USS Enterprise (eventually) on Discovery?

[Rahul]

On an unrelated note:
At this point, I'm fine with bridge windows.

I think it's unnecessary, but it's a cool gimmick for the directors to use in fancy shots. And the glass here (and on the Discovery) is noticeably thick enough to grant real protection (at least similar to the "regular" outer hull), compared to the lauchably thin window glass in ST09. So overall - why not?

I just really don't like this negative space here. Hell, I could even live with that if it were, say, only one level tall and only a small portion of the front dome. But having the entire(!) front dome be this useless design element - is just really annoying.

 

[cooleddie74]

I could see if that space were the senior officer's lounge much like the one we see on the refitted Enterprise 1701 in the TOS movies, just located forward of the bridge instead of to its rear. Then cover the roof of the lounge with a ceiling so you can't look straight up and see the bridge viewscreen looming above.

 

[Tuskin38]

Based on the shots we’ve gotten of the Enterprise in the show, I’m pretty sure those slots around the bridge dome are still lights, not windows.

 

[Fandango831]

I thought it as a nice space for diplomatic events after all the Enterprise and her sisters are deep space explorers that are meant to be the flag-bearers to new civilizations. Would serve as a nice dressed up venue area when it's transparent and even be a nice observation deck on the off time. Aside that I see it as something that eventually gets phased out for purposes unknown or merely due to the fact that it isn't viewed as necessary any more on the class of ship. I always thought of bridge windows as redundancies for this era (DSC) of ships.

Head canon engage: The NX era of ships used what are essentially high-end TVs that tied into external visual sensors that had limited capabilities in both seeing objects clearly over vast distances, being obscured/destroyed, and only having limited connectivity to unknown ships depending on tie-in capabilities to what would be tantamount to another ships webcam. So Starfleet evolved the tech to start using holographic technology that would instead render what various sensor packages provide as data and extrapolate a clearer high resolution projection with the ability to tie into unknown sensor systems and produce an approximation of another ships internals/bridge, render any angle around the ship with near infinite view range, and provide both visual depth and tracking in near real-time. The issue is that the tech starts out as only partly reliable and not in a state where it can be used full-time without producing errors that could potentially result in endangering the crew.

So Starfleet ships have a redundant window installed on the bridge to provide a fallback in the case of these occasional errors so that the command crew is never fully hindered in their ability to examine their external surroundings (or at least what is directly in front of them). As the tech becomes fully reliable the need for redundant windows draws to a close and the windows are patched out of ships for new holographic viewers that function full time and with all features present. So ergo by the time of TOS and beyond Starfleet ships have no need for windows as their new holographic viewers are more than reliable enough to meet the requirements for the command crew without imposing any mission risk (End head canon).

An easy way to explain away the tech no differently than how Number One informs Pike that the holographic comms system is causing issues on the Enterprise which in turn it could be assumed is probably not the only effected ship in the fleet hence why the system is eventually phased out of ships as time goes on.

 

[Paul755]

I agree. The Discovery Enterprise appears overdesigned, IMO.

This is pretty much where I stand.

 

[Belz...]

This is pretty much where I stand.

To be fair, it's hard to underdesign it, considering the original.

 

[cooleddie74]

Eh. Matt Jefferies designed her that way. Simple doesn't necessarily equate to inferior or implausible. I know it's a broken record to keep bringing up Doug Drexler's analysis of the TOS Enterprise but he sees her smooth simplicity as a product of mid-23rd century engineering and a sleekness that both previous and later starships didn't have for aesthetic or technological reasons.

She was clean as well as advanced and powerful in appearance with a minimal of external structures and most of the ship's technology located within her hull. Overengineering a starship can be an even bigger problem than simplifying one if you make the design too complicated for the sake of looking "busy."

 

[Paul755]

To be fair, it's hard to underdesign it, considering the original.

True. But simple doesn’t equal bad.

 

[CaptainMurdock]

I don't care for it. I think it sticks out like a sore thumb and looks dumb. You'd think the bridge would be better protected than that.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I agree. The Discovery Enterprise appears overdesigned, IMO.

Agree. The Disco Enterprise feels like a hodgepodge of ideas that don't create a cohesive whole.

Honestly, the 09-Beyond Enterprise felt more cohesive as a design, despite borrowing from previous designs.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

I don't care for it. I think it sticks out like a sore thumb and looks dumb. You'd think the bridge would be better protected than that.

Yes, by not being on top of the damn ship.

 

[Belz...]

Eh. Matt Jefferies designed her that way. Simple doesn't necessarily equate to inferior or implausible.

Who said it was? I didn't mean anything more or less than what I posted.

 

[Tuskin38]

You'd think the bridge would be better protected than that.

You could say that about all Federation ships.

 

[Rahul]

Eh. Matt Jefferies designed her that way. Simple doesn't necessarily equate to inferior or implausible. I know it's a broken record to keep bringing up Doug Drexler's analysis of the TOS Enterprise but he sees her smooth simplicity as a product of mid-23rd century engineering and a sleekness that both previous and later starships didn't have for aesthetic or technological reasons.

She was clean as well as advanced and powerful in appearance with a minimal of external structures and most of the ship's technology located within her hull. Overengineering a starship can be an even bigger problem than simplifying one if you make the design too complicated for the sake of looking "busy."

Completely agreed.

This is also btw the reason why the TMP-refit for the movies is such a great design:
It keeps the smoothness - it has all the same large, empty surface areas, just fills them with a liiiiitle bit of aztecing. Otherwise, the main areas (top/bottom of saucer, neck, engineering section) remain smooth. But they added small points of itnerest with a lot of details - like the new photon torpedoe launcher, the bridge dome, the shuttle-bay entry, impulse engine and nacelles - that these look like very realistic elements, and it makes abundantly clear the large featureless surface areas are intended that way.

This gives a really good illusion of both 1) a smooth design still being advanced, and 2) give the parts that have details a lot of believable (fake-)functionality.

 

[fireproof78]

You could say that about all Federation ships.

Pretty much one of the worst aspects of Federation ship design.

 

[Tuskin38]

The discovery Enterprise is just as smooth as the refit in a majority of places.
Hell the bridge dome is smoother than both the refit and TOS.

 

[Belz...]

Pretty much one of the worst aspects of Federation ship design.

Well, a lot of real-life vessels have the same issue. Apparently they think aiming there is going to be hard.

 

[Tuskin38]

Well, a lot of real-life vessels have the same issue. Apparently they think aiming there is going to be hard.

Well, you can't always rely on video screens, what if the camera breaks?

 

[Mudd]

Agree. The Disco Enterprise feels like a hodgepodge of ideas that don't create a cohesive whole.

Honestly, the 09-Beyond Enterprise felt more cohesive as a design, despite borrowing from previous designs.

Exactly so.

 

[TrickyDickie]

I see someone did a render of the Defiant:

I'll take it over the little thing from DS9, but that's about all I can say right now....