Future Ship Design

[Lorna]

I think this thread is more suitable for the future of Trek forum as it's in regards to the future of Trek ship design.

Would you accept a future film or series set at a future time to ST: Nemesis that depicts Starfleet ships radically different in design to what we're used to?
Would you accept for example if Starfleet ships became more like the Vulcan type ships from ENT? or if they became a lot like the Relativity ship in VOY?

Would you accept a radical change or would you only accept designs based one the regular concepts of a saucer section connected to a secondary hull and connected to warp nacelles usually on pylons?

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Nobody really had a problem with the Defiant, so sure, why not.

 

[Lorna]

Nobody really had a problem with the Defiant, so sure, why not.

To be fair though the Defiant is extremely small and designed specifically to fight the Borg and is a one of a kind because it was designed and built specifically for battle. The Defiant also never replaced the common ship design throughout starfleet.

I'm asking would you accept a massive Starfleet wide ship re-design. I'm talking about completely saying goodbye to the regularly used saucer/2nd Hull/nacelles design.
Would you accept it if the usual bar style nacelle was replaced with circular or spherical nacelles?

 

[Saquist]

I wouldn't like the departure from the saucer design and nacelles unless it make sense.
Now with Slipstream deflector tech maybe it's an all new hull geometry...but under warp it makes little sense unless it makes the design better..

 

[Dukhat]

I think this thread is more suitable for the future of Trek forum as it's in regards to the future of Trek ship design.

Would you accept a future film or series set at a future time to ST: Nemesis that depicts Starfleet ships radically different in design to what we're used to?
Would you accept for example if Starfleet ships became more like the Vulcan type ships from ENT? or if they became a lot like the Relativity ship in VOY?

Would you accept a radical change or would you only accept designs based one the regular concepts of a saucer section connected to a secondary hull and connected to warp nacelles usually on pylons?

Are you asking whether I as a fan would like it, or what would realistically happen if it were changed? I as a fan could really care less what the new ship or ships looks like (unless it was yet another Akira-class ripoff), as long as the acting and writing was good. If you think about it, Deep Space Nine's design isn't the most practical space station design, but nobody cared because DS9 was such a good show and had good acting talent.

Now realistically, I don't think we're going to get anything else but a saucer/ secondary hull/two nacelles design for whatever new Enterprise or other ship design gets made next. That saucer and nacelle design is far too iconic in Star Trek for a completely radical change from that.

 

[Lorna]

If you think about it, Deep Space Nine's design isn't the most practical space station design, but nobody cared

Yeh but that was Cardassian architecture/design and not Starfleet. Had they tried to pass that design off as Starfleet I think the fans would have been displeased.

 

[Dukhat]

If you think about it, Deep Space Nine's design isn't the most practical space station design, but nobody cared

Yeh but that was Cardassian architecture/design and not Starfleet. Had they tried to pass that design off as Starfleet I think the fans would have been displeased.

I'm talking about the real-life Star Trek Art Department and/or whoever designed the station for the show.

 

[Lorna]

If you think about it, Deep Space Nine's design isn't the most practical space station design, but nobody cared

Yeh but that was Cardassian architecture/design and not Starfleet. Had they tried to pass that design off as Starfleet I think the fans would have been displeased.

I'm talking about the real-life Star Trek Art Department and/or whoever designed the station for the show.

Star Trek design has never been about practicality.

 

[Clawhammer]

I think Star Trek does not really need the classic setup. As pointed out, DS9/Defiant where very different and yet succesful. Ships are cool, but they most of the time are secondary to the story. (As it should be I might add.)

In fact I was thinking about this a few days ago and decided to go "entire new ways" for 2011.

(Once the current batch of ships is done.)

A risk woei! :P

 

[Dukhat]

Yeh but that was Cardassian architecture/design and not Starfleet. Had they tried to pass that design off as Starfleet I think the fans would have been displeased.

I'm talking about the real-life Star Trek Art Department and/or whoever designed the station for the show.

Star Trek design has never been about practicality.

Tell that to Michael Okuda and Rick Sternbach, who painstakingly created the TNG Tech manual.

Either way, we're nitpicking one thing that I said which has really nothing to do with your OP anyway.

 

[the skullcowboy]

truth be told I am not a fan of that circular nacelle design, if trek was going to radically re-design its fleet I would hope the ships could become more streamlined and sleek in shape. If it happens I will accept it, though at first I am sure I will have the standard knee-jerk reaction of " what the.... " I was not real fond of the NCC-1701D when I first saw her either, thought that the ship was too bulky but as the show progressed and they ultilized more than the bridge and sick bay it grew on me.

 

[AggieJohn]

I would have a problem with it. I did not even like how they departed from the original Enterprise to the TNG version. The dimensions were all wrong. And I think it is important. A good show the ship becomes a character on to itself. Even the Ent D won me over in that regard. I was litterally heart broken watching STIII, Kirk had always found some way to beat the bad guy and save the ship. I think the less successful series failed in that regards, I never really cared about the USS Voyager, NX (won't call it Enterprise) or DS9.

Look at it this way. If you radically change the ship its just not Star Trek. DS9 and Voy were hurt, in my view because they were not the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, yeah it needs to look like the others, in its basic form. Now if they want to play with that a little I think overall the fans have been forgiving as long as the stories are good. I wouldn't mind seeing something more retro like the Original Enterprise, but maybe some angular nacelles would be ok, I would expect that the Main hull be round in shape, I did not like the ovals and especially the angular ones, its not Star Trek. You want sweet angles in your ship designs put on Star Wars.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I think it's fine if Starfleet has a wide variety of ship designs--really, all you need is for them to all have the same paint scheme and glowy bits to signify they're from the same fleet--but I think any future Enterprise should retain a forward saucer and elevated twin aft nacelle configuration for audiences to recognize. You can play around with the particular component designs to your heart's content, but that classic configuration tells people "it's the Starship Enterprise" even to those with only a passing familiarity with Star Trek...

 

[Saquist]

I'm talking about the real-life Star Trek Art Department and/or whoever designed the station for the show.

Star Trek design has never been about practicality.

Tell that to Michael Okuda and Rick Sternbach, who painstakingly created the TNG Tech manual.

Either way, we're nitpicking one thing that I said which has really nothing to do with your OP anyway.

And Probert as well put alot of practicality into his design.
What he said kinda just spit in their collective faces.

Now John Eaves doesn't put that kind of practical effort into his Fed Designs and apparently neither does Ryan Church but they don't represent the whole.

 

[AggieJohn]

Honestly I would hope that a new Star Trek series would have a task force of ships with the Enterprise in command. I mean really have you ever herd of a single capital ship, especially the flag ship of a navy setting sail alone? It would be interesting for the show too, since there could be those debates among the ships captains on how to proceed during a mission, diplomatic vs military action.

 

[BillJ]

Honestly I would hope that a new Star Trek series would have a task force of ships with the Enterprise in command. I mean really have you ever herd of a single capital ship, especially the flag ship of a navy setting sail alone? It would be interesting for the show too, since there could be those debates among the ships captains on how to proceed during a mission, diplomatic vs military action.

See the Star Trek: Voyager re-re-launch by Kirsten Beyer.

 

[The Inquisitor]

Personally I wouldn't mind either way. Unfortunately you cant please all the people all the time so whatever design they came up with it would leave a lot of unhappy fans.

It also depends on the date the series would be set in. If they set it shortly after Voyager/DS9 then I suspect they would stick closely to the original Enterprise format of nacelles, main body and saucer section.

 

[Chaos Descending]

I mean really have you ever herd of a single capital ship ... setting sail alone?

Submarines.

All the time.

... especially the flag ship of a navy ...

There's no such thing as "the flag ship of a navy". Star Trek has misled its fans into thinking that the phrase "flag ship" means something that it does not mean.

 

[Andymator]

Star Trek gas misled its fans into think that the phrase "flag ship" means something that it does not mean.

Well, not really if you think about it... The phrase "Flagship" is used in several contexts in modern society, and Starfleet in the future world of Star Trek seems to use the term much the way a TV network would when talking about it's "flagship show".

 

[Chaos Descending]

Star Trek gas misled its fans into think that the phrase "flag ship" means something that it does not mean.

Well, not really if you think about it... The phrase "Flagship" is used in several contexts in modern society...

... and all based on the Naval term "flag ship", which still only means one thing in a Naval context.