New Star Trek ship

[Prometheus|ANJ]

So, there's a new Star Trek movie in the works. XI. It'll be about Spock, Kirk and young versions of the TOS Enterprise crew.

Ryan Church did the new ship:
big-reaction-to-new-enterprise-new-designer-responds (http://trekmovie.com/2008/11/12/big-reaction-to-new-enterprise-new-designer-responds/)

Some whine about the design continuity:

Edit: Perhaps this new design replaces TOS Enterprise, which changes things...
Some kind of 'retcon' or SPOILER (Alternative timeline)?

- Varying the girth of the warp nacelles is to break convention.
- By opening up the front of the nacelles to make a suck-in shape, the feeling that the dish is blocking something is increased. Hard to tell from the angle (Edit: The 'jet intakes' doesn't appear to be when seen from the front (construction image)). I think the play on 50's car design is kinda silly and blatant.
- I don't think car design curves, cool gritty paneling and glowy bits rhyme well with the smooth simple, almost rectilinear TOS Enterprise design. What's wrong with simplicity? Yeah, Ent.A had some more curves (and is IMO the best looking of the bunch), but it came later.
- Glowy deflector dish came later with Enterprise A (I'm ignoring the NX).
- An S curve on the 'belly' is unconventional.

Here's a blurb from the original designer:
Designing the Enterprise (http://www.starshipdatalink.net/art/1701.html)

He theorized that since space was an extremell dangerous place, starship engineers would not put any important machinery on the outside of their vessel. This meant that, logically, the hull would be smooth. Not everyone agreed with Jefferies and he had to fight his corner. "I constantly had to fight anyone who wanted to put surface details on the thing," he says.

I'm inclined to agree.

Overall though, I think it's a better attempt than the ENT series ship which was just an Akira with knobs and grit on.

---

Here's a trailer:

rZiR-NETDr0

More whine:

- Welding together the ship on the ground? Seems like... out-of-place effect seeking, like: "We're building both the movie and the Enterprise". When the ship takes battle damage you can't land and start welding on the thing. Seems like the wrong era. I'd expect them to just use some phaser welder in an orbital shipyard.

- Ipod bridge? No thanks.

---

Edit: Here are some comments (http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/new_enterprise_comment.htm) by the Ex Astris Scientia guy.

[Opilione]

It's not about the ship, dude. It's about the philosophy at the heart of Star Trek: You can conquer any foreign race because you're white and priviledged, as long as you build some mythic lie about coming from some fake hard-working background. The retro construction of the ship in the trailer is the fake hard-working background to somehow justify the Empire-building activities of its crew.

Or at least it will if the new movie has any relation to all previous Star Trek canon.

[Prometheus|ANJ]

That description might fit the Mirror universe.

Anyways, there's a trailer 'leaked'. You can find it on Youtube. I'm not sure if that's a Breen in the beginning. It's also hard to see the ships. I think I see an over-and-under nacelle design (not side by side). There's also potential for panties on the bridge.

[s.ketch]

I was never a huge fan of Star-Trek, I just liked the old episodes but building the ship on Earth still doesn't make sense to me. I understand they're trying to ground it in reality and go back to it's origins and all, but I could have settled for at least a build in Earth's orbit.

I think half their problem is that they're trying to incorporate that color and 50's/60's feel of the old show while combining it with today's knowledge and tech. It's kind of odd looking.

[Funkshion]

It's not about the ship, dude. It's about the philosophy at the heart of Star Trek: You can conquer any foreign race because you're white and priviledged, as long as you build some mythic lie about coming from some fake hard-working background. The retro construction of the ship in the trailer is the fake hard-working background to somehow justify the Empire-building activities of its crew.

Or at least it will if the new movie has any relation to all previous Star Trek canon.
What the fuck??

[Opilione]

It's called thinking about something beyond the pretties and the flashing lights. Maybe you should try it sometime. Star Trek's (and more recently, Stargate's) position in the long enduring line of "Stupid white men asserting their dominance over the universe" SF is well established in both the more grounded areas of ST fandom and academic analysis of the genre.

[Prometheus|ANJ]

:shrug:

[Atlantis]

It's not about the ship, dude. It's about the philosophy at the heart of Star Trek: You can conquer any foreign race because you're white and priviledged...

Haha, wow. Evil whitey in SPACE! I must have missed that episode; the Star Trek I watched was more about exploration than empire building.

I like the new design, but I think it needs more phallic symbolism to reflect the rape of innocent virgin worlds and the dominance of the patriarchy.

[tobbA]

Yeah. Star Trek is pretty funny. The humans are superior in morals and intelligence. Maybe the Romulans are smarter and stronger, but at least we humans are nice, so we're better any way. Every klingon is a copy of another klingon, while the human are an as varied species as varied can be...

But uh. Still a pretty good show :P

Funny thing is Spock is going to be played by Sylar from Heroes... They actually look pretty alike with all the make up

[wassermelone]

Welding together the ship on the ground? Seems like... out-of-place effect seeking, like: "We're building both the movie and the Enterprise". When the ship takes battle damage you can't land and start welding on the thing. Seems like the wrong era. I'd expect them to just use some phaser welder in an orbital shipyard.

Nerdier people than I on other forums have said that even in the preexisting fluff far before this movie was conceived of said that it was constructed in parts on the ground.

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Parts yeah, but that thing looks pretty finished to me.

It would make the most sense to make the parts on the ground in various specialized facilities. When it's almost finished, you shuttle the bits into orbits and assemble the thing. That way you don't risk having the thing crash down in your face when the untested impulse/thruster drive goes online.

Although, remember that the ship is able to manufacture and repair most parts even when on a mission in space, far from Earth.

The San Francisco Fleet Yards (http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/San_Francisco_Fleet_Yards) are apparently orbital.

Although plenty of ships have been seen in drydock (http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Drydock), I don't recall seeing any in a half finished state. Enterprise-E was receiving extensive repairs though.

[Cthogua]

It's called thinking about something beyond the pretties and the flashing lights. Maybe you should try it sometime. Star Trek's (and more recently, Stargate's) position in the long enduring line of "Stupid white men asserting their dominance over the universe" SF is well established in both the more grounded areas of ST fandom and academic analysis of the genre.

Sorry to rain on your domination fantasy but the show premiered, in 1966 mind you, with a wildly multinational/ethnic crew, including a Russian as part of the cast, as well as a black woman, and an Asian man. I'll give you that they do tend to be a bit Earth centric, but one of the primary points of the show was that it was about exploration, not domination. 99% of the time the crew shows up to help out some race on some planet and then they leave...In fact the PRIME DIRECTIVE of the Federation was to NOT interfere with the internal affairs of other civilizations. Gene Roddenberry explicitly stated many times that the show was ment to be a kinda of left of center comment on the realities of the world at the time

from the wiki article:
Star Trek: The Original Series addressed issues of the 1960s,[2] just as later spin-offs have reflected issues of their respective eras. Issues depicted in the various series include war and peace, authoritarianism, imperialism, class warfare, economics, racism, human rights, sexism and feminism, and the role of technology.[3] Gene Roddenberry stated that by creating "a new world with new rules, I could make statements about sex, religion, Vietnam, politics and intercontinental missiles. Indeed, we did make them on Star Trek: we were sending messages and fortunately they all got by the network"[3]

[Opilione]

Haha, wow. Evil whitey in SPACE! I must have missed that episode; the Star Trek I watched was more about exploration than empire building.
And all evidence from history shows us the two are intrinsically intertwined.

with a wildly multinational/ethnic crew, including a Russian as part of the cast, as well as a black woman, and an Asian man.
Because tokens negate blatant Anglocentrism? Because demonisation of foreign cultures negates lack of internal analysis? Next you'll be telling me there's nothing insulting about Stargate because they have black Noble Savages.

n fact the PRIME DIRECTIVE of the Federation was to NOT interfere with the internal affairs of other civilizations.
Except they did! All the time! I have no idea what show you're watching to claim that 99% of the time they didn't. That was the entire point of the damn show. If they were just objective observers then nothing at all would happen in the episodes and nobody would watch.

[squidmonk3j]

i wouldn't worry too much about it, opilione...the Y chromosone will eventually disappear, and pure vegetative growth and balance will resume.

like most ppl, i'm inherently skeptical to redesigns of my childhood fantasies...in my eyes, the trailer looks like a glitzy intro to a Backstreet Boys music vid.

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Trailer
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[Prometheus|ANJ]

Ex Astris Scientia has a new XI page up, listing the new ship designs (http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/schematics/stxi_ships.htm) hinted at in the trailer. The page also has some spoiler'ish text.

[Chingwa]

I'm much more interested in seeing the back-story behind Spock... with uncontrollable emotions? I think the duality is interesting, between Kirk and Spock... It plays out the clash between East and West... I hope this is a serious movie without misplaced humor (humor is good, misplaced humor isn't)

It looks like it could be a great film, but, I'm skeptical. Trailer is Trailer and Movie is Movie.

[S.C. Watson]

That second trailer is annoying.

As for Spock's emotions (Nerd Alert: :P ) Vulcans have emotions they Just suppress them. Also, if you ever saw the pilot for the TOS, Spock *was* much more emotional. He even smiled at one point. So, it will be interesting to see how they handle this.

That said, I'm cautiously optimistic about the movie.

All the best,
~Oreg.

[Interceptor]

And all evidence from history shows us the two are intrinsically intertwined.


Because tokens negate blatant Anglocentrism? Because demonisation of foreign cultures negates lack of internal analysis? Next you'll be telling me there's nothing insulting about Stargate because they have black Noble Savages.


Except they did! All the time! I have no idea what show you're watching to claim that 99% of the time they didn't. That was the entire point of the damn show. If they were just objective observers then nothing at all would happen in the episodes and nobody would watch.

Looking for racism is places where there is'nt any, and desperately trying to make up racial conflict is no better than being racist.

[Zweit]

So if the crew represented Whitey, what did the Gorn represent? Koreans? The Vietnamese?

All I'm saying is that I really hope there's a Gorn in this movie. *crosses fingers*

[Prometheus|ANJ]

Yeah, Spock looks pretty happy in the early TOS episodes. The same can be said about Data. I guess it took some time for them to find their character.

There's one episode where Spock is infected by some plant and goes nuts. I always thought that Spock had just come back from a similar mission in the Pilot episode, and is suffering from after effects. However, in another episode he's so glad to see Kirk alive that he has a brief emotional outburst, so I guess Vulcans can lose it every now and then. There are plenty of other Star Trek episodes involving emotional Vulcans.

Then of course there's this:
3uxTpyCdriY

It has been said that Ferengi and Klingon are based on Jews and Mongolians (particularly Ghengis Kahn). But Star Cracka? I've seen perhaps 95%+ of all episodes, and the show goes out of its way (VOY to the point where it gets tiresome) to explore different moral dilemmas.

[Astro1derboy]

The racism remarks I find utterly humorous. Humorous at the sheer thought that this has even been brought to the table. I guess people who want to find racism will find it in anything. Why can't a show/series be enjoyed for what it is w/o having to reduce it to a platform for racism? That's absurd. People need to grow up and just treat each other with respect. Although that may not make the evening news. I like Trek. There, I said it. I feel better. It's not my favorite scifi but I like it anyway. The new movie was excellent IMO. But I will respect those who don't like it.