NuEnt scraps 60s design for modern 50s look

[chardman]

A few months back, some people were complaining that the original 1701 looked too much like a product of its time, and reflected 1960s design conventions which are now outdated, obsolete, and embarrassingly silly looking.

I, for one, did not agree with that assessment. I've always maintained that the Grey Lady was iconic and a classic example of timeless style akin to the Ford GT40 and the SR-71 Blackbird.

Now, the NuEnterprise isn't a deal-breaker with me. I won't let it keep me from seeing (and hopefully enjoying) the movie. In fact, while I didn't like it at first, it's grown on me, and I've come to think it's a sharp looking ship.

A sharp looking ship... that was designed in the mid 1950s!!!

Face it, the nacelles look almost exactly like the upper front and rear fenders of a mid-50s Chevy Belair, from the great big round headlight bezel up front, to the demi-fins on the back. And those curved nacelle struts positively reek of 1950s design conventions.

These guys haven't updated the design to better reflect modern design conventions, but have instead borrowed design elements that reflect a design ethic that was old-hat and cliched back when Matt Jefferies cranked out the design for the original back in the 1960s.

The problem is, that an awful lot of the people here who are singing the new Enterprise's praises, are the same people who dissed the original for supposedly being so dated in appearance. And seeing as the new design borrows from an even earlier, more dated time period of design, I can't help but think that a lot of you are simply full of something, and it isn't insight.

I can appreciate this new ship, not as a more modern take on a old classic, because that's not what it is. It's an old take (conceptually speaking) on a modern classic. It's a "what-if" somewhat akin to steam-punk, wherein something futuristic or contemporary is re-envisioned for an earlier age.

 

[Grup]

I agree. Kinda. It's still a cool looking ship but had they "re-invented it too much you know what we'd all be saying.

 

[judexavier]

Yes, when the first trailer was released, after doodling around with conjecture stuff (that turned out woefully wrong, I wondered if perhaps that was one of their design "schemes" (all the curvey elements, etc.) ...then when the second came out...
I was reminded of a Mercury Montclair (headlight especially).
Sort of a "sub-conscious" way to date it pre-TOS, perhaps. I do like the ship, though.

 

[chardman]

As I said... it has grown on me. I like it a lot. I like it the same way I like the PT Cruiser. But I don't try to tell myself that the Cruiser is more modern looking because of it's liberal use of 1930s and 40s design elements. It looks like an older car, which is part of its charm, and wholly intentional on the part of the designer. And the NuEnterprise doesn't look any less dated than the 60s version, due to its use of 1950s design elements. The basic 60s design, with just a slight increase in surface detail, would hardly look more silly and dated on the big screen than this pseudo-50s Enterprise.

 

[M'Sharak]

I keep getting hints of the shapes which went into the design of the 1950s Studebakers (particularly the Starlight/Champion/Commander/Hawk line) designed by Virgil Exner and the 50s Corvettes and concept cars designed by Harley Earl.

 

[Johnnymuffintop]

Now, if only someone could do some sketches that combine the NuEnt, the refit, and car's of the 70's.

 

[chardman]

The TMP Enterprise already fits that bill pretty well. The boxy nacelles match the boxy shape of most 70s autos, and the design of the torpedo growth on the neck screams of the 70s. The only way you could make it more of a 70s design is to paint it Harvest Gold or Avocado.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

The TMP Enterprise already fits that bill pretty well. The boxy nacelles match the boxy shape of most 70s autos, and the design of the torpedo growth on the neck screams of the 70s. The only way you could make it more of a 70s design is to paint it Harvest Gold or Avocado.

The two primary color choices other than white for refrigerators for at least a decade.

The TMP nacelles always remind me of the look of the Ford Mustang II that I regrettably decided to buy in 1977.

 

[ncc-1017-e]

harvest gold and avocado are kitchen colors from the sixties! They ended by 1972-3 and when to white!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I kind of remembered them as reaching back into the 1960s, but I can't place such things by memory. They certainly persisted into the 1970s.

The use of rust orange and avocado in costuming are among the things that definitely visually fix TOS in that late 60s/early 70s time period.

 

[Maurice]

You guys would see a hexagon on an Art Deco piece from the 30s and declare it 70s.

 

[chardman]

Nope. I'd always recognize Deco as Deco. And that's at least one period of design that still looks somewhat futuristic. Lando's pad on Bespin was mondo cool, and futuristic as heck, and it was a veritable Deco shrine to Deco itself. It's a shame that style prematurely petered out when it did, (Curse you Great Depression) and that it's never made a bigger comeback.

 

[Captain Robert April]

You guys would see a hexagon on an Art Deco piece from the 30s and declare it 70s.

Doesn't change the fact that the OP is right. It looks like a mid 50's GM product.

They'd do better to rename it Cruiser C-57-D and use it for the "Forbidden Planet" remake JMS is writing.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

When the "Star Trek" exhibit opened here at the NASM back in 1992 or thereabouts, one local reporter described the TOS Enterprise as "looking more like some ungainly piece of dental equipment than a spaceship."

Part of that was the color - the supposed "neutral grey" was always a bit greenish from the first day that Datin delivered the model, and the whole thing did resemble the old green porcelin-and-enamel-metal look of a dentist's exam room from the 1950s or 60s.

 

[Captain Robert April]

So now we're deferring to local dumbass reporters who wouldn't know a turbolift from a tribble?

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

So now we're deferring to local dumbass reporters who wouldn't know a turbolift from a tribble?

Honestly, you haven't the standing nor have you ever demonstrated the life experience to be taken seriously when calling someone who's gainfully employed as a newspaper reporter a "dumbass."

A more reasonable question would be why "we" should defer to you on any matter of artistic taste whatever.

The guy was observant, and defensiveness on behalf of a fetishistic attachment to a design doesn't do anything to deflect that.

 

[Captain Robert April]

So who died and made you the arbiter of this stuff?

 

[Gepard]

So who died and made you the arbiter of this stuff?

The same could be asked of you.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

So now we're deferring to local dumbass reporters who wouldn't know a turbolift from a tribble?

I'd rather a local reporter know the difference between the mayor and the city manger than a turbolift and a tribble. And since when does not knowing the difference between to arcane pieces of Trek qualify someone as a "dumbass"?

Once again, hyperbole at its worst.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

So who died and made you the arbiter of this stuff?

The same could be asked of you.

Exactly so. All this reporter had to say in order to be labeled a "dumbass" was to make a flippant observation about an effects miniature. That's peanuts to the kind of generalized pronouncements that come down from some trufans about designs and decisions that they don't personally agree with. And that's been the daily norm around here ever since Paramount decided that maybe Star Trek might not have failed beyond all redemption and decided to spend a whole lot of money and let people who know something about making post-1985-era movies give it a go.

If I had a dollar for every time some "dumbass" has declared that "Abrams and his people don't know what they're doing" simply because the filmmakers have done something that a poster doesn't like, I could make an episode of TOS.