posted
The next ship in the line, according to Star Trek Online. Love it or hate it, it's here. The Memory Alpha Wiki lists it as "apocrypha", but as there won't be any new Trek series/movie set in 2390 for many years (if ever), this is what we got for now.
In my eyes it's an Intrepidized Sovereign, with streaks of Nova-class sprinkled here and there, especially the belly bump. The deflector region has obviously borrowed from the early Ambassador concept ship. My jury's still out on it, but I like the regal style of the nacelles, and the squarish nacelle cowlings are reminiscent of the Ambassador as well.
Back when I started watching ST:VOY, I thought "it would look even better with nacelles on struts", so this is kind of a 15 year old "What if" design to me.
I always thought the Sovereign had problems with the side view, its engineering section and saucer met like a wet rolled-up newspaper, and this design has a slightly more confident side view. Few Trek ships look stellar from behind or head on, but you simply have to pull off the profile.
I never liked the "escape pod fever" that hit the Trek design community after First Contact, those scores of ugly yellow triangles looked like ship ACNE to me, screaming "Hull compromise, shoot here!", and the evacuation scene in FC looked a bit disgusting, like a swarm of maggots slithering out of a carcass. This design has more sensible squarish and muted pods, and the numbers don't run away. I think it's better.
Official size figures hasn't come out yet AFAIK, but I assume it's not shorter than the Sovereign, so 750-800 meters, I suppose.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
The blurb on the website says that its the largest Enterprise yet.
I don't like this whole "twin neck" design. Looking from the side it looks like the secondary hull is a complete, separate unit that is just strapped on rather than being part of the ship.
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Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Yeah, I'm not digging them either. I wouldn't mind it so much but for the life of me I can't see any benefit from that configuration. That plus there's just too many different homages going on. Looks like a bit of an over designed mess to be brutally honest.
posted
Indeed, but that problem's been systemic for a long time with Trek, I think. Either you make a Starfleet design derivative of older starships (like the Prometheus, although the angular saucer was novel) or you make a totally new shape from scratch, like the Steamrunner. I'm not a big fan of the Steamrunner.
Registered: Aug 1999
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WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
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posted
The new one looks like they took an Intrepid and squashed Grissom & Sovereign DNA on it. I personally would like to see new shapes put into use. Afterall, the basic planform of the Constitution class was pretty much a human development and I'm sure that other species would have design aesthetics they would want to THEIR liking.
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
The Odyssey class (I'm not gonna start calling it the "F" or something) does look pretty good from above, but I don't know what they were thinking with the secondary hull. It looks like someone who's broken their jaw and has a load of bandages tied around their head. Really weird, really ugly, and as Reverend says, you can't fathom any in-universe advantage it could have.
posted
Looking at this, I want to say that this is a bad idea executed well (as opposed to the usual good idea executed poorly).
I don't like the dual necks either, and quite frankly, I don't think it's possible to design a ship using them that I'd love.
But... this is about as good a design as I think we're going to get if you must go with this idea. It does feel very Federation-ish. As Wiz pointed out, you can definitely see the "parentage" of the Oberth, Intrepid, and Sovereign. And it does look good from certain angles.
But yeah... dual necks... *sigh*
-------------------- "Kirito? I killed a thing and now it says I have XPs! Is that bad? Am I dying?"
-Asuna, Episode 2, Sword Art Online Abridged
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
From the front, back, and side, it looks like a snake. Maybe it can unhinge its hull and swallow a Borg sphere whole.
Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
I have to say, I didn't even notice the neck design until it was pointed out to me, I think it's slightly fresh in its execution. Looks better than the hamstrung USS Titan imo.
I can't get a good view of the nose launcher, but it looks like it has two red photon launchers on the sides, and a grille inbetween. Wonder if the grille is a launcher of some sort too.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
Isn't there a small craft that detaches from the rear of the ship, near the shuttlebay. I seem to recall that when the design was first announced as the winner.
Registered: Feb 2005
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Can I say, though, that every time I rewatch the Odyssey-picture up there, when looking at these posts, it's growing on me. Now when I see it, I think "Voyager's pretty mom". The first Trek design I've seen in years that has some measure of female grace. When Sovereign came, it looked "epic", this looks "slick".
Registered: Aug 1999
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WizArtist II
"How can you have a yellow alert in Spacedock? "
Member # 1425
posted
It's like the Sovereign is Kirstie Alley from TWOK and the Odyssey is Kirstie Alley TODAY replete with twin necks and all.
-------------------- There are 10 types of people in the world...those that understand Binary and those that don't.
Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Krenim: Looking at this, I want to say that this is a bad idea executed well
I find myself in complete agreement with your assessment.
Put simply, this is not an attractive design, even though the renders and whatnot look pretty good for what it is. The dual-neck thing is just gimmicky and she's got an enormous butt.
Of course, I'm still of the view that the Enterprise-E is not a proper evolution of TNG-era starship design, so what do I know?
-------------------- . . . ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.
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