The New USS Discovery....

[Rahul]

In your opinion.

Doubtful.

Really doubtful.

If any of this were even remotely plausible (which I really don't think it is), we can look to the past at another very applicable analogue, in the form of the NX-01 "Akiraprise". Paramount made the interesting and probably not-too-smart choice of putting out the dorsal view as the first official picture of the NX-01. There was crying and screaming - lamenting and butthurt - over how identical it was to the Akira design. And the top view admittedly WAS very Akira-like. When we started seeing other views of the ship, particularly the official 3/4 view, it wasn't as bad. Attention completely waned after the first couple of weeks on the provenance of the ship design and focused squarely on the story.

Long and short of it, after a very short duration of time and investment in the series, nobody will give two rat turds in a rain barrel what the ship looks like and focus entirely on the stories, characters and other more reasonable things. Ship porn geeks like me, however, will be focusing more on the ships, looking for more information, because that's what we do.

Interesting notion I mentioned elsewhere - the hull of Discovery is somewhat bronze colored; not the pearlescent white or duck egg blue that is the predominant color palette of all Starfleet ships. Instead it seems to be more closely colored to the TMP Vulcan shuttle. Further, if you remove the warp nacelles and look at the dorsal view of this ship, it quite closely resembles a stylized IDIC symbol. That, to me, is maybe why they're holding back showing the ship. The very nature, existence and design of it may very well be clues to the plot.

But either way, it doesn't look like shit.

In my opinion.

Main difference between the "Akiraprise"- and the "Discovery"-backlash:
The "Akiraprise" was critisized for looking too modern. For not fitting into canon. For having too many details. You know, stuff only hardcore fans care about.

The criticism of the "Discovery" was mainly that it looked like shit. I mean, yeah, some like it, some are neutral. There are minor discussions about wether cut-outs in the hull fit or if the nacelles are too long. But the main criticism is id doesn't look good. That's worrysome. And a problem "Enterprise" never had. It had canon inconsistencies. But never was the problem "it just looks plain ugly". Because a show can survive canon inconsistencies. What it can't survive is people flat out disliking the main thing about it.

 

[Rahul]

Or they just didn't want to put it in the trailer for spoiler/reveal purposes. Just because something is not in a trailer does not correlate directly to production issues or bad design. The SDCC trailer still pretty much revolves solely around the 2-part pilot episode and basically just expanded on things we'd already seen in trailer one. I agree the angle of the Discovery going to warp was trash even though the VFX for the warp effect was great (very TMP-esque), but I don't think that two second shot was in the trailer to show off the ship. It merely established that it existed and that it potentially ties into the whole "new way to fly" line. More of a question mark tease over anything else.

Yeah. The point remains: They are flat-out not showing the main ship and the main crew of the series!
That's bad marketing. And incredibly worrysome, because if they were content with their show, they would friggin show that in the teaser for said show!

 

[137th Gebirg]

Main difference between the "Akiraprise"- and the "Discovery"-backlash:
The "Akiraprise" was critisized for looking too modern. For not fitting into canon. For having too many details. You know, stuff only hardcore fans care about.

The criticism of the "Discovery" was mainly that it looked like shit. I mean, yeah, some like it, some are neutral. There are minor discussions about wether cut-outs in the hull fit or if the nacelles are too long. But the main criticism is id doesn't look good. That's worrysome. And a problem "Enterprise" never had. It had canon inconsistencies. But never was the problem "it just looks plain ugly". Because a show can survive canon inconsistencies. What it can't survive is people flat out disliking the main thing about it.

The main non-difference is people are still bitching about it months before they show it. And LOTS of people thought the NX-01 looked ugly because not everyone was on the Akira bandwagon to begin with. I remember I was very pro-Akira and even I was somewhat shocked at how identical they initially looked. Then, someone out there reasoned that the Akira was really the one that copied the NX-01 as a "design homage" to the first high-warp starship and it all made sense. This was long after people stopped caring anyway.

Mark my words - several weeks in, nobody will care.

And it doesn't look like shit. You should probably drop that argument, too, as it's purely opinion based and in no way implies the true nature of why we haven't seen more of it yet. My supposition of the ship's true nature based on its design and color palette could be just as viable a reason. For every one person that thinks that Discovery looks as bad as you do, there appear to be more than ten or twenty that love it, or at least don't hate it, myself included.

 

[Fandango831]

Main difference between the "Akiraprise"- and the "Discovery"-backlash:
The "Akiraprise" was critisized for looking too modern. For not fitting into canon. For having too many details. You know, stuff only hardcore fans care about.

The criticism of the "Discovery" was mainly that it looked like shit. I mean, yeah, some like it, some are neutral. There are minor discussions about wether cut-outs in the hull fit or if the nacelles are too long. But the main criticism is id doesn't look good. That's worrysome. And a problem "Enterprise" never had. It had canon inconsistencies. But never was the problem "it just looks plain ugly". Because a show can survive canon inconsistencies. What it can't survive is people flat out disliking the main thing about it.

One, that's your opinion on the topic. Two, I have not seen one person make criticism of the Discovery that just stated so plainly that it was "shit" as you say. I've heard people go they hate the squared underbelly of the design, or the cuts in the saucer section, or how they dislike the McQuarrie triangle, or even the old three bussard nacelles. Even I have major design gripes on the Discovery. However not once did I see anyone just go, "yeah that ship is total shit". At least not anyone who actually cares that is. I'm sure everyone here could go on for days on things they hate about different ship designs, but I'd say the great majority of fans (minus the hardcores) are still excepting of the variety of design that's come up over the years in Trek. So right now I'd say your argument is solely rooted in opinion friend.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

How many of us thought the Enterprise D was ugly the first time we saw it?

I did, then I got used to it. Even so, the look of the thing didn't affect my enjoyment of the stories either way. I mean, the FX shots were cool and all.

 

[Tuskin38]

they would friggin show that in the teaser for said show!

But they did the show, the show.

 

[Fandango831]

Yeah. The point remains: They are flat-out not showing the main ship and the main crew of the series!
That's bad marketing. And incredibly worrysome, because if they were content with their show, they would friggin show that in the teaser for said show!

Again, your opinion on what they should show in a teaser or not.

 

[Timo]

A fairly convincing argument has been made of what is being shown in the teaser: "linearized", it shows Burnham surviving a disaster on Vulcan, getting adopted by Sarek, growing up to work on the Shenzhou, making a mess of a Klingon encounter, getting jailed long enough to grow a new style of hair, and then returning to the scene of her crime, to be rescued in the nick of time by the Discovery which then warps to the sunset. What we see is a transition, then - and it's appropriate to keep it fairly linear, only showing the end result (that is, the hero ship) at the very end.

I very much doubt the pilot episode features significantly more material on the Discovery. But there will be an introducing and revealing shot that is intended to stun us all, and it's natural for them to hold that one back till the premiere.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[PixelMagic]

All the VFX are done for the pilot.

I certainly hope not. They need more polish. The space battle shots and the shot of Discovery jumping to warp don't look finished. I hope. I imagine they'll work on the pilot effects right up until premiere. I do this stuff for a living.

 

[fireproof78]

Yeah. The point remains: They are flat-out not showing the main ship and the main crew of the series!
That's bad marketing. And incredibly worrysome, because if they were content with their show, they would friggin show that in the teaser for said show!

Not really bad marketing when people are still talking about it.

 

[Dukhat]

So a few people on the internetz said that the Discovery "doesn't look good" and all of a sudden that's the majority opinion of all Trek fans?

 

[137th Gebirg]

No. No, it's not.

 

[PixelMagic]

So a few people on the internetz said that the Discovery "doesn't look good" and all of a sudden that's the majority opinion of all Trek fans?

If you are referring to what I said about the CGI, no. I do tv/movie-level VFX for a living and I'm thinking the space shots don't look quite right. They need more work. They don't look bad at all, but it could be improved upon. This is just my own opinion.

 

[Michael]

If you are referring to what I said about the CGI, no. I do tv/movie-level VFX for a living and I'm thinking the space shots don't look quite right. They need more work. They don't look bad at all, but it could be improved upon. This is just my own opinion.

Not doubting you for a second, but just out of honest curiosity, what specifically do you think doesn't look right about them?

 

[Jadeb]

They've already shown the ship. The first reaction was what it was and can't be changed now. That it'll look better on air is a nice surprise, but I don't see why they need to debut it a second time. I can't imagine the slight modifications would convince anyone to watch who wasn't going to before.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

They've shown it from the back toward the side, and briefly before it jumps to warp at that. That isn't really enough of a look at it to make a decision on it, is it?

 

[Tom Servo]

I certainly hope not. They need more polish. The space battle shots and the shot of Discovery jumping to warp don't look finished. I hope. I imagine they'll work on the pilot effects right up until premiere. I do this stuff for a living.

Exactly. Heck, I just went through pilot season where I work, and we were doing VFX shots up to the very last minute before the show's premiere. Heck, some of the shows that are already in production we send to them less then a week before airing.

I'm wondering if thats why we haven't seen a lot of the Discovery as well. She might not be prominently featured in the first episode, so the effects shots for her are still in an early stage since she isn't really revealed till further down the line.

 

[PixelMagic]

Not doubting you for a second, but just out of honest curiosity, what specifically do you think doesn't look right about them?

It's mostly the lighting. Everything just "feels" CG. Render engines are to the point now where you can match miniatures if you put enough love into it. When the Shenzhou is moving around, there also appears to be no, or too little motion blur. The movement also feels too fast for a massive ship. Just lots of little things add up to not looking real.

That said, they could still be working on the shots for the next two months, and they'll look awesome when it airs.

Here are a few renders of mine where I tried to get a CG ship to look as real as possible. If I can do this at home, I don't see why they couldn't get to this level on Discovery.

 

[fireproof78]

They've shown it from the back toward the side, and briefly before it jumps to warp at that. That isn't really enough of a look at it to make a decision on it, is it?

Sums up my feelings on DSC in general.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

Sums up my feelings on DSC in general.

It's mine, too! There's no reason to judge the series based on the couple trailers.