Fairly early on, Rick did a drawing for our writers showing the 
Enterprise superimposed over a map of the Paramount Studios lot. This was 
fun because it gave us for the first time a concrete idea of how big the ship 
ÒreallyÓ is. A bit later, though, we started to think of some of the implications 
of this enormous size. We began to realize that it would be pretty difficult for 
a structure that size to maintain its rigidity and form, especially under the 
tremendous accelerations that impulse and warp drive would likely entail. 
(We envisioned the main impulse engines firing, squashing the ship like a 
partially deflated blimp. This might actually be a valid way for a space 
vehicle to operate, but it would probably look pretty silly on film.) Because of 
this, we came up with the Òstructural integrity field,Ó which we envision as a 
powerful forcefield that helps to hold the ship together.  Æ