@nyrath Under thrust it's a tower. On a planet it's a tower. But it still has longitudinal decks…
(One reason I like It! The Terror From Beyond Space perhaps better than it deserves is that it doesn't compromise on this: going from section to section of the ship is always a matter of a ladder and a hatch.)
@nyrath I wonder how much of that is (a) ships and aeroplanes influencing fictional spacecraft design and (b) 4:3 and later 16:9 screens making it easier to show a flat thing than a tall one.
I like the Excelsior from the silent 1918 sci-fi film "A trip to Mars". It took them 6 months to reach Mars in what is basically an airplane boat with a horizontal deck.
@nyrath
I’m a bit puzzled by the internal layout here: it looks like there’s a spun middle section (with floor=toward outer hull)—but the forward section seems to be oriented airplane-style, with people standing on longitudinal decks?
You got me, I have no idea. Logically the crew in the forward section should be oriented such that the direction of "down" is the direction the rocket exhaust is going. When thrust is turned off, the crew use magnetic shoes.
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