Any pre-1975 Tech Manual or pre-TWoK fan art?

[B.J.]

I'm wondering if there's any fan art floating around out there from before the 1975 Franz Joseph Technical Manual or before The Wrath of Khan. These were (to my knowledge) the first instances of Starfleet ship configurations other than the Constitution class, one being published and the other on-screen. (I'm ignoring the original version of the Aurora that used the Tholian ship with nacelles, although that wasn't specifically Starfleet anyway.) I'm curious what the thinking was in the fandom as to what a different Starfleet ship might look like at the time, outside of any official (or semi-official) influence. These days, there's decades of information available, and we can tell instantly if something is Starfleet by its design language. Back then, there was only the Enterprise/Constitution.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

TAS had depicted other Starfleet ship configurations on screen, such as the robot grain ships in "More Tribbles, More Troubles"—which became the basis for the TOS-R Antares and Woden—and the Huron in "The Pirates of Orion."

 

[B.J.]

Easy to forget about TAS! But even though that narrows the window a bit to pre-1973, the question still stands.

 

[StarCruiser]

The Star Trek Concordance was originally published (by Bjo Trimble) in the late 60's but, I'm not sure it included the "U.S.S. Antares" design seen in later editions back then. I've never actually seen the original version.

https://www.trekships.org/antares-concordance-color.jpg

 

[knightgrace]

I favor this version, Don't get me wrong, the version show in the remastered is quite beautifully done...

Also granted, is the idea that the Constitution class is unusually large. The question in my mind is exactly where is the middle ground?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Sorry, not to be pedantic, here.

But while we're on the subject of the Woden in "The Ultimate Computer," according to dialog it was "listed in Starfleet Registry as an old-style ore freighter converted to automation."

That makes it one of the "Starfleet ship configurations other than the Constitution class" in the words of the OP.

In fact, the Woden is, I believe, the first such instance shown on-screen.

The model shown on-screen was the Botany Bay, using "Space Seed" stock footage, I believe, to save money.

But, that also illustrates some of the thinking: any preexisting ship might have gotten folded into Starfleet, if it suited some needed purpose.

 

[B.J.]

We're Trekkies, we live on pedantry!

I appreciate the response though, but I hope you understand what I'm getting at, seeing if there was any design language that the fandom latched onto back in the day before all the official designs came along. The image from the Concordance above is exactly that I think.