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Reactions To The New USS Enterprise

By T'Bonz
November 13, 2008 - 8:46 PM

With the details of the new Enterprise appearing recently, professionals and fans alike are weighing in with their opinions of the newly-designed ship.

As reported by TrekMovie, to some fans, a ship is just a vehicle to get to the story or on which a story takes place, but to others, a ship is much more than that, and every bit of design is carefully scrutinized and critiqued.

Former Star Trek designer Rick Sternbach, responsible for the design of many Star Trek ships and stations, had this to say about the new Enterprise. "I get the distinct impression that to do the nacelles and secondary hull, someone stared at the USS Pasteur for a while," he said. "Just a thought. But even the Pasteur's Bussard collectors had line of sight to open space, which the nacelles on this new ship don't seem to have. Perhaps the designers didn't know exactly how the different hardware bits worked (I violated this rule a little here and there, but I knew when I was doing it.)" Sternbach went on to say that "There's room in this Trek world for healthy design criticism, as well as simply sitting back and enjoying a well made SF film. I hope the film is well written and clever and has good proportions of action, humor, tech, etc. but I'm also prepared to analyze the design work to see, perhaps, how far the shapes and colors and functions stray from forty years of evolved gear."

The designer of the new Enterprise, Ryan Church registered his reactions to the comments made by Sternbach and others. "I'm not going to get involved in the mud slinging, here, but needed to assure you guys and gals: we've built you a fine ship."

Fans have also weighed in with their opinions, as reported by TrekBBS. Some liked the new design. "Looks good," said TrekBBS poster JRS. It's a nice mixture of something old (TOS and TMP) and something new. It has sense of power in it, but not without some grace and elegance added to the mix." Plum also liked the new Enterprise. "Very radical design. Has a futuristic retro style with it's sleek form but offset with technical detail. Notice the photon-torpedo tube mount as from the TMP design. Do I like it? It's great and seems to fit the design styles the film seems to be going for. I find this design to be wonderfully contemporary, sophisticated and appealing to today's eyes. Well done I say!"

Other fans weren't as enthusiastic. JBElliot was short and to the point. "Looks horrible." But Ethros injected a bit of humor into the discussion, borrowing a line from The Trouble With Tribbles when commenting on the new design. "I didn't mean to say the Enterprise should be hauling garbage. I meant to say that it should hauled away as garbage."

Some fans had mixed feelings about the Enterprise. "I hate the nacelles," said cultcross. "Otherwise, it's beautiful." "I actually like the nacelles," said Manticore. "And I really don't like the secondary hull. It just 'feels' very back heavy. With the way that the neck is centered over that ridiculously long cutout, it looks like it's about to tip over backward."

To read more, head to the article located here and the post located here.

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