The only thing I'm thinking about is the Daedalus and Olympus class. Wouldn't the round primary hull be a throwback too?
I know, I know, it's not logical.
The round primary hull being a throwback isn’t the problem.
Spoilers Starship Design in Star Trek: Picard
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The round primary hull being a throwback isn’t the problem.
No, it's the combination of multiple factors that are just logical...
I just don't see enough of these features to go "This is TMP!" like others. Hence my confusion on the matter. SO, in my denseness I looked at a similar example, as well as the fact that the Excelsior style frame and the Sovereign class remind me of this new ship so to me it follows along enough to be the Picard Era, vs. TMP era. If I am understanding the argument correctly...
The Daedalus class is a TOS design. The Olympic is a TNG design. And if you have trouble seeing design lineages with the examples I gave, then again, I don’t know what to tell you.
The Titan looks anachronistic. It’s based on a TMP era design but wasn’t changed significantly enough to warrant it being believably new for 2401+. Just my opinion.
The Titan looks anachronistic. It’s based on a TMP era design but wasn’t changed significantly enough to warrant it being believably new for 2401+. Just my opinion.
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Real world example - the USA had space capsules in the 1960s and 1970s. Then, the country tried the space shuttle, which didn't work out. So, the USA has returned to the space capsules as they are a proven design. They have a similar body shape to the earlier models, but have more advanced technology built in.
Look at season 2, you have Updates of the Excelsior, Miranda, Shepard, Nebula, Galaxy, all updated to early 25th century aesthetics, you can see the lineage, but you also see its updated.
The Titan looks the same as it did as in late 23rd, with new nacelles. Its not "Updated" it looks like they dragged it out of mothballs and slapped whatever current nacelles they had on hand on. and pushed it out the dock.
as for Round saucers and necks, the Ross has a round saucer and neck, the excelsior 2 has a neck, the reliant has a round saucer, the gagarin has a round saucer.
The Titan looks the same as it did as in late 23rd, with new nacelles. Its not "Updated" it looks like they dragged it out of mothballs and slapped whatever current nacelles they had on hand on. and pushed it out the dock.
as for Round saucers and necks, the Ross has a round saucer and neck, the excelsior 2 has a neck, the reliant has a round saucer, the gagarin has a round saucer.
The Stargazer, Reliant, and Gagarin all have elliptical saucers. And they don’t even look like they detach from the rest of the hull. Even the Shangri-La and Constitution III saucers aren’t fully round; they have cutouts in the back. When we finally see the new Enterprise-F, do you think it will have a round saucer like the TOS/TMP Enterprise? I doubt it.
I think the whole ‘round saucer is best for exploration and emergency landings’ is just a crock of bull to justify Matalas wanting an anachronistic design as the hero ship. And I doubt it has anything to do with a feigned sense of Starfleet ‘nostalgia.’ Just my opinion. And quite frankly, I’m tired of discussing this.
I think the whole ‘round saucer is best for exploration and emergency landings’ is just a crock of bull to justify Matalas wanting an anachronistic design as the hero ship. And I doubt it has anything to do with a feigned sense of Starfleet ‘nostalgia.’ Just my opinion. And quite frankly, I’m tired of discussing this.
I am going to probably get ripped for this one, but reading this brought me back to thinking about automobiles. The one that popped into my head was the Chevrolet HHR:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_HHR
Designed to be retro on a more modern platform. Maybe they had nostalgic designers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_HHR
Designed to be retro on a more modern platform. Maybe they had nostalgic designers.
I just had an interesting thought. Maybe the Lead Starship Design Team got wiped out during the Utopia Planitia attack and now all these plucky new designers are taking the reins and going in a new/old direction 
I hope so.
Which is how I feel about the Titan-A. It has some similarity, but still looks more advanced.
Then why do you keep arguing with everyone? We get it, you don’t like it. No one’s asking you to. I applauded their design process, because the behind the scenes effort never gets enough credit. I’m not trying to convince your or anyone of anything. You don’t want to discuss it? Then stop arguing with everyone.
First of all, we’re not arguing; we’re having a civilized discussion in which parties don’t always agree on things. Second, don’t tell me what to do. We can discuss whatever we want, whenever we want. Unless you’re the owner of this website, refrain from acting as such.
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Yet it seems there was no real process. Matalas simply said what he wanted and let Drexler and others come up with asinine justifications for the design.
It's not asinine. All the shows have done this.
That wasn't how I read their interview, and I certainly wouldn't call their justifications asinine. Their justifications are as good (IMHO better) than those used for transporters, or a boxy shuttlecraft, or a million other things in Trek (families on starships). I would also argue that there is *always* a process in design - even if the desired goal is known at the start, there is still an iterative process to get to the finished product. In this case it went beyond a "yes/no" from Matalas based solely on aesthetics, and instead he engaged the designers in actually reasoning through scenarios. He didn't have to do that just as his predecessors didn't. I also want to say that Doug Drexler having helped shape the recent design language of Trek, could easily have not taken part in Picard Season 3. Instead, he came up with scenarios that contradicted his prior work in order to come up with something new. That doesn't sound like a one-sided process simply defending the boss's vision......I've been in those conversations many times.
A design might look retro, but be technically more advanced.
Like the Akira, for example. VERY retro. 
Yep, in-universe the Akira-class is probably a design nod to the NX-class of Archer's time period but is VASTLY more sophisticated and powerful.
Indeed. Heck, look at the trend back towards flip phones. There is going to be an aesthetic choice for multiple reasons but the tech far more advance than the ones even 5 years ago lining my junk drawer.
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The thing is, the Akira-class and the NX-class are not actually all that similar. They have twin booms linking the nacelles to the saucer – that's about it. And to be sure it is a highly distinctive trait they share, but they aren't any more similar than say a Constitution-class starship and a Galaxy-class starship, or a Miranda-class and a Nebula-class. Everything from general proportions to the shape of the saucer to presence of a secondary hull in the Akira to the orientation of the nacelles is different.
I don't quite buy the "the Constitution-class design works perfectly for an exploratory ship" argument. I particularly don't buy that this is a reason for the Titan-A to have identical window arrangements and retro weapons arrays over a century after they were originally designed. The Akira doesn't have little articulated phaser cannons that pop out of hatches, or shuttlepods that drop out of a ventral bay – she's a through-deck carrier.
A better example of a 25th century starship patterned after the Constitution-class would be something like the Excalibur-class or the Exeter-class from Star Trek Online, both of which are very obviously modern updates to on a classic design. The primary hull of the Titan-A just looks terribly out of place, and to be honest more than a bit ugly.
I don't quite buy the "the Constitution-class design works perfectly for an exploratory ship" argument. I particularly don't buy that this is a reason for the Titan-A to have identical window arrangements and retro weapons arrays over a century after they were originally designed. The Akira doesn't have little articulated phaser cannons that pop out of hatches, or shuttlepods that drop out of a ventral bay – she's a through-deck carrier.
A better example of a 25th century starship patterned after the Constitution-class would be something like the Excalibur-class or the Exeter-class from Star Trek Online, both of which are very obviously modern updates to on a classic design. The primary hull of the Titan-A just looks terribly out of place, and to be honest more than a bit ugly.
