According to a new report that appeared on the internet today, the titular starship should look very familiar to fans of the Original Series and the Next Generation - or at least, of those who used to watch the series while standing on their heads.

"Archer's Enterprise will essentially look like Kirk's Enterprise and Picard's Enterprise - only turned upside down," said a report on the Ain't It Cool News site. "That's right: the warp nacelles and the saucer section [...] now reside slightly beneath the middle section." The site claims that a picture of Kirk's Enterprise should be turned upside down to get a basic idea of the new design.

"Also, expect the middle piece to be wider and flatter than those on Kirk's and Picard's Enterprises, and the saucer to be smaller in proportion to the rest of the ship than we're used to. Look for the entire ship to look flatter, with a very short or non-existent "neck" connecting the middle to the saucer section."

The description is very similar to the Akira class, featured in 'Star Trek: First Contact,' which designer John Eaves said the Enterprise would resemble (story). The Akira, seen here in a schematic from the Star Trek Encyclopedia, was a computer-generated ship with no secondary hull and a catamaran-like arrangement of its warp nacelles under the main saucer section.

Early designs of the new Enterprise did not feature any nacelles (story), though these may have been added to the ship over the past few months. In addition, other reports about the new ship design have suggested it will be chunkier and blockier with many of the components held within later ship's streamline silhouettes bolted onto the hull.

While no images of the Enterprise are yet available, the internet was buzzing yesterday when a set of fake images appeared on the German site TrekNews.de. Instead of official Paramount sketches, these were rendered shots of a fan-created ship. These pictures have since been identified as the work of Steven Davis, an artist of the SciFi Art site, thereby putting this rumour to rest.

No official information on the design of the new ship has yet been released by Paramount or anyone associated with the design. Please treat these new reports as you would any other rumour until concrete official information is released. You can read more about the Enterprise design in the original report here at Ain't It Cool News.

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