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I don't understand the production design...

Arpy said:
This touches on why I think a huge percentage of fan designs are shit. They go for military designs similar to a nuclear submarine and the like. This is in no way realistic for a starship of 1) super advanced construction capabilities and 2) that will be in deep space for 5-20 years. TOS Enterprise wasn’t even as grimdark-accessible a design as those from so many armchair admiral artists.
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They go for military designs because it is a MILITARY VESSEL. And the areas of the ship that deal with the real world mechanics of being a military vessel, or in fact dealing with other things such as engineering, shouldn't have carpeting and wood veneer. It is unnecessary. These areas need to be designed for maximal functional efficiency, to enable them to do their jobs to the best of their abilitied. Jesus, do you know how long it takes to get bio-neural gel out of carpet?!? It's madness! :)
 
The Enterprise-D was designed and built in a long period of a predominantly peaceful Era, thus it wasn't meant to be exclusively used as a ship of battle.

So the "hotel-like" look was likely a main goal of the designers and engineers to aide in the stated goal of it being a ship of Exploration.
 
Whereas the Enterprise-E was developed after Wolf 359 and first contact with the Dominion, Starfleet realizing that their flagships had to pack as much power - both hidden and visually - into their hulls as possible. If the Enterprise-D was a starship designed primarily for science, exploration and the comfort of families the Enterprise-E was a starship designed for potential combat in an Alpha Quadrant that had suddenly become a lot more dangerous than usual.

Picard began his career as an Enterprise Captain as an explorer and ended it as a soldier, if an unwilling one.
 
DaveyNY said:
The Enterprise-D was designed and built in a long period of a predominantly peaceful Era, thus it wasn't meant to be exclusively used as a ship of battle.

So the "hotel-like" look was likely a main goal of the designers and engineers to aide in the stated goal of it being a ship of Exploration.
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It hosted as many conferences as th Novotel, Hammersmith.
 
cooleddie74 said:
Whereas the Enterprise-E was developed after Wolf 359 and first contact with the Dominion, Starfleet realizing that their flagships had to pack as much power - both hidden and visually - into their hulls as possible. If the Enterprise-D was a starship designed primarily for science, exploration and the comfort of families the Enterprise-E was a starship designed for potential combat in an Alpha Quadrant that had suddenly become a lot more dangerous than usual.

Picard began his career as an Enterprise Captain as an explorer and ended it as a soldier, if an unwilling one.
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Picard was never much of a Soldier (IMO) - as he scarified others under his command far to easily. I would call him more of a Crusader than a Soldier as he fights really for what he believes regardless of what side he's on in a situation. <--- He's shown that very often in his career.
 
EnderAKH said:
They go for military designs because it is a MILITARY VESSEL. And the areas of the ship that deal with the real world mechanics of being a military vessel, or in fact dealing with other things such as engineering, shouldn't have carpeting and wood veneer. It is unnecessary. These areas need to be designed for maximal functional efficiency, to enable them to do their jobs to the best of their abilitied. Jesus, do you know how long it takes to get bio-neural gel out of carpet?!? It's madness! :)
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No. They go for it because it’s kewl. They don’t even look functional and are in fact quite dangerous. Multiply it by 5-20 years, and they’re shit designs that work only for death cult Klingons (who’ll also be technologically out evolved in a generation or two, but that’s a different matter).

And when you have replicator and other advanced technologies, you can build the interior out of solid diamond with dodo-bird feather cushions and caviar fountains, and that is probably more realistic than what most fan and canon designs present.
 
Regarding the 'hotelness' of the Enterprise-D, isn't there also the issue of a lack of section identifiers? Take, for example, engineering aboard the Enterprise-D. The access hallway looks so similar to the hallway by Ten-Forward that it would've been a common issue of civilians wandering into engineering sections.
If they had a junction where the carpet ended and switched to metal, civilians would know immediately that that was the functional area of the deck. Thinking about it, isn't there also the same issue with Sickbay? If I remember correctly, it was just behind a normal door with only a small label.
I apologize if I'm intruding on the conversation, I'm not quite familiar with forum etiquette.
 
DaveyNY said:
The Enterprise-D was designed and built in a long period of a predominantly peaceful Era, thus it wasn't meant to be exclusively used as a ship of battle.
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Although, to be fair, the Cardassian War was recent enough for O'Brien and Ben Maxwell to have served in it.
 
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nicholasm said:
Regarding the 'hotelness' of the Enterprise-D, isn't there also the issue of a lack of section identifiers? Take, for example, engineering aboard the Enterprise-D. The access hallway looks so similar to the hallway by Ten-Forward that it would've been a common issue of civilians wandering into engineering sections.
If they had a junction where the carpet ended and switched to metal, civilians would know immediately that that was the functional area of the deck. Thinking about it, isn't there also the same issue with Sickbay? If I remember correctly, it was just behind a normal door with only a small label.
I apologize if I'm intruding on the conversation, I'm not quite familiar with forum etiquette.
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No intrusion at all! Welcome! You bring up some very good points.
 
nicholasm said:
Regarding the 'hotelness' of the Enterprise-D, isn't there also the issue of a lack of section identifiers? Take, for example, engineering aboard the Enterprise-D. The access hallway looks so similar to the hallway by Ten-Forward that it would've been a common issue of civilians wandering into engineering sections.
If they had a junction where the carpet ended and switched to metal, civilians would know immediately that that was the functional area of the deck. Thinking about it, isn't there also the same issue with Sickbay? If I remember correctly, it was just behind a normal door with only a small label.
I apologize if I'm intruding on the conversation, I'm not quite familiar with forum etiquette.
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Your discussion is quite welcome.

I was thinking about this too, regarding more military vs. more civilian type design language. And, I figure out my preference. I would prefer the stylings of the Kelvin Enterprise (and I don't care if its wrong). The Bridge and Engineering are very clear in their design. Engineering has a much different look to the rest of the ship, which means wandering in to the wrong section is not likely.

So, if I were to design a Starfleet ship I would want a combination of the two, invoking both comfort and practicality. This is why I like TOS, Constitution Refit and the Kelvin Enterprise.
 
nicholasm said:
Regarding the 'hotelness' of the Enterprise-D, isn't there also the issue of a lack of section identifiers? Take, for example, engineering aboard the Enterprise-D. The access hallway looks so similar to the hallway by Ten-Forward that it would've been a common issue of civilians wandering into engineering sections.
If they had a junction where the carpet ended and switched to metal, civilians would know immediately that that was the functional area of the deck. Thinking about it, isn't there also the same issue with Sickbay? If I remember correctly, it was just behind a normal door with only a small label.
I apologize if I'm intruding on the conversation, I'm not quite familiar with forum etiquette.
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Most of the civilian areas are in the saucer section if I remember, so there’s little danger, and I dare say the computer would gently beep at someone getting lost (like the guide panels Tasha shows Will in Farpoint.)
 
eschaton said:
That's not what grimdark means. It comes from Warhammer 40,000, and was originally mocking settings that add tons of brutality, pessimism, explicit sex content, and ultraviolence in order to convince the teenagers who are most attracted to it that it's "mature" - not "kid's stuff." One important trait is it takes itself totally seriously - it's not attempting to be campy like the MU Trek episodes.
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No. Sorry but no. Grimdark absolutely doesn't take itself seriously. It is black humour and satire. It is all those 'cool' and 'edgy' things taken to eleven. It is so ever the top dark that it becomes funny. Granted, not all fans or even the authors of the genre get this these days, but that's how it originated.
 
EnderAKH said:
They go for military designs because it is a MILITARY VESSEL.
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But it is not military vessel. And most certainly it is not a 21st century vessel of any kind. This is what many people who want things to be 'realistic' but lack imagination do not get. They understand 'realistic' to mean 'like things are in real life now.' But it is absolutely unrealistic for future centuries from now to be like that. Think aesthetic trends and customs three centuries ago. They look weird to us. Good portrayal future should have certain amount of WTFness to it.
 
Greg Cox said:
Although, to be fair, the Cardassian War was recent enough for O'Brien and Ben Maxwell to have served in it.
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It was an insignificant skirmish with a middling regional power though. I doubt it much affected most people in the Federation.
 
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