Warped9,
I rarely get on the BBS anymore, but I wanted to log in and say that, while this isn't how I envision my twenty-ninth century Starfleet reboot, and while I had serious brain fatigue when I saw the original 2d sketch, I think you have pulled this off marvelously.
A few details in particular that I like:
1) I love your font choice It harkens back to the TOS font while being subtly futuristic.
2) The Saucer is a particularly effective design. I enjoy the window configuration you have done, and like your superstructure.
3) The aft view coming into the hangar that you posted upthread was very effective, for me at least, on selling the design.
4) Like others, I probably find the secondary hull to be the hardest element to fully grasp, but I have really warmed up to it.
5) I definitely love your lower nacelle placement. Very effective, and suggestive of sleekness and speed.
Outstanding work!
Rob+
Thank you for your gracious feedback.
I wish I still had the concept perspective sketches I did of this design so many years ago. it's those that really helpedme work out the shapes and proportions I settled on and gave me an idea of what the design could look like in three dimensions.
As critical as others can get it must be said that I, too, can be quite critical of my own ideas. I can second guess myself. I can try things and then jettison them as not being what I thought they'd be. I also realize that there really is no such thing as a perfect design. Every good work has imperfections to it. And while I like my overall concept here I do have reservations about certain elements only I'm challenged to think of a better solution. Sometimes when I'm not totally satisfied with something I walk away and come back later to look at it again with rested eyes.
In some respects it would be much easier to start with a completely clean sheet and design something that is a complete departure from someone else's work. In that exercise you're unhindered by association. This kind of exercise is a challenge because you're chllenging other people's perspectives and interpretations as well as your own.
The TNG designs owes nothing to the MJ original other than basic concept. And in fairness that's not a bad thing because they were trying to be evolutionary as well as trying to establish their own identity. The TMP design was also meant to be evolutionary and in overall execution it has much more in common with the MJ original particularly in its proportions.
This exercise is somewhat different. It's not meant to be evolutionary in the sense of being in universe. It's meant to be a reinterpretation of the original work from a more contemporary perspective. For example, for me, the shape of the saucer was very important. The only thing that might be exactly the same as the original (or close enough) is the angle of the saucer's outer rim. everything else is a modification of the original lines and elements.
A real world analogy of this could be the current designs of certain cars that are thoroughly modern yet meant to evoke the originals: the VW Beetle, the Mini, the Ford Mustang, the Chevrolet Camaro, the Dodge Challenger, the Jeep Wrangler and for a while the Chrysler PT Cruiser and Chevrolet HHR (each were of the last two were meant more to evoke an idea rather than a specific model).
The essential MJ concept has been reinterpreted repeatedly in Trek, but never in a way that really evokes the original design. And that's okay in the sense of needing to depict something evolutionary and not really meant to be remotely similar. But if someone were to genuinely reboot TOS for television you are faced with two choices (as I see it):
- Hew very closely to the original design and aesthetic with minor tweaks. While valid I think this would also signal that you're not really going to change much in the reboot. You're essentially trying to recapture as much as you can of the original "loghtning in a bottle" even though so much has changed since the original was produced, particularly general audience perspectives as well as those of devoted fans (even if we mightn't realize it).
- Make radical changes with the barest hint of familiarity. In many respects this is the route TNG took. Except in certain episodes there really isnt much in common between TNG and TOS other than being set in (purportedly) the same universe.
For what it's worth I think JJ Abrams tried to straddle the distinction between two approaches I've cited. He wanted to make Trek something other than what it was yet with a facade of being similar to the original. Regarding his success your mileage will vary.
In a sense I, too, envision straddling between the two. I envision
evoking the original in terms of look (and potentially character and storytelling) yet otherwise pushing the ideas forward to feel more in tune with current perspectives. And just as MJ's original design was meant to represent the series overall in which it was featured I tried to envision a new
Enterprise to represent what a new TOS inspired series could potentially be like.
Regarding this exercise your mileage will vary.
