Visual changes...the cause... The destrucion of the Kelvin?

[Holodoc]

The problem with 'the Kelvin changed Starfleet's mind' is that plenty of ships are lost to powerful foes, and nothing much changes. After the Doomsday Machine attack, Starfleet didn't redesign the fleet. After the Defiant was lost to Tholian technology, Starfleet didn't change gears. Starfleet loses ships and crews by the handful, and only in the face of wide-ranging threats do they ever significantly try to adapt their ships (ie. the Defiant, to face the Borg).

It just makes more sense to say that Spock and Nero went backwards and sideways, rather than straight back.

 

[bryce]

After the Doomsday Machine attack, Starfleet didn't redesign the fleet. After the Defiant was lost to Tholian technology, Starfleet didn't change gears.

They didn't!?


We saw some *MAJOR* changes just a few years later - by TMP's time!

 

[Holodoc]

And did the Klingons decide they needed more menacing foreheads at that time, too?

 

[SiddFinch1]

In the original timeline, Ensign Edison Einstein served on the Kelvin. George Kirk left with Winnona and little Jimmy to serve on another ship. The Kelvin was an experimental ship, thus it looked "different" than we would expect a ship from 30 years before TOS to look. It was destroyed by a giant flyswatter in space and Starfleet assumed the design was flawed and scrapped it (ala Transwarp)

In the alternative timeline he survived the attack on the Kelvin and went on to Utopia Planitia and further developed all the new technology including transwarp

 

[Praetor]

Some level of it has to be attributed to artistic license. As for the rest:

But I really doubt they changed their focus on technology and somehow made things more advanced than they were supposed to be, I just don't see it. It isn't like they had a piece of the ship to study and learn from.

Compare the classic Enterprise and the nuEnterprise. Many of the systems of the nuEnterprise seem to have more in common with the TMP Enterprise than the TOS one. The phaser designs were more like TMP (replacing the ones from TOS most likely), the Deflector/Sensor Dish was more like the one from TMP. Trust me the risk of a more powerful enemy would make anyone try to strengthen themselves.

Exactly. The budget went from exploratory programs to R&D programs.

 

[Bigedmond]

I have to ask, have any of you actually felt the warmth of women??

You want to know why the new ship didnt look like the ship that you all loved so much? Because no one in their right mind would go pay 10 to 15 bucks per ticket to see scifi movie that looked like it was filmed in you basement. Just because everything wasnt boring grey does mean you have to come up with fan fiction to make it right. Hell, fan fiction is probably the reason they went the way they did.