What are your controversial Star Trek opinions?

[cooleddie74]

Yep. By a little bit. The NX-01 didn't have a secondary hull in the actual series so they had to cram all the crew and the larger, less sophisticated 22nd century equipment into the saucer section, so it ended up having a greater internal volume than the NCC-1701.

 

[Vale]

Notice the change between the A and B. My headcanon is, info from V'Ger led to that upgrade.

Possibly... though remember that there's 40 years between the launch of the Constitution-class and the Excelsior-class. We might reasonably expect a significant generation or two of technology to pass during that time.

Combining this with the knowledge that the Galaxy-class launched in the 2360s, it seems likely that there's a major technological generation every 40ish years, and that the Ambassador-class was first developed in the 2320s.

Spoiler

This would also tie into the background information given in Picard season two that the original Exclesior was retired in 2320.

Now notice B and C. Another, even bigger jump in design.

Actually it isn't. The refit Constitution-class has an internal volume of 235,000m³. The Excelsior-class "B" variant has an internal volume of 983,000m³ – approximately 4.2 times the size. The Ambassador-class has an internal volume of 2,871,000m³ – approximately 2.9 times the size. The step up from Constitution to Excelsior is way bigger than the step up from Excelsior to Ambassador. The difference is that while the Excelsior is generally larger all over than the Constitution, the Ambassador's extra volume is heavily concentrated in the saucer.

 

[fireproof78]

The far more primitive USS Franklin utterly trashed the drone swarm. They didn't need more guns, they needed to understand the problem.

It is a bit of a shame that the Enterprise looks so weak compared to the Vengeance though. It was supposed to be the newest top of the line badass flagship!

The whole point of the Vengeance was a bigger response to the Narada attack, something Marcus felt that Starfleet was ill equipped to handle.

 

[Vale]

Wow. Is the saucer of the NX-01 larger than the saucer of the TOS-1701?!? Dayum.

The NX-class is 94% the volume of the Constitution-class overall (200,000m³ vs 211,000m³). However, because the Constitution-class nacelles are much larger than the NX-class nacelles (2 ✕ 27,500m³ vs 2 ✕ 17,000m³) the NX-class actually has a larger habitable volume (166,000m³) than the Constitution-class (156,000m³), despite being a century older and significantly less sophisticated.

 

[Kaelef]

I have spent years thinking the Enterprise-D was the ungainly and frumpy one of the lineage, but in the last couple of years there's been a sudden upswing in videos and images portraying it in a much more flattering manner, without it being quite so static and flatly lit. Which leads me to believe that perhaps it was maybe just a limitation of the original physical filming models... she certainly looks much better in Generations than she did in most of TNG.

I agree. I didn't really see the potential of the Ent-D as a good-looking ship until I saw some of the early sketches only a few years ago.

I think the cleaner look (without the many, many windows and ports) in sketch form makes it much more attractive to my eye.

 

[Kaelef]

Here's my controversial opinion: I think Worf is the weakest TNG character. He's generally poorly written and unimaginatively acted. Other TNG Klingons are so much more interesting, but, somehow, people love Worf. I was pretty disappointed when he ended up on DS9.

 

[eschaton]

Here's my controversial opinion: I think Worf is the weakest TNG character. He's generally poorly written and unimaginatively acted. Other TNG Klingons are so much more interesting, but, somehow, people love Worf. I was pretty disappointed when he ended up on DS9.

Worf is much better written on TNG than DS9, and Michael Dorn improved tremendously as an actor.

He's not the worst character though. He's one of the few characters on TNG with identifiable traits/flaws. It's much harder to come up with anything at all to say about many of them. I mean, what really distinguishes Beverly as a character besides being a mom, a doctor, and kinda having a thing for Picard? I can't think of a single personality trait, let alone flaw, that she has.

 

[Vale]

I think the cleaner look (without the many, many windows and ports) in sketch form makes it much more attractive to my eye.

I think the windows aren't too bad – it would be very odd if a ship that size didn't have any – but there's a lot of surface detail on the Enterprise-D that detracts somewhat from the overall design, especially when compared to the comparatively smooth hulls of the original and refit 1701, or the Excelsior. Things like the transporter emitters and especially the lifeboats just break up those clean, smooth lines, and feel a bit, dare I say, low-tech. Why do they need to be on the outside in the 24th century, the era of "technology unchained", when 22nd and 23rd century starships managed perfectly well with them hidden behind hull plates?

Just look how visually noisy all those square hatches are. Worse, the transporter emitters at the front of the saucer look like angry eyebrows!

Also, the 4ft filming model with its extra hull detailing didn't help – I remember as a kid seeing it in "Yesterday's Enterprise" and thinking that it was a deliberate modification to the model to make it look more heavily armoured. The detailing on the hull plates was too heavy, even for low-res CRT TVs.

 

[tesral]

I think the windows aren't too bad – it would be very odd if a ship that size didn't have any – but there's a lot of surface detail on the Enterprise-D that detracts somewhat from the overall design, especially when compared to the comparatively smooth hulls of the original and refit 1701, or the Excelsior. Things like the transporter emitters and especially the lifeboats just break up those clean, smooth lines, and feel a bit, dare I say, low-tech. Why do they need to be on the outside in the 24th century, the era of "technology unchained", when 22nd and 23rd century starships managed perfectly well with them hidden behind hull plates?

Just look how visually noisy all those square hatches are. Worse, the transporter emitters at the front of the saucer look like angry eyebrows!

Also, the 4ft filming model with its extra hull detailing didn't help – I remember as a kid seeing it in "Yesterday's Enterprise" and thinking that it was a deliberate modification to the model to make it look more heavily armoured. The detailing on the hull plates was too heavy, even for low-res CRT TVs.

It's ILM disease.

 

[gweeps]

Here's my controversial opinion: I think Worf is the weakest TNG character. He's generally poorly written and unimaginatively acted. Other TNG Klingons are so much more interesting, but, somehow, people love Worf. I was pretty disappointed when he ended up on DS9.

I'm not a huge fan of Worf either. Or Klingons for that matter. But I do think because Dorn was given more to do on DS9 his acting chops improved. Still, I preferred DS9 without him. But I've softened a bit over the years.

 

[Vger23]

It's ILM disease.

The bumpy 4-ft model sucked.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

It's ILM disease.

No such thing.

The four-foot model wasn't even built by ILM.

 

[gweeps]

Maybe I've mentioned this before. But I don't care for Geordi. Guy seems like a creep and a jerk.

 

[Oddish]

Maybe I've mentioned this before. But I don't care for Geordi. Guy seems like a creep and a jerk.

In one episode, yes. Maybe a few others. But by and large, he's proof of the adage that nice guys don't get any.

 

[tesral]

No such thing.

The four-foot model wasn't even built by ILM.

It does not have to be built by ILM. It's the greeblies disease, and they started it.

 

[dupersuper]

I always liked the D. I guess that's controversial. Who knew?

 

[tesral]

I always liked the D. I guess that's controversial. Who knew?

It grew on me.

 

[fireproof78]

The D continues to languish in my view. I cannot bring myself to like it.

 

[Ray Hardgrit]

Enterprise Rankings:

1. 1701-D
2. 1701-A
3. 1701-E
4. 1701-B
5. 1701
6. 1701 (Kelvin)
   
7. NX-01
8. 1701-C

Or perhaps I like the B more than the E. You know, I think I've put the OG 1701 way too low... or maybe not? At least I'm pretty happy with the top and the bottom of the rankings. For now.

 

[fireproof78]

1. 1701
2. 1701-SNW
3. 1701 Kelvin
4. 1701 refit.
5 1701-A
6. 1701-A Kelvin
8. 1701-E
9. 1701-B
10. 1701-D