^
Exactly, aridas... you pretty much created a fan favorite. I know it I liked it enough for it to make an impression on me, lol.
I could have used any design for the Gemini, or I could have made my own. But here is why I chose the Surya as a platform, and why I like it so much...
IMO, as I have said before, TOS ships are not meant to look complex... they are arrangements of very basic and simple shapes, and are almost totally devoid of greeble-like detailing, and are very simple and smooth. Many fan designs have a tendency to go WAY overboard with things, as if the designer simply assumes he can improve upon something, when he is only ruining it. Examples of this can be multiple sensor dishes, three or more warp nacelles, redundant shuttlebays, or outlandish-looking warp pylons, such as the FASA Warspite-Class ship.
But the Surya doesn't do any of that... in its minimalist simplicity, it fits perfectly the TOS formula for a ship design... the saucer is a collection of simple shapes, assembled together in a pleasing yet not outlandish or complex way, the pylons are visually different, but just enough to be interesting, and not complex... they are still quite simple-looking. And the Surya does not have any needless redundancies, like two sensor dishes or more than two warp nacelles. Yes, it has two shuttlebays, but as aridas pointed out... it was meant to be a precursor to the Miranda, so it is true to the design legacy we saw on the Miranda... it doesn't deviate from that design formula... it adheres to it. So that is why I chose the design for the Gemini. I could have used the Loknar, and almost did... but then I'd have had to deal with people saying I was making a TOS NX-Class, and I just didn't want to deal with that comparison.
There are VERY few fanon TOS ships I really love... the Surya, the Ireland, the Loknar, and the Larson are pretty much it.
Exactly, aridas... you pretty much created a fan favorite. I know it I liked it enough for it to make an impression on me, lol.
I could have used any design for the Gemini, or I could have made my own. But here is why I chose the Surya as a platform, and why I like it so much...
IMO, as I have said before, TOS ships are not meant to look complex... they are arrangements of very basic and simple shapes, and are almost totally devoid of greeble-like detailing, and are very simple and smooth. Many fan designs have a tendency to go WAY overboard with things, as if the designer simply assumes he can improve upon something, when he is only ruining it. Examples of this can be multiple sensor dishes, three or more warp nacelles, redundant shuttlebays, or outlandish-looking warp pylons, such as the FASA Warspite-Class ship.
But the Surya doesn't do any of that... in its minimalist simplicity, it fits perfectly the TOS formula for a ship design... the saucer is a collection of simple shapes, assembled together in a pleasing yet not outlandish or complex way, the pylons are visually different, but just enough to be interesting, and not complex... they are still quite simple-looking. And the Surya does not have any needless redundancies, like two sensor dishes or more than two warp nacelles. Yes, it has two shuttlebays, but as aridas pointed out... it was meant to be a precursor to the Miranda, so it is true to the design legacy we saw on the Miranda... it doesn't deviate from that design formula... it adheres to it. So that is why I chose the design for the Gemini. I could have used the Loknar, and almost did... but then I'd have had to deal with people saying I was making a TOS NX-Class, and I just didn't want to deal with that comparison.
There are VERY few fanon TOS ships I really love... the Surya, the Ireland, the Loknar, and the Larson are pretty much it.