You mean this?
fsd.trekships.org/art/images/ded-2.jpg
These drawings look nothing like a TMP Enterprise that was scaled up and minimally changed.
Spoilers Starship Design in Star Trek: Picard
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You mean this?
fsd.trekships.org/art/images/ded-2.jpg
These drawings look nothing like a TMP Enterprise that was scaled up and minimally changed.
Just the idea of taking a Luna class saucer and converting it into a Constitution inspired design felt so silly. That look sticks out so absurdly in the 25th century. I might have liked it more if they did a modern saucer like the Sagan class, but having any brand new looking ship be a refit of the Titan was a ridiculous plot point from the get-go. They wanted to eat way too many cakes.
Yeah, the top one. It's elements of the TOS and TMP designs with a squashed secondary hull and nacelles. The evolution from 1964 to 1987 is obvious to me.
I'd say the most obvious precedent for the Wasp to the Intrepid is the Excelsior to the Enterprise-E, but I know how a lot of people feel here about Eaves' ships, and we've got a design paper-trail for the -E that show it was more a case of parallel evolution and it didn't start out as a streamlined Excelsior.
my biggest problem with the nacelles used is that they look like they couldn't decide on one design and stitched four together
There’s a big difference between starship evolution, and just scaling up a ship to four times its original size and making minor cosmetic changes.
Turns out Bill Krause did share this view with TriZander on Twitter, who made a YouTube video several years ago. Pity Krause had to nuke his Twitter account with years of remaining content.And here are some more views by Bill Krause of the Chaparral concept stage for the Duderstadt class.
Bill Krause (@admiralbuck.bsky.social)
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Before finding out halfway through that Lower Decks had canonized Sean Tourangeau's Luna class design from the novels and STO, Terry Matalas wanted to secure the canonical take on Riker's unvisualized U.S.S. Titan mentioned in Star Trek Nemesis. Whatever was his plan going to be if he had gotten there first? Why neo-TMP nacelles right after the Dominion War?
IIRC, Doug Drexler explained that, they changed the nacelle designs in response to the semi-permanent warping of the space/time continuum established in TNG. The new designs "fixed" that problem so that ships could go back to higher warp factors in the main space lanes without wrecking things. They just couldn't really get there with putting such an innovation on the ships while they were all out fighting the Dominion. Once they stood down from their war footing, new ships built had the new tech and the older ships that remained from the war were upgraded in turn.
That's my head-canon on it anyway, based on Drexler's take, and it's as good an explanation as any to me.
That's my head-canon on it anyway, based on Drexler's take, and it's as good an explanation as any to me.
Yeah, Beta Canon establishes the Nova and Sovereign used warp coils that moved internally rather than the Intrepid-class's variable geometry nacelles (which technically, we should see Voyager "flapping" when at warp...)
Anyways following up on a conversation with @Dukhat and moving it here to a more appropriate venue, this is the concept Dave Blass retweeted by Samuel Cockings on what a "launch configuration" Phoenix-class would look like:
Post by Blass:
As you can see there's some clear issues... namely the use of Nova-class architecture in 2352... when we're in the middle of Project Galaxy and stuff like the Freedom/Niagara (Galaxy Nacelle space trials were in 2353) hasn't even launched yet. Nova-class is a 2370 launch at the earliest, as it has nearly the same Nacelle configuration as the Sovereign, its features are contemporary with Intrepid-class (launched 2369) and Equinox's plaque is 2370. Also, Nova came out of Project Pathfinder, meaning it probably wouldn't have launched before Defiant's launch (6-month trial in early 2369 before its retirement and Sisko's transfer).
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Did someone say flapping?
While I like the in-universe/out-of-universe backstory of the Nova being based on a concept Defiant, it's not the first time someone production-associated suggested the Nova was older than it seemed; Probert had a painting where a Nova had been wrecked at Wolf 359.
Though, personally, I think that's neither here nor there, and there's enough evidence that there isn't a strict progression from one look to the next when it comes to starship styling, and ships (or components like nacelles, escape pods, and deflector dishes) can be around in-universe long before we saw them in real life.
Well I’m certainly glad this was just fan art and not official.
As for the Eleos itself, since it was, yet again, another older pre-STO design from the TNG movie era that Eaves recycled for a ship that’s supposed to be much older than that, at least the details were changed in such a way as to imply this. Although the nacelles still looked too modern to me (which apes this fan art.)
It's obvious that Blass didn't know as much about Trek ships as he thought he did (or understand that one shouldn't just regurgitate Memory Alpha information without understanding context.)
As for the Eleos itself, since it was, yet again, another older pre-STO design from the TNG movie era that Eaves recycled for a ship that’s supposed to be much older than that, at least the details were changed in such a way as to imply this. Although the nacelles still looked too modern to me (which apes this fan art.)
It's obvious that Blass didn't know as much about Trek ships as he thought he did (or understand that one shouldn't just regurgitate Memory Alpha information without understanding context.)
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Echoes of the NX-01.
I mean I agree the on-screen appearance doesn't necessitate its existence starting only at that date, but in the case of something where we know certain elements from quasi-canonical behind-the-scenes material establish a specific introduction date, that needs to be remembered. There's a language to each era of design, and you can see where something like the Sovereign/Nova has a relationship to say the Aerie/Raven-class (USS Raven), alongside its direct relative in the Intrepid. You can see where the Akira/Luna has a relationship to the Cheyenne/Springfield. Things do progress to some degree. Modern Destroyers don't exactly the same as 1960s or 1940s ones because things like hull shape, prop design, radar and sensor equipment, etc. all developed in a way that influenced the design. That's why you see a general similarity in many superstructure design features between an Arleigh Burke Flight III and a FREMM, or PLAN Type-055. And there is a progression there. You can see it with the Tico (built on a Spruance hull) for example. That doesn't mean it's automatically Galaxy->Sovereign, or the like, but the visual aesthetics of an era need to be remembered.
See I actually can buy this though.heck, he even slightly redesigned the Phoenix not even a year later for ST09
Some more eaves art.
This Season 1 design, which went unused, started as a Discovery Season 1 Design
Another transport concept, I like this one, it might be another unused Discovery design based on the deflector. The Cargo pods look like the insurrection holo ship lol.
This Season 1 design, which went unused, started as a Discovery Season 1 Design
Another transport concept, I like this one, it might be another unused Discovery design based on the deflector. The Cargo pods look like the insurrection holo ship lol.
Not me. It's far too over-designed for a TOS ship, because he just used the TNG movie aesthetic and backtracked from there.
