i think it's pretty clear that the new look of the 'enterprise' is going to be explained within the context of the story of XI.
if you take a look at what has been established of the design principles of JJ's starfleet, everything looks pretty traditional. boxy shuttles, absolutely flat saucer on the Kelvin, as well as lots of other straight angled pieces on the hull.
when you compare all this stuff to the enterprise its pretty obvious that there's a missing link, so to speak, in the lineage of these vessels from the Kelvin to the E. you may argue that the kelvin predates the enterprise by several decades at best, but the shuttles shown in the launch bay scene in the trailer are apparently designs that exist concurrently with the E - as this scene depicts the departure of most of the cast for their postings on starships including the enterprise. also from the trailer compare the starbase seen in the background of the head-on shot of the e.
And argue all you might about J.J. Abrams' idiocy or lack of respect for the details of star trek, but I think that the production designer's past work speaks for itself. I cant remember his name but just from looking at his work it seems like he has a good feel for integrating his designs into an existing lineage. IMO, of course.
now this begs the question "if this guy is so good at designing new stuff to look like other stuff, why the heck doesn't the enterprise resemble the one i know and love?"
i think the answer to this question (and the one of the vast disparity in design choices between the kelvin and the E) has to do with the statement that XI "is about changing what we know."
obviously time travel is involved in the plot of the movie. and obviously events of the past (future?) are altered when the kelvin is destroyed and kirk's father is killed. it seems to me that the most likely explanation is that the changing of the timeline has affected the development of technology by starfleet, drastically enough that it looks like someone at R & D rediscovered the protractor, which must have been tech lost in world war three
.
although this is obviously conjecture, i think it a likely explanation for the discontinuity in design. perhaps the constitution class (if you can call the new E that
) is the first ship designed with some recovered future tech?
if you take a look at what has been established of the design principles of JJ's starfleet, everything looks pretty traditional. boxy shuttles, absolutely flat saucer on the Kelvin, as well as lots of other straight angled pieces on the hull.
when you compare all this stuff to the enterprise its pretty obvious that there's a missing link, so to speak, in the lineage of these vessels from the Kelvin to the E. you may argue that the kelvin predates the enterprise by several decades at best, but the shuttles shown in the launch bay scene in the trailer are apparently designs that exist concurrently with the E - as this scene depicts the departure of most of the cast for their postings on starships including the enterprise. also from the trailer compare the starbase seen in the background of the head-on shot of the e.
And argue all you might about J.J. Abrams' idiocy or lack of respect for the details of star trek, but I think that the production designer's past work speaks for itself. I cant remember his name but just from looking at his work it seems like he has a good feel for integrating his designs into an existing lineage. IMO, of course.
now this begs the question "if this guy is so good at designing new stuff to look like other stuff, why the heck doesn't the enterprise resemble the one i know and love?"
i think the answer to this question (and the one of the vast disparity in design choices between the kelvin and the E) has to do with the statement that XI "is about changing what we know."
obviously time travel is involved in the plot of the movie. and obviously events of the past (future?) are altered when the kelvin is destroyed and kirk's father is killed. it seems to me that the most likely explanation is that the changing of the timeline has affected the development of technology by starfleet, drastically enough that it looks like someone at R & D rediscovered the protractor, which must have been tech lost in world war three
.although this is obviously conjecture, i think it a likely explanation for the discontinuity in design. perhaps the constitution class (if you can call the new E that
) is the first ship designed with some recovered future tech?
