A Different Voyager?

[Vincent Law]

I've seen some complaints about the way Voyager looked, particularly because of the nacelle size and arrangement. So if you could have designed the ship, how would you have done it? A modified version of the final design? Something based on one of the preliminary designs? A completely different original design? Or would you have used an existing design?

 

[Vinkula]

Nothing. Intrepid class is perfect as it is now

 

[Bill Morris]

The Intrepid class was designed for the technology available and its mission specs, optimum interior layout, and ideal location of its facilities. If it is considered to have a pleasing exterior shape, that's a fortunate coincidence.

 

[Warped9]

It looked like an upside down toilet bowl (from some angles) with a handle and flapping wings. Pretty anything would be an improvement.

 

[BDJ]

Actually I noticed that if you take a tablespoon and hold it by the very end with the spoon facing away from you at a slight angle you'll see exactly where they got the inspiration for Voyager. (you'll need to imagine nacelle's btw!) Jus' Sayin'

 

[SonicRanger]

I prefer the earlier design from Sternbach that made it as far as the study model phase... but then Jeri Taylor told him to make it curvier, like a luxury car.

 

[BolianAuthor]

I also think the Intrepid-Class is pretty much perfect as-is. The only things I would change, is not to have the warp engines move... to me that always made it more like a Transformer, and less like a ship, and I would not have it able to land... when you have transporters and shuttles, there's no need for the ship to land.

 

[Michael]

I always loved Sternbach's design for the Voyager. But if I was forced to change something, I'd probably cut the saucer shorter, make the engineering section a little bit bigger, extend the warp coils and move them up a bit.

Here's a quick mock-up in Photoshop ...

 

[Captain Rob]

I've always thought Voyager looked nose-heavy. I'd double the length of the engines and make them look like smoothed-out versions of the Enterprise-E's engines. I think that's what the Nova class engines look like. And I'd sweep the connecting pylons back and up a bit. And loose the hinge effect. I didn't mind the landing ability that much. I think she'd need bigger feet that reached out wider. She'd be more stable on the ground if all of the main power was off. Which I assume was off when they did the nacelle overhaul.

 

[starfox]

With apologies to Rick Sternbach (I love most of his work), the Intrepid class was about as unattractive as the Oberth class. I didn't like the arrowhead shape of the primary hull, the merged primary and secondary hulls, the landing gear, the pointed tips of the nacelles, the moving nacelle struts, the shape of the main deflector, or the sensor notch in the forward dorsal primary hull.

I wouldn't have used an existing design though, since that would've been boring. A new series deserves a new starship class.

None of the alternative designs (http://www.starshipdatalink.net/art/voyager1.html) appeal to me, either. I would've preferred something totally different.

 

[Vinkula]

I just love the Intrepid class. I can't understand how it is ugly... ;o

 

[The Axeman]

The Intrepid is what it is, the result of constraints applied by the studio execs and by recent episodes of Trek which established certain new tech issues. The nacelles only look small in comparison to the older designs, where people became used to very long, thin nacelles. On it's own, it looks pretty good. If it reminds me of anything, it's of the high tech running shoe that Douglas Adams describes the Heart Of Gold as being.

 

[lennier1]

I like the final design, but I would've preferred something closer to the concept version.
This one is much better than this better known drawing (though the latter one does a better job at fusing the engineering section with the superstructure).
Replace the Runabout elements with something more original, make the elements a bit more organic (particularly the shuttle bay area) and you're there.

 

[The Axeman]

Those look more like kitbashes to me, whereas the Intrepid design look much more a single entity that is not beholden to any other design. I don't see why so many people are intent on turning it into another Enterprise by adding long nacelles on spindly pylons.

 

[SonicRanger]

I like the final design, but I would've preferred something closer to the concept version.
This one is much better than this better known drawing (though the latter one does a better job at fusing the engineering section with the superstructure).
Replace the Runabout elements with something more original, make the elements a bit more organic (particularly the shuttle bay area) and you're there.

Yeah, that's the one I like. She looks more like a workhorse. I'm kind of tired of Trek series following the newest, best, fastest, most technological (i.e., bioneural gel packs) ship in the fleet.

 

[erifah]

I like the way the Voyager turned out. Sure, it looks a bit like a Dustbuster®, but that little vacuum cleaner also happened to be a nifty piece of industrial design.

As for Trek ships always being the newest, best, fastest, ship in the fleet - yeah, I agree with that point. That was one of the cool things about BSG - the Galactica WASN'T the latest & greatest hero ship, it was the Everyman's ship, filled with ordinary people - easy to relate to and identify with those characters, and get drawn into the story.

Indeed, that's where ST: Voyager was so weak. It started off with all kinds of possibilities for character-driven drama based on human flaws and frailties, compounded by the fact that the crew was comprised of "warring" factions... but right away, they all got along so nicely and cooperatively - BORING.

 

[lennier1]

Those look more like kitbashes to me, whereas the Intrepid design look much more a single entity that is not beholden to any other design. I don't see why so many people are intent on turning it into another Enterprise by adding long nacelles on spindly pylons.

Voyager predates First Contact. So how does this older concept drawing turn it into something that John Eaves didn't even know about at the time?
If you look at Designs like the Nebula you'll see that designs which have flowing lines and are still modular aren't exactly new to this era. And as you can see the upper engineering section and the pylons are exactly the elements which still needed to be reworked.
Considering Voyager's purpose is mostly scientific the long nacelles actually fit in. There have been numerous occasions throughout TNG where the nacelles (or rather the warp field) were needed to deal with the phenomenon of the week.

That was one of the cool things about BSG - the Galactica WASN'T the latest & greatest hero ship, it was the Everyman's ship, filled with ordinary people - easy to relate to and identify with those characters, and get drawn into the story.

Actually, Galactica was an old relic of the past. So outdated, she wasn't even used for spare parts anymore but they simply turned what was left into a museum.
That's the irony which made the idea behind the show so much fun. A collection of scrap metal that's doing a poor imitation of a battlestar suddenly becomes the last hope for this race.

 

[The Axeman]

I'm not sure what you're referring to Lennier. That concept sketch looks awfuly like a good portion of an excelsior class with the nacelles mounted on upside down. That's what makes me think of it as a kit bash. Voyager doesn't look modular to me, it looks very singular. The concept sketch looks like an arrowhead front, bits of excelsiors, etc. I think they picked the better design in the end for a small, technically advanced ship.

Weren't the nacelles supposed to get around the 'damaging the fabric of space/time' problem they established in TNG? They imposed speed limits on the ENT-D era stuff and Voyagers engines were designed to minimise this damage. I guess it's the first 'green' space ship in Trek.

 

[lennier1]

That concept sketch looks awfuly like a good portion of an excelsior class with the nacelles mounted on upside down. That's what makes me think of it as a kit bash.

The fact that they took the whole stinking warp sled assembly from a Runabout might have something to do with it. That's the part that would'Ve had to be replaced at any cost.
I deliberately made the distinction between those two images on purpose because the one from the front shows a better, more rounded version of the saucer with an integrated superstructure.
The engineering hull is somewhere between the Excelsior and the (too short) final one. For a long time the deflector assembly was halfway between the Galaxy and the final result, but the engineering hull in the concept version had the advantage of more integrated impulse engines, over a year before the Sovereign integrated hers more seamlessly (see the cutout that's partially obstructed by the right pylon in the following image).

Much like Mirandas and Nebulas the parts of the CONCEPT(!!!) are modular and can be replaced more easily, whereas you either have to cut the final design apart or glue stuff to the hull like many Voyager episodes did (Scorpion, Living Witness, Endgame).

Voyager doesn't look modular to me, it looks very singular.

I'm not talking about what ended up on-screen but the original concept, which for a long time even had support for mission-specific modules, much like the Nebula and the Miranda.

Weren't the nacelles supposed to get around the 'damaging the fabric of space/time' problem they established in TNG?

Yes, and instead we ended up with kid-size highlighters.

It's a concept for a reason. It still needed more work and some parts just didn't work out, but it was a step in the right direction.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Wasn't someone on Sci Fi Meshes doing a 3D version of that Sternbach concept VOY, or had made one already?