundary concept.

    maybe the doors are rated as structural while they are closed.

    but that only applies in a vertical gravitational field
     
  11. Sarkus Hippomonstrosesquippedalo phobe Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    10,345
    Put it down to artistic licence by the ship’s architect, rather than any functionality. If it makes someone feel “special” as they open and close the door, if it makes them go “ooh” or “aah” then jobs a good’n. It’s all part of the overall aesthetics of the interior.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  12. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,089
    Not if you're the one paying the subcontractor to install these overdesigned, overcomplicated, overpriced gizmos!
    Imagine the reaction of high-flying passengers feeling 'special' only until they discover that the cargo compartment has the same fancy door as their stateroom - or the lawsuits when their Vuitton hatbox gets mashed by one.
    Anyway, most of the tech in these shows is supposed to convey functionality.
     
  13. (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    20,855
    I think it might have something to do with bulkheads, the place in which many of those doors are placed. They probably need to have the same strength as the bulkhead itself being a main structure of the ship. If the door is open, this could present a hazard to the structure unless the entire door frame is reinforced more so than the bulkhead itself. My opinion.
     
  14. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,089
    Yes, I can go along with that. But it doesn't explain the odd shape of the opening, or why the door would be made of two sections that meet at odd angles and zig-zags.
     
  15. (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    20,855
    The odd angles could be based on the stress analysis of the pressure bulkheads and the stress direction based on the overall design.
     
  16. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,089
    No, they can't. They're just as frivolous as the silly headlight designs on cars. Something with 22 diamond chips around a pear-cut solitaire doesn't light any more road than a simple round one.
     
  17. Michael 345 New year. PRESENT is 72 years oldl Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    13,077
    And yet the soft SWISH noise on opening and closing, as I understand it, in Star Trek is produced from a A4 sheet of paper being removed and then inserted back into a envelope

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
    (Q) likes this.
  18. (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    20,855
    Well, in that case, I'd need to see which doors you're referring.
     
  19. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,089
    DS9 has some crazy doors, which you could maybe explain away by Cardassians... except they don't seem crazy in that way; Babylon 5 has even crazier ones, given that it was supposedly built by humans. I've noticed overdesign in some other spaceships, but don't recall the titles of individual productions - the later ones all kind of blur together in bad blue-grey lighting.
    I don't have a handy picture reference.
     
  20. (Q) Encephaloid Martini Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    20,855
    I put "space ship door designs" into search engine and came up with a plethora of pics. Give it a try.
     
  21. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    5,089
    I didn't want a plethora; I wanted specific examples.
    Not that important, anyway: the fans know what I mean: others have raised similar criticism.
     
  22. parmalee peripatetic artisan Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    3,264
    Possibly. Hopefully, someone with a background in structural engineering or architecture/design will weigh in here. Personally, I'm going with this: Someone just threw in one of those sawtooth doors, without thinking it through, and others copied it. Now it's a "thing."

    Here's my ponderable: Why does everything in the Star Wars universe have to be some sort of hovercraft? Don't they have wheels? Apparently, as per The Mandalorian, even baby prams are hovercrafts. That's silly. Possibility is one thing, viability--including economical--is something else.
     
  23. DaveC426913 Valued Senior Member

    Messages:
    18,914
    If it were simply a straight edge, it would not be as strong. The first thing you do to strengthen a hatch or door is to add interlocking teeth. The crazy shapes in these bulkhear doors are just teeth, writ larage.

    It just happens that, in the SW universe, they invented anti-gravity before inventing deodorant OR sanitary phone wipes.
     

Share This Page