Starship Concept Art - Battle of Binary Stars Fleet

[INACTIVERedDwarf]

I like them, but honestly, wouldn't something more like the USS Kelvin have been a better callback to TOS?

Round nacelles, big bussard collectors, TMP era hull detailing, etc?

I mean, I am enjoying the show, so don't get me wrong, but are they just screwing with visual design for the sake of it? I understand the concept of a visual reboot perfectly, but in some of these cases, I can't honestly see the reason why one NEEDS to change established design. Like I can understand changing TOS, but not so much the TMP/TWOK.

We have established via the JJ Abrams films, that Starfleet had really good looking ships around this era that look like something directly related to The Motion Picture. So really, what was the need to give what looks like decades of ships, the stylings of a post-TNG vessel, or to not put the odd goatee on a Klingon, or show us an updated D7 Battlecruiser?

Again, minor thing in an enjoyable show, but a niggling thing anyway.

When you have the chance to be faithful, and do something, I can't really understand why you wouldn't do both.

 

[Timo]

We just need to insert a new era. The Abrams things that look a bit like good old Baton Rouge and have concentric rings at the tips of their cylinder nacelles are their own thing; these box-nacelle ships are another. Plenty of decades for both.

Where the one and only TOS type ship (that is, the TOS ship) fits in remains to be determined...

The Edison is for Balthazar. And the Clarke is for Frank Wigglesworth. But the Yeager is for Chuck.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[INACTIVERedDwarf]

I thought of that, but then, why is the entire fleet composed of the one new type of nacelle, and (assuming it matters), have registry numbers spaced so far apart?

It sort of implies a huge era.

 

[Timo]

Just a round of refits to give all ships the latest in propulsive tech...

I mean, that's what made no sense in DS9. You can't have a fleet of hundreds of ships dragged down by old vessels that can move at half the speed of the newer ones - you shoot yourself in the foot with a howlizer that way. If Starfleet can't give all its ships modern engines, it should split its formations into "old" and "new" parts so that the new ones won't be needlessly late from their meetings with the enemy.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[INACTIVERedDwarf]

That does make a lot of sense.

Perhaps the old space frames on Mirandas and the like couldn't be refit to the standards of an Intrepid/Sovereign, but were still useful starships, but perhaps the ships of this era have all undergone refit similar in scope to TOS > TMP.

 

[Timo]

Or some have, and those were the only ones fast enough to make it to the Binary Stars.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Longinus]

What we saw of these onscreen doesn't do justice to the designs.

I have to agree. Europa in particular looked pretty crappy in close ups. It is understandable that they didn't bother to polish the briefly seen quest ships on the same level as the hero ships, but still.

 

[Jadeb]

This could have worked as an update of the TOS Romulan ships:

 

[Tuskin38]

These are cool, thanks for sharing. Wish we could have seen them a little better in action...

I can't help but notice they all look like early variants of ships we know, except the Europa (which looks like a ship from STO, I forget it's name). In order, after Europa: Nebula, Miranda, Constellation, and the last on reminds me of Defiant, but with real nacelles. I assume it was a conscious decision not to include anything remotely like the Enterprise, I wonder why?

edit: STO's Stargazer class, more or less.

John Eaves did designs for STO before Cryptic took over the project.

Cryptic retained the rights to those designs, so that could be one of them.

 

[Markonian]

I mean, I am enjoying the show, so don't get me wrong, but are they just screwing with visual design for the sake of it? I understand the concept of a visual reboot perfectly, but in some of these cases, I can't honestly see the reason why one NEEDS to change established design. Like I can understand changing TOS, but not so much the TMP/TWOK.

Because the makers are artists, and artists put their own stamps on things.

That’s why official ships can look wildly different from fan-made designs - one creates something fresh, the other adds something new to the existing lineage.

YMMV

 

[guyute03]

Sweet. Thanks for posting.

 

[B.J.]

About the nacelles, Eaves apparently said on Facebook that he was directed from higher-ups to give the ships non-cylindrical nacelles. So, not his decision.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

About the nacelles, Eaves apparently said on Facebook that he was directed from higher-ups to give the ships non-cylindrical nacelles. So, not his decision.

I'm wondering what the rationale behind that decision was. They look nice, but all of the ships don't need to have them. I can understand maybe it being a bridge toward the movie era of nacelle, but at this point, there should at least be some with cylindrical or predominantly cylindrical. It would continue the line from Phoenix, NX-01, etc.

 

[PixelMagic]

About the nacelles, Eaves apparently said on Facebook that he was directed from higher-ups to give the ships non-cylindrical nacelles. So, not his decision.

Perhaps so that when they introduce a ship that HAS to have cylindrical nacelles sometime down the road, it will stand out from the rest.

 

[KirkusOveractus]

Perhaps so that when they introduce a ship that HAS to have cylindrical nacelles sometime down the road, it will stand out from the rest.

You mean like a Consti...nah, maybe not...

 

[Longinus]

About the nacelles, Eaves apparently said on Facebook that he was directed from higher-ups to give the ships non-cylindrical nacelles. So, not his decision.

That is super weird.

 

[Longinus]

Perhaps so that when they introduce a ship that HAS to have cylindrical nacelles sometime down the road, it will stand out from the rest.

I think that ship would easily stand out regardless, considering it has pretty distinctive secondary hull arrangement compared to all of these designs.

 

[INACTIVEUSS Einstein]

How about the other question?

Why no D7-style battlecruisers?

First observed 22nd century - last observed 24th century - seem to form the bulk of the Klingon fleet during TOS and TMP.

Why no D5-style battlecruisers?

Kor said he captained one before commanding his D7 class ship, and they seemed to have formed the bulk of the Klingon fleet in ENT.

Why, in fact, does the Klingon fleet look so utterly different?

 

[B.J.]

Found a couple of the specific quotes from Eaves in response to this question:

While I like these designs, I have to ask this: Why, after the NX-01 was clearly designed to be a precursor to the NCC-1701, did they radically change the nacelles in between? What is the in-universe reason for it?

Eaves: This look is what was asked for so this is the end result.

Eaves: There is a reason behind everything and I think that all of them were really well thought out, Great story tellers on the show and they have really come up with some fantastic tales and reasons for everything and they reveal bits at a time and that is good storytelling, if you know it all up front it would take away from the mystery.​

 

[PixelMagic]

I think that ship would easily stand out regardless, considering it has pretty distinctive secondary hull arrangement compared to all of these designs.

General audiences are stupid.