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Starship design history in light of Discovery

Eh. Evolution in design is fine and usually good but not a prerequisite for me. The fact that Excelsior-class starships of the year 2375 were almost indistinguishable from those of 2285 doesn't make me lose sleep nor does the fact that Starfleet has a tendency to use one design for decades with few if any external modifications.
Yup.
 
I was personally told by an artist on the show that 3 MOVIES worth of material was designed for Season 1 Discovery. Everything they'd need was planned for and designed well ahead of time. Not only did we get some really cool ships designs, the fact they were made into detailed models using the CGI assets for the Eaglemoss line made them tangible and easy to study for collectors! It's been a great time for starship fans.

I think Eaves himself said he designed 20+ ships for Season 1. He also worked on Federation ships as far as I know, so that narrows down his stuff.
 
Seems to be a common refrain for Disco. I really hope that this upcoming season at least pretends to have some kind of cohesive storyline.

That would be nice. If Harbert and Berg leaving was the reason why we got half a season of interesting questions and story-telling and another half of juvenile cliched scifi tropes, then I'd rather have them back. The second half of season 2 was a disaster, after a promising beginning.
 
I was personally told by an artist on the show that 3 MOVIES worth of material was designed for Season 1 Discovery.

Considering three movies = 6 hours and 1 season of Discovery = 10-15 hours, yes, you would hope they made 3 movies worth of material.

Not only did we get some really cool ships designs, the fact they were made into detailed models using the CGI assets for the Eaglemoss line made them tangible and easy to study for collectors!

I wish they did that on Picard, and designed ahead, creating 4 or 5 different starship classes that could be used throughout the show's run, including the climactic action scene of season 1. Sadly, they didn't.

It's been a great time for starship fans.

Unless you're part of the group of people who don't like modern Federation ship designs all that much, like those on Discovery or the USS Copy Paste, in which case it's a middling time for starship fans.
 
Better angles of the Ba'ul Sentry Ship (STO's recreation at least)
VHMunNA.png
Very cool! I'm still bummed they never explored the Preservers connection, though. Interesting to hear they went into it somewhat in one of the commentaries. Would be so cool to know what the original idea was going to be (and if it would have made more sense than what we actually got).
 
For all we know, the Ba'ul are the Preservers, treating lower races as cunningly forced labor and monitoring them with obelisk technology. Nothing as straightforward as laser-whips and forcefield fences: instead, the Ba'ul appear as benefactors to their victims, in a variety of ways, while making them harvest kelp or process diverted asteroids into precious minerals or whatnot.

Or then the Preservers gave the Ba'ul obelisk tech to Preserve them, back when the Kelpien were trying to exterminate the species.

Or then every two-bit slaver purchases from the same vendor.

Those could have been torpedo tubes, since there seem to be torpedo tubes frickin' everywhere on that ship.

Or then <quick check; okay, at least six pages since I last claimed this> the Discovery is a former shuttlecarrier, internally renovated into a flying laboratory, with mushroomrooms and other weird stuff suspended inside the vast hangar cavity, but most of the space left empty save for creatively rerouted turborails and random logistics spaces. Properly separated landing bays and launching tubes would be a must for such a carrier.

...What were these tubes supposed to be in the original McQuarrie drawings? They're part and parcel of all the versions, but there seem to be separate "impulse engines" or other rocket-analogues on the back wall of the hull, flanking the bay doors.

It's funny how the ship actually seems to have zero identifiable torpedo tubes anywhere on the hull. But that's just par for the TOS course.

Timo Saloniemi
 
For all we know, the Ba'ul are the Preservers, treating lower races as cunningly forced labor and monitoring them with obelisk technology. Nothing as straightforward as laser-whips and forcefield fences: instead, the Ba'ul appear as benefactors to their victims, in a variety of ways, while making them harvest kelp or process diverted asteroids into precious minerals or whatnot.

Or then the Preservers gave the Ba'ul obelisk tech to Preserve them, back when the Kelpien were trying to exterminate the species.

Or then every two-bit slaver purchases from the same vendor.



Or then <quick check; okay, at least six pages since I last claimed this> the Discovery is a former shuttlecarrier, internally renovated into a flying laboratory, with mushroomrooms and other weird stuff suspended inside the vast hangar cavity, but most of the space left empty save for creatively rerouted turborails and random logistics spaces. Properly separated landing bays and launching tubes would be a must for such a carrier.

...What were these tubes supposed to be in the original McQuarrie drawings? They're part and parcel of all the versions, but there seem to be separate "impulse engines" or other rocket-analogues on the back wall of the hull, flanking the bay doors.

It's funny how the ship actually seems to have zero identifiable torpedo tubes anywhere on the hull. But that's just par for the TOS course.

Timo Saloniemi

In the absolute original drawing, I always thought that area below the shuttlebay would be impulse engines, since there aren't any other features that appear to be.

McQuarriePrise 1a.jpg
 
Well, launchers next to the nacelles is a pretty good idea - they command good cones of fire there. Heck, when viewed from forward, they might even clear the saucer in a way that makes it looks as if they emerge from absolutely random parts of the saucer...

(...Or then they do emerge from the saucer, that is, from the spinning part which has those suspicious boxes on, and for that reason fly whichever way when terminating Kol.)

Timo Saloniemi
 
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