Spoilers Starship Design in Star Trek: Picard

[dantini]

No surprise Eaves' latest Federation starship is an ugly mess. Why change the habit of a lifetime.

I used to like his designs. In fact, most of my favorite starships are by John Eaves - the Enterprise B and E, the Son'a ships, the Valdore, the auxiliary ships from Insurrection, several ships from ENT... But almost all the ships he's designed since 2009 look stale or even ugly to me. Either something about his style has changed, or the producers want the ships to look like that...

 

[Tosk]

I think I'll send Eaves a thank you card.

What for?

 

[Lakenheath 72]

Probably the producers.

 

[Kpnuts]

Imagine having this stunning history of starship designs before you joined...

and this is what you come up with:

 

[ITDUDE]

and this is what you come up with:

There are 4 types of ships there? Where?

 

[Timo]

Looks fine to me. The design, that is, not the scene. It's great that ship design is moving forward, rather than just milling about, even if opinions may vary on the direction of progress. And fangasms are guaranteed when it's so obviously moving towards the future posited in STO, even if again it's not everyone's cup of tranya.

Not so fond of the Excelsior, in terms of lineage. The E-B modification gave it the sort of pre-dreadnought gravitas the role called for, though.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[DEWLine]

Yeah, I would have preferred a more diverse collection of ships on the Starfleet side for this instance. Four classes?

*shrugs*

 

[Timo]

There are 4 types of ships there? Where?

The one with the oval cross section to the nacelles is easy to spot especially in aft view, but can also be identified in side view by the redder ramscoops and shorter warp field windows. The other one with the yellow scoops can have its nacelles tilted in at least two angles. How this makes "three types" let alone four is unknown when the hulls appear identical. And the nacelle tilt could just indicate hinges...

Then again, the Romulans also had four types: the scout, the ferry, the boom-tailed fighter, the command ship. But only the latter two really took part in most of the fight scenes, for whatever reason. Perhaps a distinct fourth Starfleet ship type was in the far background or off the frame? Possibly because it was of even cruder "finish" or otherwise not presentable.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[fireproof78]

What for?

For his hard work, for making ships that I like and the endless source of entertainment for the complaints online

 

[DEWLine]

Fair enough.

 

[Kpnuts]

The mark of a good starship design is that it'll look good from any angle. The Enterprise 1701 is a famous example of this, and most of the model ships posted above pass that test too.

Discovery has about 2 angles where it looks ok, everything else is just garbage.

The Picard Starfleet ship (there's more than 1 design there?) fails instantly, even when the production team were given free reign to show them off at their best.

And then you layer on top Secret Hideout's obsession with filling the screen with as many asteroids, drone ships and now starships in some misguided belief that that makes a scene memorable, and yeah, you have a terrible setpiece to an overall pretty good first season.

 

[valkyrie013]

There 4? Really? A tweak here or slightly lower naccelles? I'm sorry.. But if your going to have a fleet.. And want display that its not 1 ship x100? Have Major diferences!

 

[Kpnuts]

There 4? Really? A tweak here or slightly lower naccelles? I'm sorry.. But if your going to have a fleet.. And want display that its not 1 ship x100? Have Major diferences!

The eighteen executive producers on both new Trek shows don't care about space cinematography though. They barely show any exterior shots and when they do they never linger or show vessels off properly. So I can understand them wanting to go the cheap route.

 

[dantini]

Maybe it actually would've looked better if they'd hired someone to render that scene in Lightwave using the existing late 24th century starship models...

 

[Spock Must Diet!]

Maybe it actually would've looked better if they'd hired someone to render that scene in Lightwave using the existing late 24th century starship models...

There is an entire community of hobbyists doing exactly that as we speak, I would guess. Many of them post on Deviantart. I browse starship porn there.

There are some nacelle differences among Riker's fleet, but those are the only differences that I see.

 

[fireproof78]

Ah yes, the fans can do it better argument.

 

[Kpnuts]

People like Eaves start out as fans, production staff are fans who are given an opportunity.

 

[ITDUDE]

Ah so these two are different types of ships? Because of slightly different shape of exhaust? Original TOS Enterprise had different exhausts and it was single damn type of ship. Whoever came out with these "different" designs was either lazy, out of time, out of money or all of the above. I blame....<looks around to point finger at>...umm... Kurtzman!

 

[Dukhat]

Ah yes, the fans can do it better argument.

There are things that fans can’t do better (come up with show ideas, making god awful fan fiction) and then there are things that fans can do better (making ship designs). I know this because I’ve seen hundreds of talented fans come up with hundreds of great ship designs for many years, both as physical models and CGI. Unfortunately they are not the people who get hired by Paramount, UPN, CBS and the like. Every so often they get one or two guys who do great work, but for the most part I’m not that impressed with what I’ve seen on screen.

 

[fireproof78]

Again, dipping in to the Trek well. Miranda class vs. Saratoga class? One has a roll bar and one, um, doesn't.

There are things that fans can’t do better (come up with show ideas, making god awful fan fiction) and then there are things that fans can do better (making ship designs). I know this because I’ve seen hundreds of talented fans come up with hundreds of great ship designs for many years, both as physical models and CGI. Unfortunately they are not the people who get hired by Paramount, UPN, CBS and the like. Every so often they get one or two guys who do great work, but for the most part I’m not that impressed with what I see on screen.

That's fair. Though, personally, I am quite satisfied with the work on screen so I guess I'm less likely to run to Deviant Art for my fix.