Star Trek: Discovery

[Emily]

Okay. So I woke up and checked my email and twitter on my phone, as one usually does. The first thing that came up in both was the new trailer from CBS for the 2017 Trek series. The series now has a name and a design for their ship.

I've been looking at a lot of different places (Reddit, FB) and there are many conflicting thoughts about the look of this new ship. Some say that like the Galaxy-class, it will take some time for us to get used to. I personally didn't live through TOS. The first Trek series I actually watched was Voyager, and I fell in love with the design the moment I laid my eyes on it. From then, I enjoyed every other ship that I saw. From the Defiant to the Enterprise-E.

My first impression from this trailer rings more JJ trek to me than prime universe. It seems a lot darker, not just in lighting but in hull design as well. The alloy coloring is almost ENT, when the rumors that I've heard have said it would be before TNG but after the TOS movies. The ship itself isn't really that flattering The little teases of the saucer section were nice but I hated the nacelles and the aft section (don't even get me started on the bottom view). It's very clunky and nothing like the aerodynamic designs we've come to know and love. To make matters worse, they ripped off a design concept from the 70s.

Someone on Reddit had an idea that was quite interesting. If they went this route and this ship wouldn't be the primary ship we saw, I wouldn't mind it.

Maybe I'm just expecting too much from CBS, given the standard that's already in place? What do you guys think?

[Aaron]

Looks kinda like a Klingon BoP lol

[Emily]

Looks kinda like a Klingon BoP lol

Woah, you're right! I didn't notice that before! haha

[Williams]

For those of us in the UK (where the video that the Star Trek Facebook page has been peddling isn't available), here's a working YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cxba2WjlN90

See, I think that it would take a lot for this design to grow on me. I'm not necessarily opposed to the concept, more the execution; the delta shape is just far too angular for me. going from top/bottom to the sides just looks too much of a right angle, which for such a large section of the ship (and in direct contrast to the saucer section) just looks a bit wrong. I might like it better if they just rounded off the edges a bit.

I'm also unsure of the nacelles being in line with the saucer section. I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that the nacelles are supposed to have line-of-sight to each other for the warp field to work properly, which is why on most ships they're either above or below (even the Defiant had them drop down slightly). I suppose they could always say that the design was before that particular design ethos was realised, but it just seems a bit odd to me.

Another thing to consider is that although the rumours going around are that this is post-TUC and pre-TNG, the registry number of this ship is NCC-1031 - considering that the Enterprise was NCC-1701, and was already considered very old by the time of TWOK, this might be set pre-TOS (or even during TOS), which might make the more brutal ship design make a little more sense, if it was designed pre-Constitution.

[Nate]

If it is a Pre-TOS design it would make a bit more sense, but regardless I'm sure there would be a better way to transition from the NX to the Contitution.

Maybe it's all a hoax....who knows?

[GVLB]

It's really ugly... but so long as the show remains Trek in spirit, I can forgive this uglyness in a ship.

[Alex]

I'm not a big fan based on what I've seen so far. The details on the saucer are interesting, but the secondary hull is atrocious in my opinion. I'm not sure how I feel about the rectangular nacelles, though they've at least been part of canon for a long, long time. And I do think the more rectangular shape of the engines works wonderfully on the refit Enterprise and the Reliant, but for some reason they just didn't look right to me here. But the secondary hull is just so big and flat that it's just not that attractive of a ship. I know the early ships weren't quite as sleek as the newer ones, it just looks too out of place. I saw someone describe it as the result of the Enterprise and a Klingon battlecruiser having a night of "Trek and chill", which I think is a strangely apt description.

But that being said, I wasn't a big fan of the NX-01 and the hot rod-esque Abramsprise, and both of those ships grew on me by the time I saw them in action. I just feel like the Discovery is going to have an awfully steep hill to climb. The ship is part of the crew, and an important part of the shows identity. This feels like they took an old concept drawing, decided to go with that, and called it a day. It doesn't feel like the same labor of love that Matt Jefferies and Andrew Probert put into their designs. But until we get to see more, it might not be fair to the ship. I don't like to pass judgement on a work until I've seen it myself (with maybe the exception of the Twilight films, but that doesn't count). I'm just glad to know that Star Trek is coming back to the small screen, even if it does mean I'll have to have another subscription to watch it.

As far as the timeline is concerned, I've heard conjecture that it might be between Enterprise and TOS, which would make sense based on the registry number. One theory is that that is the reason CBS came down so hard on fan productions, especially Axanar, because it is supposed to take place around that same era.

[Stannes]

I'm not a fan of the ship design. The body of the ship looks like a combadge. Deliriously happy for new Trek though, so the ship isn't that much of a detractor.