If the dilithium does "regulate" the M/AM reaction (whatever that means) then it more or less has to be where the reaction is happening. Certainly what evidence we have from TNG indicates that the dilithium is located in the core.me,myself and I wrote:All we know is it housed the dilithium crystals, we never heard it refered to as the warp drive...and wasn't that thing not there for 2 seasons or so? I remember reading somewhere (I forget where, a long time ago) that the engineering we see in the series was actually in the saucer section and the big glowing red thing was the impulse engine(?).GrahamKennedy wrote:The big thing on the floor in engineering had the dilithium crystals in it. Presumably that was the core.me,myself and I wrote:Also, to be fair in TOS they didn't have the budget to blow up the ship every other week. Also, did we ever actually *see* the warp core?
If the core wasn't in that room in that season I have no problem with that. Presumably they just moved it in a refit.
The location of the engineering set in TOS is a big subject of debate. Nobody knows where it is located for sure.