Refit Enterprise

[David cgc]

Is this the one you mean? It was in one of the Ships of the Line calendars.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^ That is great pic, but wouldn't more of the original saucer have be covered up since the new one is larger? The windows on the rim are the refit ones.

 

[In_Correct]

Watched TMP Directors Edition at the weekend, for the first time in a long time.

At one point, Decker tell Kirk that "this is almost a completely new Enterprise", something Kirk obviously already knew!

But, just how how much of the original Enterprise was still there in the refit. It's quite hard to reconcile the two ships, despite their obvious similarities.

The nacelles and pylons are obviously totally new. But what of the secondary hull, saucer and neck? Kirk not knowing the whereabouts of one of the turboshafts suggests the interior of the saucer is radically different.

If the refit is really almost entirely a new ship, then why isn't it actually new ship - why bother with a refit?

It is a slightly longer ship, but it isn't supposed to be completely different. I consider TMP ship and TMP uniforms to be very similar to The Cage pilot.

The reason why TOS looks extremely dated is because they changed everything to Tie Dye colours, including the the walls from chrome to purple. with TMP, they changed everything back to chrome (with the exception of some orange padded walls). As for the nacelles ... they have actually changed these before. They changed them sometime between the next pilot and the remaining episodes. There are other improvements such as the warp core and the transporters which look futuristic for a 1979 film. They look very similar to Star Trek: Voyager. And for each film we continue to get more improvements. Even with The Enterprise A, the bridge looks different from Star Trek IV to Star Trek V to Star Trek VI.

This is why I don't think that TMP Enterprise is a drastic redesign. It is just much more shocking because the walls are mostly chrome again and much more noticeable is that we get to see her go to warp for the very first time. But if she really isn't the same ship, then they have replaced The Enterprise and kept the same registry between the TOS pilots and the remaining TOS episodes because of changes to the nacelles, bridges, and ugly purple walls. And then they kept making changes to The Enterprise A but kept calling her The Enterprise A.