• 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

This one is fun
toboldlygo_by_markusglanzer-darfp33.png
I think the neck is too flimsy in comparison to the saucer part. Not sure what the red thing is below it either.

Nacelles look practical. Reminds me of some of the 70s era designs I use to like as a teen.
Star Trek fans don't want realism.
Speak for yourself, please.
 
But Star Trek is hardly realistic.
Doesn't mean I don't want realism as much as possible. Certain things I accept like transporters and warp drive. But, that doesn't mean things can't be redesigned to be closer to current understanding of computers, ships, and people.
 
TOS is really the oddball of trek look wise. They totally tossed the look in 79( Ok beat it, lit t on fire and buried it deep in the woods) and it was not until relics when some one wanted to do a homage it showed back up. It should have stayed dead as it does not fit or make sense.

:techman: This was exactly my point. If Relics hadn't thought it was "cute" to see Scotty interacting with the TOS aesthetic, everyone would have likely kept assuming that the updated 'realistic' look of TMP onwards was simply how TOS "really looked". Instead they canonized the TOS aesthetic, then actually revisited it several times afterwards just to nail it down and make it clear. This created problems when the same geniuses gave us prequels later but somehow figured noone would be like, "So, you guys said it looked like this, but now it looks like this?". And DSC is even worse, as it ostensibly takes place within a ten year period of the original... things like forehead ridges and purple skin etc are identical problems that weren't problems at all until NextTrek decided to address them. Even though they didn't frankly need addressing...

Noone expects DSC, or ENT, to look like atomic age science fiction. But there are fundamental things that can be retained but updated, the battleship grey aesthetic of The Cage is perfectly adaptation to a new look, the duotronic consoles rather than touch screen displays, if you're serious about creating a prequel you can still retain continuity without slavishly holding onto the identical visual style.

ENT should have looked more like TOS - at least on the outside of the ship. They had a perfectly good design in the Daedalus sat around on Sisko’s desk for years - that looked like a precursor to the TOS era.

Were it not for ENT we might not be having this discussion to the same extent.

While I take your point ;) As I've demonstrated, the original problem lies not necessarily with ENT 'ignoring' how TOS looked, but that the various NextTrek's before it had canonized the 60s look, instead of embracing what seems to have been a visual retcon begun with TMP.
 
:techman: This was exactly my point. If Relics hadn't thought it was "cute" to see Scotty interacting with the TOS aesthetic, everyone would have likely kept assuming that the updated 'realistic' look of TMP onwards was simply how TOS "really looked". Instead they canonized the TOS aesthetic

No, the simply showed it, this is not canon as looks are not canon. It was stupid as hell to show it looking like TOS, it should have never been done, so I for one and glad they stopped doing it.
 
There is zero requirement for the Constitution class to be the only look Starfleet used.

I agree, I loved that DSC gave us lots of styles and designs. Although the Connie does look rather old next to them. I wonder if they re gonna tell us the age of the design.
 
I would have loved it if the prequels took on a retrofuturistic look to fit better into a pre TOS timeframe, personally. I like the idea that, due to a combination of high energy cosmic rays, warp field radiations and other hazardous conditions, modern computers and technology don't operate properly in space, so early ships are built on the bones of 1950s/60s technology. You could throw on a "no hacking/open networks" rule during the Romulan War, and completely explain most of the TOS idiosyncrasies.
 
This is what ENT and DSC "should've" looked like, being the prequels they are. :devil:

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Actually (being serious now), this kind of works as a turn-of-the-century Star Trek. Strange new worlds, where no man has gone before, boldly going. Exotic aliens. Our heroes get captured, then they escape. Enemies are "vaporized" with an umbrella. The aliens look kind of like DSC Klingons.

Give it a watch if you can, but I understand if not. Silent films are an acquired taste.
 
Last edited:
I would have loved it if the prequels took on a retrofuturistic look to fit better into a pre TOS timeframe, personally. I like the idea that, due to a combination of high energy cosmic rays, warp field radiations and other hazardous conditions, modern computers and technology don't operate properly in space, so early ships are built on the bones of 1950s/60s technology. You could throw on a "no hacking/open networks" rule during the Romulan War, and completely explain most of the TOS idiosyncrasies.
nuBSG did it better.
 
No, the simply showed it, this is not canon as looks are not canon. It was stupid as hell to show it looking like TOS, it should have never been done, so I for one and glad they stopped doing it.

But they didn't stop doing it. The reason I say the look was 'canonized' was because Trials And Tribbleations decided to make it "real" and even had the characters commenting on (and interacting with) the oddities, and In A Mirror Darkly equally although in their case they made the 1960s design elements seem sleek and futuristic to the characters themselves.

If it had stopped at Scotty's holodeck then it would have simply been cute and cheeky and dismissable as a fun little scene. But the other two instances involve actual time travel, and, therefore, made that look canon for that period.

People falsely blame ENT and DSC for not using a TOS aesthetic. When the blame is on TNG and particularly DS9 for making that aesthetic the actual, canon look of the period, instead of simply (simply!) running the line that it was all a visual retcon from TMP onwards when they had the time and resources to depict the starship more realistically.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top