I always really liked the Ken Adam design/McQuarrie-painting, specifically the asteroid shot. One variant more than the other. I would have absolutely hated it if it were supposed to be the Enterprise. But I think it was nothing short of a stroke of genius to use it as the basis for a different starship.
I had quite a mixed reaction on the Comic Con reveal 2016: They basically made some much needed adjustments - the longer, bigger forward pointing nacelles, a deflector dish. But both the CG as well as the model were pretty crappy. Good enough to serve as a basis. Horrible as a final design.
But the more changes we have seen now, the further they have moved away from the original Adams/McQuarrie design. And the worse they have made it since then. The completely box-like underbelly. The much too thin, extremely long backward pointing nacelles through the design heavily off-balance if watched from above. The two rings of cut-outs don't make a lick of sense, and imply a total length much bigger than the original Enterprise.
But the biggest problem is: The current version IMO just doesn't look very good. And part of the design already was much better. It's like watching a great screenplay (say, Alien:Engineers) that just needs a small polish, but is extremely intruiging. And then someone else comes along, makes a complete rewrite, and we end up with something like Prometheus. Still much to like with it, but riddled with needlessly added problems, and overall just meh.
I have not yet given up hope. Psion might be right, and we might already have our final version. But even if we see another trailer with much better shots of the ship next week, we will only truly, really know when the first episode airs. Until then, I will hold out hope in the end we will end up with a version most of us will like, and the rest can still accept. Hell, even if it stays ugly, the show still might be good anyway. Or the other way round. But it would be a shame, wouldn't it?
