Other USS Titan designs

[JarodRussell]

Personally, I dislike the official design that graces Titan novels. I expected something a lot more elegant, not something clunky and rather ugly.

I know there was a contest before that design was chosen.

Is there maybe a collection of the contest entries available?

Did maybe John Eaves do a concept sketch for Nemesis, if it was ever considered to show the ship?

 

[Viper78]

Before the official design came out I had thought it might have been a Galaxy class. I haven't seen any of the other designs other than the official.

 

[B.J.]

I do remember some people here posting their designs for the contest, whether they completed them in time or not. And the guy who won posts here on occasion under the name Titan Designer. I don't know if anyone kept a collection, though.

 

[Praetor]

Wow, so long ago. I was one person who entered. This was mine:






I'm actually pretty embarrassed to look at those now - I was just learning Illustrator at the time. My take was that the class would be somewhere between the Galaxy and the Intrepid, kind of the Sovereign's "friendly little sister."

I also began developing a yacht for it:


TitanDesigner is the alter ego of Sean Toureangeau, whose work may be seen on his deviantArt page in greater detail. He's a talented guy, and moreover, I think he found the niche that the judges wanted; his design is to the Sovereign what the Nebula is to the Galaxy.

 

[Patrickivan]

I designed one, but missed the deadline... Posted it on the site here somewhere Lol...

Nice job on yours. Reminds me of the modular design for the E concept in TNG tech manual.

 

[Praetor]

Thank you sir. I hope you'll find yours.

(And I was a bit inspired by that one in the TM.)

 

[publiusr]

Here is a nice Titan
http://www.feymanshipyards.com/CruiserTitan.html

 

[Praetor]

Our own Forbin made that one, I do believe. Indeed it is a fine one.

 

[B.J.]

Yes it is, but as he mentions on that page, it was designed prior to the contest.

 

[Patrickivan]

This was pretty much it- though at the time, it was just a "paint" version...

 

[JarodRussell]

Those designs are all way more elegant than what eventually became official.

 

[jpv2000]

Those designs are all way more elegant than what eventually became official.

I have to agree with you. Titan is my favorite novel series, but I wasn't too happy with the ship design they went with.

 

[Galileo7]

Those designs are all way more elegant than what eventually became official.

I have to agree with you. Titan is my favorite novel series, but I wasn't too happy with the ship design they went with.

Agree.

 

[Mage]

Heh, funny. Personally I think that the Luna class design that won is one of the better fandesigns.

 

[JarodRussell]

Heh, funny. Personally I think that the Luna class design that won is one of the better fandesigns.

Meh, I think it's all over the place, and there is no flow. It looks like a kitbash of Enterprise-E, Voyager and Akira. The names "Titan" and "Luna class" sound like something a lot more graceful and elegant.

 

[Kruezerman]

Back when I was a young'un (10, 11 years old!), I trolled around the old Bravo Fleet starship encyclopedia and there was this ship. It was so cool looking! Looked like the badass ship Riker deserved.

Yes it looks a bit fanwanky, but who cares?

 

[Dukhat]

Personally, I dislike the official design that graces Titan novels. I expected something a lot more elegant, not something clunky and rather ugly.

I know there was a contest before that design was chosen.

The problem with Pocket Books' Titan design contest was how the ship was described. It was pretty much the exact opposite of the impression I got from Nemesis.

Riker's ship is called the Titan. This is obviously a reference to the powerful Greek gods, since it was established that Riker was holding out for command of the biggest, bestest, baddest ship in the fleet (which was the Enterprise, but he couldn't have that), so "Titan" is more of a meme for his ship being all of the above. But instead, PB decides that the ship is small, and "Titan" is just one of Saturn's moons like the other ships of the class. It kind of completely deflates the original intention of the name.

It also didn't help that, while adhering to PB's rules, the finished product looks like a cross between an Akira and a Sovereign. It's very unoriginal (and that's not a knock on the designer, who I know is very talented).

Did maybe John Eaves do a concept sketch for Nemesis, if it was ever considered to show the ship?

The only "official" drawing was a joke concept art that someone did and signed Rick Sternbach's name to it (Sternbach told me he didn't draw it). It was captioned, "Riker's ship for new movie," or something.

 

[JES]

True, the Luna class as she came out doesn't hold a candle to the Sovvie in aesthetics, and the blocky impulse drives makes me wonder what Sean was thinking when he made them that way, but I've accepted things the way they are (but then again, Sean does have some design aesthetics I consider to be a little 'weird', but I accept his designs as the original ones they are).

The 3D models do justice to her design more than the 2D vector art.

 

[jpv2000]

The problem with Pocket Books' Titan design contest was how the ship was described. It was pretty much the exact opposite of the impression I got from Nemesis.

Riker's ship is called the Titan. This is obviously a reference to the powerful Greek gods, since it was established that Riker was holding out for command of the biggest, bestest, baddest ship in the fleet (which was the Enterprise, but he couldn't have that), so "Titan" is more of a meme for his ship being all of the above. But instead, PB decides that the ship is small, and "Titan" is just one of Saturn's moons like the other ships of the class. It kind of completely deflates the original intention of the name.

This was the same impression that I got from "Nemesis" I was expecting something at least Sovereign Class size.

 

[Dukhat]

The ironic thing is that we actually had a chance to see the Titan on screen in TATV, if the writers had chosen to represent Riker and Troi's true ages, instead of trying to make them younger and shoehorning them into a TNG episode that made no sense. Instead of creating a new CGI Enterprise-D, they could have created a new design for Riker's ship (and a better story to go along with it).