Starship Navigation Lights 'BLINKEYS' Demystified! - Star Trek Tech Explained
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
- All the blinking lights on Star Trek's ships actually have a function, let's break down this artistic expression with some CG animation!
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I always would presume the "logical" lighting pattern for a shuttle bay would be similar to the lights used to control aircraft on an Aircraft Carrier landing deck.
I don't mind to much when they use mostly white lights but it is mildly annoying to see the same colour on both port and starboard sides if it's not something very neutral like white or yellow.
Military ground vehicles sometimes have formation lights too. & one can't rule out lights for a special situation LIke blue light for a landing capable Federation ship at "Blue Alert" they ship could project down blue lights that would normally not be on.
I don't mind the bridge docking port access lights being on all the time as they double up as "mast lights" as the highest point of the primary hull too.
I like the self illumination a lot though it's a lot classier on a Federation Starship than it is on a advertisement on an aircraft's tail... you might end up with a Japan Airlines plane with a great big spot lit Picachu on it then.
Quick apology to Resurrected Starships. In one of your earlier videos, I posted a link when I made a comment. I shouldn't have done that, I apologize. I am just making a multiplayer starship battle game that uses ships and tactics from this era and your videos are a fountain of information. I just thought your viewers might be interested. I wasn't thinking. Please keep making these awesome videos. I could watch these old-style starships 24/7. Starships shouldn't fly like fighter jets. I wish these modern writers knew that. 😁
I just want to say that isn't it great that the creators of this ship as well as the people involved in "refitting" her put forth the effort in making her believable and realistic enough that we can all have these discussions about the features of our beautiful lady who we love?
The shuttle bay lights could also be motivated by the aircraft carrier lights, at the stern, that indicate radial alignment with the ship.
Regarding the lighted stripes on the tail end of the secondary hull, just below the shuttle bay doors - those lights (as they appear on the original model) do roughly follow what’s called an Optical Landing System (OLS) on an aircraft carrier. They’re used for pilots to know if they are centered with the deck, both vertically and horizontally. On the original Enterprise model, there is a central, horizontal green stripe, yellow vertical stripes on either side of that, then two horizontal reds outside the yellows. Assuming these were set up to operate like an OLS, then the outer yellows or reds would light in whatever direction the pilot was off center. If the pilot is centered, then the center green would show.
Yeah, the first thing I thought of was the aircraft carriers landing lights for the jets to guide them, as those lights are near the shuttle bay.
"Call the ball" .. Rogerballz..
i love when real world things can subtly influence fiction like blinkies, it makes it feel more real
kinda sad that newer trek doesnt respect the meaning behind the blinkies. when you live near a port, you pick up on the meaning of these lights. and speaking for myself, when i see nav-lights not being used properly its actually noticeable
it's only beta cannon but starfleet command 3 actually mentions that kilingon eyes are tuned differently specifically mentioning that it takes the eyes of a klingon to appreciate the reds and greens they used in their ship and station constructions (possible suggesting they're either blue color blind or their vision leans towards the red end if the visual spectrum hence why they use red and yellow in their control and display color schemes well excluding blues entirely as well as there tendency towards red lighting being that as it's central to their visible spectrum it's the easiest for them to see )
Very interesting hypothesis, and I like. Makes logical sense.
That may be why they use Orange on their displays and why Purple is seemingly used as an emergency colour (the colour of blood)
Macross ships depending on size and purpose have not only formation lights but when in close proximity to other ships in say colony fleets have "skyline" lights so smaller craft can quickly identify what ship is which as well as easier navigation.
It's only recently I found out a lot of people didn't know what these where for lol. Great vid. 🖖
Dad and Granddad were both in the Navy and were both pilots, in the 1950s to 80s, and I'm a fan, low key but a fan, of contemporary spaceflight which also employs navigation lights, so for me the nav lights are a normal element of the machine. And, yes, since it is so normal for me I sometimes don't think about people with none of that in their backgrounds not having the same awareness.
This shows how the the people behind the newer ST shows don't understand the nuances of St ship design. It's unfortunate this has become forgotten knowledge.
Modern Star Trek the people who had the Discovery shooting Torpedoes out of it's Nacelles which is a puzzle when the Nacelles actually have holes in them so you can't even be 100% sure it's incorrect. (I darn well hope it is).
Strange New Worlds comes close to looking like it cares sometimes at least.
Not only was Matt Jeffries a pilot, Gene Roddenberry was a pilot and crash investigator for a time. They both had a particular familiarity with this style of lighting, and a fondness for the maritime roots that it has.
Wow, your Enterprise model is so pretty. I kinda wish the Discovery/Strange New Worlds Enterprise looked like this!
I love all the minor details in Trek ships that help them seem "real". Only an aviator like Matt Jefferies would have thought to put colored navigation lights on his ships, something you don't often see in other Sci-Fi
I think the green,yellow, red light below the hangar is for shuttle craft landings, like on a aircraft carrier. they tell you if you are higher ore lower on the landing slope.
Like PAPI (white/red) lights used on runway approaches at airports (use different colors for lateral alignment)?
I love me some blinkies. More broadly I love seeing all the little details that designers put on their models. They're rarely the focus of a design but they add a lot to it and go a long way to making fictional objects feel more tangible and grounded. I don't think every work of fiction really needs to worry about including those details or making them consistent when they do include them. But I appreciate it when they do.
MUST....HAVE....BLINKEYS!!!!
in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home the ship is at anchor, that's why the light is white, all moving ships have green and red light, stationary ships have a top light and that one is white.
I would love to see your take on the USS Enterprise D!
For some reason I find a lot of enjoyment hearing the narrator's sober voice use the word "Blinkey".
Great rundown 👍
The lack of blinkeys in STD is just another inconsistency to add to the already massive redcon mountain. I really don't know why fans are still trying to treat STD as canon even though it clearly doesn't put much care into trying to be consistent with the old canon.
There was also a "docking light" on the side of the enterprise when Kirk and Scotty were in the travel pod in TMP
I can say as of a decade ago the Army uses the same colors while conducting gunnery events. We placed them on antenna's of Abrams (Tanks) and Bradleys (Infantry/Scout Personal carriers). Why you may ask. So if you weren't actively using some kind of night vision devices, You could tell where the vehicle is and that the gun wasn't pointed at you.
Yes, Blinkys👍🏽
You got this all right !!!
The lights at the shuttle bay are supposed to be landing approach lights like an aircraft carrier's Optical Landing System (OLS). Based on what colors and orientation you see on approach, you know if you are on a proper glide slope to the flight deck. The lights on top of the bridge, the top rear of the warp nacelles and ventral "belly" are white strobes. There are not two little strobes on top by the bridge. That is just the one bright strobe reflecting off the dome of the top sensor array.
Fly the meatball.
Aircraft NAV Lights (at the wingtip) do not blink. Strobe lights (white) or the beacon (red on top and bottom of the fuselage) does but the red and green nav lights do not.
I think, as you say, they give the starship "life". Designers should definitely continue putting blinkies on the ships if for no other reason than this. I have told my wife that people forget the U.S.S. Enterprise is as much a character as anyone else in those series. I mean the ship could actually "talk". If that doesn't make it a character what would? Blinkies are a great way to bring the ships to life externally.
The Enterprise D denies Councillor Troi Her Chocolate fix so yeah I think that counts as a character. & I recall Voyager's computer bickering with Seven of Nine a few times too.
@@90lancaster Yes, I think that is why when Kirk had to self-destruct the Enterprise in STIII it was more like a character dying than "just a starship" being blown up. Sad, but an awesome scene. I'm 54 years old and it still sends chills through me. Such a nerd. Kirk: "My God bones, what have I done?", McCoy: "What you had to do, what you always do. Turn death into a fighting chance for life".
I would have imagined the lights on the starships' fan-tail follow the colors used on a US Navy Aircraft Carrier. The beacon is called "the meatball". It's used to guide aircraft in for landing. In WW2 It used to be a human with paddles called an LSO (landing signal officer) that would use colored paddles & arm, and leg motions, to tell incoming aircraft; up or down, left or right, or to "wave off".
The meatball does this now with just lights, and audible signals over the pilots headset. Back in the Star Trek universe; since Sulu confessed in ST5, that "...computers land shuttles on the Enterprise automatically", and he's just along to punch buttons, well, he had to learn really quickly how to manually land. He did it, but at the loss of the shuttles nacelles'.
Thank God I am not the only one with blinky light ocd on starships! 😆
Irl having nav lights and stuff irl on space craft would be a thing for a reason of safety, visibility, etc
All the blinkies on all spaceships moving forward! They add a serious level of realism that, sadly, modern sci-fi ignore because of unknown reasons.
You claim you "demystified" them, but in reality, you only added to their mystique.
Modern "science fiction" isn't about science at all.
Yaknow, it could make sense for ships to be able to adapt their light configurations to go along with regional or local or, say Federation-wide protocols? Could possibly explain occasional CGI errors, even. :) I think a lot of stuff slips through these days cause there could be any number of people used to just flipping mirror images of stuff al the time, and anyone in the process might miss it/not even know what running lights are meant to be for.
Love the video! Once upon a time, being the IP holder gave absolute power over a franchise. That day is done. If the IP holder insists on not bringing out new content or bringing out garbage content, we can now make our own. I invite all my fellow Trekkers to enjoy another unauthorized novel completely free. Just google Star Trek Lost Destiny Race.
I guess one could argue that due the use of different colours for other features of the ship that might cause the lights to be altered on a case by case basis. for example the red or blue engine glows might get in the way of the signalling a bit.
04:16
imo these lights could corresponding to the carrier's Optical Landing System in real life, as such it will have no problem. The OLS have 2 green stripes on both side and 1 red light in middle, just as what showed on the stern of the Enterprise. If the aircraft/shuttlecraft deviated from optimal approaching course, the corresponded green light will turn red to indicated the pilot that he/she is leaning towards this side.
JarJar: BLUE LIGHTS! I WANT BLUE LIGHTS EVERYWHERE!!
The strobes are typically known as “anti collision lights”. 4:17
Blinked! First comment! 😎
The cool thing about ID lights is that they wouldn't necessarily be visible light "lights". IR and others could be read just as easily by other races.
Strobes are always on, wingtips, not just taxi or on the ground. Landing lights are steady and only on during taxi, takeoff and landing.
I would like to see your navlights on the USS ENTERPRISE NCC 1701 - D and E.....
3:31 I’m no expert, but from my experience of watching planes and flying, strobes are only turned on at takeoff and remain on throughout the flight.
Otherwise this was VERY thorough and enjoyable.
Red beqacons on aircraft indicate that the engines are under operation aka are on.. I suppose for an eartyh/starfleet vessle same could apply as in thrusters and impulse drives are powered up . would be off if docked and those systems are powered down.
I’ll admit I never understood the nav lights on the starships. They originated during the age of steam vessels. They were necessary to determine the heading of any vessel you were nearing and avoid a collision. But in the days of Star Trek, you had ship computers to communicate with each other heading and speed. So, nav lights are not necessary. But, this is Hollywood.
Redundancy is a good thing & those computers can have glitches. Also, shuttles and other small craft operating near the ship likely have less computing power than the ships do. Also, maintenance crews can be out and about while the ship is a long way from a sun/star; be it Work Bees or suited crew doing EVA, the lights will tell them their orientation to the ship while out there in the black dark of deep space or in shadow of a planet or moon. And, yes, true, the lights can be used on screen to denote where the ship might be in a moment of shadow or darkness.
We need to remember that this is in essence, "world building". There are few spaceships in our time now. We don't need nav. or formation beacons on our spacecraft.
We use cars and aircraft to move around though on our planet. They are heavily regulated and have traffic lights, and beacons installed on them, and rules as to how and when they are used.
In the Star Trek universe, space is full of ships, and needs traffic control devices on space vehicles, and devices posted in space, so they don't crash into each other.
Blinkies make you blinker
They are nav lights carried over from naval ships.
Yes they should be standard and make sense some aliens may use different patterns but then make those standard for them small details in everything are important
They need to make a Trek game where you have to manually land a shuttle into the shuttle bay of the Enterprise, cuz the tractor beam is broken, or you're pulling a stunt like in Star Trek V. It would utilize the lights and stripes of the models. It would be sort of like Top Gun on NES, but better...because if you goofed up, you might explode the entire ship.
Also, weren't they still using ultramatte blue screens back in the TMP and early TNG era? I didn't think they switched to green for superimposing models until the 1990s? I might be wrong. I know a lot of weathermen back then couldn't wear blueish suits when showing the forecast or radar map, because they would look like some kind of Predator or half cloaked person. 🤣
I think they fixed the Cerritos's blinkies in season 2... I could be wrong
Need moar blinkies!!!!
We can haz blinkiez?
Some of the lights on the refit Enterprise are wrong, it does not have any lights on the underside of the rear of the nacelles, and neither does it have 2 lights right behind the bridge dome.
I don't think we ever get an angle of the ship in the movies where we could see those two spots aft of the bridge dome clearly. Looking at a reference photo of the model, there could be tiny pinprick lights there. I think the two features are supposed to be caps for the bridge turbolifts.
I came into this video hoping to learn what the different lights are for 😅
I really like the nav lighting on the Federation ships, but while it makes sense to those of us who know what they are, should other species ( like the Klingons & Romulans) actually have them? They're humanoid species, but not humans. Maybe they don't use nav lighting like the Federation does. Or maybe they don't use it at all. 🤔
I expect there to be a simple case of form follows function and most spaceship crews preferring to not get run into by other craft of sundry sizes operating very close by while out in the black; therefore, they use lights.
I don't just like the blinkies... I insistently use them on all my Space Engineers builds.
The oldest naval navigation lights seem silly on a starship
red port wine..
Thank you for sharing a fun & informative video.
I am design / building my first Starfleet type starship and this video has been helpful in identifying what lights are missing from my vessel. Thanks again.
TOS style “Sparrow” class U.S.S. Vortex NCC-973 is “mini-Enterprise” or 4-deck science or scout vessel:
th-cam.com/video/PbXGOpWusjM/w-d-xo.html
Your shuttle bay lights are for US navigation. Most of the rest of the world has red left green right for navigation into the port. The international rules for this are covered by IALA. Although its been years since I was taught this so could be wrong. Take this info with an adequate quantity of salt.
Promo`SM
Interesting video, how did you come to this idea?