• 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!

Spoilers Starship Design in Star Trek: Picard

Maybe "reboot" is the wrong term. Reboot implies not only wiping the slate clean but leaving behind what came before in favor of something totally different.

With the Kelvin universe they didn't really take as much liberties as they could have. The only reason it was a different timeline was purely so the filmmakers can slightly deviate from canon and not contradict what came before. That was all there was to it. It was nothing as drastic as something like BATTLESTAR GALACTICA where Ron Moore merely took the core concept and drastically altered the characters and dynamics.
They could do something very different with Trek while without having to effect its source material — something less doable in Galactica. Pick an entirely new crew on an entirely new ship in an entirely new area of the frontier with entirely new aliens all around with entirely new problems to overcome and entirely new concepts to explore. The only thing that EVER stops them is the execs who don’t have faith in Trek beyond the familiar. VOY integrates the Maquis and reset button every week, ENT’s 22nd C might as well have been the 24th, JJ’s alternate Kelvinverse does The Search for Khan, “Strange New Worlds” will be discovered by familiar old characters, etc etc.

A total reimagining of Star Trek, without worrying about maintaining continuity, would be a really interesting concept.

I think if I were doing one, I'd start by solving the problem of why the Federation is so human-centric if everyone is supposed to be equal, by jettisoning the Federation. Whereas TOS's depiction of a Federation starship where everyone is from Earth except one guy is the equivalent of, say, a show about a U.S. Navy ship where everyone is from Texas except for one guy from Massachusetts? I'd have the adventures of the United Earth Starship Enterprise, with a crew of Humans from Earth, where Spock is the only non-Human because he's an immigrant. Vulcan, Andor, Tellar, etc., would all be neighboring powers, rather than co-equal subdivisions of the same political entity the main characters serve. And an ongoing story arc in the background could be them all eventually recognizing their need to unite, thereby founding the Federation... Basically, ENT, but done right this time.

This might have been a better version of ENT, but ENT it would be. We already have TOS and maybe SNW for the characters and ENT for the period, which, by this precedent, they’d be prepping to remake a third time with Tom Holland the while this series is shooting it’s series finale.

Honest to God, I could go for some Spock splatter porn right about now. Kill your idols.

Tell you what @MakeshiftPython, if you make Spock a girl and the Enterprise a carrier, you have a deal.
 
I'm eager to hear directly from John Eaves about the new Picard Starfleet ships. It looks like a modular design with maybe 3 different versions. Chabon also said that at least 1 design was not used at all, and I' love to see some of that artwork!

RAMA
 
I'm eager to hear directly from John Eaves about the new Picard Starfleet ships. It looks like a modular design with maybe 3 different versions. Chabon also said that at least 1 design was not used at all, and I' love to see some of that artwork!

RAMA

There was only one design used, but there were two different nacelle types. There were three ship designs approved but only one of them made it to the screen.
 
There was only one design used, but there were two different nacelle types. There were three ship designs approved but only one of them made it to the screen.
I definitely saw 3 nacelle types.

I think this is a good extension of the modular Starfleet design we've always seen, but I would've liked to have seen more hull types. I've talked with Eaves before, but he's a bit tight-lipped these days after certain events transpired a few years ago.
 
I definitely saw 3 nacelle types.

I think this is a good extension of the modular Starfleet design we've always seen, but I would've liked to have seen more hull types. I've talked with Eaves before, but he's a bit tight-lipped these days after certain events transpired a few years ago.

If you can point out the third one, I’d be interested, since every place I’ve checked, people have only seen two.
 
There there was at least two and I am pretty sure there was three.

Two of the nacelles were quite different with the one being quite cylindrical at the ends whereas the other was shaped more like the Sovereign class, the sovereign inspired nacelles had two different versions if I remember correctly which makes three.

I had a really close look at the time as I was trying to spot Rikers flagship and at those distances I had to use nacelles to identify the differences.

I also saw two different saucer configurations and at least three different bridge modules while I was at it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I also saw two different saucer configurations and at least three different bridge modules while I was at it.

Please show examples of this, because Chabon only said one class was shown, the Inquiry. And I’ve studied the screencaps of the fleet and I’ve seen only one saucer and bridge design.
 
I've seen just two variants in Riker's fleet and those are the ones with two distinct nacelle detail layouts(different Bussard collectors and light-up grills). If there's a third I haven't seen it or just don't remember ever doing so.
 
Please show examples of this, because Chabon only said one class was shown, the Inquiry. And I’ve studied the screencaps of the fleet and I’ve seen only one saucer and bridge design.
Pretty sure it was discussed at the time in this thread after the episode aired.

Others posted the various screenshots showing the different saucers, impulse engines, nacelles and even bridge modules.

One class was shown but there were at least two and iirc three variants.

There could be more but its hard to tell with many of the shots being from a considerable distance away, some of the first shots we get are from close up though.
 
What I remember being discussed was how exactly alike all the ships were, except for the two different nacelles. Chabon initially said that there were four different classes in the fleet, but later amended this to only one, with two others being approved but not actually shown in the fleet.
 
There might have been different greeblies and surface detailing from ship to ship but I hardly think a few bumps or lines on one starship while the one next to it doesn't have those same bumps or lines is enough reason to classify the other vessel as a different type of starship.
 
There might have been different greeblies and surface detailing from ship to ship but I hardly think a few bumps or lines on one starship while the one next to it doesn't have those same bumps or lines is enough reason to classify the other vessel as a different type of starship.

It was just a way of trying to show different ship classes without actually showing different ship classes. Maybe the other ones Eaves designed were even uglier, who knows.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top