The New DS9 Design: Hot Or Not?

[HoserTrek37]

Anyone else wish they'd reviewed the database of canon & stayed with a known design for the rebuilt DS9? My choice would've been a Utopia Planetia parking station with upgraded defenses and a few Nemesis style box-docks in the background to handle obvious maintenance needs in the event the wormhole is collapsed, cutting them off from help/support.

 

[R. Star]

Spoiler: Novel Spoiler?

Is that supposed to be second DS9? Looks kinda silly, but if that's it, then expecting something from canon is a bit silly. Designs change over 20 years you know.

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

Put that in the literature forum.

--Sran

 

[C.E. Evans]

That's not the design they're using in the new books.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vetw2Mrit...40/Star+Trek+The+Fall+Revelation+and+Dust.jpg

But I think the OP is talking about using some other design that's been seen before (although I'm unfamiliar with the design being posted).

Ironically when DS9 was first proposed one of the early promotions in various trade magazines around '92 used Spacedock One as a stand-in for the yet-to-be designed station.

 

[bullethead]

Well, the new design is pretty fugly and impractical. The TV design of DS9 was pretty awkward too in some areas, but it at least had way more docking capacity than the new one and it looked like it was big. I get that the new design is probably bigger than the old one, but the proportions of the arms, docking ring, and core make it look way smaller.

 

[F. King Daniel]

It was designed by Rick Sternbach and Doug Drexler based on the description at the end of Raise the Dawn by David R. George III.


I like it, although there was a fan-made version I saw months ago which I preferred.

 

[dub]

One of the pitches for the original design of ds9 had the full rings like this. Rick Berman asked to have the top and bottom of the rings removed, and the result was ds9. Perhaps I've just grown used to it, but I prefer the TV version. I've always found it to be a visually appealing design. The only other space station design I've seen that I found visually appealing was the space dock from TSFS. And perhaps the Death Star.

 

[Praetor]

What function do the rings serve in the new design? In the old design, the upper and lower pylons were rationalized to be designed to process incoming and outgoing uridium ore.

 

[TheRoyalFamily]

That's not the design they're using in the new books.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vetw2Mrit...40/Star+Trek+The+Fall+Revelation+and+Dust.jpg

Absolutely disgusting.

Looks like a typical generic sci-fi paperback cover illustration, with Star Trek ships instead of generic sci-fi spaceships.

 

[bullethead]

That's not the design they're using in the new books.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vetw2Mrit...40/Star+Trek+The+Fall+Revelation+and+Dust.jpg

Absolutely disgusting.

Looks like a typical generic sci-fi paperback cover illustration, with Star Trek ships instead of generic sci-fi spaceships.

I have to agree. Even though the CG models are fine (except for the station), it just looks really cheap. You could toss a Photoshop Paint Daub filter on it and make it look ten times better.

 

[dub]

While there are some beautiful book covers out there, literature is not the first place I turn for stunning visual effects!

 

[CorporalClegg]

Looks fine to me.



It's a paperback cover that's going to be read by a limited number of people.

 

[Sci]

That's not the design they're using in the new books.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vetw2Mrit...40/Star+Trek+The+Fall+Revelation+and+Dust.jpg

Absolutely disgusting.

Me-ow. Talk about a disproportionate reaction.

 

[C.E. Evans]

That's not the design they're using in the new books.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vetw2Mrit...40/Star+Trek+The+Fall+Revelation+and+Dust.jpg

Absolutely disgusting.

Looks like a typical generic sci-fi paperback cover illustration, with Star Trek ships instead of generic sci-fi spaceships.

You're entitled to your own opinion, but I disagree. I think it nicely conveys the sense of a modern (by 24th-Century standards) Federation space station, with a few vague nods to the original DS9.

 

[SchwEnt]

I suppose the new station design is fair enough.

Strongly influenced by the previous Cardassian design. That's my problem with it.

DS9 introduced a new alien station, unlike anything we had seen in Star Fleet. An old abandoned Cardassian mining station. It was a mining station, but Star Fleet made use of it as-is for a wormhole outpost.

So... why would Star Fleet introduce a Cardassian knock-off replacement? For sentimental reasons? Is that reasonable?

(I have no knowledge of the novels or stories behind it, I'm only looking at one picture here).

 

[C.E. Evans]

The only real connection the new design has with the old one is an outer horizontal docking ring, but the other features--including a centralized core--may not be unique to DS9 (a number of Federation stations such as Starbase 375 had them).

 

[BillJ]

Strongly influenced by the previous Cardassian design. That's my problem with it.

They tortured the Bajorans for forty years with Terok Nor being their main base. So lets stick it to the Bajorans by replacing it with something that looks similar.

I'm not a fan of the new design. But the great thing about books is that you can pretty much imagine it to be anything you want it to be.

 

[Mysterion]

What function do the rings serve in the new design? In the old design, the upper and lower pylons were rationalized to be designed to process incoming and outgoing uridium ore.

Bingo. The design of the original has been copied for no apparent reason. Probably no good reason, either.

Then there is that huge window. Catastrophic and massive explosive decompression just waiting to happen. Likely on the last pages of an upcoming novel.

 

[C.E. Evans]

What function do the rings serve in the new design? In the old design, the upper and lower pylons were rationalized to be designed to process incoming and outgoing uridium ore.

Bingo. The design of the original has been copied for no apparent reason. Probably no good reason, either.

Given that we know nothing about the new station--in the books, it's essentially made only a brief cameo--that's jumping to conclusions.

Then there is that huge window. Catastrophic and massive explosive decompression just waiting to happen.

That's true of any spacecraft with windows. In Trek, though, they generally have a means to minimize that risk (forcefields, and/or the windows comprised of a transparent material that's hard as duranium).

 

[-Brett-]

...in the event the wormhole is collapsed, cutting them off from help/support.

You do understand that DS9 was located on the alpha quadrant side and therefore wasn't dependent on the wormhole for help or support?

Anyway, the litverse has been on my shit list for a while for ditching the storyline already in progress in favor of the next new and shiny. Unprofessional. Any claim they had of being real literature rather than cheap fan fic died when that decision was made.

All that being said, if DS9 was to be replaced, replacing it with Generic Space Station Model #5 would have been even worse than what they did.