Under Bryan Fuller the Discovery was going to disguise itself as a D7?

[Timo]

Sensors. They even have sensors to point out they're not in the same universe. In short, physically disguising a ship as something else, would work for exactly one second. In even shorter: the idea is nonsense.

Except of course not. Clever paint jobs and canvas smokestacks can fool the sensor called the eye. Our Starfleet heroes in TNG, DS9 and VGR frequently use other kinds of clever jobs to fool other kinds of sensors, typically at long ranges: the hero ship can be made to look like a harmless merchant or a vessel from the ranks of the enemy when it is observed with sensors that identify warp signatures or whatnot. It never is a perfect disguise, but disguises never need to be.

The trick supposedly would be to fool the enemy at all ranges. And while Sisko or Janeway could just erect a hologram to alter the looks of their ships, Lorca or Saru or whoever would not yet have that option: TAS showed them operating holograms indoors, but external holo-camouflage was still novel to them in "Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth", say. Hence a ship that can semi-plausibly be given the smokestack job in addition to all the standard sensor-fooling trickery would nicely serve the needs of the job. Although of course it would dramatically go so that it's a happy coincidence that the hero ship can be made to look a bit like a certain enemy ship, rather than a hero ship having been built to look like an enemy one. (Real-world commerce raiders were seldom specifically designed for their job, even if they were heavily modified for it.)

Whether there's anything to the story offered in the original post is one matter. Whether it would have been fun to see the hero ship disguised, with a bit more than the painting over of a single letter, is another. It's something we basically never see, our heroes working on their ship's exterior. I for one would have loved to see that.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[AresB]

They tell in the same book that at one stage they were planning to give the Shenzhou a stealth system with adaptive paintwork. It would probably have been explained as holographic, if it had made it to the final product.

 

[F. King Daniel]

It's starting to sound like Fuller's Discovery was designed to sell cool transforming toy ships.

 

[Turtletrekker]

At first, I was thrilled at the news of Brian Fuller's involvement on Star Trek Discovery. In hindsight, I'm equally relieved that he left as soon as he did.

 

[Dukhat]

It's starting to sound like Fuller's Discovery was designed to sell cool transforming toy ships.

Now it all makes sense! The Discoprise transformed from the Cage version to the DSC version, back to the TOS version, and the Discovery can transform from a Crossfield class ship into a D7 and back!

DSC = Star Trek: Transformers!

At first, I was thrilled at the news of Brian Fuller's involvement on Star Trek Discovery. In hindsight, I'm equally relieved that he left as soon as he did.

I’m not so sure I entirely agree. I think a lot of this after-the-fact info is biased against the guy, who conveniently isn’t around to stand up for himself. And if the original premise of an anthology series was truly his idea, I would have LOVED to see that rather than what we eventually got.

 

[fireproof78]

Even though we see that a lot of the design work from the first two episodes primarily based upon Fuller's work?

 

[Vger23]

Now it all makes sense! The Discoprise transformed from the Cage version to the DSC version, back to the TOS version, and the Discovery can transform from a Crossfield class ship into a D7 and back!

DSC = Star Trek: Transformers!



I’m not so sure I entirely agree. I think a lot of this after-the-fact info is biased against the guy, who conveniently isn’t around to stand up for himself. And if the original premise of an anthology series was truly his idea, I would have LOVED to see that rather than what we eventually got.

The fact of the matter is that the guy can't hold down a job to save his soul, and his premise for DSC was considerably flawed....and the show has been struggling with overcoming those flaws from the moment it aired. It's been successful in spite of Fuller's concept, not because of it. Count me amongst those who are grateful he is not involved.

There was never a chance that CBS would have kicked off their Star Trek streaming franchise with an anthology model. Far too risky, regardless of how cool it may have been, unfortunately.

 

[Dukhat]

I’m not saying that the anthology was in any way realistic in terms of time, budget, and risk. All I’m saying is that I would have preferred that over what we got.

 

[thribs]

A Wraith vessel looking D7 or a proper looking one?

 

[fireproof78]

A D7.

 

[thribs]

A D7.

Yes but what D7?

 

[fireproof78]

Yes but what D7?

Probably the one that annoys fans.

 

[thribs]

Probably the one that annoys fans.

I didn’t mind the ship design. I just found it odd they called it a D7.

 

[DigificWriter]

I think people put way too much stock in tales about some of Bryan Fuller's "OG" ideas for DSC, between stuff like this and the whole "Anthology series" thing.

I don't doubt the veracity of such stories, but I don't think they had any bearing on what DSC as broadcast/released was.

 

[fireproof78]

I didn’t mind the ship design. I just found it odd they called it a D7.

This will probably come as no surprise but I don't find it odd at all. To me, D7 is a human designation for a particular type of Klingon ship, and whether that relates to size, or weapons, or engine type or whatnot I don't know.

Now, I have no doubt this will be an unpopular opinion,but a D7 doesn't need to fit in a one size fits all type box for me. Nor do I think that Klingon ships always looked the same.

 

[thribs]

This will probably come as no surprise but I don't find it odd at all. To me, D7 is a human designation for a particular type of Klingon ship, and whether that relates to size, or weapons, or engine type or whatnot I don't know.

Now, I have no doubt this will be an unpopular opinion,but a D7 doesn't need to fit in a one size fits all type box for me. Nor do I think that Klingon ships always looked the same.

But then in season 2 the Klingons call it a D7.

 

[fireproof78]

But then in season 2 the Klingons call it a D7.

Fair point, though I figure that's from L'Rell's time with humans, but what do I know? I actually like Discovery

 

[Jayson1]

It's starting to sound like Fuller's Discovery was designed to sell cool transforming toy ships.

More likely is he wanted something on par with how the Enterprise-D's saucer could separate. He wanted this ship to have some neat features your average ship doesn't have and this is one of them. The other being the spore drive. Basically he wanted a starship that separated it from the other ships and made it special on it's merits.

Jason

 

[Timo]

Or then the idea was that since this was to be an anthology show, he could break his toys every season, and it would be a shame not to.

Sawing off bits of the hero ship would be novel, even if it wasn't a "feature"...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[The Wormhole]

This will probably come as no surprise but I don't find it odd at all. To me, D7 is a human designation for a particular type of Klingon ship, and whether that relates to size, or weapons, or engine type or whatnot I don't know.

Now, I have no doubt this will be an unpopular opinion,but a D7 doesn't need to fit in a one size fits all type box for me. Nor do I think that Klingon ships always looked the same.

Meh, at this point we know the ship in the first season was identified as D-7 only because of miscommunication on the behind the scenes side of things. The ship was intended to be called something else entirely.