Am I the only one who dislikes the Enterprise-E?

[Starborn Dragon]

I like the design.

It doesn't beat the TMP refit design though.

I think it is one of my top five favorite designs of all the starships.

 

[Jetboogieman]

I have a "meh" attitude towards the Ent-E. My favorite ships from ST:FC were the other new designs created for the film - the Akira, Steamrunner, Norway and Saber classes.

I'm a big fan of the Akira class.

 

[Amasov]

I do like the E a lot. Next to the original Enterprise and refit, the E is my favorite. It's a ship that has muscle. But, I'll say this.

The refit Enterprise is my absolute favorite and the reason for that is, it looks awesome from every single angle. There are a few angles on the E that just make it look a little odd and disproportionate.

 

[Terok Nor]

I actually like the look of the E more than the D but it doesn't hold the same affection in my heart since most of the Next Gen adventures took place on the D. I still wish the D had continued in the movies maybe with a refit.

 

[HarryM]

I dislike it for a few reasons.

It looks squashed in profile, it is just uninteresting to me in terms of design. Nothing original to see here. I remember the first time seeing the Excelsior in STIII and thinking, "Wow, what an interesting ship!". I get none of that with the E.

Engines are overlong. After seeing that Federation tech seems to have evolved to the point where nacelles were proportionally smaller, we're back to super long nacelles. It's a little like if the F-35 had straight wings instead of swept, just feels wrong.

The long nacelles are ugly. They look like a squashed running shoe. The front looks like cloven hoof or camel toe. If you flipped the nacelles over so they were wider at the top like on the Ent-A it would look more dynamic.

Ugly flying buttress and stair stepped weirdness on the bottom of primary hull. Works for a Klingon ship but not here.

Ugly high-contrast dark charcoal/light grey paint job. Contrasting panels can work, but it's too much of a contrast here.

Now, it's not all bad, it looks nice from low-frontal angle. I like the interface between the primary and secondary hull and the deflector area. I think it could be the basis for a decent design if refined.

I'm just not a fan of Eaves Trek stuff, he is a talented designer, but his design language doesn't mesh for me with Star Trek.

 

[Phantom]

^The design is ok, but it looks a lot better if you squish it 25% along the long (x) axis. I've seen this done a couple of times.

 

[Galileo7]

I think it looks cool, inside and out. Add the floating holographic monitors from the Countdown comic and it's even more awesome.

Surely the "future" thing is moot now Trek's been rebooted? New designs will be based on the new movie Enterprise.

Agree.
Albeit my favorite is the 1701-refit/1701-A.

 

[Mage]

Well, my two cents.....

I love the Sovereign class. Just do. Not a lot to add to the actual conversation, I just love it.

 

[Starbreaker]

I really like the sovereign class. The military aspect of it looks a lot better and it certainly played better on the big screen than the E-D did.

 

[eyeresist]

Re: Am I the only one who disliked the Enterprise-E?

I never liked the D, so saw the E as an improvement. It's less bloated, looks more practical, and can be made to look dramatically interesting more than the D could (talking about the exterior here). And I'm glad it marks the end of an era in which ships tended to be ungainly and duck-like.

I still say the bridge being one level made it seem cramped, even though it was a larger diameter than any bridge before or since.

I liked the tighter look of the bridge - made it a more interesting dramatic space, gave scenes more intensity and less stagey-ness.

Junkball Media did a great retrospective on the Enterprise-E, pointing out how it changed from film to film. The detail on the model was fascinating. But he was perhaps too tactful in not pointing out that the CGI for INS was rubbish.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrjfvzJ-Xq0[/yt]

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Re: Am I the only one who disliked the Enterprise-E?

Again... I'm amazed how much the Vengeance in STID looks like the E. When I first saw that in STID, I wondered if Spock Prime had been forced to talk... O.O

 

[BillJ]

I didn't think the Vengeance looked anything like the Enterprise-E, outside of sharing the same basic shape most Starfleet vessels use.

 

[Gepard]

Well, they were both designed by John Eaves, so they do look alike to the extent that all of Eaves' designs look alike. (Even his ships with radically different hull geometries all get smothered with Campbell's Chunky Hull Plating (TM).)

 

[Peach Wookiee]

It looked like an evil version of the E.

 

[RoJoHen]

I didn't think the Vengeance looked anything like the Enterprise-E, outside of sharing the same basic shape most Starfleet vessels use.

Yeah, I really don't see the similarities at all.

 

[F. King Daniel]

You can see the overall shapes here. They do have a bit of a similarity from the front.

 

[MacLeod]

Re: Am I the only one who disliked the Enterprise-E?

I never liked the D, so saw the E as an improvement. It's less bloated, looks more practical, and can be made to look dramatically interesting more than the D could (talking about the exterior here). And I'm glad it marks the end of an era in which ships tended to be ungainly and duck-like.

I tend to agree whilst the Ent-D grew on my my first impression was aesthetically I didn't like it. My first impression of the Ent-E was overall I liked the design.


But each to their own.

 

[Phantassm]

Nope, not the only one. I can't stand it. Total step down from the D...and I don't really like it either.

 

[velour]

From the uniforms, to the sets, to the filming model, *nothing* aboard 1701-E carries over any of the warmth of 1701-D, which is something that I reckon was as much a part of the TV show as any of the main characters.

The D was too warm and fuzzy. It seemed more like a pleasure cruise ship than a warship. The D should have been used as a luxury passenger liner for space tourism.

The E had a very militaristic vibe to it. It looked intimidating while the D did not. However, I think neither the D nor E compared well to the TMP refitted Enterprise. The Enterprise in TMP had the best look of all. It looked like an efficient warship without appearing intimidating, which would make it equally useful for diplomatic missions.

The biggest drawback of the D model was the design of the bridge. It looked sort of like a throne room, with the king's chair in the middle and that of the queen and the king's right hand lackey on either side. It appeared too imperial and luxurious.

Besides, the captain's chair in the D was below the stations behind him. The captain from his chair should be able to see what's happening throughout the bridge.

 

[Lance]

Re: Am I the only one who disliked the Enterprise-E?

I never liked the D, so saw the E as an improvement. It's less bloated, looks more practical, and can be made to look dramatically interesting more than the D could (talking about the exterior here). And I'm glad it marks the end of an era in which ships tended to be ungainly and duck-like.

Ironically, John Eaves admits his original design for the E "looked like a Chicken in a pan".

From the uniforms, to the sets, to the filming model, *nothing* aboard 1701-E carries over any of the warmth of 1701-D, which is something that I reckon was as much a part of the TV show as any of the main characters.

The D was too warm and fuzzy. It seemed more like a pleasure cruise ship than a warship. The D should have been used as a luxury passenger liner for space tourism.

The E had a very militaristic vibe to it. It looked intimidating while the D did not. However, I think neither the D nor E compared well to the TMP refitted Enterprise. The Enterprise in TMP had the best look of all. It looked like an efficient warship without appearing intimidating, which would make it equally useful for diplomatic missions.

I take your point that they are two *very* different ships. The D isn't a warship. The E isn't the D. But I guess my point really is more about the 'vibe' of The Next Generation, which I think got lost in the movies, and the E's new military aesthetic was a part of that. Tbh I feel the same way about the way Federation design progressed in DS9, and also the design of Voyager. But the differences are more stark with the 1701-E designs, because they were directly following on from the TNG show.

I guess my point is that after spending 7 years with TNG being a very particular thing, the idea that they *should* suddenly be 'intimidating' doesn't really match with my take on what the TV show was. It kind of takes TNG into a place where TNG doesn't really feel comfortable actually being TNG anymore... if you see what I mean.

The biggest drawback of the D model was the design of the bridge. It looked sort of like a throne room, with the king's chair in the middle and that of the queen and the king's right hand lackey on either side. It appeared too imperial and luxurious.

Hmm. Again I see where you're going (the carpeting being very throne room-like, etc). But I don't know, it seems to me like overall the 1701-D bridge seems less formal than the 1701-E bridge.

Besides, the captain's chair in the D was below the stations behind him. The captain from his chair should be able to see what's happening throughout the bridge.

I can't argue the logic of that. The placement of the D's 'command section' was always a little weird to me, even though I do 'get' that it was meant to be a kind of technology-unchained thing.