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The New USS Discovery....

I'm still not digging the forward bias on the nacelles. Making them longer to at least provide equal length on either side of the pylons would have looked much better.
 
I disliked the original design, it looked terrible. The current design looks fine.
In retrospect they probably jumped the gun releasing that trailer without nailing down the design or the CGI. Probably did more harm than good for people's expectations.
 
I would still prefer the longer nacelles, like in this new artwork from @TheIrishTrekkie:

i1A7xrt.jpg

5vr0cYI.jpg

Not my cup of tea. I way more prefer the current design with the forward-pointing nacelles. But taste is highly subjective, always interesting to hear contrasting opinions;)

It is not just growing on me, I am genuinely starting to really, really like Discovery. It is immediately recognizable as a Starfleet ship (and for non Trek fans as a Star Trek ship) yet it still does its own unique thing.

Couldn't agree more. That is probably the biggest strenght of the design! It both breaks the mold and is completely unique, while also being immediately identifiable as "Star Trek" for even the most casual viewer.
 
Here's a very quick and dirty size comparison I threw together, showing how the Discovery might fit next to the two canon ships of this time period at various scalings.

A is the saucer scaled to match the TOS Constitution. This gives the center sphere just four decks, which seems way too small given there are at least three rows of windows on the rim of the inner section. There would barely be room for even a TOS-scale bridge, let alone a bigger one, and the other levels would be super cramped. Overall length is about 305, comparable with the Refit.

B scales the sphere to match the entire bridge superstructure of the Constitution. This allows five-six decks that are small but useable. Length is about 400 meters.

C goes maximalist and scales to the Kelvin. It would be much bigger though - the Kelvin saucer is extremely thin, barely holding two decks for most of its width. This Discovery would be 610 meters - not quite Kelvin-Enterprise but really big. The sphere would be nine-ten decks, nearly as thick as the TOS saucer overall. I think this one overshoots.

DSC-Size-Comparisons.png

DSC-Size-Comparisons2.png
 
Here's a very quick and dirty size comparison I threw together, showing how the Discovery might fit next to the two canon ships of this time period at various scalings.

A is the saucer scaled to match the TOS Constitution. This gives the center sphere just four decks, which seems way too small given there are at least three rows of windows on the rim of the inner section. There would barely be room for even a TOS-scale bridge, let alone a bigger one, and the other levels would be super cramped. Overall length is about 305, comparable with the Refit.

B scales the sphere to match the entire bridge superstructure of the Constitution. This allows five-six decks that are small but useable. Length is about 400 meters.

C goes maximalist and scales to the Kelvin. It would be much bigger though - the Kelvin saucer is extremely thin, barely holding two decks for most of its width. This Discovery would be 610 meters - not quite Kelvin-Enterprise but really big. The sphere would be nine-ten decks, nearly as thick as the TOS saucer overall. I think this one overshoots.

DSC-Size-Comparisons.png

DSC-Size-Comparisons2.png
Remember, fans were imagining the Planet of the Titans Enterprise as much bigger than the original/movie versions as far back as the 1980's. Here's a pic from the USS Enterprise Heavy Cruiser Evolution Blueprints.
heavy_cruiser_evo_blueprints1.jpg
 

I'm a big fan of the Ken Adam /Ralph McQuarrie Planet of the Titans Enterprise. (Can you tell?) Over the years I've seen many variations and redesigns of the initial concept and I love almost every one, including the Discovery as seen in the teaser. But IMHO, the Ariel-class is by far the ugliest of the many versions.
 
I love the forward aligned nacelles of the uss discovery!

Prefer them forward over them trailing behind.
 
I'm tired of the giant ships. I don't believe them.
She might be a bit bigger than the Connie as she may be a newer design. The constitution was not really huge and was already being over lapped in size by 4 years,after the TOS, which she was what 25 or 30 years old by that point?
 
The Constitution really isn't that large internally, as anyone who's tried to do internal layouts will tell you. There's a lot of empty space from the strut and other unusual internal areas, especially with that damned undercut on the saucer. It may be as long as a modern aircraft carrier but it's way less solid. Honestly, it's kind of amazing it can accomplish much with such a small crew either. 400 people does not leave much room for an actual science staff once you account for even minimal watch standers in essential operations fields.

Also, big is not necessarily better or more advanced, since technological advance tends toward miniaturization. Cell phones were always getting smaller until the trend in the last few years of increasing size again, and that's mostly to create screen space rather than any necessity from the electronics. The Constitution's specialness may have been as much from being a small and more expendable package Starfleet could afford to send out on longer and more dangerous missions.
 
We don't know that it's bigger than the DSC era connie yet. I'm willing to bet the new design for the connie is quite a bit larger than Discovery.
 
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