First, I would like to say that I myself think that all the presented designs so far have been excellent, and that I am looking forward to showing my own after it is completed. As for rationalizing the existing NX-01, I have always chosen to believe that the grey surfacing of the NCC-1701 was a replaceable, easily manufactured composite sheathing over the hull plates to protect against debris for brief periods of time to give the ships, long range explorers, time to come to a halt when travelling at higher speeds if the deflectors were to fail. My rationalization for the disappearance of said sheathing is the Enterprise refit. When the vessel was hurriedly put into service for the V'Ger crisis, the ship was rushed out of dock before she was fully fitted out. They rushed the process by concentrating on operational systems such as the weapons and sensors. The hull was already marked because Starfleet was using her refit as a PR stunt, probably putting up images of her everywhere, and since it was already marked, they sent her out without the sheathing, which wasn't absolutely neccessary. After her performance in the V'Ger crisis, and considering the new deflector system which seemed more robust than the original, the sheathing was deemed entirely unneccessary. As for the NX-01's overall more streamlined and 'fast' appearance, I believe that she was a high-speed thoroughbred instead of a workhorse, a showpiece designed specifically for the "Warp Five" engine, which, in reality, could barely attain and hold that speed with the sleekest warp profile they could develop. After further development, the second generation of exploratory starships were introduced, an NX-style thoroughbred capable of warp seven, and the workhorse Daedaelus class, meant for easy and rapid construction, simple maintenance, and warp five capability using the same engine as in the Warp Seven ship. These vessels started at NCC-100, in my accounting, to make room for the existing fleets of the various federation members to recieve registration numbers under the newly unified system.
I continue to maintain to this day that the Enterprise production staff already had a great design for their Enterprise, but for some reason (i.e., The Killer B's) they had to ignore it. I refer, of course, to the SS Conestoga. A lot of folks here have disagreed with me over the years about this, but I look at this ship and think it's got a familiarity and a new grace and sense of personality, which is something Enterprise as a whole was sorely in need of. I look at this ship and I can see her reflecting what TOS said about the era of the Romulan Wars, about what was going on one hundred years before. All she needs is some UESPA signage and a name other than "Enterprise" and we'd be good to go. My two cents.
Y'know, it's funny, but I've had similar thoughts about the Conestoga. It has the same functional features as the NX-01, and looks a lot more like what I'd expect from that era. Didn't the NX-01 originally have a different development direction during series preproduction, only to have upper management step in and demand something more familiar looking? Maybe this is where they were gonna go originally? Between this and Icy_Penguigo's design, I think we see something a bit more believable for the period in which the show was set. I love the rigging holding Icy_Penguigo's nacelles in place ... I sure could have used them thirty years ago when I tried to make models of the original 1701. The only other thing I might want to change is the deck orientation. When you have artificial gravity and inertial dampers, you can put your decks any way you want them, but when that tech is new and unreliable, or just plain unavailable I'd expect to see the decks angled perpendicular to the axis of motion. That way, any acceleration from the impulse engines will pull towards the deck, rather than down long hallways.
I have to agree with my Earth-Two counterpart (Kal-L) That is a great design - one which I think would have fitted in with the series premise that Enterprise promised from the beginning. :thumbsup:
How'd I miss this the first time I looked through this thread? That's VERY close to what I had in mind. The only significant difference, in fact, would have been the dish(s) up-front. I specifically like the three-dishes approach up there because it would be taking elements of the TOS Enterprise design (with the three scanners on the leading edge of the primary hull in that location, and the parabolic dish below) and essentially combining them. I would NOT have this area back-lit at all, either... no "flashing blue neon advertising" behind the dishes. I have a little quibble with your engines... they're too obviously TOS engines. I would have kept most elements of the ENT engines, except for the outside surface and the aft "exhaust cone" elements which would be much more "The-Cage-like." But overall... this sketch perfectly captures what I had in mind in terms of "feel."
^^^Nah, we're long past that. Truth be told, I've been dead since the last big Crisis. But I think that's going to change this year. Anyway, we're on the same side. As for the topic, I like every design I've seen here more than the one we got. Just goes to show you that the old adage is true: "If you want it done right, do it yourself."
Personally, I think Drexler did a great job detailing the NX-01 given the contraints he had. He put in some well thought-out details in the design. I might have preferred something a little different at first, but in the end, I liked what we got. But back on the *ART* topic, this is what I came up with for a pre-TOS vessel before ENT came on the air:
I've always liked the SS Conestoga, I think it stands out and fits the era far better. I agree with you. Sharr
Kal-L Re.: SS Conestoga I agree as well. This is a terrific ship. It's pleasant to look at, and not unfamiliar in appearance. But does anyone see a similarity between it's hull and the rear end of the Defiant?
Firstly, I'd like to say that I like the NX-01 design - especially its evil twin sister! However, I like the Star Fleet Universe approach to starship design - in that only the unified-design Star Fleet ships have saucers, while the earlier fleets used by the member worlds (such as Earth, Vulcan and Andor) don't. Both Vance and Icy Penguigo have done art for the SFU Fed Old Light Cruiser (which is referred to in Fed Commander and SFB as the Texas-class, but was originally known as the Province-class when first launched) - and the likes of Ted Geibel have art done for the old Earth destroyer, albeit in its updated form as the Federation Police Ship (and Federal Republic of Aurora Frigate!). If ENT had been written to more closely mirror the Star Fleet Universe version of the 'early years', then using such a ship type would have been fun to see. Indeed, one could have the launch of the first Republic-class 'unified' cruiser in the series finale! As an aside, it's ironic that the development of the UFP in TV Trek is more closely mirrored by the advent of the SFU's Interstellar Concordium, rather than its Federation - the SFU Feds signed the first precursor agreement only a few short years after first contact, but the five main ISC races didn't found the Concordium until centuries after discovering each other. Gary
Are ..., are you saying it would have been the ... Defiant-prise? Actually, I like the look of the Conestoga for the era, as well. And, for the record, yes, I actually did notice some design element similarities to the Defiant.
I think a lot of the designs here are really good. It's too bad we got such a bait-and-switch from the used-starship factory. Clearly, a ship can be made detailed and interesting while still looking like a hybrid of TOS and current NASA-style tech. And on that note, some of you may remember my 033 design, which is kind of my 'original ideal' for an early Earth ship. Like everything else of mine, still a work in progress.
I like the Conestoga too (I believe it was from the episode Terra Nova), although in my opinion the Enterprise was okay, despite its resemblance to the Akira. Is the paint job on the Conestoga lighter/more gray than Enterprise, or is it just lighting?
I've always accepted the NX-01 as a sort of SR-71 of Starfleet. Way too advanced looking for it's era, it represented cutting-edge design ideas and incorporated systems and approaches that wouldn't be duplicated again for another forty years. That combined with Cochrane getting a glimpse of the future may have altered the final product from what should have been developed. I remember actually getting excited the first time I saw the NX-01 because that and rumors of a temporal cold war told me the producers were using First Contact as a way to branch off and do their own thing while maintaining a plausible history consistent with the original show. Even things like the "disastrous first contact with the Klingons" made sense in this context. Alas, the show never lived up to its potential. Even in the fourth season, it felt like major story-telling opportunities had been cast aside.
I think the Conestoga would have made a fine NX-01. It's interesting that she looks like the big sister of Carter Winston's ship from "The Survivor". Coincidence? Probably.
Speaking of TAS, what about the possibility of making the NX-01 look at least related to the Bonaventure from "Time Trap"? http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Bonaventure
Well, in "The Time Trap" we got a design which definitely resembled yet was different from the original ship design. I'd consider that "Bonaventure" to be a good starting point but I don't think it quite "works" on all levels. In any case, we know that the "Bonaventure" was the "first Federation ship with warp drive." Think about that for a moment. THE FEDERATION EXISTED BEFORE WARP DRIVE WAS DISCOVERED. If you accept that line, you have no choice but to accept that there was another FTL propulsion system in place before "warp drive" came along. That's something I actually rather like. I've always had a problem with the tendency of latter-day Trek powers-that-be treating the term "warp drive" as though it is the ONLY term that means "FTL propulsion." But I consider this to be just one of what's probably an almost infinite set of possibilities. Just the one that the Federation has settled upon by the time of "The Cage" (and most likely, the propulsion system which "broke the time barrier") So the NX-01 should NOT have had "warp drive" at all. It could have had "subspace drive" or something like that... but not WARP drive. Because it's established on-screen that the first Federation ship with Warp drive was the Bonaventure, and that ship predated the 1701 by a few decades at most, and possibly as little as a few YEARS. It certainly was launched AFTER Vina's team left for Talos. Bonaventure should be MORE advanced than NX-01. Then again, with the exception of using "older-sounding" terms for familiar devices, the NX-01 was pretty much on-par with many TNG-era ships... and that, I think is the core of what "BUGS" people most about the ship. Hell, even the 1701-D couldn't make it from Earth to Qo'Nos in five days!