USS Enterprise (eventually) on Discovery?

[AlanC9]

Someone -- IIRC it was the Village Voice -- reviewed VOY by saying that it was a really boring show, but he was going to watch it anyway. The headline was "Phasers on Stun."

That's pretty much where I am. I like DSC, but even if I didn't I'd still take, say, s1-2 ENT over no Trek at all.

 

[ITDUDE]

That's pretty much where I am. I like DSC, but even if I didn't I'd still take, say, s1-2 ENT over no Trek at all.

And this is exactly why TPTB do not care about producing quality Trek. Why produce quality (which is hard) when they can put out anything and most fans will take it. If you are a producer and to satisfy fans you just need to produce something, why would they go out of the way to spend time to produce something good?

 

[BillJ]

And this is exactly why TPTB do not care about producing quality Trek. Why produce quality (which is hard) when they can put out anything and most fans will take it. If you are a producer and to satisfy fans you just need to produce something, why would they go out of the way to spend time to produce something good?

It is a problem for a long-time cash cow like Trek. They don't want to do anything to upend the apple cart. So we get more of the same, except with a fake Klingon tit that you can barely see and the word fuck.

And the potato peeler Enterprise so they can bilk some more dollars out of long time collectors.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It is a problem for a long-time cash cow like Trek. They don't want to do anything to upend the apple cart. So we get more of the same, except with a fake Klingon tit that you can barely see and the word fuck.

And the potato peeler Enterprise so they can bilk some more dollars out of long time collectors.

Pizza cutter.

 

[BillJ]

Pizza cutter.

I'm truly surprised we haven't seen a Discovery pizza cutter yet.

 

[Mudd]

I think they've finally accepted that there's no mass-market children's toy demand for Trek. The STD licenses seem to be mainly pricey collectibles aimed at an older crowd.

 

[BillJ]

I think they've finally accepted that there's no mass-market children's toy demand for Trek. The STD licenses seem to be mainly pricey collectibles aimed at an older crowd.

As much as I'd like to pick up an Eaglemoss ship or two, there's no way I'm dropping fifty-plus bucks a pop on their Discovery line.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Glad I'm not a collector.

 

[BillJ]

Glad I'm not a collector.

I'm not really a collector. It is more the kid in me that picks them up. And that kid is cheap.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'm not really a collector. It is more the kid in me that picks them up. And that kid is cheap.

Even as a kid I wasn't interested in that stuff. I mostly bought books and comics. Never models.

 

[Belz...]

And this is exactly why TPTB do not care about producing quality Trek. Why produce quality (which is hard) when they can put out anything and most fans will take it.

Because as mentioned before you can't sustain an expensive series with a core of longtime fans. It's the general audiences they want to go for.

It is a problem for a long-time cash cow like Trek. They don't want to do anything to upend the apple cart. So we get more of the same, except with a fake Klingon tit that you can barely see and the word fuck.

Except that it's a no-win scenario for them. If they make things different, fans complain. If they give more of the same, fans complain. The only way to win is to ignore the core fandom entirely.

And the potato peeler Enterprise so they can bilk some more dollars out of long time collectors.

Yes, I'm sure it's to fleece people out of their money and not to update an outdated design in order to make their series more appealing. :/

 

[BillJ]

Yes, I'm sure it's to fleece people out of their money and not to update an outdated design in order to make their series more appealing. :/

What makes one more modern than the other? I'm seriously curious? Is it the slots in the warp pylons? Is it the Excelsior-style impulse deck? Is it the shorter neck?

 

[Mudd]

What makes one more modern than the other? I'm seriously curious? Is it the slots in the warp pylons? Is it the Excelsior-style impulse deck? Is it the shorter neck?

There are two aspects of the STD design that arguably improve it for modern use: the parts of the ship tie in to one another a little bit, unlike the TOS construction of a stick poking out of a cylinder, etc... and the addition of hull detail.

Both of these things were done about forty years ago when the ship was upgraded for ST:TMP. The ship is no more "modern" than that.

 

[cooleddie74]

I think they've finally accepted that there's no mass-market children's toy demand for Trek. The STD licenses seem to be mainly pricey collectibles aimed at an older crowd.

Trek's been that way as a toy franchise since the old Playmates action figure era in the 1990s. The last time I saw any Trek action figures and other toys in stores that were appealing enough to perhaps buy were the Spock Prime and Nero figures in 2009, and before that the ENT figures released by Art Asylum which to this day are some of the most screen-accurate and well-designed Star Trek toys ever released.

Trek is not very toy-friendly these days. It never was a toy license that could have even remotely competed with the likes of Star Wars but at least in the '90s there was a dedicated line of action figures from all the different series and films and you got a very wide variety of characters from across the franchise. Now you're lucky if one company releases a toy Enterprise when a new film comes out and one wave of figures - all of them the lead characters and the bad guy.

 

[Belz...]

What makes one more modern than the other? I'm seriously curious? Is it the slots in the warp pylons? Is it the Excelsior-style impulse deck? Is it the shorter neck?

Are you joking? Or do you seriously believe that it's like that?

The point is that it's more detailed, sleeker and... less 60s, I guess. The original was just too much of its time to be believable, especially to general audiences. That's why fan productions, who are targeted at fans, stick to the original look and Paramount and CBS, who target general audiences, reimagine it.

But like Serveaux said, the DSC Enterprise is not more modern than the TMP one, except that it looks more like the other ENT/DSC ships. It just sticks closer to the original.

 

[cooleddie74]

Give it straight pylons, no window viewscreen, no row of lights on the upper saucer and the TOS font for the name and registry and I'm fine with the rest of it. The impulse deck can be a modular unit that plugs into the saucer during a refit cycle and can thus be removed and replaced by the time TOS rolls around, and this is the third different impulse deck we've seen on the ship prior to "The Corbomite Maneuver."

 

[CorporalCaptain]

TPTB know taters gonna tate.

That's why the Discoprise pylons are ready to peel. Out.

If you know what I'm saying.

 

[cooleddie74]

Taters?

Ron White is gonna be a captain in the series? I will watch the crap out of that.

 

[Belz...]

Give it straight pylons

But those are ugly and boring!

no window viewscreen

What is it with the windows that gets so many fans riled up?

The impulse deck can be a modular unit that plugs into the saucer during a refit cycle and can thus be removed and replaced by the time TOS rolls around, and this is the third different impulse deck we've seen on the ship prior to "The Corbomite Maneuver."

It's a retcon. It doesn't need to be fitted to any of the other versions of the ship we've seen because it replaces them.

 

[Groppler Zorn]

But those are ugly and boring!


What is it with the windows that gets so many fans riled up?



It's a retcon. It doesn't need to be fitted to any of the other versions of the ship we've seen because it replaces them.

You could argue that the straight pylons are sleek and functional - if their job is to power the engine pods, they do exactly that.

The window seems logical in some situations (WoK) but illogical in others (battles where you’d feel awfully exposed if you were staring down a Klingon battlecruiser with nothing but a sheet of transparent aluminium between you and a photon torpedo - forgetting the illogic of putting the bridge on top of the ship, I always assumed there was a ton of extra shielding at the front of the bridge to protect it. A window seems like it’s harking back to the days of rocket ships rather than submarines in space).

For me I’d ask whether the retcon was necessary. In DSC continuity, yes because the prime Enterprise would look anachronistic next to the disco. The visual reboot was needed to make Enterprise stand out less alongside the new visuals.

Does this mean that I think the prime design is dated just because it was designed in the 60s? Nope I love it