One of the designers of the Class F Shuttlecraft, Tom Kellogg, was also involved in the design of the Studebaker Avanti, which shares some design elements with the shuttle.
^ Personal sniping is not appropriate for this forum. I would point to your own signature for a lesson; please treat other posters with respect.
Came across this fan art on Twitter. Looks great! And looks like the bridge is inside R2D2's dome... https://twitter.com/DangerousDac/status/880231178225283072
Doug Drexler supposes that the primitive look is because the technology is more advanced and needs less pointy bits on it. The NX has the look of a Starship based on our current idea of what a Starship would be in the future thanks to the far more primitive space shuttles, rockets and space stations that have formed that view.
I'd change resources to budget. Star Wars came out barely a decade later, and while it was made on a shoestring budget, it was a shoestring movie budget. A serial TV show couldn't cough up the money needed for the kind of detail were talking about - not that it was needed, since tv screens had a total resolution much smaller than we can do today. And the style itself is classic 60's.
Yeah. My argument when "Enterprise" came out was that its look is due to people in 2001 imagining what the future would be like 150 years from then, not people in 2266 imagining what the past was like 100 years ago. Same thing here. Mark
The modern Wasp class of LHA's look pretty much like the straight deck carriers of old, they're just in color. USS America (LHA-6) USS Enterprise (CV-6)
It's not entirely a matter of resolution or budget. From Memory Alpha: It probably never could have been as intricate as, say, the Discovery from 2001, but it was largely undetailed because Matt Jefferies wanted it that way.
These fan renders are becoming very impressive. But I'm still not sold on the primary hull being concentric rings.
It couldn't have been as intricately detailed as the 2001 ship, because of the budget on which it was built. The kind of detailing being talked about there is panel lines.
And the TOS ship just looks primitive to a modern eye. It is the first ST ship and so it makes sense it looks the most primative. They did try to spice the TOS ship up on ENT but it just did not work.
This is supposed to be a highly advanced aircraft? Why is it so... smooth? Who are they kidding? It needs more hull details. Pronounced hull plating. An aztec pattern to simulate stamped metal plates. Throw in some greebles as well. Only then it can look state-of-the-art!