Worst Starfleet Starship Designs: A Rant

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Worst Starfleet Starship Designs: A Rant



In 2009 we were introduced to the Kelvin timeline and JJ Abrams version of the classic NCC-1701:


Yeah... Dude! It's not a hot rod! It's the Starship Enterprise.  It doesn't need all the aerodynamic fins and sh*#, it's in space.  The supposed scale is ridiculous (and doesn't work), the nacelles look totally stupid, the overall color scheme is more TMP than TOS, and I don't even know what the f*$# is going on with the neck sitting way back on the drive section.


In Star Trek Beyond, it had apparently gone through a refit (IRL the ship's neck and pylons were slimmed down to make the destruction by Krall's swarm more plausible).  And it actually looks worse.  A lot worse.



Into Darkness gave us this hot mess:


The USS Vengeance.  When I first saw it I was like "what is this? Really? Is this a joke???" For a Star Trek ship: NO.  Just no.



When Star Trek Discovery was first announced and anticipation was high, we got the very first teaser trailer with the WIP version of the ship


Granted it was not the final version, but it was...ok... honestly kinda ugly looking.  Depending on what they were going for it could have been made to work.

Then the series premiered, and we got to actually see the ship.  And they somehow managed to make an already iffy at best design look like complete ass:


The overall design concept they based on the unused Ralph McQuarrie design for Star Trek Phase 2.  There's a reason that design was abandoned.  Also, the 32nd century refit design didn't help anything, and actually somehow looks even less Star Trek like:





I've never been a huge fan of the NX-01 design from Enterprise


I mean, it's ok, but I've never really liked it as much as any of the other earlier designs.  That said even the NX-01 beats any of the others I've mentioned handily.  As awkward and not fitting its era as the NX-01 is, it is miles -nay- lightyears better than the discovery, or the vengeance, or the abomination they called the enterprise in the JJ movies.  If this is trend that Star Trek ship design will continue to take, I'm worried.



Which brings me to Pikes Enterprise from Star Trek DSC and SNW.
 

It's...ok.  I guess.  The scale is more or less correct.  The pylons with the open slit is strange, and the cut out with the bank of lights on the saucer shining on the registry, umm...why?  I'm not going to completely slam it, but I don't embrace it either.  Again, as Enterprises go, it is light years better than the farce JJ gave us.   Overall the aesthetic is really closer to NX-01 than TOS.  Also, the flat area behind the bridge dome to the rim of the saucer, the way it slightly sticks out (the impulse area) and the little fins sticking up, looks like they ripped off the excelsior design.

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