How Would You Modify the Sovereign Class?

[ancient]

Things I would do a little differently:

I like the round navigational deflector array on the Sovereign/Ent-E better. The Sovereign's nacelle pylons are nice, too.

First, thanks for the comment.

I don't really care for the round deflector. It suits the ENT-E hull shape though. The shape of the ship's deflector comes directly from the shape of the engine hull so putting a round deflector on the Quest would be a bit odd looking.

Personally, I find the ENT-E pylons a bit on the chunky side. Not bad per se, but they're such a radical departure, with those huge vent-things.

Make the ship's nacelles a little longer, and definitely thinner and trimmer with a more smooth rectangular solid shape.

My nacelles are much bigger than the ENT-D nacelles (like twice as long), but slightly shorter than the ENT-E nacelles. (see image below). They are supposed to be more angular without being pointy, that's what I was trying for anyway. I think my pencil slipped - I was doing these freehand - anyway, the nacelles look a little 'bent' or something. The D-style nacelles are wide and short, rather than narrow and tall, but they are supposed to be slightly thinner than I showed them.

Retain the basic shape of the saucer, but inject a little of the simplicity of the original NCC-1701, with a smoother hull that looks less busy. And use the block lettering style for the hull markings, like TOS did.

I don't know about the TOS font, but I think SF could use a change in font, they've been using the ENT-Refit font for like 100 years by the time of the ENT-E.

Here's a comparison, (ENT-E from SFFF):

 

[B.J.]

Yay! It has a neck!

 

[USS Mariner]

Sneak Peek:



Believe me, I've been more impatient about this than anyone else.

 

[Philo]

Wow, Ancient. You continue to impress. You've basically fixed all of my problems with the Sovereign without deviating from it's intent.

 

[JJohnson]

I'd get rid of the stepping that you can see at the innermost portion of the saucer. It's wasted space that should be reclaimed. Just merge it together.

I'd like to see a concept of the impulse engines and shuttlebay switched out. Were that to be done, the shuttle wouldn't have to be so scrunched in a tight shuttlebay.

As an emergency precaution, the saucer section should also regain the ability to separate, as they had originally conceived it did. I think I saw a mock-up of the Sovereign separated before.

That's how I'd change it.

James

 

[therealfoxbat]

Namely, I'd replace it with Vektor's Vanguard.

Isn't that Vektor's Grandeur?

Or is Vektor calling it the Avalon class?

I think the Sovereign class looks good for what it is supposed to be, namely an all-military lean-and-mean Borg killer. If I absolutely HAD to replace it, the best design I've seen so far is Vektor's Grandeur / Avalon.

Vektor's Vanguard would make a decent candidate for re-imagining the NX class...

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Namely, I'd replace it with Vektor's Vanguard.

Isn't that Vektor's Grandeur?

Or is Vektor calling it the Avalon class?

I think the Sovereign class looks good for what it is supposed to be, namely an all-military lean-and-mean Borg killer. If I absolutely HAD to replace it, the best design I've seen so far is Vektor's Grandeur / Avalon.

Vektor's Vanguard would make a decent candidate for re-imagining the NX class...

"Vektor" has done several pretty snazzy designs. The Grandeur is a post-TNG design. The "Vanguard" is a Pre-TOS design. Not the same thing at all.

Here's Jason's page... in case you didn't pick it up from his profile on here...
http://vektorvisual.com/

 

[Mr. B]

I guess I'm one of the new who was quite fond of the Sovereign design. All I would want is to undo the small and unnecessary changes made for Nemesis... some of that ablative hull armor might be nice though.

 

[BK613]

1. Rework the nacelles so that I see warp engines and not BEMs or helicopter fuselages.
2. Downsize the impulse engines and reposition them closer to the centerline.
3. as jjohnson suggested, reclaim the wasted space on the saucer. Also that ridiculous scoop that runs from the deflector to the yacht.
4. Dump the lifeboat idea overboard. They have to take up 10-20% of the internal volume of the ship. Or at least rethink it. Fewer units with higher capacity.
5. Does the ship really need that saucer section shuttle bay?

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

The main thing I dislike about the Sovereign is the texture of the hull... the plates have so much contrast and so little subtlety... it's quite disappointing and reminds me of cars with different colors of primer on each body panel that you see driving around. Not to mention the circuit panel crap plastered all over the darker sections... bleh. A far, far cry from the gorgeous pearlescent finish of the Enterprise in TMP.

 

[JJohnson]

How about a quick photo-manipulation removing the offending portion of the saucer and some of the other changes?

 

[Blip]

I utterly agree with Herkimer, and for the most part BK613, although I never minded the "scoop" personally. I would have liked to see either A) one large shuttlebay door instead of the unecessary three-part split, or B) 4 smaller bays to either side of the original one, with a wider, thin Impulse drive in the centre (there was a concept of this, IIRC, that the original Playmates toy was based on).