What's so great about the TMP refit?

[StarryEyed]

. . . I'm totally mystified by the group that thinks the original looks better. The original looked exactly like what it was - a clunky model built on a limited budget. The design looks dated even when it's done with CGI. The parabolic radio dish is so ridiculously out of place on a ship that is supposed to be hundreds of years in the future.

Clunky? That classic, timeless, sleek, elegant design is CLUNKY?? Sacrilege!

And it's not a “radio dish” -- it's a sensor-deflector dish.

Yup, clunky - at least compared to the refit. The cylindrical nacelles and the vertical pylons (viewed from the side) are eyesores by comparison.

I have to call BS on the sensor-deflector. It looks exactly like a parabolic radio antenna and it just screams 20th-21st century. The blue bubble on the refit is way more believable as a sensor-deflector since it doesn't look like any present-day technology and it's much prettier.

The original was perfectly acceptable in it's day but it can't compare to the refit.

One thing that bugs the crap out of me with almost all starfleet ships is that they fire the main phasers from the primary hull. It looks pretty but it is senseless. Matt Jeffries specifically designed separate living quarters and engineering spaces and with good reason. Channeling huge amounts of power from the engineering section through the living quarters to the phaser emitters just doesn't make sense. At least they put the torpedo bay where it belongs on the refit.

 

[Luther Sloan]

Saying you don't like the refit Enterprise is like saying you don't like the name Star Trek or something. It just doesn't make any sense. Unless of course this is all an elaborate secret plot to start a debate that really isn't real or something.

 

[F. King Daniel]

About the sensor dish on the TOS Enterprise vs. the TMP one: While I agree the TOS sensor is really cheesy, as a little kid I used to wonder why we never got to see the amazing view from that f'n gigantic circular window at the front of the secondary hull on the movie ship. None of the other sensor dishes in other Treks resembled windows.

 

[C.E. Evans]

There was nothing wrong the saucer dish on the original Enterprise. Like the entire ship itself, it was appropriate for the era it was created in and was state-of-the-art at the time. But it can can now be regarded as a fairly early Starfleet design. It only stands to reason that improvements and new systems would come along later that would be incorporated into subsequent starship designs.

The refitted Enterprise was the trailblazer that would set the path for later designs, and its influence could still be seen in the Enterprise-E here and there.

But people love the original Enterprise the same way people love classic cars, IMO.

 

[Pauln6]

The refit seemed to be the first time the designers realised that fans were paying close attention to detail so they put a lot of effort into the design to give it some functional, internal logic as well as a more modern, detailed appearance. They also gave it some scale with the scene on the Rec Deck and the brief scenes featuring the shuttle/cargo bay. I'm hoping that somebody will buy me a Polar Lights 1:350 scale refit Enterprise model for my birthday this year. It looks like such a beautiful model, even if it is too huge for my flat...

Compare that to the new version where they built the internal sets to be too large to fit inside the model and so had to scale her up, leading to design inconsistencies (windows etc). Plus the brewery is just horrible compared to the engineering set in TMP.

 

[I-Am-Zim]

Personally, I love the TMP refit. It is a beautiful ship. It's highly detailed, very well proportioned and sleek. But it will never top the original. There was just something about that ship. It was so simple and elegant. It's proportions were absolutely perfect. Matt Jeffries had designed a spacefaring vessel that was unlike anything that had come before or since. It changed the rules for TV and movie spaceship designs. I will agree that on TOS, the Enterprise lacked fine detail. But in some cases that was a part of the design. The Enterprsie was designed to look like something that a real space agency such as NASA may actually build given the availability of the technology of the future. And it pulled it off quite nicely. There's nothing wrong with the desing, nor is there anything whatsoever about its shape or proportions that specifically show it was designed in the 1960's. With a little extra detail, the TOS Enterprise would have worked just fine on the big screen. Case in point:

Vektor's absolutely fantastic rendition of the TOS Enterprise. Notice the detail, the phaser banks, thruster quads, updated deflector dish, the sense of scale made possible by the detailed hull plating. This is a fabulous design that proves that the TMP refit was technically not as necessary as they may have thought. However, this level of detail via CGI wasn't available in 1979. Therefore, to remain competetive with the sci-fi of that era, the TMP refit was born. And it was a beautiful ship. Just not as beautiful as the original.

 

[Brannigan]

The refit was very sleek, beautifully detailed and unlike every design which came later, looks great at all angles. All the proportions are just right.

I'm totally mystified by the group that thinks the original looks better. The original looked exactly like what it was - a clunky model built on a limited budget. The design looks dated even when it's done with CGI. The parabolic radio dish is so ridiculously out of place on a ship that is supposed to be hundreds of years in the future.

I don't think the original looks better, but I disagree with the notion that it looks that dated. Anything is going to be dated. However, look at the time when the original 1701 debuted to the public. 1966: manned spaceflight was barely 5 years old and even in 1966 humans were still crammed in little capsules. Flight itself was barely advanced. Less than 10 years before people had begun traveling by jet aircraft. In Sci-Fi most ships still looked like V-2 Rockets or flying saucers. Now here comes the Enterprise, clunky as it may be, but yet a believable design. I don't think the dish looks anymore dated than anything else in Star Trek. I have seen some people point to the refits front nacelle's as looking like something clearly out of the 70's.
That said, both designs are good and I am partial to the refit, but TOS Enterprise has its own merits as well and shouldnt be so easily dismissed despite its short comings.

 

[RyanKCR]

The Refit was my first real look at the Enterprise. When I saw TMP in the theaters as a kid I felt I could walk through the screen and would be there. I like the TOS-E but it feels too much like the old cheesy sci-fi cigar rocketships and flying saucers just thrown together and call it different.

 

[scotpens]

. . . One thing that bugs the crap out of me with almost all starfleet ships is that they fire the main phasers from the secondary hull. It looks pretty but it is senseless.

I assume you mean the primary hull (the saucer).

. . . I have seen some people point to the refits front nacelle's as looking like something clearly out of the 70's.

Actually the Refit's nacelle fronts were inspired by radiator grilles of cars from the late 1930s and early '40s.

 

[StarryEyed]

. . . One thing that bugs the crap out of me with almost all starfleet ships is that they fire the main phasers from the secondary hull. It looks pretty but it is senseless.

I assume you mean the primary hull (the saucer)

Oops! Can't believe I did that. I went back and fixed it.

 

[CaptainStoner]

I'm not saying that it's not--I'm really just curious to hear what people think about the ship. Does it have more to do with the physical model itself or the design concept? What about the interiors?

For me it's more about the physical model itself. I'm in a camp that greatly prefers large ship models over most CGI.

 

[Praxius]

As an animator/modeler (among other things) I prefer CGI over Model, mainly because they're more customizable and easy to move to another location/studio..... on a DVD or External Hard Drive.... or cart the entire model in a truck and hope nothing breaks.

But models do have their benefits and I do appreciate the work people put into them.... both physical models and CGI models all work on the same principles, just created differently..... CGI models are only limited by the computer they're designed on.

Back on topic a bit.... I never really cared for TOS Enterprise and I never really got into Star Trek until TNG, but I do remember being exposed to TOS growing up and seeing the movies on VHS when my father would rent them. (My dad rented the movies, but my mom was the one who watch TOS)

I like the A/Refit model, but if I could choose, I'd prefer the newest design over the other two.... I just like realistic looking ships.... well realistic compared to old sci-fi realistic that is.

Something I can relate to... though the newest Enterprise seems to look like a combination of the original enterprise and the refit.

But my all time Fav Enterprise will always be the 1701D

^ It's just a beast that can do anything and designed pretty slick.... I mean it's a friggin battleship that can separate into two and holds over a thousand people.... and has holodecks.

What more could one ask for?

Oh and for the record, in regards to the deflector dish on TOS Enterprise.... sure it looks tacky and out dated, but the Enterprise D also had a similar deflector dish as did Voyager. The only difference is their deflector dishes have blue glows around them so they don't look so basic.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I've just gotta say that picture of the 2009 Enterprise is horrible. That's a really inaccurate pic that I think was done from someone watching the trailer or something. There are far more accurate views to be found online.

(Also it's also not to scale with the other two Enterprises )

 

[scotpens]

. . . But my all time Fav Enterprise will always be the 1701D . . . It's just a beast that can do anything and designed pretty slick.... I mean it's a friggin battleship that can separate into two and holds over a thousand people.... and has holodecks.

What more could one ask for?

I don't know. Maybe a spaceship that looks like a spaceship instead of an abstract sculpture covered with tiny windows?

Oh and for the record, in regards to the deflector dish on TOS Enterprise.... sure it looks tacky and out dated, but the Enterprise D also had a similar deflector dish as did Voyager. The only difference is their deflector dishes have blue glows around them so they don't look so basic.

I think what looks "dated" about the TOS-E's deflector dish is that it's a parabolic antenna attached to a central mast or pole. The deflector dishes on subsequent Trek ships are more smoothly integrated into the hull.

I've just gotta say that picture of the 2009 Enterprise is horrible. That's a really inaccurate pic that I think was done from someone watching the trailer or something.

Doesn't matter. The Abrams-prise is still butt-ugly.

YMMV.

 

[RyanKCR]

Actually the E-D is the ugliest of the Enterprises.

 

[StarryEyed]

Actually the E-D is the ugliest of the Enterprises.

That's a subjective claim of course. I thought it looked great from some angles but horrible in others.

 

[Bishop76]

Completely subjective, but I agree - the D sucks on toast.

For me, the refit is the best model of Enterprise to date. Mostly for reasons already mentioned, but it's the highly detailed nature of the model, the "functional" feel of the model - that feeling that this thing could actually be a working spacecraft, and the fact that it IS a model and not a computer image.

I love the TOS design, but it is a bit too dated. The refit design is 30 years old and still looks great.

 

[A beaker full of death]

Actually the E-D is the ugliest of the Enterprises.

That's a subjective claim of course. I thought it looked great from some angles but horrible in others.

It looked like Stewie Griffin.

 

[plynch]

I like the A/Refit model, but if I could choose, I'd prefer the newest design over the other two.... I just like realistic looking ships.... well realistic compared to old sci-fi realistic that is.

I often find myself saying I like realism, too. But neither of the three looks like a real spaceship (space shuttle) nor what ships will look like in the 23rd century.

The E in 1966 looked WAY more realistic than the flying saucers and V-2's of previous sci-fi, right?

I'm guessing JJ-Ent (and it has its nice things, don't get me wrong) will look old, dated, and unrealistic in 2050, right?

OK, my vote: Star Trek (the series) is my first (and as I age, only) love in Trek-dom, but I have to go with Refit on this question. It's subjective and aesthetic. It just has a beauty to it, inmy opinion.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Because that nuEnterprise pic is so horrible I feel obliged to post a link to this:

http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/STXI-Enterprise-sheet-1.jpg

Haters can hate all they want: That ship is lovely .