Trek Fans: Favorite Main Ship Visually?

[Burst]

Dec 10, 2015 9:54:40 GMT -5 CMWaters said:

[So you're saying it would look better if the saucer was more along the lines of how it looked when in the rarely seen battle mode?

I dunno, more like halfway between that and the normal saucer. I think if anything the engineering hull needed to be longer, not the saucer smaller. It's hard to say. Though your pic does make me wonder if they wound up deriving the Cardassian ship design from the look of the Galaxy-class engineering hull once they more or less stopped doing saucer separations. They've both got that vague sort of cobra look about them.

Also, regarding the Defiant, even though it's by far the most unconventional Federation ship, I can't imagine it looking any different. For all intents and purposes it's the most practically designed ship in Star Trek for its function.

[Hit Girl]

Dec 10, 2015 9:37:24 GMT -5 CMWaters said:

Dec 10, 2015 9:31:29 GMT -5 Hit Girl said:

I kinda like the NX class too. Enterprise was a terrible show, but I liked the industrial look of the ship, even if it was cribbed from the Akira class. Voyager is another nice ship, but everytime I see it, I get chills thinking about Janeway's awful voice. The Defiant is just a bad ass looking ship that perfectly reflects Sisko's take-no-shit attitude. I love the Galaxy class, the original Constitution is the classic. The Sovereign class looks clunky to me, and the Abramsprise is just an abortion. It's hideous.

Just curious, what makes you think that about the Reboot Enterprise? For me, thinking from the story side of things, it just looks like what the original Enterprise would look like if they had some 24th century technology that they could reverse engineer (which they did via Nero's ship)..

I just think it looks badly proportioned.

[Bad Moon]

I really like the Defiant, it's like the Kevin Owens of Star Fleet, no grace, no style, no good looks, just a mean looking savage fighter.
But my favorite over all still has to be the Miranda class (ie the Reliant from Wrath of Khan)



It's like if the good old seventeen-oh-one decided it's had enough of your shit and put up its dukes. If I had to design a starship for a new Star Trek series, it would look like a Constitution or Galaxy class during casual travel but when it goes into battle the nacelles would fold in and the deflector raise up above the command center to look more like a Miranda, like a boxer putting up his guard. 

[CMWaters]

Dec 10, 2015 10:18:32 GMT -5 Bad Moon said:

I really like the Defiant, it's like the Kevin Owens of Star Fleet, no grace, no style, no good looks, just a mean looking savage fighter.
But my favorite over all still has to be the Miranda class (ie the Reliant from Wrath of Khan)



It's like if the good old seventeen-oh-one decided it's had enough of your shit and put up its dukes. If I had to design a starship for a new Star Trek series, it would look like a Constitution or Galaxy class during casual travel but when it goes into battle the nacelles would fold in and the deflector raise up above the command center to look more like a Miranda, like a boxer putting up his guard. 

The idea is a good one in theory, but two questions:
1)How would it work with the budget (yeah, CGI, but if you want it looking good that still takes money)

2)How would you explain in-universe how it worked?

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea. Heck, I'm one of the ones that likes the adjustable warp nacelles on Voyager.

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

Dec 10, 2015 9:54:40 GMT -5 CMWaters said:

Dec 10, 2015 9:46:20 GMT -5 Burst said:

Refit Enterprise/Enterprise-A all the way. It's a thing of beauty, though I'll gladly take the Excelsior too given the opportunity.

I used to like the Enterprise-D, but there's something just off about the proportions of the D where it looks very good from certain angles but very odd from others. The engineering hull has always come off as kind of squished to me or just, well, out of proportion with the saucer.

So you're saying it would look better if the saucer was more along the lines of how it looked when in the rarely seen battle mode?

Aww, I like how battle mode has a smiley face on top

[Hit Girl]

My favourite Trek ship of any kind is definitely the Klingon Bird of Prey. It looks awesome. I especially like how its wings shift angle depending on flight mode. If I lived in the Trek universe, I'd buy one from a surplus yard and live on it. Although my Bird of Prey would have some mattresses because I can't sleep on a metal shelf.

[CMWaters]

Dec 10, 2015 10:23:18 GMT -5 Futureraven: Beelzebruv said:

Dec 10, 2015 9:54:40 GMT -5 CMWaters said:

So you're saying it would look better if the saucer was more along the lines of how it looked when in the rarely seen battle mode?

Aww, I like how battle mode has a smiley face on top

Considering the smile part is part of the phaser array, would that be considered shooting off at the mouth?

[Bad Moon]

Dec 10, 2015 10:22:30 GMT -5 CMWaters said:

Dec 10, 2015 10:18:32 GMT -5 Bad Moon said:

I really like the Defiant, it's like the Kevin Owens of Star Fleet, no grace, no style, no good looks, just a mean looking savage fighter.
But my favorite over all still has to be the Miranda class (ie the Reliant from Wrath of Khan)



It's like if the good old seventeen-oh-one decided it's had enough of your shit and put up its dukes. If I had to design a starship for a new Star Trek series, it would look like a Constitution or Galaxy class during casual travel but when it goes into battle the nacelles would fold in and the deflector raise up above the command center to look more like a Miranda, like a boxer putting up his guard. 

The idea is a good one in theory, but two questions:
1)How would it work with the budget (yeah, CGI, but if you want it looking good that still takes money)

2)How would you explain in-universe how it worked?

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea. Heck, I'm one of the ones that likes the adjustable warp nacelles on Voyager.

1) In this hypothethical scenario I'm a TV producer, not a visual effects artist, I clearly have no idea what I'm doing, I just tell the magic computer elves who live in the studio basement to make things happen and then they do.
2) The power lines between the nacelles and the warpcore are made out of the same flexible, super responsive biomechanical spooge that powers all of Voyager's plot contrivances and can instantly redistribute and connect themselves even under changing pressure. And the deflector dish is just on a big outside elevator. 

[Hit Girl]

That whole era of Trek ships, the refit Constitution, Constellation, Miranda, Soyuz, Excelsior, Oberth etc....are my favourites, because they had a beautiful sort of art-deco look about them.

[Burst]

That and there was a lot more of an aesthetic consistency where the ships looked functionally different yet similar enough that you could tell they were all from the same fleet.

TNG sort of had it with the Galaxy-Class and the Nebula-Class evolving from the Ambassador Class, but once the CGI era came in and you had all the bonkers ship designs introduced in First Contact, any sort of internal consistency went out the window.

On one hand it makes sense from an in-story "Federation's at war so they're throwing everything up against the wall and seeing what sticks" but there were still some designs that just didn't seem to make any sense. Again, mostly cannon fodder ships from the intro to First Contact, some of which made the transition to DS9. Akira-Class was nice though.

[Bad Moon]

For some reason the Akira class never really did it for me. I do like the Yeager/Saber class though, it's like the Federation answer to the bird of prey, all angular and pointy.

[Dr. T is an alien]

I love the shows but the Defiant is just about the only design that looks realistic to me.

[Cyno]

Speaking of the ENT Enterprise, I liked it, too. But what was really nice was the quasi-canon refit NX-01. It looked like a cross between the NX Clsss and the original Constitution Class.

[CMWaters]

Dec 10, 2015 13:40:05 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Speaking of the ENT Enterprise, I liked it, too. But what was really nice was the quasi-canon refit NX-01. It looked like a cross between the NX Clsss and the original Constitution Class.

Was this in the show or the books?

[Burst]

I think it was basically in the cards to happen for the hypothetical 5th? season of Enterprise, had it been renewed. If I recall, Enterprise basically went out like WCW in the sense that they had finally gotten the ship righted with a new showrunner and finally started taking advantage of the potential of a prequel series, when the show was cancelled from all the damage that had already been done.

I've mostly seen that design in the ships-of-the-line calendars, to be honest.

[Crimson]

I'm not really into Yaoi, but Kirk/Spock naturally.

[CMWaters]

Dec 10, 2015 13:48:28 GMT -5 Burst said:

I think it was basically in the cards to happen for the hypothetical 5th? season of Enterprise, had it been renewed. If I recall, Enterprise basically went out like WCW in the sense that they had finally gotten the ship righted with a new showrunner and finally started taking advantage of the potential of a prequel series, when the show was cancelled from all the damage that had already been done.

I've mostly seen that design in the ships-of-the-line calendars, to be honest.

I see.

Shame they didn't incorporate that design into the game Star Trek: Legacy

[Cyno]

I think you might be able to get it in Star Trek Online? Not sure. I first saw it in model kit form at the local hobby shop. I thought it was a really cool design.

[Limity (BLM)]

Dec 10, 2015 13:40:05 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Speaking of the ENT Enterprise, I liked it, too. But what was really nice was the quasi-canon refit NX-01. It looked like a cross between the NX Clsss and the original Constitution Class.

I've never been a fan of that design. It just doesn't look right. I think the engineering section looks too small. Maybe if the show had continued this would have been an eventual refit, because it looks too good, like they had it planned all along.

Enterprise had some hope when Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens took over, but it was too little too late.

[CMWaters]

Dec 10, 2015 14:56:26 GMT -5 Limity (BLM) said:

Dec 10, 2015 13:40:05 GMT -5 Cyno said:

Speaking of the ENT Enterprise, I liked it, too. But what was really nice was the quasi-canon refit NX-01. It looked like a cross between the NX Clsss and the original Constitution Class.

I've never been a fan of that design. It just doesn't look right. I think the engineering section looks too small. Maybe if the show had continued this would have been an eventual refit, because it looks too good, like they had it planned all along.

Enterprise had some hope when Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens took over, but it was too little too late.

Which is a shame, because the Romulan war could have been an interesting story.