So now that both designs have shown up in shiny modern live-action series Star Trek: Picard, it implies that the SNW ship gets a refit to become the TOS ship.
I've suggested that that is a possibility the SNW producers could use many times. I still like the idea -- a nice tip of the hat to TOS as SNW finishes up.
Either way TOS leads to TNG leads to Voyager leads to Picard. In story, in design, in visuals. SNW can go be off in its own little universe for all I care, as long as it doesn't suggest that the visuals I'm seeing in my TOS and TNG DVDs are wrong.
At this point, I think it's pretty clear that both the SNW version of the
Enterprise and the TOS version are part of Prime Universe continuity.
Well, not really. Because by that logic, the TOS Enterprise went from looking like it did in "The Cage" to looking like it did in SNW to looking like it did in TOS.
Starfleet doesn't have problems with the kind of resource scarcity that would make such refits prohibitive in real life; I'm okay with that possibility. I'm also okay with ignoring retconning the "Cage"
Enterprise as looking like the SNW version in official Star Trek continuity as long as the original version of "The Cage" remains available for viewing/purchase by fans.
Its possible the SNW enterprise connie gets a refit like the new jersey. Buy maybe SNW will end up being a alternate reality. Who knows.
The producers have been very clear that
Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, and
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds all take place in the same continuity as
Star Trek: The Original Series et al.
The SNW Enterprise isn’t going to change into the TOS Enterprise. They are 0% concerned with making their show look like the ‘60’s.
It might. It might not. We'll find out!
So even if the SNW-Enterprise looks like the TOS-Enterprise at the end of the show how does that solve anything?
Insofar as there was anything to "solve," sure. It just makes it 100% clear that the ship looks different in TOS and SNW because there was a refit between the two.
Are we supposed to believe then that Starfleet shrunk it down from 442 to 289 m?
That scale was never canonically established. It was "fanon," not canon. I'm fine with scaling the
Enterprise up a bit.
There comes a point when a prequel crosses too many lines and becomes a reboot.
Nope. That's a question of authorial intent, not your subjective interpretation. SNW is a prequel, not a reboot. You don't get to designate it a reboot unless you buy
Star Trek from Paramount.
No, because the 289 meter size was never canon except as a mistake in DSC Season 2.
That size also doesn't work with 2 decks at the height of the TOS sets. Unless the TOS Enterprise is bigger on the inside.
Interesting! So that size never worked anyway and there's no reason to hold onto it except fanon assumptions.