I've noticed that a few Star Trek fans on the Internet have the opinion that Enterprise is completely overlooking The Original Series (and I'm not just talking about here at Flare). So I sat down and jotted down a list of things I saw in "Broken Bow" that have a direct connection to The Original Series. I'm sure that there are some more out there that I missed (in particular, the characterizations and dynamics amongst the crew). Anyway, here is what I have; please add any that you think I missed.
Starship Exterior:
The underside of Enterprise’s saucer has a white-lit dome that was also present on the original Enterprise.
Facing forward on the underside of the saucer section are four holes that appear to be weapons ports. The original Enterprise fired weapons from this same location.
On the port and starboard sides of the upper saucer surface are two thick black lines with a running light in the middle of each. These lines were present on the original Enterprise in “Where No Man Has Gone Before.”
The overall shape and design of Enterprise’s nacelles are reminiscent of the original Enterprise’s. You have the red end-caps, a cylindrical shank, and two half-spheres on the aft ends of the nacelles.
The red nacelle end-caps of Enterprise’s nacelles are red with orange/red-orange spots that spin around. You can see this pretty clearly when Admiral Forrest is making his speech at the launching ceremony. The original Enterprise’s end-caps were a red-orange with lights inside them that spun around.
The original Enterprise’s nacelles had rectangular grills on them that pointed to the centerline of the ship. The new Enterprise has replicated these grills as well.
The windows on the new Enterprise, while more numerous than on the original Enterprise, maintain the same shapes as on the original’s: circular or horizontally rectangular.
Starship Interior and Set Designs:
Both the new Enterprise and original Enterprise make extensive use of intercom panels. And, as on the original Enterprise, the new Enterprise has them everywhere: bridge stations, sickbay beds, and even the reactor.
The original Enterprise used a lot of grillwork in the interior sets. They were used as dividers in the quarters and elsewhere. The new Enterprise doesn’t use grillwork to the extreme that the original did, but there’s quite a few instances of it. Look in the engine room set, sickbay, and in the captain’s mess.
Both the original Enterprise and the new Enterprise make extensive use of physical computer interfaces. The new Enterprise takes it more to an extreme by incorporating dials, sliders, and switchs. The original Enterprise largely just used buttons and a few dials.
Both the original and the new Enterprise’s bridges feature a main viewer that is, largely, an ordinary rectangle. The even appear to be the exact same size.
The lab area in the sickbay set is very reminiscent of McCoy’s setup from TOS. By this, I mean the overhead cabinets with the vials, bottles, and other medical equipment.
The turbolift on the new Enterprise’s bridge is in the exact same location as on the original Enterprise’s bridge: port aft.
The science station on the new Enterprise’s bridge features a scanner that is similar to the one Spock used in TOS. It even casts a reflection on the user’s face (Spock had a blue reflection while T’Pol has a greenish-white reflection).
The glimpse we got of the new Enterprise’s mess room is similar to the original Enterprise’s mess room. The serving areas are at the back of the room, and both rooms are dreadfully empty of decorations (which is odd since a large gathering area for crew members ought to have a least a couple paintings to break away from the gray walls).
Another dubious similarity is the random appearance of ladders. In the new Enterprise, the sickbay set has a ladder that goes up to somewhere unknown. In the original Enterprise, the hallway set had an alcove with a ladder that went up to some sort of engineering areas (it always seemed to be Scotty climbing this ladder, and I'm not talking about the Jefferies Tube).
Uniforms and Props:
The uniforms use the division colors that were used on TOS: gold for command, blue for sciences, and red for shipboard services.
The uniforms utilize a dark-colored undershirt that is either black or dark-gray. Spock’s uniform on TOS featured his blue tunic being worn over a black undershirt. I believe it’s “The Naked Time” that shows him putting his blue tunic on over the black undershirt.
The uniforms for Enterprise feature a ship-specific logo on the shoulder. TOS uniforms used a ship-specific logo worn on the left breast.
The weapons for the Starfleet crew are pistol-style weapons that were used in TOS and in the TOS-era movies.
The communicators used in Enterprise are similar to the handheld flip-open devices that Kirk and his crew used on TOS.
Ensign Sato used an earpiece for listening to communication channels in much the same way that Lieutenant Uhura used hers.
Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :
I appreciate a lot of the things they did to give us a kind of feeling of homage.. unless its a red herring to throw us off the track that they are using the time-travel set up to abort TOS before it happens... just one thing:
quote:The weapons for the Starfleet crew are pistol-style weapons that were used in TOS and in the TOS-era movies.
Quite dissimilar actually.. unless you mean they both series use pistols. But then, so does NYPD blue, yet with no TOS homage intended. And the nomenclature of said pistols is wierding us out.
You made a lot of good points though
Posted by Ryan McReynolds (Member # 28) on :
Sound effects: the ship doors have the same sound as those on the original, not later ships. The communicators also have the same chirpy-opening sound.
Posted by David Templar (Member # 580) on :
While people are talking communicators: did the communicator in "Broken Bow" simply lack range and power, or were the Sublibans actively jamming it? Just a personal curiosity.
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
I also noticed the deication plaque on the bridge. It looks very similar to the TOS enterprises plaque.
Who wants to bet that it has a dedication of "To boldly go where no man has gone before." ?
Posted by Michael_T (Member # 144) on :
I think that the comm system was being jammed.
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
Which communicator problems are you talking about? We have the first one that is just before Sato and Archer are captured by the renegade Suliban. I think that in this instance, Archer couldn't contact T'Pol or Tucker because they had already been captured. The second time was when Reed and Mayweather are trying to contact Archer and the gang on the roof of the trading complex. Mayweather says that there's a lot of interference messing around with the sensors and such.
As for my comments on the style of the personal weapons, I was simply noting that the style of the plasma and phase pistols marked a return to the pistol-style weapons used in TOS. The personal weapons in modern Trek were essentially wands with a curved handgrip. Star Trek is going back to more "aggressive" looking sidearms now (as compared to that same trend in "aggressive" looking rifles that began with First Contact).
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
At the beginning of TNG, perhaps. As Lee has documented for us, 24th century phasers got more...dare I say it, sensible, as time went on.
Posted by Commander Dan (Member # 558) on :
Your observations are well presented and fairly accurate, but I will argue one point with you:
quote:Originally posted by Siegfried: The windows on the new Enterprise, while more numerous than on the original Enterprise, maintain the same shapes as on the original’s: circular or horizontally rectangular.
I have noticed that some (O.K., one) of the “horizontal” windows (as seen from the interior set) are rounded at the corners and NOT rectangular.
I just had to find SOMETHING to complain about!
[ October 09, 2001: Message edited by: Commander Dan ]
Posted by Siegfried (Member # 29) on :
I think I'm correct in using the describer "rectangular" for these windows on the sets and model. But forgoing that for the moment, the main point I was getting across was the orientation of these windows is horizontal. The only starships we've seen with horizontally orientated windows are the Daedalus-class, Constitution-class (original and refit), Oberth-class, Miranda-class, and Excelsior-class. All of the later starships have these "rectangular" windows orientated vertically: the Ambassador, Galaxy, Sovereign, Intrepid, Nova, etc.
Posted by Commander Dan (Member # 558) on :
quote:Originally posted by Siegfried: the main point I was getting across was the orientation of these windows is horizontal.
