For people who think a prequel is going to somehow look too advanced for TOS, I posted some fun things in another thread, about how actually, TOS's technology is still gloriously far in advance of what we, as a species, are capable of right now - here are some fun speculations from that thread (not that Star Trek needs justifying, but hey, its nice):
When Enterprise came out, I remember a lot of people objected to the NX-01 supposedly looking more advanced than later ships (presumably just because the CGI model had more hull detailing), but that was missing the point - it's function that makes something more advanced, not appearance - it may well be that technology in 50 years will go back to looking like some sort of Bakelite-phone from the 1950s, but if it's also something capable of direct neural interface with your brain, it is unarguably far more advanced than some glassy designer Samsung smartphone of today. Now a small few have expressed similar sentiments about DSC, it might be time for a reminder of why Kirk's ship would wipe the floor with earlier ones.
Let's begin the fun:
This tablet computer might be as advanced in functionality as any TNG-era PADD. We see them sometimes used with a stylus, meaning they have the ability to record text from written input. Their bulky form, aside from just being the Federation's aesthetic preference in this period, may be armored for survival in shipboard battle situations, where things are easily knocked off work surfaces. One may assume that the ship is fully networked via militarily-secure wireless connections, or perhaps the crew connect to the main computer via hardpoints to prevent signal intercept.
The hull armor of a TOS era Constitution class ship does not resemble that of earlier or later eras, being somewhat smoother in appearance. Klingon and Romulan technology of this era also follows the same trend in generational design. In Enterprise, we see an example of a TOS era ship easily dispatching the most advanced starships of Archer's era into oblivion. It's phaser systems, sustained beams of tremendous power, cut through the most advanced Vulcan ships of the era. It's torpedoes are almost one-hit killers. I would speculate that the bright Duranium hull-plating of the TOS era was a very effective leap in starship technology, that improved survivability immensely, even without energy shields. It's almost organic curves may be an indication of advanced material sciences, such as large scale 3D printing. As an aside it also looks very pleasingly NASA-like.
The weaponry and energy shields of this era were utterly devastating by the standards of current science. In ENT, a phase pistol, one of the first directed energy beam weapons, was capable of inflicting minor burns, killing or stunning someone. By TOS, a phaser could outright vaporize a living target with massive levels of directed energy. Phaser wounds and burns were feared by doctors, who would presumably sometimes have to deal with partially vaporized victims, who were still alive, but may have lost entire portions of their musculature, skeletal structure, or skin - which would all conduct the devastating heat along their structure. The systems fitted aboard starships were no less devastating, capable of obliterating continents from orbit. More impressive still, starships were able to project electromagnetic fields around themselves in a bubble, in such strength, that they would literally stop these energy discharges like charge particles entering a planet's magnetic field. The loss of such a vessel, and detonation of it's matter-antimatter reserves posed a radiation threat to entire solar systems.
The "duotronic" computer systems and circuitry onboard a Constitution class starship operated on a new principle beyond "electronic" circuitry, perhaps even combining other forms of charged particles such as antimatter positrons, or perhaps using more than one quantum state of electron (hence duo), to more effectively transmit signals or perform computations at the quantum level. By The Next Generation, they had been further replaced by a new paradigm shift in science - "isolinear" circuitry, with incredible data storage potential on each isolinear chip or rod - and even more advanced Optical Data Networks (ODN), which by the launch of the Intrepid-class, used elements of organic technology, in the form of "bio-neural gel packs".
Some technology may be bulky to harden it against electronic attack. It may even be a form of radiation hardening for those disastrous times when high levels of hard radiation penetrate a starship's skin - tablet computers will still function and not be damaged by ionization. Imagine a fatal dose of gamma or beta radiation getting through the shields - crew trapped in a sealed compartment, only to find their PADD has been fried by the EM spectrum. The only materials we know that can stop this are extremely dense - but in TOS, they may have developed a lighter foam that deflects hard radiation. This foam may have the same consistency as papier mache or wood
Ever wondered how a phaser conducts devastating amounts of energy toward a target, without super-heating the air around the person firing? Why people don't flinch from the heat of their weapon? I seem to remember something in one of the technical manuals suggesting that the phaser fires reactant particles at a target, but keeps them separate via an energy field, until they strike. This would explain how energy capable of vaporizing bone and radiating over an entire person's body does not also cause people to visibly flinch from discharge heat - the two parts of the magnetic field only break down and allow the meeting of the reactants upon contact with a solid object. The heat of a low-energy setting for example would break upon the surface, and diffuse through a rock, without also causing a flame-thrower-like effect in the air.
