Discovery itself

[Bry_Sinclair]

I agree with Kahless. The way the central ships are designed for Star Trek is for them to be identifiable for a race. It doesn't make much scientific or military sense; after all, ships, tanks, and planes aren't designed to be identifiable but instead get copied by other sides and wear insignia. But Trek ships are for a SF/fantasy TV show so don't follow the rules of reality. Fed must look Fed, and Klingon must look Klingon.

Klingon ships look like Klingon ship and Romulan ships look like Romulan ships because that is the design aesthetic of an alien culture; principles, architecture, technology of a culture that were established for eons before they encountered other races, which remained with them as they went out into space. Some to make themselves immediately recognisable for various reasons, though for more aggressive races most likely to strike fear into the hearts of their target, to demoralise them before they strike.

A fan made USS Discovery redesign concept:

It'd make a decent NX-01 design, but I prefer how the Discovery looks originally.

 

[Mudd]

Klingon ships look like Klingon ship and Romulan ships look like Romulan ships because that is the design aesthetic of an alien culture; principles, architecture, technology of a culture that were established for eons before they encountered other races, which remained with them as they went out into space. Some to make themselves immediately recognisable for various reasons, though for more aggressive races most likely to strike fear into the hearts of their target, to demoralise them before they strike.

No, they're designed to look cool and be identifiable on TV, as Masao correctly pointed out.

 

[Philip Guyott]

Not even out of space-dock yet and she's getting a refit

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

Not even out of space-dock yet and she's getting a refit

Yup. That TrekMovie Star Trek Discovery Infographic has some nice USS Discovery renderings.

 

[Kemaiku]

At NCC 1031, in 2255, she'd have been in and out of a shipyard more than any other starship we've probably seen.

 

[Philip Guyott]

At NCC 1031, in 2255, she'd have been in and out of a shipyard more than any other starship we've probably seen.

Well I was joking, but you could well be right.
However ship registry numbers don't actually mean anything, for example:

 

[Kemaiku]

Chalk that one up to working with a model kit with only 1 7 0 1 to work with, the Discovery doesn't have that excuse.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

Chalk that one up to working with a model kit with only 1 7 0 1 to work with, the Discovery doesn't have that excuse.

Working with 1 7 0 1 also gives us a registry number of 1710 so an argument can be made that the Constellation doesn't have that excuse either.

 

[Kemaiku]

Makes you wonder if the people working on TOS were even trying.

 

[Tenacity]

Working with 1 7 0 1 also gives us a registry number of 1710

Or 1107, part of the decision to go with 1017 was to get as far from 1701 as they could using the same numbers. With the low resolution of many 1960's TV's, 1710 would be too close to 1701.

 

[Brainsucker]

Well, in universe excuse for the Discovery to be like that is, that we can assume that Star Fleet reverse engine the Klingon D-7. Or use the Klingon Ship tech and adopt it for their own. Well, at the time TOS, Klingon was still powerful. They are one of the super power in the Alpha and Beta Quadrant. Thus, D-7 can be considered as nightmare at that time. Specially when Federation has taste the Klingon war machines in their brief 4 years war. So studying, and adopt the enemy ship tech is not impossible to happen.

 

[CDR6]

Not even out of space-dock yet and she's getting a refit

Now were getting somewhere! This has good possibilities!

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

Now were getting somewhere! This has good possibilities!

I'm glad you think so, because the only difference is a nacelle.

 

[CDR6]

I'm glad you think so, because the only difference is a nacelle.

Understood, I'm not a fan of the original "delta and pizza" shape either.

Something else is that the "wings" on the engineering hull have also been swept aft. On the wings note the four boxes out toward the "tips". Running fore and aft between them is solid line. In drafting parlance that indicates a change in direction of the surface, "up or down" remains to be seen however. A lot though, still rides on how well they "blend" the engineering hull to the "wing/pylons".

Finally of course, the last piece of the puzzle is can they give us a crew that we can care about?

Regards,
Chuck

 

[eyeresist]

Understood, I'm not a fan of the original "delta and pizza" shape either.

Something else is that the "wings" on the engineering hull have also been swept aft. On the wings note the four boxes out toward the "tips". Running fore and aft between them is solid line. In drafting parlance that indicates a change in direction of the surface, "up or down" remains to be seen however. A lot though, still rides on how well they "blend" the engineering hull to the "wing/pylons".

It looks to me like the delta hasn't been changed.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

^^Exactly. And those "solid lines" are just embellishments the TrekMovie artist made on the infograph.

 

[F. King Daniel]

As I've said on the other threads on this subject, I'm a longtime fan of the original Ralph McQuarrie Planet of the Titans concept, but not keen on this interpretation. The curves atop the saucer clash with the harsh angles of the secondary hull (something more akin to the steps atop the Kelvin saucer would be a much better fit, IMO), and I much prefer the turned up wingtips and cylindrical nacelles to the flat classic car-ish nacelles of Discovery.

Of course, there may be good reasons for their design choices, and I'm certainly not going to judge the show based on the lead ship. Very curious to see what changes they've made.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

Agreed. Although I like the Discovery as seen in the teaser as it fits the time period (as seen in TOS, not ENT), I'm curious to see the "improved" and approved model. I just hope they show us the finalized design long before the May premiere.

 

[Mudd]

It looks to me like the delta hasn't been changed.

It's an infographic, not a production drawing from the studio.

 

[Fandango831]

Just messing around with the look of the Discovery. Too much sketch time on hand today.