• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Disco's version of TOS/TAS: Differences

Yeah, maybe! What I've been telling people who are getting into Discovery, but, not familiar with past shows -- that moment is sort of a Rogue One for Trek. There's a two part episode detailing those events called In a Mirror, Darkly, from Star Trek: Enterprise that's worth checking out for curiosity sake.

I don't know. Truth be told, much of Enterprise's fourth season is incomprehensible to people who have no familiarity with Star Trek, In a Mirror Darkly especially.

Actually, one doesn't need to see Mirror Mirror or In a Mirror Darkly to be able to know what's going on. There's nothing new about evil parallel universes.
 
Actually, one doesn't need to see Mirror Mirror or In a Mirror Darkly to be able to know what's going on. There's nothing new about evil parallel universes.
Probably not. I was just saying that one who unfamiliar COULD go back and watch them if they were curious for backstory.
 
Actually, one doesn't need to see Mirror Mirror or In a Mirror Darkly to be able to know what's going on. There's nothing new about evil parallel universes.
In all honesty, I found the only reason I could follow IAMD was because I read all the various behind the scenes reports and plot synopsis made available before the episode aired. IMO, anyone who hadn't might be confused at first seeing an alternate version of Cochrane making contact with the Vulcans and then seeing an evil version of the NX-01. Triply so depending oh how unfamiliar one was with Star Trek in general.
 
I don't know. Truth be told, much of Enterprise's fourth season is incomprehensible to people who have no familiarity with Star Trek, In a Mirror Darkly especially.

In all honesty, I found the only reason I could follow IAMD was because I read all the various behind the scenes reports and plot synopsis made available before the episode aired. IMO, anyone who hadn't might be confused at first seeing an alternate version of Cochrane making contact with the Vulcans and then seeing an evil version of the NX-01. Triply so depending oh how unfamiliar one was with Star Trek in general.

I don't know. I think viewers are smarter than people aknowledge.
They would have pretty immediately catched on that this is not the "regular" crew, but an "evil" version of the show. And considering how iconic TOS mirror image imagery is - even comedy shows like community and Big Bang Theory directly reference it - and this is Star Trek, they probably even would have known that this is "the mirror universe". The only confusion would probably come from the expectation that at some point or the other "our" characters should appear and interact with them, and that never happens.

And the rest of ENT season 4, quite hinestly, works really well on it's own, even without getting the references. Sure, if you know Brent Spiner, and the guy starts talking about androids that his grandchildren will built, or have smooth klingon foreheads - that wasn't exactly subtle. But even if you didn't get that - these were only short teasers at the end of each episode! There was a whole, stand-alone story-arc before that, that can be understand pretty easily without prior knowledge.
 
I don't know. I think viewers are smarter than people aknowledge.
They would have pretty immediately catched on that this is not the "regular" crew, but an "evil" version of the show. And considering how iconic TOS mirror image imagery is - even comedy shows like community and Big Bang Theory directly reference it - and this is Star Trek, they probably even would have known that this is "the mirror universe". The only confusion would probably come from the expectation that at some point or the other "our" characters should appear and interact with them, and that never happens.

And the rest of ENT season 4, quite hinestly, works really well on it's own, even without getting the references. Sure, if you know Brent Spiner, and the guy starts talking about androids that his grandchildren will built, or have smooth klingon foreheads - that wasn't exactly subtle. But even if you didn't get that - these were only short teasers at the end of each episode! There was a whole, stand-alone story-arc before that, that can be understand pretty easily without prior knowledge.

But, I also feel that Enterprise - especially in season four - was catering to fans, especially the ones who knew Trek history backward and forward. I question how many people watching the series were non-fans or unfamiliar with Trek's past.
 
An observation I would like to make, though, is how it's interesting to me that the TOS aesthetic was never really seen again. From The Next Generation right through Voyager (and maybe even a little bit of Enterpise)-- from the interior design to exterior starship design, as well as the uniforms, all seem to be an evolution of the look established by The Motion Picture.

If you discount the original series for a moment, I feel like the aesthetic, of Starfleet anyway, seems pretty consistent and evolved throughout the various series and films.
 
I definitely don't disagree with that assessment. I am not in favor of leaning towards the TOS aesthetic and enjoy that there is a real evolution of style within the context of Star Trek as a concept being a spinoff. Not that I don't like TOS; it is the foundation of all Star Trek, but I do like the idea that now it is kind of forbidden zone where its comes to representation now. In the TNG era we had the first bits of spinoff that kind of needed to reference TOS as being the real deal...the way we saw it was how it happened, but now we've moved onto TOS being iconic and those *stories* being "real", but how we've seen them before might be somewhat outdated and doesn't necessarily fit with how Star Trek "looks" now. That's obviously a point of contention with the fans (Iol) but it's a fun bit of evolution in Star Trek as a concept and not just a series of shows or movies.
 
I definitely don't disagree with that assessment. I am not in favor of leaning towards the TOS aesthetic and enjoy that there is a real evolution of style within the context of Star Trek as a concept being a spinoff. Not that I don't like TOS; it is the foundation of all Star Trek, but I do like the idea that now it is kind of forbidden zone where its comes to representation now. In the TNG era we had the first bits of spinoff that kind of needed to reference TOS as being the real deal...the way we saw it was how it happened, but now we've moved onto TOS being iconic and those *stories* being "real", but how we've seen them before might be somewhat outdated and doesn't necessarily fit with how Star Trek "looks" now. That's obviously a point of contention with the fans (Iol) but it's a fun bit of evolution in Star Trek as a concept and not just a series of shows or movies.

Exactly and I look at it this way, too; with TOS it is purely the aesthetic. That series set up the design of how the interior/exterior of Starfleet vessels and uniforms look -- which each subsequent series would follow and evolve; they just didn't use bright primary colors for their respective aesthetic.

TOS, while the first, has become the odd duck of the family with regard to how it looks.
 
Did we ever get an explanation for the bases of the bridge chairs changing their shape in TAS, especially when people try to put the TAS episodes interfiled with TOS by Stardate order? ;)

Nope.
 
Outside of TOS, I think the difference between Old Trek and CBS Trek is and will be like the difference between butter and margarine.
 
An observation I would like to make, though, is how it's interesting to me that the TOS aesthetic was never really seen again. From The Next Generation right through Voyager (and maybe even a little bit of Enterpise)-- from the interior design to exterior starship design, as well as the uniforms, all seem to be an evolution of the look established by The Motion Picture.

If you discount the original series for a moment, I feel like the aesthetic, of Starfleet anyway, seems pretty consistent and evolved throughout the various series and films.

The TOS ship design was shown on most television Trek shows! TNG had Scotty walk in on it. The DS9 crew directly interacted with Kirk. Archer walked on the TOS' sister ship. No other Trek ship has been featured on as many other Trek shows!

Most importantly: All Trek ships are a direct evolution of the look established by TOS. NOT The Motion picture. The bridge layout, the transporter room, the shuttlebay - it's all been there since TOS. The only thing that has changed was the skin - which is, admittedly, more inspired from TMP in all following incarnations than from TOS. But really, every Trek ship ever, even the Discovery, is essentially just a re-skin of the TOS ship with what's "new" at the time - in the 60s, it was colors, in the 70s and 80s beige, then "realistic" metallic, and nowadays dark 'n' gritty.

But even then - the brightly colored uniform scheme is a direct result of TOS, not of the monocolored movies style. And most incarnations of Trek have colored screens, doors and floors as well. They just took the saturation down a bit. But to my eye, every follow-up to TOS is very much inspired by it, just each incarnation shifting the focus a little bit on some aspects.
 
The TOS ship design was shown on most television Trek shows! TNG had Scotty walk in on it. The DS9 crew directly interacted with Kirk. Archer walked on the TOS' sister ship. No other Trek ship has been featured on as many other Trek shows!

I understand, but, that's not what I'm talking about.

Most importantly: All Trek ships are a direct evolution of the look established by TOS. NOT The Motion picture. The bridge layout, the transporter room, the shuttlebay - it's all been there since TOS. The only thing that has changed was the skin - which is, admittedly, more inspired from TMP in all following incarnations than from TOS. But really, every Trek ship ever, even the Discovery, is essentially just a re-skin of the TOS ship with what's "new" at the time - in the 60s, it was colors, in the 70s and 80s beige, then "realistic" metallic, and nowadays dark 'n' gritty.

You're misunderstanding me; I'm talking about the aesthetic or SKIN, not the layout/design. I understand that TOS first introduced us to the bridge layout, etc. I'm just saying that on the subsequent movies and series, the colors were far more muted and not bright, primary ones as seen on TOS's starships. My fault if I wasn't clear enough.


But even then - the brightly colored uniform scheme is a direct result of TOS, not of the monocolored movies style. And most incarnations of Trek have colored screens, doors and floors as well. They just took the saturation down a bit. But to my eye, every follow-up to TOS is very much inspired by it, just each incarnation shifting the focus a little bit on some aspects.

Correct.
 
I never liked the NX01 exterior as presented in ENT but I've seen some minor fan redesigns of it that look great. It's interior looked fantastic though.

The USS Kelvin is an amazing ship. A perfect modernization of the TOS aesthetic and style. It even had the cool retro futuristic look without being dated. It's bridge was a big budget update of the TOS bridge. It looked great. I wish Discovery looked more like what we saw from the Kelvin. The USS Franklin also looked great with a modern but faithful TOS style.

The Kelvin Enterprise I like it for the most part except for the Nacelles. They are too bulky and smushed together.

As for the ships in Discovery, Some of them are fine and others have the potential to be better. I'm not a fan of the sharp, pointy edges some of them have. It does make them feel like they don't belong in the era. I'm not a fan of the square nacelles. Many of Discovery's ships would be improved with cylindrical nacelles and it wouldn't date them one bit. I'm pretty happy with Discovery's interpretation of the Enterprise.Though I felt the concept sketches of it with straight pylons looked better. Many of the new ships introduced have the potential to be improved to be more "retro" without having them look dated or bad.
 
Context for CaptainMurdock's post. I questioned why some people here don't have issue with the look of the ships in ENT or the Kelvin Films and yet had issues with the ships in DSC. So I singled out the NX-01, the Kelvin, and the Abrams Enterprise. Then said I thought the Discovery and ships in DSC were being held to a double-standard simply because they don't like the series whereas they do like ENT and the Kelvin Films, and so wouldn't criticize the looks of the ships there.

Unfortunately, the way I phrased it sounded extremely angry. Not because of the topic at hand but due to other stuff. So I deleted it. My observation still stands but, none the less, there we are. I could've phrased what I took down a lot better. I don't want that crap from Real Life spilling over into the tone of my posts here. I make it a point to be good about that.
 
Last edited:
I never liked the NX01 exterior as presented in ENT but I've seen some minor fan redesigns of it that look great. It's interior looked fantastic though.

The USS Kelvin is an amazing ship. A perfect modernization of the TOS aesthetic and style. It even had the cool retro futuristic look without being dated. It's bridge was a big budget update of the TOS bridge. It looked great. I wish Discovery looked more like what we saw from the Kelvin. The USS Franklin also looked great with a modern but faithful TOS style.

The Kelvin Enterprise I like it for the most part except for the Nacelles. They are too bulky and smushed together.

As for the ships in Discovery, Some of them are fine and others have the potential to be better. I'm not a fan of the sharp, pointy edges some of them have. It does make them feel like they don't belong in the era. I'm not a fan of the square nacelles. Many of Discovery's ships would be improved with cylindrical nacelles and it wouldn't date them one bit. I'm pretty happy with Discovery's interpretation of the Enterprise.Though I felt the concept sketches of it with straight pylons looked better. Many of the new ships introduced have the potential to be improved to be more "retro" without having them look dated or bad.

Completely, 100% agreed!

Personally I like the NX-01 exteriour as well. It looks very rough and functional, IMO a good style for 100 years before the sleek TOS design. I just think it's too flat. But overall, I'm really happy with the design.

The USS Kelvin is IMO the best "modern" TOS-era ship on Trek! It's incredibly faithfull. I also like the JJprise very much, but it's obvious it's an alternative design, not a strict TOS-era design.

As for the DISCO-ships: Yeah. I think they all need some work. They would work great 50 years before TOS, in the middle of ENT and TOS. But not so much as a contemporary for the "the cage"-Enterprise.

IMO the Disco-ships already would fit much, much better with orange nacelle caps, and an eggshell-white TOS surface. These changes are insignificant, but they already would do A LOT for me! Like giving beards to Klingons, brightening up these ships would do them an immense boost in terms of being era-appropriate.
 
Actually, one doesn't need to see Mirror Mirror or In a Mirror Darkly to be able to know what's going on. There's nothing new about evil parallel universes.
My bf didn’t know anything in detail about Trek, other than the usual hearsay. When I introduced him to Trek, we watched “In a Mirror, Darkly.” I told him that’s regular Trek. :devil:
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top