USS Enterprise NCC-1701 Poll: which version would you want to command?
- Thread starter jctechwizard
- Start date
Interesting, out of the 47 voters so far, NOBODY likes "The Cage" version of the Connie.
Everybody likes one of the later iterations.
Everybody likes one of the later iterations.
In fairness we don't get to see much of it.
I'd probably go with the SNW version. Takes a classic design, brings it bang up-to-date, looks functional and comfortable, a rare combo.
Okay, I'll vote.
The Cage Enterprise is the most advanced starship in Star Trek.
What do I mean by most advanced? It is the least handicapped/encumbered by 20th/21st century science and technology. Every version since has been compromised in some way.
The worst offender (and also the best example) is the TMP refit.
While comparing the 1964 pilot Enterprise with the refit from 1979 (as seen in this shot of my pilot and pre-TMP study models) would be nice, I think a better comparison of design philosophy is looking at the 1977 Phase II Enterprise and the 1978 pre-TMP refit (like in this shot of my models) as they are only a year apart from each other.
As has been pointed out, the refit has weapons everywhere... which wasn't a result of the plot of TMP (they never fire the phasers in that movie). On the Phase II Enterprise a weapons assembly was added to the base of the dorsal so the effects artists would have a clear place on the ship for weapons to originate. For the audience, the Enterprise went from having no visible weapons in TOS to being overtly blistering with weapons in TMP.
And while the weapons on the refit was... a choice, the addition of reaction control thrusters all over the ship was truly baffling. This is the addition of current tech to solve a problem that wasn't a problem.
You might ask how does the Enterprise maneuver? That is exactly the point, we (hundreds of years in Trek's past) don't have either the science or technology to know how. But grafting a solution from today onto a ship of the far future is always the wrong answer... specially if it wasn't there from the start.
I know you guys love the refit, but when I look at it I see the equivalence of a steampunked Enterprise. And it has gotten worse since then... like all those rockets firing from the bottom of the Kelvin Enterprise.
Any time someone tries to shoehorn in today's tech or today's science to answer how something works in Star Trek, that should be a clear red flag to stop.
But if you are looking for something advanced, the original Enterprise was a wirelessly powered environment. It could even transmit the ship's power to a location on a planet from orbit. And it was generally safe... except when the M-5 computer turned it into something that killed an engineer.
Not all of these steps backwards were inserting today's tech into tomorrow, sometimes there were other factors. The displays on the bridge in the Cage looked like large black fields where images could be projected, by WNMHGB they were replaced by distinct "CRT" like displays.
Why was this done? Each of those images was coming from a slide projector. By union rules, every projector required an individual projectionist... even slide projectors. The bridge became less advanced because it was too expensive to maintain the original vision.
This wasn't unique to Star Trek. In the movie 2010, all of the cool flat screens of 2001 were replaced with actual CRT displays... but the people of 1984 didn't know that we'd have flat LCDs that looked like those in 2001 by 2001.
At any rate, I'm voting for The Cage version because I really do feel it is the best version... even if in universe it should be the oldest and least advanced.
The Cage Enterprise is the most advanced starship in Star Trek.
What do I mean by most advanced? It is the least handicapped/encumbered by 20th/21st century science and technology. Every version since has been compromised in some way.
The worst offender (and also the best example) is the TMP refit.
While comparing the 1964 pilot Enterprise with the refit from 1979 (as seen in this shot of my pilot and pre-TMP study models) would be nice, I think a better comparison of design philosophy is looking at the 1977 Phase II Enterprise and the 1978 pre-TMP refit (like in this shot of my models) as they are only a year apart from each other.
As has been pointed out, the refit has weapons everywhere... which wasn't a result of the plot of TMP (they never fire the phasers in that movie). On the Phase II Enterprise a weapons assembly was added to the base of the dorsal so the effects artists would have a clear place on the ship for weapons to originate. For the audience, the Enterprise went from having no visible weapons in TOS to being overtly blistering with weapons in TMP.
And while the weapons on the refit was... a choice, the addition of reaction control thrusters all over the ship was truly baffling. This is the addition of current tech to solve a problem that wasn't a problem.
You might ask how does the Enterprise maneuver? That is exactly the point, we (hundreds of years in Trek's past) don't have either the science or technology to know how. But grafting a solution from today onto a ship of the far future is always the wrong answer... specially if it wasn't there from the start.
I know you guys love the refit, but when I look at it I see the equivalence of a steampunked Enterprise. And it has gotten worse since then... like all those rockets firing from the bottom of the Kelvin Enterprise.
Any time someone tries to shoehorn in today's tech or today's science to answer how something works in Star Trek, that should be a clear red flag to stop.
But if you are looking for something advanced, the original Enterprise was a wirelessly powered environment. It could even transmit the ship's power to a location on a planet from orbit. And it was generally safe... except when the M-5 computer turned it into something that killed an engineer.
Not all of these steps backwards were inserting today's tech into tomorrow, sometimes there were other factors. The displays on the bridge in the Cage looked like large black fields where images could be projected, by WNMHGB they were replaced by distinct "CRT" like displays.
Why was this done? Each of those images was coming from a slide projector. By union rules, every projector required an individual projectionist... even slide projectors. The bridge became less advanced because it was too expensive to maintain the original vision.
This wasn't unique to Star Trek. In the movie 2010, all of the cool flat screens of 2001 were replaced with actual CRT displays... but the people of 1984 didn't know that we'd have flat LCDs that looked like those in 2001 by 2001.
At any rate, I'm voting for The Cage version because I really do feel it is the best version... even if in universe it should be the oldest and least advanced.
Well, it was Soviet after all…even though Buran wasn’t even flying in 2010.
I saw that movie with a friend in a theater back in 1984. I remember both of us laughing upon seeing Leonov’s interior for exactly the reason you specify.
I like Sternbach’s Ambassador because it is simple and stout….the TOS ship I couldn’t bear to see marked.
Ent-C?
Not so much.
Like my car, it’s a beater.
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Outside of the poll, that would be my preference. Providing the bugs are fixed, it looks like the most comfortable and functional of any iteration.
