I didn’t want to drag someone else’s thread off-topic so I decided to start another thread on this subject.
My above quote states my point reasonably succinctly.
We can accept that TOS had a time and budgetary constraint in terms of what they could do in terms of fx and production. But, of course, there is more to it than that. There is also the consideration of when TOS was made, the mid 1960s. The general perception of what a far future could look like was not only a matter of budgetary limitations, but also greatly due to the general perception of society as reflected in industrial design of the time.
I have often used the automotive market as something of a parallel analogy for computer technology. This really hit home for me recently when I watched a video about a restored 1965 Ford Thunderbird coupe. That design epitomized the mid 1960s. It was a clean streamlined design touched by a hotrod sensibility. It didn’t look space age rocketship like in the vein of the late 1950’s designs. It evoked a future that was streamlined and clean without the pulp 1940s-‘50s sci-fi look of technology. Indeed that mid ‘60s T-bird, along with other designs, is an interesting terrestrial parallel to Matt Jefferies’ Enterprise.
The Enterprise was a stroke of brilliance. It was a deft melding of technological extrapolation with clean cool design. It looks cool not only because it’s supposed to, but because it also looks believably purposeful. Add to that the magic that how it functioned was not immediately apparent. We were given tantalizing clues through occasional terminology and evocative technical jargon that sounded just convincing enough to make it feel more real and more possible.
Part of the Enterprise’s beauty is in the fact we don’t fully understand how it works the way it supposedly does. It followed the notion that any sufficiently advanced technology can seem like magic. Alien ship designs in TOS followed the same mindset. It’s far future, it’s alien—we shouldn’t be able to easily discern how it works.
Hell, I’m writing this on an iPad—a device that does feel like magic and certainly would appear so to someone living a hundred or so years ago.
Now a good question to ask is, what might Star Trek have done if they had magically had more time and money? Is it likely the Enterprise, and everything else, could have looked more like TMP? I think the short answer is “no” because the general societal perceptions were different in the mid 1960s than they were in the late 1970s. One might argue Star Trek might have looked a bit more detailed and finished, but not radically different than what we got. More time and money could have allowed them to do some things they otherwise had to forego, but I don’t think it would have looked greatly different because of the existing perceptions of what the future should look like.
This mindset changed within a decade of TOS ending production. The debut of Star Wars completed changed the public perception of what far future and alien technology should look like. Now technology took on a rather industrial real world aesthetic. Future technology now looked accessible and understandable. It looked like it could be easily explained. I don’t mean this in actual real world terms, but in terms of perception. In some cases spacecraft were hardly indistinguishable from terrestrial aircraft. Gone were smooth and seamless hulls constructed in some fantastic advanced manner, replaced by obvious plating that looked right at home on early 20th century ocean vessel hulls and akin to contemporary jet aircraft fuselage panels. The TMP refit now had obvious reaction control thrusters for fine maneuvering (that would still be useless at higher velocities). Gone were many of the spacious interiors meant to stave off claustrophobia on extended voyages, replaced by grey and darkened interiors that emphasize the idea of being enclosed in a smallish area (after a brief relapse in TNG this has gotten ever worse with each successive Trek production).
In essence the magic was tossed aside. And it’s why as beautiful as the TMP refit is I still prefer Matt Jefferies’ original. I feel the level of detail on the refit was carried too far such that it took away the magic of the original.
I don’t need to have it all explained.
