EW.com reveals new Enterprise

[Count Chocula]

Looking at Jon's posted image, it now looks even more wank. Big-ass saucer section, proboscis-protruding deflector dish, hot-rod warp nacelles with fucking Nubian nose cones, too close to the primary hull for them to have Bessemer collectors. And is that a turret at the base of the neck?

And what's with the NCC-1701? What happened to Archer's Enterprise? Shouldn't this be the -B?

[Jon]

^I think they get around this being the 'first' because the NX-01 wasn't a Federation Starship.

[Gandalf]

And what's with the NCC-1701? What happened to Archer's Enterprise? Shouldn't this be the -B?

... no.

Kirk's Enterprise was always NCC-1701.

The ships in Enterprise had NX prefixes, and the numbers were sequential. Enterprise was NX-01, Columbia was NX-02.

[Count Chocula]

Gotcha. Fergot about NX-NCC.

Still don't like it.

[Palantas]

If you're thinking, "Wow! It looks the way the Enterprise has always looked"—well look at the big Spock brain on you!

This is not how the Enterprise has always looked. Comparing this incarnation with any previous model design is like saying the 2009 Camaro looks the way the Camaro has always looked.

I was thinking the same thing. That's not how the ship looks. When is movie supposed to take place, relative to the original series? We're up to three major refits on that ship now.

EDIT: Correction, two major refits.

Seriously, this is a case of "damned if you do and damned if you don't" If the "new" enterprise came on the screen looking like a fancy digitized version of 1967, the detractors would be just as vocal.

Maybe, but not from this fan. I'd just assumed that's what they were going to do. I figured they might change a few little things on the ship, but nothing this drastic. I was looking forward to seeing the original Enterprise design on the big screen.

[Anguirus]

And is that a turret at the base of the neck?

Possibly, but it looks almost identical to the torpedo launcher on the 1979 Enterprise.

[Zor]

I don't mind it, but why doesn't it say Enterprise or NCC-1701 anywhere on it?

It does have NCC-1701 on the Nacells.

Zor

[erik_t]

Looking at Jon's posted image, it now looks even more wank. Big-ass saucer section, proboscis-protruding deflector dish, hot-rod warp nacelles with fucking Nubian nose cones, too close to the primary hull for them to have Bessemer collectors. And is that a turret at the base of the neck?

God, once again I don't know if this is a joke.

Count the pixels between saucers and nacelle fronts; I'll guarantee they're not different by more than 20, 30%. Did you even look at the red-blue overlap image I posted? The saucer/engineering hull size ratio has changed by, at most, like 20-30%. As for your "turret"... did you ever watch ST-VI? I mean, really? How about TNG? You've never seen a torpedo launcher at the base of a neck?

[erik_t]

Observation: I have been trying to figure out how the fronts of the nacelles are shaped, and I've decided they appear to be domes, as the original, but mirror-finished, and we're seeing the reflection of the edge of the saucer and possibly Earth or something. This seems likely as it allows the goofy CGI folks to show off their magic wherever possible. I wouldn't mind seeing some glow though.

[Batman]

As for your "turret"... did you ever watch ST-VI? I mean, really? How about TNG? You've never seen a torpedo launcher at the base of a neck?

Not on the pre-refit E-nil I suspect. Which this is supposed to represent.

[La Maupin]

As for your "turret"... did you ever watch ST-VI? I mean, really? How about TNG? You've never seen a torpedo launcher at the base of a neck?

Not on the pre-refit E-nil I suspect. Which this is supposed to represent.

Honestly, it's better than having the torpedo launchers and phasers sharing the same real estate on the saucer. The design is starting to grow on me, really, after a few viewings.

[erik_t]

As for your "turret"... did you ever watch ST-VI? I mean, really? How about TNG? You've never seen a torpedo launcher at the base of a neck?

Not on the pre-refit E-nil I suspect. Which this is supposed to represent.

I disagree.

Abrams wanted to take the original TV series Enterprise and the movie franchise Enterprise and fuse them together into a new yet familiar Enterprise.

Do you want to see giant red smudges representing plasma torpedos, too, or is it okay to improve things when possible?

[Anguirus]

I don't mind it, but why doesn't it say Enterprise or NCC-1701 anywhere on it?

It does have NCC-1701 on the Nacells.

Zor

We know from the teaser that, like every Fed ship, it has the name and registry on the dorsal surface of the primary hull. Heck, we know from the picture leak awhile back that the Kelvin has this as well.

Also, "NCC-1701" is stamped on the bottom of the secondary hull, right by the sensor dish/deflector.

[spaceviking]

personally i like it, though id prefer id the saucer section was a little father ahead.

[JME2]

Hmm. Looks like a Connie-refit and an Ambassador-class had a one night stand -- and a bad one that.

[DaveJB]

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic.

I will grant you that the perspective isn't identical, but does one hull look twice as big as the other to you?

There are fair complaints to be made, I suppose, but the size of the engineering hull probably isn't one of them.

Yes, because I was throwing out a precise scaling figure, rather than just a ballpark "it looks too small" comment. (That's sarcasm by the way)

[Akumz Razor]

I don't think it's that bad, but I don't really care for it, either. It sort of looks like somebody with a bad sense of perspective tried to draw the refit Enterprise.

It strikes me as change for the sake of change, as if they wanted to just use the refit version but thought, "gee whiz we gotta change something or the kids won't think we're hip," and changed the ship's lines in a half-assed manner. At least it's not as bad as the movie versions of the Transformers...

I was hoping they'd use a design along the lines of the Phase II Enterprise.



Oh well.

[Bounty]

I think it's about damn time everyone threw out the idea that this movie, or any of its designs, will flow neatly into TOS. It should be obvious by now that there's no way Trek XI is going to be "just" another sequel, there's some major reshuffling going on, and the sooner people manage to detach it from TOS the better they'll be able to appreciate the movie, and the starship designs, for what they are.

That said...

It's growing on me. It's still not what I was hoping for, but it doesn't repulse me either. The overlay image makes the engineering hull look less bad proportion-wise, if only by a bit, and it does look Enterprise-y. I'd love to see it in motion.

On the scale of the thing, is it just me or does the size of the windows and especially the second shuttle make this ship look quite a bit bigger than the E-refit? Going by the portholes it almost looks like you can fit four decks in the saucer rim.

[CaptJodan]

Looks almost like they used the Argo shuttles in that picture. Probably not, but they look similar to ST:X's little buggy shuttles from the back.

I'm wondering where the shuttle bay went. Assuming this ship is the same size as the original, is there really enough space back in the back there with how much it thins itself out to fit shuttles as it did before?

Overall, I'm not a fan. There's really very little to object to in the saucer, but the secondary hull and the nacelles/pylons just don't look right. I prefer the fanfic pics that I've seen which have updated the Connie to a more modern standard without taking away this much of the original. The one plus is that if they were going to break from established canon, at least they worked off the movie version.

3/10.

My opinion might change when I see other perspectives and/or see it move.

[Crazedwraith]

Is it just me or is the engineering section and the saucer going in different directions. I can see it most clearly when in comparison with the E-nil and E-refit but they look differently orientated to me.

[RedImperator]

I like all the individual elements, but I think they made a mistake setting the neck so far back. The original Enterprise had its neck set back in the same location, but the original Enterprise was much more gracile. The Enterprise refit moved the front of the neck forward. The effect on the new ship is to make the whole thing seem scrunched together. It's a shame, because I think they got everything else right.

[Catman]

Ugly curvy art project. Will probably look dated itself in around 20 years.

I don't mind it, but why doesn't it say Enterprise or NCC-1701 anywhere on it?

On the top of the saucer, it says U.S.S Enterprise, NCC-1701.

[tim31]

Yeah, now that I've had time to absorb it properly, it's definately the neck that makes it look slightly off. I guess I had it stuck in my head that we were going to get the E-Nil with some minor tweaks, like embiggened nacelles and more hull detail. But Bounty's right; gotta get out of the mindset of this being a continuation. It's reboot or bust.

[CaptJodan]

I think the movie as a whole will improve if I keep in mind that it's a reboot rather than any kind of continuation. If I see it, I'm going to treat it as such because if I go in there thinking it's adding to the established continuity I probably won't enjoy it.

But my distaste for this design isn't just because it doesn't look like the original. That's certainly one way of looking at it, and if I see it in that light, there are so many other, better re-imaginings around the web better than this.

But it also just looks stupid. The neck, surprisingly, isn't what bothers me the most, but it's that secondary hull and the nacelles that really get me. The saucer is the closest major piece to the originals, and that fact makes it look set apart from the rest of the ship. The tapering in the extreme back of the secondary hull is too much, leading me to wonder just how the shuttle bay will be incorporated. The warp nacelles, particularly in the front, are too large and bulky and make the much smaller-than-original secondary hull look like it's carrying too much weight on it's tiny frame. And it just isn't aesthetically pleasing.

[open_sketchbook]

I must be broken, because I spent about ten minutes looking that image over in absolute awe and thinking "perfect". Well, not surprising, I liked Enterprise too, so obviously something in here isn't working right.