Am I the only one who dislikes the Enterprise-E?

Adding bulk (like Excelsior), or unusual new shape combinations (Voyager, Ent-D, Ent-E), certainly makes for different and interesting looking ships. But I always find myself going back to the Constitution as the kind of opus-that-will-never-be-bettered, Jefferies just managed to get that design perfect on the first go, and while the refit actually manages to update that design without ruining it (and I'm tempted to say it's the perfect version), a lot of the ships that came after kind of go off in more and more wackier design directions. Some of them look pretty cool, but others just kind of lose the smart simplicity of Jefferies original design.

In short: the simplier, the better.

 

^ I actually think the ship designs that work best are the ones that are purposeful.

Pretty much the entire "explorer" line works for me. The designs tend to make sense, providing room for various types of equipment, personnel -- regulars and specialists, and ultimately even families who could join on long missions -- in increasing sizes and mission durations... It all works -- even the pregnant guppy -- at least up until the Sovereign class, which seems to be a step backwards.

The Defiant class -- built for battle -- works for me also. It's small and maneuverable, overpowered and armed to the teeth. It's a design that makes sense.

Most of the other classes we see appear designed just to be different.

 

Honestly, the only canon ship I don't like is Galaxy class. (Especially the third nipp... err nacelle one.) Runner up is Excelsior class, I guess. But even that is okay in some shots--and I think then Ent-B is better for some reason.

But I also agree the Minor/Probert design is easily the best looking ship in this history of cinema. And one of the best art designs period. I mean, Jefferies's design is almost perfect in and of itself. They perfected perfection.

 

When the Ent-E first came out, I loved it. I absolutely hated the Galaxy class and I thought the E was a massive improvement. Oddly, as I've grown older (I was 16 when FC came out), I've grown to appreciate the Ent-D and have slowly started to hate the E.

And because it's come up so often, I agree that the Constitution refit from TMP is the absolute best looking ship in all of Star Trek. It's just perfection, in my eyes; I never get tired of it.

 

Never really minded the design of the ship. I did think the bridge set was uninspired though.

 

That'd be Jefferies/Probert (and a bit o' Richard Taylor in the nacelles). As far as I can tell, Minor did renderings of the ship as designed by Jefferies, but didn't actually do design work on it.

 

I think I had a dream the other night in which Picard agreed with a guest on the ship that the bridge was not great.

 

The Enterprise-E isn't my favorite ship but the one that I really dislike is the Abrams Enterprise -the exterior and the interior.

 

Liked the Ent-E when I saw First Contact back in 1996, but now older and wise I don't like the design. It's almost an extreme '90 'tude Enterprise -- thankfully it wasn't dark grey with more visible weaponry and greeblies for even more 'tude.

 

Ha. It just feels so generic and small. The new set may indeed be bigger, technically, but the Enterprise-D had so much negative space, even in Generations, and Voyager's had better use of multiple levels in addition to feeling bigger. The Enterprise E bridge always looks like a rushed and kinda cheap set to me.

 

^ I guess I should have clarified he was talking about the D. I don't know what his opinion was on its successor.

 

I sort of liked the e.
Then this year I was looking at my sons toy version (diamond select) and realised its like an inbetween stage of morphing the Connie refit over a galaxy class. Then turn the galaxy saucer sideways.
I think that and the dark paint in nemesis really started to put me off.
I cannot unsee the idea that somehow the movies always had to have TOS movie style ships in, and Tng era designs were only good enough for TV, was a thought going through someone's head.
Seriously, look at the cowling...it's like galaxy nacelle has burst out of a refit Connie engine.
Idle thoughts mind you.

I actually liked the bridge, apart from what seems to be placeholders for the center seats area. They seem weak and out of place after the distinctive wooden arch, or even voyagers comfy chairs and cup holders.

 

It was 1 of the things I actually liked about JJ Abrams Star Trek films, The Enterprise should look pretty while being dangerous. I also appreciated his Star Wars style Warp Speed, and the 2nd film incorporating a combination where he had the nacelles power up before warp, and delivering a contrail like the classic films. To me it was a nice touch.

 

The Enterprise-E has certainly set the pattern for how ST:Online and post Prime timeline ships are shown. At one point I liked the E better than the D, but I changed my mind after some time because of the classic artistry of the E-D shape winning me over.

My favorite Enterprises from the Prime line in order:

1, Enterprise-C
2. Enterprise-D
3. Enterprise-E
4. Enterprise refit/A
5. Enterprise-J
6. Enterprise-TOS
7. Enterprise-NX-01
8. Enterprise-B



The list isn't a condemnation of any model, they're all well designed "hero" ships.

RAMA

 

I was never a fan of the ambassador, but it has its merits.
Speaking of Sto, the odyssey really is a nice enterprise line ship. Shame the contest was America only, but it's right that it should keep its cultural lineage I suppose. (I started drafting my entry before reading the fine print, and funnily enough, I too went for the double neck idea. Synchronicity and all that jazz.)

 

My feelings are very similar to this although I would say that when the E-E was first shown in publicity photos at the age of 12 I hated it in comparison to the 3 Enterprise's I had grown up watching weekly on BBC2 (either reruns of TOS or first run of TNG) and my movie collection. I did however fall in love with her on first sight sailing through that nebula.

In some ways I do say my favourite ship to bear the name Enterprise is the E when I am in that particular mood (love First Contact) however when I really think about it my top 3 Enterprises will be the ones I grew up with watching so often; Be it the classic lines of the TOS, the gorgeous updated styling of the refit (love rewatching the 'tour' in TMP and her sailing out of Space dock in TVH) and the grand Enterprise-D from 7 years of TV.

I think they could have given her a larger refit if she had survived Generations to fix set concerns they had by largely replacing them, that said I have always loved how they lit the Bridge in that movie.

The loss of the Enterprise D I felt as much as the original, though being younger I think I managed to avoid knowing the ship would be destroyed in TSFS until I watched it for the first time (rare back then and likely impossible to not know if watching now even as a youngster) while there were numerous behind the scenes features showing how they filmed the saucer crash.

I kind of wonder how she would have looked internally knowing how they designed Voyagers sets which in many aspects looked much more real than TNG's being so much newer.

The Enterprise E harkens back to the classic Constitution Class lines but has so many more shapes and surface details, some angles she is downright gorgeous and others she falls down, most if not all of the Star Trek ships have less flattering angles than others.

The Enterprise D had its own design flow which carried over from both versions of the Enterprise C but neither flow from the Nil > A > B, I put it down to a change in design aesthetic from the design staff in universe. What I do like though is the evolution from the C to the D to Voyager and can also be found in some of the latter ones like the Steamrunner and even Equinox (though I think she blends the E-D/Voyager with elements of the E-E well).

My list changes frequently but as of right now it would probably be

1. Refit/Enterprise-A
2. Enterprise-D
3. Enterprise-TOS
4. Enterprise-E
5. Enterprise NX-01
6. Enterprise-C
7. Enterprise-B

I don't count the J in lists as who knows what changes defeating the Sphere Builders had in terms of ship designs, I could pop my opinion on where the JJ ship features in my run down but I am only considering Prime Trek here.

 

I don't know if this is enough of an answer, but I really liked the bridge of the Enterprise D. It was just a nice, evenly spaced, cool looking bridge. Open and not cramped. Seemed functional enough. The bridge of mostly every other ship which they have shown bothers me, from a viewing point of view (though I liked how the Defiant had that camped submarine station feeling for that kind of a ship). As far as function, I couldn't say which was better designed but the Enterprise E bridge wasn't appealing.

 

It took me awhile to come around to it--but it is the friendliest design next to the original.

 

It looked like a Now That's What I Call Enterprise 2373, with all the previous Constitution/Excelsior/Ambassador/Galaxy designs mashed together.

 

The E is trying really hard to look "cool." I don't like it all. It looks more and more tacky as time goes by. Also, there's no air in space, so making the ship look more arrow dynamic doesn't make any sense.

The TNG/DS9/VOY era ship/set/uniform/prop designs were never particularly good IMO. They always had an unconvincingly futuristic look them, although I do like the D in general.

The best Trek ever looked was in the TOS movies.