I've opted to go in a slightly different direction for my second Earth ship design. Initially I was thinking of an evolved version of my Endurance design only sporting two familiar nacelles and a lower structure undernesth the main hull. But as I thought more about it I was drawn to doing something more different. Yes, it has to look "primitive" by TOS era standards, but we could also begin to see some familiar elements echoed in the design. Also in James Blish's adaptation of "Balance Of Terror" there is a line where someone says the Romulans now have ships that "even look like ours.” That line never made it into the aired episode, but we do see a remnent of that thinking in Styles being suspicious of spies aboard the Enterprise after he sees the Romulans look like Spock. Also, if we take my little project seriously, then at this point in the series' production we have seen one other TOS or pre TOS era design: the Antares. What if the Antares echoed an older Earth design? And what if we take the line "even look like ours." to really mean the Romulans now have ships that look like what Earth used to have as opposed to what the Federation has now? I'm not proposing my design will look like an Earth version of a TOS era Romulan warbird. But what if the Romulans put their own spin on an Earth design that had been instrumental in effectively combating the Romulans and beating them back into their own star systems? And given the Romulans' arrogance they don't seem to recognize that Earth ships could have evolved greatly over the past century so they emulate something that is a century out of date when they decide to test Earth/Federation strength again.
How "out of date" is the issue. I think Romulan spies, especially on Vulcan (never trust a Vulcan ), are probable, so, starship designs/technology would be more current than a century out of date. As with all technologies, maybe the Romulans were only able to get some/most of the necessary technology, but the best antimatter/matter power systems and high warp drive either were not acquired or possibly the Romulans didn't have the resources to build them. This may be confirmed by their later alliance with the Klingons .
Re: Romulan spies within the Federation. Not impossible, but I suspect they were either somewhat incompetent or Starfleet/Federation security was exceptioal. The Romulan Bird of Prey in "Balance Of Terror" was inferior in every significant respect to the Enterprise. The Romulan plasma weapon was short ranged and ineffective against ships with longer range weapons. Only stationary targets, like aan outpost or base, were really at risk. The Romulans' cloaking screen was their only advantage, and even it was detectable by motion sensors. So any Romulan spies that might have existed apparently got little information of value. Yes, their plasma weapon was devestating, but only if you can catch your target unaware. The weapon also apparently spent a lot of power which, again, limited its effectiveness. I'm not going to argue about whether the Romulans had any form of FTL because they obviously did. But, again, their ship was clearly slower and of much more limited range than the Enterprise. The Romulans could only get out of their system(s), attack a few targets, then had to make a run for home for lack of fuel. Meanwhile the Enterprise could warp dozens to hundreds of light years without breaking a sweat.
A glimpse of how this is slowly progressing. This is meant to be a transitional design. My earlier Endurance design offered glimpses of familiar elements from the TOS E while still offering something distinctly different. This is another step forward with a few more familiar elements. And yet it’s still fairly removed from the TOS E. In some respects this doesn’t look much more evolved than the Endurance, which I think has its own integrity. This might even look a bit odd as the concept is reaching for something new while still tied to elements of what came before—much like the first jet fighter aircraft still bore some resemblance to the previous propeller driven fighters. The bow view is indeed meant to evoke the TOS BoP.
I think the line about the Romulans having simple impulse, taken with the presence of two nacelles and an interstellar fighting capability, can be inferred to mean “simple impulse while running cloaked”.
Which further supports the idea the plasma weapon and the cloaking system use a lot of power. We know later productions will show the Romulans elect to further develop the cloaking system and abandon the plasma weapon, evidenced as early as “The Deadly Years” where at least three BoP are pounding away at the Enterprise at close range, something she couldn’t take if the Romulans were using the plasma weapon. But even in early 1966 it is plain the cloaking system has greater value over the plasma weapon if they can solve the power consumption problem, which they eventually do.
Don’t get too comfortable with this. I’m already redesigning the lower hull—this one looks too just tacked on.
In The Deadly Years battle, I see the Romulans using their "standard" ships that all have the cloaking technology installed, but not the enhanced plasma weapon installed. The ship in Balance of Terror was their most powerful class of ship, and even by Season Two of TOS (a little less than 2 years later using Stardates), the Romulans have not built enough of them to station around all their border locations. The other ships still used plasma weapons, but these were weaker than the "finest and proudest flagship" in Balance of Terror.
I rather liked the inaccurate, early AMT Romulan Bird of Prey…a refinement of the early one in Balance- Might be nice to splice the newer, smaller but more accurate version—the bridge especially—-to go atop the older, larger one…if findable. A comparison of the art asylum toy and all the models might be nice. The three-ship set kept the spheres on the nacelles, I think.
A heads up. Also known as a lack-of-progress report. The concept I was working on...I just threw it away. I simply wasn't happy with it. It was sorta workable, but it didn't wow me. I feel inspired when I'm working on something that just seems to gel right, but what I had just wasn't working for me. So...back to the sketchpad.
Okay, some general idea while I’m not ready yet to post pics. The image I posted earlier upthread actually remains the basic concept I’ve chosen to go with. However, I’ve made some changes in shapes and proportions that, in my opinion, make it look better. So what am I aiming for? It could have something of a 1950’s/‘60’s jet age vibe to it. Yet it’s also meant to be a devolution of the familiar Enterprise design concept while also being an evolution beyond my Endurance design. This is meant to be a major upgrade and departure from previous Earth designs. There is a sense of primary and secondary hulls, but the saucer isn’t as obvious and the two hulls are meshed close together. Note the Defiant from DS9 was also a not-so-obvious saucer hull with warp components grafted onto the edges. I suppose I could call this the Challenger-class given it’s supposed to be Earth’s first substantial challenge to escalating Romulan hostilities. It’s meant to be significantly faster, tougher and possessing superior firepower to counter the Romulans numerical superiority in the early engagements of the conflict.
Still in progress. The ship that won the Romulan War? While my initial concept is still there I had to rethink proportions and shapes to get a less awkward form. I think this works and I'll finalize it with approriate detail. It's challenging to make something look more "primitive" without adding all kinds of greebles.
That just looks…right. You should do your own Sternbach Chronology with all your designs on a timeline.
I’m being mindful that if these E/R war era ships ever appeared on TOS, like in “Balance Of Terror,” they most likely would have been seen as images on a display, whether they be paintings or drawings. No cgi then so certainly no computer models and definitely no physical models incurring unnecessary expense. Although I won’t be trying to design them I can envision perhaps two evolutionary steps between my Endurance and this Challenger design. One could be similar to the Endurance yet sport the familiar dual nacelle configuration and the next could be a more simplified version of the Challenger yet without the section hanging underneath. Or one can imagine Earth going all in on a breakthrough design that skips a couple of evolutionary steps. Mind you there could be all kinds of designs for ships filling a diversity of roles. I like using the “radar dome” idea for early navigational deflectors to distinguish the hardware from the TOS era. I also like to try integrating subtle elements such as half, one or two degree angles, into the simplified shapes—this is very much the kind of thing Matt Jefferies put into his desgns. The nacelles here have somewhat flattened domes rather than half spheres for the forward power sinks. They nacelles look like two straight plain cylinders put together, but the aft narrower cylinder actually tapers half a degree and the “fins” (or intercoolers) taper back upward a half degree. I did the same thing with the lower hull for a sense of design integrity. It’s meant to be not only a different look, but also to look less evolved than the Enterprise’s long graceful tapering of nacelles and secondary hull. Thats the general idea anyway.