Spoilers Starship Design in Star Trek: Picard

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Picard' started by pst, Jan 9, 2020.

  1. Kpnuts

    Kpnuts Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I wasn't asking for an in-universe reason, I meant what's the design reason? It's just his usual over-detailing.

    On nacelle pylons sure, but he puts hull cutouts or recesses everywhere on all his designs.
     
  2. Tuskin38

    Tuskin38 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    That was his design reasoning.
     
  3. Tuskin38

    Tuskin38 Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Other Trek designers have done that, before and after eaves
     
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  4. DEWLine

    DEWLine Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    This is true.
     
  5. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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    To me, one of the best parts about Picard was the fact that we were seeing Starfleet from the outside looking in, a civilian perspective.
     
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  6. Agony_Boothb

    Agony_Boothb Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Except your argument which i was responding to wasn't about then being 'well designed' but about the ships being generic and that they had no design. They clearly do have a design ethos, you just don't like the designs. And now your shifting the goal posts to to say he 'over-designs' his ships. But i thought you said the ships had no design? So which is it?
     
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  7. Kpnuts

    Kpnuts Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I've been saying he over-designs for years. By adding pointless details and hull geometry everywhere.
     
  8. Dukhat

    Dukhat Admiral Admiral

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    Actually, let’s go back to Star Trek: First Contact, where Eaves’s design aesthetic really started (yes, I know he designed stuff earlier than that, but FC is really where he came to the forefront, other than the Jem’Hadar fighters from DS9.)

    The first ships we see in FC are the Starfleet ships from the Sector 001 battle. Other than the Defiant and the Nebula and Miranda classes, every other new ship in that scene was designed by Alex Jaeger, with the exception of the new Enterprise-E, which was collaboratively designed by Eaves, Rick Sternbach, and Herman Zimmerman. But the principal designer for the E was Eaves, and it was his first ‘hero’ ship design. And for what it was, it was fine. It was meant to be a completely different and unique design from the Enterprise-D (which Rick Berman and Brannon Braga felt they’d seen enough of in 7 years of TNG), and that it would be of theatrical quality in detail, unlike the television quality detail of the D. Eaves succeeded in both of those endeavors.

    After that, newer Starfleet ships designed by Sternbach incorporated design elements of the Sovereign class, such as the Nova class and the Prometheus class. One could therefore assume that this was the new design aesthetic of Starfleet vessels from the early 2370’s onward (the design elements from the four Jaeger-designed ships seemed to not fall into this category, probably because they were just meant to be one-offs whose sole design criteria was that they not resemble the Enterprise-E in any way so as not to confuse the audience as to which ship was the Enterprise in the battle.)

    So now, for the period of 2386-2399, when PIC takes place, I have no problem with Starfleet vessels designed by Eaves that resemble the Enterprise-E. Those 2386-era Wallenberg tugs are clearly meant to homage the Sovereign class in their design. And that’s fine.

    But for me, I tend to get irritated when Eaves is given a job to design new ships and then just recycles old designs he made 10+ years ago for some defunct video game, or recycles design elements for different ships no matter what race, organization or time period those ships come from. I simply don’t find that to be a very imaginative quality in a designer, especially if the designs are anachronistic to the time period in which those designs are supposed to be set.

    I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m almost 100% sure that the next new Enterprise we see will be designed by Eaves, whether it’s the 23rd century DSC Enterprise-A, the 25th century PIC Enterprise-F, or the 32nd century V’Draysh N’tur’Pryz-Z. And I’m also sure that they probably won’t be all that much different in details.
     
    Last edited: May 31, 2020
  9. RAMA

    RAMA Admiral Admiral

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    Yeah, in DS9 they copy-pasted dozens of old designs as they turned to CGI, at least Picard had 3 variations of a NEW ship!

    I'm not really sure what people are complaining about, the new ship(s) look like an extension of the Sovereign era, and related to the STO Odyssey class.

    RAMA

     
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  10. MakeshiftPython

    MakeshiftPython Commodore Commodore

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    Sure, that's just something popular among all designers. Such details gives the ships a sense of scale. It was one of the improvements of the four foot model of the Enterprise-D, rather than sticking to a smooth surface.
     
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  11. Dukhat

    Dukhat Admiral Admiral

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    Nope, just one ship with two different nacelle variations.

    Actually, it doesn’t resemble the STO Odyssey class at all. It resembles more this ship that Eaves developed back in 2008 for a different STO game that was never produced, which was clearly based on Voyager:

    http://gaming.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/startrekonline/conceptart/concept18.jpg

    https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5_lx3iow...a+Ego+Part+2+USS+Zheng+He+fleet+variant+A.jpg
     
    Last edited: May 31, 2020
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  12. RAMA

    RAMA Admiral Admiral

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    The design aesthetic from that era of ship are pretty similar, including the other Eaves ship, STO and First Contact+ era.

    I definitely identified 3 variations and posted them online after the finale. The fact is it was a new ship when we got retreads in DS9.

    RAMA

     
    Last edited: May 31, 2020
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  13. Dukhat

    Dukhat Admiral Admiral

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    Please post the variations here, because even Michael Chabon himself said there was only one ship.
     
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  14. NCC-73515

    NCC-73515 Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Are the TMP K'Tinga and Alien Nostromo overdesigned? Look at their hull details...
     
  15. RAMA

    RAMA Admiral Admiral

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    Three distinct but similar nacelle designs, same hull..or is it?[​IMG]
    These appear to have some slightly different hull details.
    [​IMG]
     
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  16. Gonzo

    Gonzo Guest

    Yeah I counted three as well, I am also pretty sure I saw a couple of different styles of impulse engine and bridge module alterations in some of the really close up shots.

    Like I said I was looking for Riker's ship at the time, expecting it to be larger or have a registry.

    The changes are not massive but they do indicate possible sub classes or ships that are outfitted to fill different roles within the larger fleet.

    I like the ships design ethos and it does mimic STO a bit (which some don't like at all), I would love to see the Odyssey class (or re-imagined version) and if it was to happen it would be kept back for a big reveal episode I would think.

    I like the idea of similar and even identical ships with no registries, makes it harder for the enemy to identify the command ship, it also makes it harder for enemies to track individual ships and estimate total ship numbers.

    They look like mid sized battlecruisers around 400-500m or so, their numbers indicate that they are single role peace keepers rather than multi role explorers, I must admit they seem a bit big if that is true although we don't know crew complement and they could be partially crewed by holograms.
     
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  17. RAMA

    RAMA Admiral Admiral

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    Trek reality: Yes, it was a short scene and they just needed any design to make up the fleet.

    Trek universe reality: Starfleet ships have always been modular, did Starfleet go one step further and simplify design because of recent historical threats?

     
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  18. Gonzo

    Gonzo Guest

    Would make sense after the attack on Mars.

    I would have expected such a large fleet to be made up of somewhat smaller single role ships, around 300m or so to speed up the construction process without losing any offensive punch, what we saw looked a lot larger but we will have to wait and see when the details come out.

    I would have been fine with a load of Defiant class ships and an Odyssey class equivalent at the centre dropping cloak right in front of the Romulan fleet. :biggrin:

    I always found it rather shortsighted to send out big expensive explorer ships without escorts, it has never made sense to me.
     
  19. Kpnuts

    Kpnuts Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I'm not talking about the surface level detail, more the larger scale stuff.
     
  20. Kpnuts

    Kpnuts Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    You can't be serious?

    Picard gave us 1 new ship, with slightly altered nacelle details, multiplied by 200.
    DS9 gave us proper FLEETS. Tons of ship classes all working together. It was outstanding and gave ship porn fans plenty to love.

    It helps that the Akira, Galaxy, Miranda, Excelsior, Centaur (new) classes are all beautifully designed. And the USS Copy Paste is... not.

    People are complaining one of or all of the following:

    - The ships are ugly
    - The fleet is copy and pasted
    - The cinematography is poor, camera angles, framing, blocking etc

    2 and 3 are identical nacelles and 1 covered up the blue glow on the back.

    I can't spot any difference in hull detail between those two ships, because they're the same ship copy and pasted.

    You're genuinely trying to tell us that there 3 different classes of ships here? Come on. Chabon himself said there was only 1 ship. Look I enjoyed season 1 of Picard for the most part, but it's ok to admit when something wasn't great and could be better.

    Oh and DS9 invented the Centaur Class and plenty of kitbashes, which in-universe make a ton of sense rather than magically coming up with lots of new classes no one's seen before, again, after doing that once with the Defiant.
     
    Last edited: May 31, 2020