• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Starship design history in light of Discovery

Tuskin38 said:
STO's take on a 'modern' (2411) version of the DSC Bird of Prey
Bial3Zp.png

EZIzWKJ.png
Click to expand...
m'chHla reqthlt?
 
DEWLine said:
m'chHla reqthlt?
Click to expand...

It says M'Chla refit in English.The Klingon text on the wing is just a straight Latin character to Klingon character transfer. Players can put anything they want there, since this was a promo image they probably didn’t bother changing it from the default name.

M’Chla is the class name STO gave the DSC BoP, the DSC writing team (I believe it was specifically Kirsten who came up with the names) gave every Klingon ship a Klingon name except that one, so the STO team gave it their own. I don’t know if it means anything, it might just be a name not a word.
 
Last edited:
F. King Daniel said:
Why would they take away the sexy wing patterning??
Click to expand...

The side view shows subdued feathers at the outer forward tips. And also highlights how the design language is that of the DSC skullships, with the forward-curving very solid wing-things rather than sideways-extending thin flippers. Not a bad one, for the era.

I just wonder how one can do "Klingon" for the 32nd century... Now that there's no truly recognizably "Starfleet" there, in terms of shapes or textures.

Timo Saloniemi
 
Tuskin38 said:
Eh? They still have ships with starfleet looking shapes.
Click to expand...

...The point being that those are in a minority amidst a menagerie of shapes and textures that don't establish any New Normal for us to follow. Which is good, because we should expect some diversity from Starfleet by historical precedent, especially if the ships also exhibit longevity. But we can't say "saucers - must be Feds!" any longer; can't really tell if we should be going "rings - must be Feds!" or perhaps "vertically elongated - must be Feds!" yet; and have to rely on statistically untenable assumptions such as "symmetric is Good Guys, asymmetric is Bad Guys" for the time being.

Some of the Starfleet ships might be Romulan in their design language, from the time prior to the Ni'var leaving in a huff. None look like they would have Klingon input, though. Perhaps Klingons are still their own thing, and will be encountered later on. Will they still have winged ships with distinct necks, bulbous heads, and drooping wingtip talons?

Timo Saloniemi
 
Starfleet has integrated the militaries and ships of various planets into Starfleet and blended all those different design philosophies in various combinations. Plus since the Federation gained many new members before the Burn, it makes sense the ships would have more variety.
 
I don't really do STO, but I'm not sure how I feel about that version of the Excelsior. The aesthetics don't seem quite right to me.
 
I assume the glowy stripe is meant to echo the glowy area to the sides of the Discovery's deflector, but it's a bit much.

Here's the lore the STO team came up with

While the Excelsior will go down in history as an ambitious but failed experiment, it was actually the culmination of decades of advances in subspace physics and warp field research. The Excelsior launched in the 2280s, but Starfleet had been experimenting with the technologies it would use for decades. The U.S.S. Repulse, built primarily as a testbed for these technologies, saw limited service as a top-secret test vehicle in the 2250s and 2260s. Research and iteration made on the Repulse’ warp engines would inspire even more advanced systems on Excelsior.
Click to expand...
 
^

Also this.

I'd love to see Shepard-class starships alongside TOS-style vessels. A few DSC designs are outstanding.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top