I know this sounds insane but bear with me- STAR TREK, The Original Series is actually more advanced looking than Discovery. I don't know what the future will actually look like, but both seriesis are as good a guess as any. Still, visually and technology wise, aside from the obvious 50 year quality gap, I would say that TOS actually looks more futuristic in the Star Trek Universe than Discovery- here's why!
- Obviously, Discovery is the more recent series, and that means it looks more modern to our eyes. But someday, it too will be dated like TOS. But since TOS is so old, it looks more alien to our eyes, wheras Discovery, with it's holographic interfaces and very modern computer code, looks like something that could actually exist within the next few years. But just because something is shinier doesn't mean it's better, and the TOS look is often more practical for deep space exploration. Just like how cars dont have fins anymore and computers don't have all the pretty flashing lights... Oh wait, TOS does have those, but it's a metaphor.
-The reason Discovery is so dark is because we are seeing it through the eyes of an external observer (Lorca) with damaged eyes, but I prefer to think that the future will be bright. The darkness automatically makes it seem more dingy and old. On the whole, Discovery has an odd visual style though, and in some ways it's actually more colorful than TOS. This is just a style difference though, just like TOS was remastered to look more modern with CGI and stuff, DISC could be demastered to look like TOS, but this of course is stupid, Roddenberry's vision as expressed in the TMP novelization said as much, that TOS was one interpretation of the real adventures. I think "REAL" Star Trek looks like neither TOS nor DISC, but that's beside the point. Ignoring Roddenberry's Vision, TOS is the ONE TRUE CANNON or at least is just as cannon as DSC. But both visual styles can be retconned, we know from modern media that stuff gets less colorful as it ages- notice how in TOS space is plain black with colored lights for stars whereas in Discovery space is colory with lights and nebulas? Obviously the destruction of the mycelial network (As shown in the very first GOLD KEY COMIC from the 1960s, the first "NON CANNON" story in Star Trek EVER! I think that if DISC and TOS are cannon, so is Gold Key, but that's another matter! ) inverted the universes colors, so that can be explained like that.
-The Warp Effect on Discovery is more modern and flashy than the one in TOS (Which was literally just stars flying past), but the one in TOS actually looks more advanced, while the lots of lines distorting in DISC is more unstable looking, implying less well developed technology (TIME WARP FACTORS?)
-As for the viewports/viewscreens thing, TVs are more advanced than WINDOWS! But that doesn't mean we got rid of windows, the Enterprise had a giant dome on top of the bridge even bigger than the Shenzhou's and Discovery's combined! We just only saw it in "The Cage", which incidentally, is set in the same time as Discovery! Coincidence? I think not!
-I said earlier that computers dont have flashy lights anymore, but the one's in TOS indicate something different, like a universal language comprehensible to all species, not just humans like the one's on Discovery.
-Also speaking of computers, we can't get around that the computer in TOS sounds more robotic than the one in DISC- but maybe by TOS's time humanity doesn't need all it's computers to sound like them, and is more accepting of computer voices.
-Then there's the lack of Force Fields in TOS- well better safe than sorry! Especially after what happened to Michael in "Battle at the Binary Stars".
-The Enterprise is smaller and smoother than ship's on Discovery, but smaller and smoother usually indicates more advanced technology. Either that or a "Starship Augment Virus" affected all starships just like it affected the Klingons over the next ten years.
- And the Enterprise sure doesn't need a spore drive when it can get from one end of the galaxy to the other! And even to other galaxies as we see in the Gold Key comics, where the Enterprise travels to planet K.G in Galaxy Alpha and destroys the plant planet where the spores originated and destroys it with "Laser Beams"!
Anyway, that's it for now, feel free to add your own observations or opinions, and if you disagree that's fine, this just helps me feel more comfortable with DISC and STAR TREK on the whole because they are both awesome shows but not the awesomest shows just really cool.
LONG LIVE THE LIS EMPIRE!
- Obviously, Discovery is the more recent series, and that means it looks more modern to our eyes. But someday, it too will be dated like TOS. But since TOS is so old, it looks more alien to our eyes, wheras Discovery, with it's holographic interfaces and very modern computer code, looks like something that could actually exist within the next few years. But just because something is shinier doesn't mean it's better, and the TOS look is often more practical for deep space exploration. Just like how cars dont have fins anymore and computers don't have all the pretty flashing lights... Oh wait, TOS does have those, but it's a metaphor.
-The reason Discovery is so dark is because we are seeing it through the eyes of an external observer (Lorca) with damaged eyes, but I prefer to think that the future will be bright. The darkness automatically makes it seem more dingy and old. On the whole, Discovery has an odd visual style though, and in some ways it's actually more colorful than TOS. This is just a style difference though, just like TOS was remastered to look more modern with CGI and stuff, DISC could be demastered to look like TOS, but this of course is stupid, Roddenberry's vision as expressed in the TMP novelization said as much, that TOS was one interpretation of the real adventures. I think "REAL" Star Trek looks like neither TOS nor DISC, but that's beside the point. Ignoring Roddenberry's Vision, TOS is the ONE TRUE CANNON or at least is just as cannon as DSC. But both visual styles can be retconned, we know from modern media that stuff gets less colorful as it ages- notice how in TOS space is plain black with colored lights for stars whereas in Discovery space is colory with lights and nebulas? Obviously the destruction of the mycelial network (As shown in the very first GOLD KEY COMIC from the 1960s, the first "NON CANNON" story in Star Trek EVER! I think that if DISC and TOS are cannon, so is Gold Key, but that's another matter! ) inverted the universes colors, so that can be explained like that.
-The Warp Effect on Discovery is more modern and flashy than the one in TOS (Which was literally just stars flying past), but the one in TOS actually looks more advanced, while the lots of lines distorting in DISC is more unstable looking, implying less well developed technology (TIME WARP FACTORS?)
-As for the viewports/viewscreens thing, TVs are more advanced than WINDOWS! But that doesn't mean we got rid of windows, the Enterprise had a giant dome on top of the bridge even bigger than the Shenzhou's and Discovery's combined! We just only saw it in "The Cage", which incidentally, is set in the same time as Discovery! Coincidence? I think not!
-I said earlier that computers dont have flashy lights anymore, but the one's in TOS indicate something different, like a universal language comprehensible to all species, not just humans like the one's on Discovery.
-Also speaking of computers, we can't get around that the computer in TOS sounds more robotic than the one in DISC- but maybe by TOS's time humanity doesn't need all it's computers to sound like them, and is more accepting of computer voices.
-Then there's the lack of Force Fields in TOS- well better safe than sorry! Especially after what happened to Michael in "Battle at the Binary Stars".
-The Enterprise is smaller and smoother than ship's on Discovery, but smaller and smoother usually indicates more advanced technology. Either that or a "Starship Augment Virus" affected all starships just like it affected the Klingons over the next ten years.
- And the Enterprise sure doesn't need a spore drive when it can get from one end of the galaxy to the other! And even to other galaxies as we see in the Gold Key comics, where the Enterprise travels to planet K.G in Galaxy Alpha and destroys the plant planet where the spores originated and destroys it with "Laser Beams"!
Anyway, that's it for now, feel free to add your own observations or opinions, and if you disagree that's fine, this just helps me feel more comfortable with DISC and STAR TREK on the whole because they are both awesome shows but not the awesomest shows just really cool.
LONG LIVE THE LIS EMPIRE!
) between the Pike and Kirk eras, which probably resulted in the removal of "The Cage" dome.
