Was the reveal of the Enterprise-A a big surprise?

Discussion in 'Star Trek Movies I-X' started by Amasov, May 25, 2013.

  1. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Judging from Into Darkness, they can repair far worse.
     
  2. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    "A ship's a ship."
     
  3. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    How are the events of a different timeline applicable to anything in the primary universe?

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  4. mos6507

    mos6507 Commodore Commodore

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    It was a surprise to me, and kind of a punch-line in a way, the -A, which then became institutionalized with the -D, -C, and -B. The resurrection of the ship, at least visually, matched the fact that they resurrected Spock in the prior picture. So it was a crowd-pleasing moment, even though it was also an economical choice.

    When I saw Trek III I could have sworn they blew up the original model. That destruction sequence was very convincing, and I was perhaps just as worried that the magnificent model had been destroyed than the idea of the Enterprise as a fictional ship being destroyed. So I was glad to have that reassurance that the model was alive and well again, just with the -A added.

    I also remember being very impressed by the new bridge with the first ever touchscreen okudagram panels. However, in retrospect I now prefer the tactile button look of the earlier bridge. The Trek VI bridge with its darker tones was a good compromise between the two.

    Because the Excelsior was demonized so much in Trek III I always hated it. However, how it was treated in VI as Sulu's ship kind of redeemed the class. It still looked wrong as the basis of the Enterprise-B and was clearly evident as a cost-cutting measure rather than making a new model.
     
  5. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    I never hated the Excelsior and remember being happy that Sulu was its captain in Star Trek VI. It was Styles who bothered me. I hope Starfleet punished his incompetence by taking away the swagger stick that he always carried with him.

    --Sran
     
  6. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, the Excelsior-class was a cool design and was a worthy successor to the Constitution-class. Any demonizing of the design likely was the result of Styles' boasting of the ship being superior to the Enterprise and Scotty's somewhat negative view of the Excelsior and subsequent sabotage of her.

    "...if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon."

    "The more they over-think the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain."
    --Captain Montgomery Scott

    So there's probably some irony that the Excelsior-class ultimately became a mainstay of the fleet for the better part of a century.
     
  7. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, the laws of physics didn't change, first of all. The tech isn't different.
     
  8. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    ^Exactly. The technology looks a little different, but no more different from the old than William Shatner looks from Chris Pine. And in-universe, they look exactly the same.



    I like what happened to the Enterprise-A in William Shatner's novel The Ashes of Eden. It was a fitting end for the ship.

    As for the Excelsior, I was very disappointed in the STVI Excelsior bridge being the Enterprise-A one plus one unique graphic at the back and the TNG helm/ops consoles in front. The STIII partial set looked huge and hyper advanced in comparsion to me (even if it did use the ENT/TOS operating system, judging by those blinking coloured squares!)
     
  9. mos6507

    mos6507 Commodore Commodore

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    The Excelsior, as it was presented in Trek III, was supposed to come across as more of an automatic "appliance" vs. the moving sculpture of the Enterprise. That's how Scotty was able to sabotage it the way he did. It reflected the Federation stressing technology above people, similar to the sentiment in The Ultimate Computer in TOS. And I really think that trickled down to the 80s sharp-edged aesthetics of the ship's lines and the sterile look of the bridge. I just don't think it was originally conceived to be the workhorse class of the federation it eventually became, but it had to serve that purpose due to budgetary constraints with the FX.

    Styles kicking back to a cup of coffee on the bridge was symbolic of the idea that you didn't have to be on your toes anymore to run a ship, as was that scene of him lying down in his quarters filing his fingers when the yellow-alert came in. Later on, Sulu kind of changed the meaning of drinking coffee on the bridge to kind of a sign of having finally "arrived" as a figure of veneration. Picard always limited hot drinks to his ready room.
     
  10. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    As far as I know, the design was superior to Enterprise. That said, Styles' posturing about a ship that wasn't even fully operational was childish and petty. Seeing Excelsior grind to a halt outside spacedock always brings a smile to my face.

    --Sran
     
  11. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

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    I don't think there was much doubt that the Excelsior was a more advanced ship than the Enterprise. If anything, she contributed to the idea that the latter was old and ready to be decommissioned.
    I definitely believe that was the kid of reaction the filmmakers wanted, made even more so by Styles' earlier bragging of the ship.
     
  12. Faria

    Faria Lieutenant Red Shirt

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    I would have liked something between excelsior and constitution class
     
  13. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    Hard to know what that would've been. The Excelsior looked like the next step.

    --Sran
     
  14. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

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    Maybe something like this
    http://i486.photobucket.com/albums/rr221/donbrown11/Star Trek/uss-enterprise-nx-1701A.jpg

    http://media.moddb.com/images/games/1/14/13221/NX-1701-A4.jpg
     
  15. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    ^The side view almost looks like a Sovereign-class ship.

    --Sran
     
  16. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

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    ^^^
    It's a bit taller and not as elongated, but the design was first conceived about a decade prior to the Sovereign-class debut in First Contact.
     
  17. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    Interesting.

    --Sran
     
  18. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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  19. Captain Clark Terrell

    Captain Clark Terrell Commodore Commodore

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    So says the man obsessed with the nuTrek universe and its Enterprise.

    --Sran
     
  20. Belz...

    Belz... Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Obsessed ? What are you talking about ? I think you have me confused with someone else.

    And even if that were true, what does that have to do with anything ?
     
    Last edited: Jun 14, 2013