Starship design history in light of Discovery

Well, it shows a vertical doodad surrounded by shinies, which is pretty much the TNG take. Or perhaps the TMP take already. We don't get to see a ST:ID style sphere or a horizontal feature like in ENT, but we get a "nuclear reactor" style top cover that sorta reminds of TOS. Also, it seems the reactor or warp core or whatnot is inaccessible to shirtsleeves workers, which sort of bridges TOS where all the action is in a neat, small control room but the entire facility is supposed to be vast, and TMP where people need heavy coveralls to get close to shining tubes.

Was there more to it?

Timo Saloniemi

 

It was actually the final scene in the short before the credits, so no.

 

Fun ideas there, but the conning-tower approach "B/E", while very Jeffries, has already been assigned a different role in the Trek universe, that of "ancient tubs from the 20th century". "C" looks like those ubiquitous fan takes on replacing the ventral pod of an Oberth with a different structure. I'd still have preferred "A1" over the "D" we got...

Timo Saloniemi

 

He says that he was inspired by the Botany Bay, so that was on purpose.

 

The only "inspiration" left after the the fact is the under-slung cargo containers.

Ten different designs and They end up with the one that least looks like the TOS time period.

SO, it's pretty obvious (at least to me) at this point that we're never going to see any ships which even resemble what we've known for fifty years.
And that is just sad.

 

Yep, some of those designs definitely look like DY types of ships.

It resembles the flat two-nacelled Excelsior study model from STIII.

Agreed, I’m sad about that too. I’m not sure why it’s so hard to take the original components of the TOS Enterprise and extrapolate from there instead of having a hodgepodge of designs that not only look different from each other, but don’t all look like they even come from the same time period, IMHO. That’s not to say that I don’t like the designs. I think the Shenzhou is one of my favorite ships. I just don’t think it (or any other ship for that matter) resembles the TOS Enterprise at all. But I’ve mentioned this before.

 

I have no problem with new looking ships.
I just wish They'd throw us a bone or two and do some back ground ones that feel right for the time period based on TOS.


I'm assuming that CBS doesn't want to go anywhere near the Franz Joseph designs just because They don't want to have to pay anything for them.
Which seems pretty dumb to me since They are probably making more than enough with the current iterations of Trek to cover the cost, but someone in Corporate probably has a bug up Their arse about it.

 

I wouldn't say that. I think it will depend upon the designer.

I don't mind that they don't look like the TOS Enterprise as much. The TOS Enterprise was supposed to be a unique ship, so interpret that as you like.

I mean, I would expect a pretty big variety of designs as the Federation works with some many different species and cultures, allowing for some design changes and variety. Variety is not a bad thing, to my mind.

YMMV and probably does.

 

The DSC ships lack variety to my eyes, though that isn't so much the designs themselves as the skins/textures/detailing. I'm all for variety in Starfleet ships of any era, but I'd still like them to feel as related as two cars from any given decade have general bits in common (with exceptions).

 

I can see the point. I just don't agree, and would expect a little bit more variety due to the large number of aliens in the Federation.

 

Roughly 100 years after the founding of the Federation, one might think there was a single design esthetic.

 

Perhaps...I personally do not think so, largely because the Federation is constantly adding members. So, those influences. My larger point, though, is this: The Starship/Constitution class ships are a special class. Despite things like Josephs' Technical Manual and the FASA game, there is no indication, for or against, that the appearance of that ship was the defacto appearance of all Starfleet Vessels.

 

There is the "Doomsday Machine" bit where Spock identifies the Constellation as "starship by configuration". If anything goes, how is this possible? But the configuration in question might be (un)limited to "it has a saucer hull and some nacelles"...

Timo Saloniemi

 

ben robinson posted these shots of the hiawatha on his twitter today:

 

She'd look better with more cylindrical nacelles but I don't mind her design. She's definitely a Starfleet vessel in appearance and design lineage.

 

I wish they'd revert to TOS/ENT-style typography for the Starfleet hull markings.

 

They had it in the first trailer, not sure why they changed it.

 

I only was just able to start watching Discovery, and I like it so far...but like many others, I am disappointed by the fact that the Discovery era ship designs - both Federation and Klingon - seem to bear very little connection the the ship styles that come before it and after it.

The Klingon ships are very creative...but they seems more like something out of Dune, than out of the Klingons as we have known them in Star Trek.

It's like there was this period in Klingon design were they went off on a tangent and then reeled it back in later. I think if they explained it at these being really ancient "classical Klingon" ships or maybe special ships used by the leaders of the greatest and oldest Klingon houses, maybe I could wrap my mind around it.

I was really hoping to see John Eaves unused D-4 design show up in Discovery...



And the Federation ships, yeah, don't seem to have a cohesive design aesthetic. And they do seem a little "advanced" for the 23rd century.

I think you can still maybe realistic and futuristic looking ships that look like an updated version of the 1960's TOS aesthetic. The ship designs for Axanar did. And they combined elements form both TOS and the Kelvinverse designs.



Sure, the Discovery ships don't have to look *exactly* like this...or even exactly like TOS ships. I don't mind designs updated a bit...but, other than the Discovery era Enterprise, nothing looks even remotely like anything that came before it or will come or after it.

 

It’s because of behind the scenes drama. The original show runner wanted everything to be more distinct. He wanted the Klingons to be a lot more alien, and told the Klingon ship designers to ignore all previous Klingon designs.

For the Federation ships, he mandated no round nacelles, and to use flat profiles. We have no idea why, it’s just what he requested of the designers.

It was too late in production when he left for them to re-design everything so they just kept them, and started somewhat fixing things with season 2 instead. Which is why we got a D7 that actually looks like a D7