They were ships that sail the stars, but not one of the 12 STARSHIP class space cruisers......![]()
sure?

They were ships that sail the stars, but not one of the 12 STARSHIP class space cruisers......![]()
I find this assessment quite flawed, although I guess that's understandable if you skipped watching ENT.The "saving" grace here is that DSC's MO is that it's not interested in how TOS looked. The Starfleet ships look like a cross between the Kelvin Films and TOS Films. Except the Enterprise, which looks like a cross between ENT and TMP with some Kelvin thrown in. Even the "TOS" Uniforms in DSC are just Disco Uniforms re-colored. So why would they make an exception for TOS Klingons?
The entire approach DSC has taken up to this point suggests they won't go for the TOS look, unless it's heavily modified or has already been heavily modified. Even the D7. When I saw the holo-projection in this episode: my first thought was the opening scene in TMP (because regardless of what anyone thinks of the movie, how can you forget that scene?), not anything from TOS.
ENT tried to show how everything led into eventually looking like TOS, but it seems like DSC's approach and ENT's approach are completely different. Rick Berman and Alex Kurtzman's approaches are completely different. Kurtzman feels at liberty to change things because of the precedent set by the 2009 film and by Fuller at the beginning of DSC. Berman didn't feel like he had that liberty.
I find this assessment quite flawed, although I guess that's understandable if you skipped watching ENT.
Under Berman and Braga, ENT did much the same as you ascribe to DSC, and was accordingly mercilessly flayed for it by nitpicky fans with unreasonable expectations—and I have to admit to being initially among them, but I was only sixteen when it started, so allow me to plead the stupidity of youth in my defense—exactly as ST'09 was, and as DSC is being now:
"Some people have complained it looks more futuristic than Voyager does. It looks more futuristic than Kirk's ship...well, that is absolutely true. You could view that as a continuity error, or a continuity defiance. But the only way to have addressed that would have been to make a ship that looked like something out of 1950s science fiction, and I just don't think 99 percent of the audience would have bought it. So you need to take some license and say, 'We're going to make it look like a ship that would be a hundred years more advanced than something today, 2002,' rather than say, 'We're going to make it look like something that's a hundred years before a show that was done in the 1960s.' That's definitely a creative license that we took. But I think those kind of things are necessary."
-Brannon Braga, Star Trek Communicator #139, pg. 51, November 2001
They did seek to give us introductions to several of the most important and familiar pieces of Trek tech, such as the (not so) universal translator, transporter, and phase pistols/cannons (precursors to phasers) in "Broken Bow" (ENT) and "Silent Enemy" (ENT), and the force field in "Vox Sola" (ENT). And they foreshadowed the origins of the Prime Directive in "Dear Doctor" (ENT), etc.
Yet, while there were plenty of nods to TOS in many aspects of the designs, Berman was open about the fact that they also sought to "marry a little bit of contemporary technology with what we know is going to be coming and take some poetic license" and also to incorporate cues from the film era and beyond. (For instance, the phase pistols evoke the assault phasers from STV-VI much more than they do the TOS iteration—whereas the DSC version looks right at home in between the pilot and series versions—and as Doug Drexler said of the NX-01: "Rick and Brannon wished to borrow from the original Enterprise, the motion picture Enterprise, and some elements from other ships in the movie series.")
They updated the Andorian and Tellarite makeup to about the same degree that DSC has, similarly thwarted expectations and preconceptions of Vulcan culture, showed cloaking devices, had Archer and others lose some of their starry-eyed optimism to become edgier and more militant after the Xindi attacked Earth in a season-long serialized 9/11 allegory, and so on.
It wasn't until Manny Coto took over the bulk of showrunning duties for S4 that the series began to indulge itself in overtly fanwanky stuff like the Klingon story (which I personally agree was a nadir) and recreating TOS uniforms and sets (with some subtle refinements and a few additions peppered in) for the mirror episodes (which were a ton of fun, but pure schlock). And even then, outside of those examples, the extent of the effort to "show how everything led into eventually looking like TOS" in a visual sense basically amounted to little more than changing a few paintjobs. (The transporter was given a more psychedelic scheme, doors repainted blue in a nod to "The Cage," and the NX-02 made a lighter grey than the NX-01, with Bussards that spun more regularly, reminiscent of the way the TOS Enterprise's did. That's about it.)
Whether one finds it a favorable or unfavorable comparison, I see a lot more in common between the overall approaches of ENT (at least for its first three seasons) and DSC (at least up to now), and among the ensuing reactions in fandom, than I do stark contrasts. As ever, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
-MMoM![]()
I find this assessment quite flawed, although I guess that's understandable if you skipped watching ENT.
Under Berman and Braga, ENT did much the same as you ascribe to DSC, and was accordingly mercilessly flayed for it by nitpicky fans with unreasonable expectations—and I have to admit to being initially among them, but I was only sixteen when it started, so allow me to plead the stupidity of youth in my defense—exactly as ST'09 was, and as DSC is being now:
"Some people have complained it looks more futuristic than Voyager does. It looks more futuristic than Kirk's ship...well, that is absolutely true. You could view that as a continuity error, or a continuity defiance. But the only way to have addressed that would have been to make a ship that looked like something out of 1950s science fiction, and I just don't think 99 percent of the audience would have bought it. So you need to take some license and say, 'We're going to make it look like a ship that would be a hundred years more advanced than something today, 2002,' rather than say, 'We're going to make it look like something that's a hundred years before a show that was done in the 1960s.' That's definitely a creative license that we took. But I think those kind of things are necessary."
-Brannon Braga, Star Trek Communicator #139, pg. 51, November 2001
They did seek to give us introductions to several of the most important and familiar pieces of Trek tech, such as the (not so) universal translator, transporter, and phase pistols/cannons (precursors to phasers) in "Broken Bow" (ENT) and "Silent Enemy" (ENT), and the force field in "Vox Sola" (ENT). And they foreshadowed the origins of the Prime Directive in "Dear Doctor" (ENT), etc.
Yet, while there were plenty of nods to TOS in many aspects of the designs, Berman was open about the fact that they also sought to "marry a little bit of contemporary technology with what we know is going to be coming and take some poetic license" and also to incorporate cues from the film era and beyond. (For instance, the phase pistols evoke the assault phasers from STV-VI much more than they do the TOS iteration—whereas the DSC version looks right at home in between the pilot and series versions—and as Doug Drexler said of the NX-01: "Rick and Brannon wished to borrow from the original Enterprise, the motion picture Enterprise, and some elements from other ships in the movie series.")
They updated the Andorian and Tellarite makeup to about the same degree that DSC has, similarly thwarted expectations and preconceptions of Vulcan culture, showed cloaking devices, had Archer and others lose some of their starry-eyed optimism to become edgier and more militant after the Xindi attacked Earth in a season-long serialized 9/11 allegory, and so on.
It wasn't until Manny Coto took over the bulk of showrunning duties for S4 that the series began to indulge itself in overtly fanwanky stuff like the Klingon story (which I personally agree was a nadir) and recreating TOS uniforms and sets (with some subtle refinements and a few additions peppered in) for the mirror episodes (which were a ton of fun, but pure schlock). And even then, outside of those examples, the extent of the effort to "show how everything led into eventually looking like TOS" in a visual sense basically amounted to little more than changing a few paintjobs. (The transporter was given a more psychedelic scheme, doors repainted blue in a nod to "The Cage," and the NX-02 made a lighter grey than the NX-01, with Bussards that spun more regularly, reminiscent of the way the TOS Enterprise's did. That's about it.)
Whether one finds it a favorable or unfavorable comparison, I see a lot more in common between the overall approaches of ENT (at least for its first three seasons) and DSC (at least up to now), and among the ensuing reactions in fandom, than I do stark contrasts. As ever, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
-MMoM![]()
complete with a country tune its theme song and Archer+Tucker as 'good ole boys' in space. You want a Star Trek for the red state crowd, that's how you do it.
^^^
That's what I read as well. The reason they 'switched' was that to to the "Bugs" the way they wanted would have required VERY expensive (at the time) CGI - so extra in Pancake makeup and foam rubber "cybernetic armor" were cheaper.![]()
Weren't they originally supposed to be the Borg? Or am I confusing them with someone else?
As I posted upthread, they (the "Conspiracy" parasites) were originally supposed to have something to do with the Borg:No, the Borg were going to be in The Neutral Zone episode. They had nothing to do with Conspiracy...
sure?
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Who the Hell was FRANK LIN that they named a starship after him?sure?
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I never get why people hold onto that line about women starship commanders like a pit bull. Janice Lester was insane. Easy peasy.
Who the Hell was FRANK LIN that they named a starship after him?
Hummmnn.... Even from the front it look like that...
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Just to note, the actual spacing on the hull of the ship doesn't have that big a gap between the K and the L.
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Who the Hell was FRANK LIN that they named a starship after him?
Hummmnn.... Even from the front it look like that...
![]()
Just to note, the actual spacing on the hull of the ship doesn't have that big a gap between the K and the L.
![]()
Ahhhhhhh...The prop department did that on purpose without Justin's knowledge IIRC.
Fun fact, Justin Lin kept the original prop.
I never get why people hold onto that line about women starship commanders like a pit bull. Janice Lester was insane. Easy peasy.
The first episode of Season Two I actually managed to enjoy. For a brief time, "Discovery" got its Season One edge back. However, I wonder how long I will have to wait to witness that edge again.
I don't know. But that's more reason why I look forward to the Section 31 Series. There's zero chance they'll try to make it a more traditional Trek series.
I never get why people hold onto that line about women starship commanders like a pit bull. Janice Lester was insane. Easy peasy.
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