"Akira" class-A joke?
- Thread starter Brannigan
- Start date
Au contraire, at least as I read the story - John Eaves had designed many original concepts for the NX. Berman didn't like any of them, picked up a picture of the Akira and said "Just use this one and make it look a little different." Eaves said "Butbutbut" and Berman said "Just do it."
Hence at least one of the Killer Bs can be directly blamed for the NX.
*shrug*
Well, if you want to get down to the deals OF the show itself, the NX-01 was supposed to be a brand new ship. New ship, new show, new life. Yet the Powers That Be rejected all those designs and said, "eh, just tweak this one up a bit."
At least from my opinion, that's like waiting for a brand new model car receiving tones of visual upgrades, only to find that it's just a rehash of a car that, really, was never that much of a front runner of any kind to begin with.
A ship, especially the primary one, is supposed to have its own personality. It embodies the show and is a character in every bit a right as there is a Scotty, Troi, T'Pol, Bashir, or Kim. With very few exceptions, I doubt anyone can argue that any main character is a rip of a previous one. Save for now.
It's like... waiting for years and years to see the Enterprise-E, only to see that it's just a slightly different version of the 1979 Battlestar Galactica. Especially when you have a budget as huge as First Contact or S1 of Enterprise.
I see your point. On the other hand, in my view, the Akira is such an insignificant Trek ship (with all due respect to Alex Jaeger, because it's a damn cool-looking ship) in the overall milieu that the NX seems original enough.
I'm no artist, but while I would have gone in a completely different design direction, the NX has enough character that it's an effective hero ship, regardless of the origins of its design.
I'm gonna have to disagree on that point as well - even discounting my disdain at the duplication and laziness factor, I thought the NX was an awful-looking ship. It especially has no character in profile view. But, ya know, looks are subjective. One man's ugly is another man's beautiful.
Well, I was around when the "akira" controversy was on. Yea, I've taken my swipes. But though it might seem lazy, or whatever, it worked rather well on the show. I think Enterprise looked terrific and the complaints are more a matter of taste. The only thing about it is that it stinks of TNG (read: Berman/Braga) era Trek. And it was, and the "Akira" design resemblance is practically symbolic of the enormous desire for something new in Trek that ENT didn't provide. At least season 4 had the Orion Slave Girls.
They're fairly powerful, as seen in "Regeneration" when Archer and Reed took out eight Borg drones with what should be a peashooter to them. Contrast this with "Q Who" and other TNG eps, where it took two full hits to kill a non-adapted drone and the next one to appear was automatically adapted.
To use another example, can you imagine George Lucas making a new Star Wars movie and saying it's now okay for non-Jedi and non-Sith to use lightsabers expertly? It's been pretty well established that those weapons are unique to Force users, and while a non Force user could wield one, they couldn't construct a lightsaber or wield it nearly as effectively.
That's true, but a Winchester was not the same as the repeating gatling guns that were developed then and became the basis for the machine gun. I forget the exact model, but they use such weapons in "Young Guns" and "The Last Samurai."
Maybe in the end we'll just have to agree to disagree. I've been slow to reply cause I've got a head cold.
Trek weapons are like warp speeds and distance, they are driven by plot more than anything else. I admire Treknologists for trying to makes sense of this stuff, but even with in the various series it doesn't always make sense. The plot of "Regeneration" required the Borg to be stopped. The plot of "Q Who" had a different criterea. For the most part phase pistols did not seem to be as powerful as their 23rd & 24th Century decendents.
Not sure the Star Wars analogy works. Trek has never been consistant in it portrayal of technology. Again the phasers do what the plot of the week needs them to do. Even how ships phasers are opererated changes from episode to episode depending on story needs. In the "Naked Time" Scotty uses a phaser to cut through a bulkhead. You'd think an engineer would have something better to use than a hand weapon.
When you say repeating I tend to think of rifles like the Winchester, rather than machine guns. The Winchester was made by the " Winchester Repeating Arms Company"
Well I like it, I like the NX and the Akira...and I like the idea that the Akira was based on a retro starship the same as I like that the NuMini is based on the old Mini (but I dont consider them the same car)
Some people like it some people dont...funny thing is it dont keep me awake at night thinking that people dont like it but it obviously keeps those who dont like it awake
Some people like it some people dont...funny thing is it dont keep me awake at night thinking that people dont like it but it obviously keeps those who dont like it awake
To clarify my Star Wars analogy, lightsabers have always been restricted to individuals who are Force-sensitives. Always. You can't build a lightsaber without a connection to the Force, nor can you train in it effectively as a Jedi or a Sith can. You can't do this anymore than a human can pick up a Klingon bat'leth and wield it perfectly. Now, George certainly has the power to change that, as he can set the rules for canon, but it's extremely unlikely that he would because it would upset the continuity of the series and piss off a lot of fans. He would not allow any other producer to do so either.
Star Trek unfortunately doesn't have that kind of quality control, not in the past few years anyway. For all the blame that Bermaga get, and they're certainly guilty of some of it, the suits at the studio are probably more guilty. They favor money over quality, and both ENT and VOY suffered as a result. Hence we get designs like the "Akiraprise" and weapons that have similar names and abilities to more advanced ones, when there should be some distinction.
Star Trek unfortunately doesn't have that kind of quality control, not in the past few years anyway. For all the blame that Bermaga get, and they're certainly guilty of some of it, the suits at the studio are probably more guilty. They favor money over quality, and both ENT and VOY suffered as a result. Hence we get designs like the "Akiraprise" and weapons that have similar names and abilities to more advanced ones, when there should be some distinction.
To be fair TOS has contradictions left and right. Roddenberry didn't care, all he wanted to do was tell a compelling story. When TNG was created he even set out to change parts he didn't like from TOS.
But if you really want to justify the evolving weapons in regards to the Borg, it's easy. The Borg were familiar with phasers in general. So even if they hadn't adapted to exactly what the federation had they had some kind of general defense and knowledge of how to adapt. Phase pistols were very different technology. So even if they were less powerful the Borg didn't know how to adapt. Remember Picard killed a bunch of Borgs with a machine gun in First Contact.
But if you really want to justify the evolving weapons in regards to the Borg, it's easy. The Borg were familiar with phasers in general. So even if they hadn't adapted to exactly what the federation had they had some kind of general defense and knowledge of how to adapt. Phase pistols were very different technology. So even if they were less powerful the Borg didn't know how to adapt. Remember Picard killed a bunch of Borgs with a machine gun in First Contact.
I have always loved the Akira class ships, they are quite beautiful in my eyes, and now that I know they are named after one of the all time best movies ever produced I like them even more.
BTW I am new here, looked for an intro spot and couldn't find one, hope I am not breaking any forum rules for posting like this.
BTW I am new here, looked for an intro spot and couldn't find one, hope I am not breaking any forum rules for posting like this.
You're fine. Welcome to TrekBBS 
I'm still not sure what your point is. Lucas has as many rabid continuity obsessed fanboys calling for his head as Berman and Braga. (maybe even more) I doubt that "continuity" or pissed off fans have ever been one of Lucas' prime motivators in constructing the Star Wars saga, nor should they be (IMO) Stan Lee once said "Never give the fans what they think they want". But he never had to deal with the internet in his prime.
The main continuity being "violated" is usually the one the fan has set up for himself rather than the one created by the writers over the years. Which reminds of a story I once heard. This one fan was totally upset with a certain comic book writer. Sent tons and tons of postings to various Comic Book BBS on how this one writer was ruining a certain character and screwing up continuity. The writer couldn't figure out what this fan was going on about, until it was revealed that the continuity being violated was in the fan's fanfic using the character!! Yet there is no objection when TNG and TOS having weapons with the same names and abilities. Have no new weapons been invented in the 100 years between the two? Was GR being lazy and favoring money over quality by not given TNG different weapons? There seems to be the idea that prequel means "totally different". When all it really means is before the other stuff.
There is no doubt the the NX-01's starting point was the Akira, but the end result was a nice looking ship with more than enough nods to the 1701 to be a predecessor to that ship. I like it. Only the two 1701s rank higher on my list of cool Trek ships.
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