Comments on: The new Starship Enterprise

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 08:17:57 +0000

Looks better to be honest …

By: Michelle Bristol

Michelle Bristol — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:26:55 +0000

This whole debate really paled into insignificance after the film came out didn’t it? The film was great (unlike the majority of ST films before it) and that’s all that was important, really.

By: Dizi

Dizi — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 21:34:28 +0000

It’s amazing. Many many thanks.

By: Chris J. Miller

Chris J. Miller — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 21:59:37 +0000

I never even touched on the debate that arose after the movie opened, when the various designers and effects teams all had different numbers for the scale of the ship… and all were two to three times the roughly thousand-foot length of the original Enterprise.

It was just sloppy all around. Fans have subsequently done careful measurement of screen shots, and determined that half-mile-long Enterprise more or less fits the scale of the cavernous hangar deck that was shown on screen… but certainly doesn’t fit the scale of the bridge or anything else about the saucer section (and let’s not even talk about the brewery-as-engine-room), much less the exterior shots of the ship under construction or at spacedock. Nor, of course, anything previously known about 23rd-century Starfleet technology.

Not a huge deal, perhaps… especially to the casual/”mainstream” fan… but just one more way the movie was a disappointment.

By: EnterpriseQV-101

EnterpriseQV-101 — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:50:17 +0000

Before I go on, I want to apologize for my typos in my last post, new keyboard….lol. Anyway…I totally agree with RAVI SWAMI. I never cared for the Next Gen ship designs. especially the Nebula Class. The Enterprise D was just a bad design overall, It was a Disney Cruise ship in space, and RAVI…..Oval Saucer??, I know, Geez. The ambassador Class wasn’t too bad though (ENTERPRISE C). Church’s ENTERPRISE was a bit over re-booted. I think the nacelles are too close together and that the Buzzard Collectors are on Viagra, a bit too bulbous. The saucer support pylon could have been shifted a bit more forward, although I like the way the Pylon looks. Am I knit-picking here?…..lol. Anyway…Supposedly, this ENTERPRISE is also over 2000 feet long now, over twice her original size, I’m cool with that, but that means that the ENTERPRISE “E” in Abrams’ universe will be a mile long…wow. I grew up with The Original series, and I own both DVD box sets, Original and Re-mastered, and TOS will always be the best. I personally loved ST-ENTERPRISE, seasons 1 and 4 anyway. Berman totally blew it with that whole Xindi debacle. He had a chance to really lay ground work and answer alot of questions and explain alot and he just simply screwed the pooch. Season 4 of ENTERPRISE was the best but came too late to save it. Those are the kinds of stories they should have done all along. My favs were the 3 part augment story with Brent Spiner as Dr. Auric Soong (Nunian Soong’s father), the 2 part Klingon plague (explaining human looking Klingons) and Ofcourse “In A Mirror Darkly” which was absolutely great. Let’s hope Abrams has a better grip on the ball than Berman had. BSG proves that a re-imagining can work and work well, and Abrams’ choice of going back to TOS, was the right way to go. Some say that you don’t fix something that isn’t broken, well Berman didn’t keep up with the maintenance, so ST needed some repair. Lets just have faith that Abrams will do right by the concept. Does anyone else miss the “Technobabble”? Alot of fans speak of staying with Canon, which I agree with to a point. Abrams has done that by creating a new timeline. I think that is a great way of respecting the Fans yet giving them a new flavor to taste. I have read all the rumours of possible storylines for future projects, and revisiting certain key stories, but some should be left alone. I do not believe that they should even consider re-exploring KHAN, Ricardo Montalban’s performance can never be topped, but if they have to try it………How about “The Rock” as Khan? any thoughts folks???…..lol. My favorite TOS episode was “The Doomsday Machine”. A movie with that basic story might prove to be interesting, think of the effects shots…….wow.

By: EnterpriseQV-101

EnterpriseQV-101 — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:06:53 +0000

Well, just to start with, Linda………Lose the word of the day toilet paper, I think you used the word “mainstream” more times in 2 paragraphs, than I have heard in regular conversation my whole life……….lol. that said, Replacing old fans with new fans??? BIG MISTAKE!!!! The fanbase is what gave Star Trek it’s longevity, not to mention being one of Pramount’s major cash cows for 40 years. As Carl Urban so elequently put it…”When you run in the Kentucky Derby, you don’t leaveyoyr prize stallion in the stable”. I’m a 1st generation Trekker, so don’t get me started on how Rick Berman totally dropped the ball with the franchise, but you don’t just dismiss the loyalty of Millions of fans to be more “mainstream”. Last time I will use that word……PROMISE. I’m not near as disappointed with the ENTERPRISE exteriors as I am with the Interiors. The corridors are from the Blockade Runner in the openning scene of Star Wars Epis.IV. Filming in a Brewery for the engineering section???? WTF is that about? The Bridge…….well, it would have made a great Disco in the early 80’s, and those damn white light Flares in the camera were completely annoying. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the film very much, and believe it has tons of potential, and starting off with an entirely new time line allows for revisiting old stories and characters, example – Admiral archer’s Prize Beagle, I loved that line. back to the ENTERPRISE…..I liked the combination of Movie saucer with original, Secondary hull design….not so much, nad I plain hate the new nacelles. I’m guessing that she is an ENTERPRISE class ship, since she was brand new and no other ship in the armada destroyed by Nero had the same basic design. What happened to the Constitution??? Ok, I’ve rambled on enough.

By: Chris J. Miller

Chris J. Miller — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:28:11 +0000

I see what you're getting at, and I'm not intrinsically opposed to the idea of "mixing things up" (certainly nuBSG did so to spectacular effect, to name an obvious example), but it can easily spill over into "change for change's sake," trying to fix what isn't broken (let's note that the BSG source material was held in much lower regard than Trek to begin with). When it comes to speculating about the content and style of this movie's story (not just its design aesthetics), I have a couple of other posts, here and here, that explore my thoughts in more detail. But to sum things up, I'll just repeat a quote from Wil Wheaton that I used in one of them: "...why does anyone need to 'reinvent' Star Trek at all? There's a good reason it managed to endure through four decades and several generations of Trekkies and casual viewers alike. I hope JJ Abrams groks that, because I really want to like this movie."

By: Linda

Linda — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:51:11 +0000

Well, I was really refering to the series overall, and not just the ship design. I think that they are really mixing things up, and it is putting some of the hardcore fans off, which is what happens when you mix things up. And I think, by going for a more action-oriented mainstream feel (and I don’t mean the derogatory sense of “mainstream”, which= “lowest common demoninator.” I just mean something that appeals to people outside the traditional fanbase, which= mostly male/watch a lot sci-fi/employed in tech&science-related professions), that it is revitalizing the series by giving it a totally fresh angle, while also growing an appreciation for the series & the sci-fi genre in general for people that don’t usually watch that sort of stuff.

By: Chris J. Miller

Chris J. Miller — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 04:28:54 +0000

Certainly personal tastes differ, so there’s room for debate about the new design… but Linda, what exactly makes you say that it has “more mainstream appeal”? I don’t follow you there. This ship can be criticized strictly from an aesthetic point of view, whether one is attached to original Trek or not.

(For that matter, just for argument’s sake, why is “more mainstream” necessarily what Trek needs? Replacing old fans with new may be fine for Paramount bean-counters, but it doesn’t work out so well for, y’know, the actual fans.)

By: Linda

Linda — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 23:08:29 +0000

I think the design looks good. Clearly they’re turning off some of the more hardcore fans with this update, which has more mainstream appeal, but I think they’re just going to end up replacing them with other fans. Overall, I’m excited by the previews, which look good to me. I also think, contrary to a lot of outcry, that they’ve assembled an intriguing cast. And I trust Abrams- his work may not always be the most stellar stuff, but it always seems to be solid, fun action-oriented fare. He has the right touch for this.