Thanks to Entertainment Weekly, you are looking at the first full image of the redesigned USS Enterprise from the new Star Trek movie (you can head over there for a larger version).
As a long time Star Trek fan, whose favorite series is the original, my from-the-gut reaction when I first came across this was:
That is one ugly ship.
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Here is what J.J. Abrams had to say in regards to the new design vs the original:
“If you’re going to do Star Trek there are many things you cannot change. The Enterprise is a visual touchstone for so many people. So if you’re going to do the Enterprise, it better look like the Enterprise, because otherwise, what are you doing?”
I don’t know… maybe it’ll grow on me or it will look awesome while in flight on the big screen, but at the moment it’s not doing it for me. While he went pretty “classic” with the saucer section (that’s “primary hull” for the Star Trek fans out there) the connecting pylon and the secondary (lower) hull just look… incongruous.
If I had to pick one word that comes to mind when I look at that image, it would be:
Taffy.
You know, that stretchy carnival candy? You get it warmed up and then you can pull on it and it stretches and thins? That’s what the secondary hull and the nacelles look like to me. The lower hull looks like it was molded out of clay, rolled between two hands and rolled narrower at one end.
Almost exactly one year ago I wrote a speculative post asking “How radical is the USS Enterprise Redesign?”
Pretty damned radical, it seems.
Here are some comparative images from that post to help put things in perspective:
The Original USS Enterprise NCC-1701
JJ Abrams’ Redesigned USS Enterprise NCC-1701
The USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A
Tell me the new design doesn’t look like the movie Enterprise saucer section tacked onto some completely different alien ship.
In another post, I tried to guess how a redesign of the Enterprise might equate to the modern trend of doing design updates of classic cars. As it turns out, I think my 1960s to 21st century Camaro comparison turned out to be the closest in design ideology:
Classic Camaro
Modern Camaro
At the time I wrote:
“Let me say that I think the new Camaro is really, REALLY hot and from a design standpoint pays homage to the classic version, but that degree of change for the Enterprise would be completely unacceptable.”
Oh well.
Or… is it just me? Do I need to give it time to sink in and see it in action? I’d like to hear opinions from both Star Trek fans and non-fans.
[UPDATE: Thanks to "Spockboy" check out this minor change to the design via Photoshop that makes the new NCC-1701 look FAR better by adding some bulk to the lower part of the ship.]
Star Trek opens on May 8, 2009.
Source: EW.com via FirstShowing.net
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275 Comments
Eeww,gees, I don’t know… agree with you, Vic, have to see her in action. Just not sold all the way on the new look.
I agree…
they raped the poor enterprise…just to make money…
No respect to the original BRILLIANT design… and to heck.. LOGIC!
This ship should not have been designed this way PERIOD!
im not a star trek fan, so the ship design isnt a big deal to me.
but seriously…what did you guys expect?
you want the same exact ship as the original? its sticking to the classic look while modernizing it.
in my worthless opinion its a huge improvement, the original in that top pic looks like a plastic toy that should be floating in a 5 year old’s bath water instead of flying warp speed in outer space
It looks like almost every incarnation of the Enterprise so far: recognizable. I don’t see ‘ugly’ so much as ‘appropriate’. Plus, the Enterprise from TNG is a far bigger depart from the original than this one.
Yeah I’m not a big Star Trek guy either but the design to me doesn’t look too bad. The originals nacelles remind me more of a Y-Wing anyway. It seems like they decided to give the neck and other pieces on the new version a slanty look which could make it really sweet when it is in motion. …thats jus me tho… but hopefully Abrams redesigning this ship wont be a repeat of Lucas’ crappy overly produced Star Wars sequels …God, I hate that man.
It’s time to give it up Vic. Seems to me like everything JJ is doing is for new fans, to start fresh. To hell with hardcore Trek fans, or fans of the original series. Those fans, myself now included (I started watching the original series again, first time since I was very young), are all very upset with the direction this movie is headed. The new designs of the “bridge,” so aptly named by my friend 790 as “the iBridge.” The overall design of the ship. The costumes, the look of the actors in all of these promo shots. It makes hardcore fans mad.
But I’ve noticed, in people that I’ve talked to who know literally nothing about Star Trek, it seems cool to them. They seem interested, excited, intrigued. To hell with fans of the legendary Shatner and Nemoy! They want to start fresh. I hope this backfires on Mr Abrams
I hope that Enterprise is used under the command of Captain Pike. When Kirk takes command, hopefully the Enterprise will look like the iconic one from the original series.
I really was thinking they could do something more original. It looks a lot like a bloated “modernized” version of the old ones, but it also looks like ‘a’ Star Trek space ship, so it (might) do for Joe film-goer.
My problem I guess is it looks too trekky…
I like your car comparison though.
I like the old design and I’m not a trek fan either. It’s the thing I hated about the new Star Wars movies, they made everything in the new star wars look so much more advanced, and sleeker. I mean look at the Naboo fighters compared to the X-Wings. maybe if you get technology to a certain point it starts regressing.
The ship doesn’t look too bad; ya’ll knew that they would “moderize” it for today’s empty-headed audiences. The young, cocky-looking crew is what I’m afraid of seeing in action, and hurling over. If they do a great acting job as a group, then the movie will rock, if not, no ship design in the known universe is going to make this turkey any better to see.
Your right Vic, the secondary hull looks… I don’t know how to describe it other than out of place or wrong. My first impression was its not finished, there’s still work to be done on it! (Please!)
It has the look of cake frosting that has just began to melt and sag. Like it was squished a little bit.
It doesn’t look big enough to hold what the Enterprise originally housed in the secondary hull. You know your a trekkie if you have a “Booklet of General Plans” Well I checked mine and there are all sorts of fabrication, storage, and recreation facilities there. Not to mention the shuttlecraft hanger, which takes up a quarter of the secondary hull.
I do however like the new engines. That is the one thing I expected to be considerably different. I’m not disappointed by them, but they do have that rolled piece of clay look with a headlight lens stuck in the end.
I know I’m over analyzing, but as a trekkie I think I’m entitled. Lets hope in the movie She kicks butt and looks super doin’ it!
It’s Transformers all over again.
Ah, Galaxy Quest comes to mind.
Interesting considering how JJ says he likes Galaxy Quest more then the Star Trek movies.
Not to be too crude, but this new design looks like the “classic” Enterprise and the “movie” Enterprise had sex and made one ugly baby.
I don’t see why it would be so hard to use the classic Enterprise in the film. Just watching it in action after only ever seeing it on the small screen would have been worth admission alone.
I think I will see the movie and judge the images in full context.
I am a fan from the beginning, or at least since I was born, of Star Trek. I don’t understand whats wrong with the new concept. It looks totally correct from a realistic and physical point of view. It looks like a ship that can handle various forces in the universe, natural or not. That was always a hard sell with the original design. All of those sharp corners everywhere would stress at the sign of any differing gravitational field let alone high speed and you can forget about atmospheric flight. The new one however has a molded design that shows engineering and stability and doesnt need the aid of an “advanced alloy” to explain how the shape and sturdiness is possible.
I like Star Trek, I don’t like this.
It feels like this ship should be the Enterprise F or G. How come in all prequels the technology looks/is superior to the future technology. Doesn’t make sense to me.
I found where J.J. stole the design from….
From flippin Veggie tales!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zscIbgsbrPg
@ 0:44 seconds.
I agree Vic. The secondary doesn’t match the primary.
There are plenty of other closer (to classic) solutions that would have been much better. Personally, I love the STMP Enterprise. I would loved it if they had used a design based on that nut with round narcels.
This ship is ugly, does not feel real and does not make the existing base happy. I’m sorry to say that I will be staying home.
@Bvance
I can understand updating a design. I mean the original was ahead of its time when it aired, but it’s too plain for a film. I thought the Trek movie ships were beautiful.
But as a couple of folks stated above, this looks both too much like Galaxy Quest and too “organic” a la Star Wars Episodes I-III.
Vic
“iBridge” lol, I love it.
I don’t get why the neck of the ship is so out of proportion with everything else…nor do I get the crazy disco warp nacelles. It looks like an entirely different class of ship.
Grew up with the original series in its initial network run. Love the look of this. Its a nice amalgamation of TV and movie versions of the ship.
I think my main beef with the design is the teeny-tiny “butt” on this thing. The back part of the secondary hull is so thin it almost looks like a caricature.
Check out what this guy did and see how much better it looks:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v617/spockboy/ENTERPRISE-new.jpg
Vic
Sorry JJ. It looks like something out of “Overhauling” or that “We Hire Hung-Over, Low IQ Vo-Tech Graduates to Design Motorcycles” show on Discovery channel.
Sort of bears no connection to a functional design, although I’m sure the kiddies (who know everything about cyberspace but nothing about reality) will love it.
Until the Next Coo-ull Thing comes along and their ADD adled minds forget this hack-job every happened.
Heavy sigh…
Check out the photoshopped version of the new ship by “Spockboy” that I’ve added to the end of the post. That minor change actually makes the ship look 10X better.
The more I look at that skinny “tail” the worse it looks.
Vic
I’d agree with Vic on this one. The small tail-end of the ship is way too small. the neck and saucer are also misaligned, if you think about it. if they kept the tail the same, but moved the neck and saucer forward, it wouldn’t look so bad. Another thing, if they had used the correct paint schemes and insignia for the hull, as well as a better deflector dish design, the overall design would improve. To me, it looks like a cross between the Star Trek Phase II and Star Trek I-VI models.
As an absolute non-Trek fan (don’t hate it, just don’t have any interest in it, though I will be seeing this movie), I personally don’t see this as such a big deal and quite like the ship.
Everyone and their mother knows what the Enterprise looks like (at least the basic design) and this looks like the Enterprise. Hell, not being a fan, had I not known this was a re-design or had any pictures for comparison, I wouldn’t have known it was new and would have assumed it was relatively the same as all the others.
Also, you seem to be confusing “ugly” with “different”. What you’re pointing out are things that are, frankly, different with the “old” designs, but that doesn’t make them worse (and granted, may not make them better), just different.
@joshi
You have your opinion, I have mine. Yes, there are things that are different, but some (for example the unbalanced proportions), taken as a whole make the ship look pretty ugly to me.
Vic
@vic
That’s fair. I just wanted to point out that your opinion is likely based on your comparisons with the old designs and that someone seeing this ship anew with no prior detailed knowledge of the Enterprise probably won’t find it to be ugly at all (then again, this is conjecture on my part, but from seeing comments on various other sites about this, it does tend to be true, non-trek fans like it, a lot of trek fans don’t mind it and some like yourself hate it, but I guess this was to be expected by all).
And by ‘unbalanced proportions’ I guess you mean the proportions between the Primary and Lower hull (to use your terminology, though if I’m doing it wrong, I mean the saucer shaped bit and the long lower bit). Well yes, but it’s not really something that caught my eye until you pointed it out, which is probably, again, due to the fact that I’m fairly new to this all and had no frame of reference.
I suppose, what this’ll all come down to is what people feel when they finally see it in motion (trailer’s out soonish yes?). The picture we have here could just be at an odd angle for all we know.
@joshi
No worries, bud. I made it quite clear in the opening paragraphs that my opinion on this was “As a long time Star Trek fan, whose favorite series is the original.”
And as I also stated, this ship could very well look good on the big screen and as you pointed out, from different angles. I know that the Enterprise-D from “The Next Generation” looked pretty hideously fat from some angles.
It’s just that this, combined with the Apple-store-looking bridge has me a bit leery as a fan.
Vic
I can understand that entirely, we’ve all been in this situation where out ‘fandoms’ get given a “reboot” of some sort and we have our misgivings about certain things. I just felt like giving an outsiders opinion.
Glad we could understand one another.
@joshi
Well I *did* want non-fans’ opinions so I appreciate your taking the time.
Best,
Vic
The design is WRONG.
For whatever reason, everyone that has helmed TREK after Roddenberry has somehow just decided that TOS does not and never did exist. TOS represents, to them, a design abberation.
BS. TOS IS TREK. Making the PRE 1701 look more like the A version simply ignores TOS, and since it is examining the TOS crew the entire thing makes no sense.
Dorks.
gah!
I’m a fan of TOS, and I have mixed feelings about this new design. For starters, I think the ship does look very cool, and I can see why Abrams chose this design. It looks enough like the Enterprise to get a pass, and I am fine with the design.
But I can’t get over the belly of the ship. I don’t like how front-heavy it looks, and I don’t like how the engines connect to it. Overall, as a spaceship, its very cool. As the enterprise, its acceptable at best.
Is it just me, or does this “redesign” look like it might have been based on the Enterprise C from TNG?
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Image:USS_Enterprise-C.jpg
Um, not my favorite design, but I suppose we’ll get used to it.
Yeah, the secondary hull and pylons look too “NURMy”.
Totally agree with you, Vic, about the “tiny butt”. That area where they join up needs to be more robust.
Here’s a good discussion thread from the 3D modelers over at Sci-Fi Meshes…
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/general-discussion/52523-enterprise-revealed.html
being the somewhat avid fan of star trek(star wars wins barley)
the redesign did catch me off guard at first but i agree with joshi on many of his points and as far as the ibridge goes, in todays modern society with phones that can do all but wipe your ass(someone should work on that) you can’t present a movie about the”future” unless it looks like the future which means more advances in tech, so bones can not go around with a tri-corder the size of a boxing glove when we have similar tech at smaller sizes in todays life, and as far as the star wars references about the different tech between the prequels and original trilogy is this as all star wars fans should know the AT-AT,AT-ST, and other designs were designs that palpatine took form ancient sith desings which would explain the apparent step back in their look, and as far as the comparison between the naboo fighter and the x-wing thats like comparing a sedan and a sports car and if you look at the ARC-170S in episode III that is the predecessor of the x-wing and when looked at from that persecutive you can see that the x-wing is a much smaller and streamlined version of the ARC-170S
I prefer JJ’s version to Spockboy’s. His looks too much like a compromise between JJ’s version and the original. The fatness of the bottom does not flow with the rest of the ship lines.
There is a strong influence from the Enterprise C from The Next Generation episode – ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise.’
Might want to throw an image of that one up for comparison purposes too, Vic.
@hicks
Here’s the deal (and my logic): They could have made the bridge look hyper-modern but have kept a color scheme with at least a passing resemblance to TOS and TNG. I mean when have we EVER seen a blazing white bridge on a Federation ship? Ever? Hell, take the same damn one they have, transparent panels and all but change the colors to the blacks/reds/tans of the original and I would have been as happy as a pig at the trough.
As to the size of tricorders, communicators, etc. I believe that’s a straw man argument. I would counter that the devices can do so MUCH that they by design have to be a bit larger.
Everyone says “blah blah cell phones tiny blah blah.” Fine. Could your cell phone, WITHOUT cell towers, contact a ship in orbit? Do you think maybe we could excuse a Communicator not being the size of a pack of matches because it needs to be able to do what it does? Same goes for the Tricorder – it has such vast capabilities that to me it’s silly if they make it too small.
Vic
I am as hardcore a Star Trek fan as you will find. I didn’t finish DS9 or Enterprise (This due to not having TV for a few years), but otherwise loved all the different shows and movies (except I, V, and VII). I personally love the new design. I think it pays homage to the original while at the same time making it look like technology that COULD exist in the future, rather than something that looks like it was designed for the future in the 60s or even the 80s.
There was something else that bothered me about the new look that I couldn’t put a finger on till I saw spockboy’s fix!
The engines, support pylons (and where they connect top & bottom), and the tail of the secondary hull all look jammed forward. Was space dock too short?
When I saw his fix, it hit me: Animated series come to life! Very cool!
Nice touch spockboy!
Vic, I bet you didn’t like the design of the Enterprise-E when it was debuted in First Contact. If that’s so, I think I can understand your feelings a bit. It was so different than any other design as it was stretched out for a wide-screen format. I personally liked it the most out of the designs up to that point, but people who didn’t like that one tend not to like anything other than the perfectly round saucer, barrel-shaped secondary hull, and straw-shaped warp nacelle designs.
I just had a non fan (there is one in my house) tell me that she likes JJ’s look better than spockboy’s touch-up. She specifically likes the shape of the secondary hull. liking the subtle curve on the bottom. She thinks it looks sexy!
Oh! The shame of it!!
It is modern car design: they squashed in the engineering hull, and pushed the nacelles foward to give it that tiny car “sure, we’re really hip (except they’re not)” look. The Enterprise isn’t a sports car, not from any era: she’s a heavy cruiser. She’s a big, badass ship you don’t want to mess with (one of the early novels described her from a Romulan point of view: a war shield and two clubs [or was it spears]). This new thing inspires fear or awe in no one. Bummer.
Hey Vic did I miss something?
I don’t recall seeing any of the devices in the pictures released so far. But I agree with you, plus the things need to be big enough to operate in less than ideal conditions I would think.
@David
No we haven’t seen those things, but in Star Trek: Enterprise they made everything smaller than in the original show.
@Mark
I *still* don’t like the Enterprise-E.
Vic
I should start by saying that I consider myself to be a lifelong Star Trek fan even though I’m only 21.
I actually caught my first glimpse of this design last night and my first reaction was, “Why’d they do that?”. I didn’t like that they pushed the neck so far aft that it was nearly on top of the shuttlebay. And it seemed like the nacells were nearly touching the rear of the saucer section.
However, I looked at the design again later and thought, “that still does look like the NCC-1701″. I think I do need to give Mr. Abrams some amount of credit. JJ, I can easily recognize this as the original Enterprise even though you’ve changed a lot of the body lines and resized some of it. And wasn’t that the goal?
I loved the look of every Enterprise. Each was unique and set itself apart from other iterations. This one is easily recognizable as the original; (I direct your attention to the frontal lobes of the nacells as well as the exterior mounted deflector dish.) No it’s not exactly the same as TOS Enterprise, but what’d you expect.
This design satisfies the hardcores who wanted this to the NCC-1701 and the ‘new fans’ Abrams wants to bring to the base with an updated design with realistic design cues. Plus, we can’t see the whole thing with this one photo. Let’s see the whole thing in motion before we pass judgement. Bottom line; I can deal with it.
We had to know Abrams would re-engineer some things for the movie. And as Dr. McCoy once famously said, “I know engineers, they love to change things.”
Looks like the body of the Enterprise E, and the saucer section of a Starfleet Ambassador class ship, with a touch of the NSEA Protector thrown in for laughs…
Hey Vic the “NX Prometheus” in the Star Trek Voyager episode,”Message in Bottle” had a uber-white bridge but even that wasn’t as high tech as this new/old one…
I have a feeling that JJ’s attempt at making this film something “non-fans” can enjoy, could have been his biggest mistake!
I’m betting theres a Omega 13 reference in the film somewhere…
To me, its Star Trek DEGENERATIONS.
I hate JJ Abrams, Paramount e Mr Nimoy for this!!!
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