Vektor said:
It’s true that the TOS Enterprise is about as iconic as it gets in terms of sci-fi spaceships, but as with so many other things, Trek fans tend to overestimate the importance of such things to the rest of the population at large. Show ten random people a picture of the Enterprise and probably nine of them will instantly recognize it. But try withholding the picture and asking the same ten people to describe the ship in detail and you will probably get ten wildly different answers. Sure, most of them will be able to tell you it had a big, round saucer in front, a cigar-shape below with a funky satellite dish mounted on it, and a couple of big, tubular engines on the back with spinning, glowy things on the front. Most of them could probably tell you approximately what color the hull and other major parts were and what the registry number was. Maybe half could tell you where the bridge was supposed to be. A few would probably know where the hangar deck was located. One or two might be able to tell you how many impulse engines it had or how many fins (intercoolers) there were on the backs of the engine nacelles. I’d be surprised if even one of them knew how many windows there were on the side of the secondary hull or what the angle of the leading edge of the neck was or how many grill panels there were on the insides of the engine struts.
The fact is, most people aren’t intimately familiar with every little detail of the ship’s design. They know the general configuration and certain distinctive elements like the nacelle caps and the copper colored deflector dish, but I don’t doubt for a minute that you could change almost everything else in various subtle ways and the vast majority of people out there would be none the wiser.
Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong or glaringly “out of date” about the original design and that it would look perfectly spectacular on the big screen using modern photography and special effects. On the other hand, I’ll be surprised if they don’t make at least a few changes, mostly to add visual detail. All in all, though, I’ll bet what we wind up with looks very much like the ship from TOS when viewed from typical distances and perspectives.