You guys never cease to amaze me. Do you honestly think after 40+ years a movie set in the TOS era would use the Enterprise from the TV show? The reason the original enterprise wasnt used in TMP was because the model was just too old, clumsy, and lacked the detailing needed for a full blown big screen movie. This new ship is still clearly Matt Jefferies design. With some nice subtle alterations. I grew up watching Kirk, and company trundle through the galaxy, hookng up with green, and blue females, dodging gotho's, giant hands, blobs amoebas, Styrofoam boulders, etc. etc. We all loved it despite the cheese factor. You guys knew how much of a nut i was about modeling the TOS big-E. However looking at this "new" TOS big-E i must say.. i LIKE it! I think JJ Abrams has the right idea. Instead of modifying the old 1960's TOS model to bring it up to speed for todays standard, He "downgraded" the TMP enterprise to TOS specs, and retained the best parts of the TMP ship. Including the hull font. This is a nice blend of the old, and the new, It also make the "new" TOS connie consistent tech wise with all the other series. JJ said he would stay true to trek lore. He said absolutely nothing about not changing the appearance of the technology.
Chris you of all people i would have least expected to mock this ship.
I think most of the TOS purist wont be happy no matter what. Damned if you do, and damned if you dont.
To be honest if this Trek is a reboot ala Galactica it may be a good thing. Look at how many old timers protested the new galactica.. Turns out many old school fans. Myself included LIKE the new show. The same could be true with the "new" Trek. We just have to keep an open mind. IDIC.
Now if the Story, Acting, and Plot of the movie sucks. All of this great new artwork will be a waste.
With respect StressPuppy, to each their own..
I think it'd be a lot more of a challenge for them to go with the original ship in the movie. Then you approach it with the attitude, "How do we make this fresh and exciting?" "How do we do things with this classic ship that have never been seen before?"
Even looking at the demos over at Chris' site for Nexus Trek and the Legacy mods, plus ST: New Voyages gives the answer.. the original Trek kept everything 2D because of budget problems. They don't have that problem with this movie. You can do things with scale and angles that could never been done before, and go for shots that have never been seen.
We have scenes at a planet? Fantastic.. how many times have we ever seen the TOS Big E drop out of warp and into orbit? How many times have we seen it go to warp? Maybe the reason why we never see the Big E fire rear phasers or a rear torpedo tube may be because of problems experienced during this movie.. a rear torpedo misfire taking out part of the superstructure or a phaser coupling overheating and exploding could require a rethink of that part of the design and shutting down and removing those systems in time for TOS for instance..
This is what I'd go for..
And as a sidenote: the new BSG may be popular with some, but I literally can't watch it. The "shakycam" thing makes me physically sick to my stomach to watch it. So the only way I've been even able to think of how to view it would be to run the show through a program like VirtualDub and then run a stability filter on it focused on the ship/ships that are the center of action, cropping out the rest. Then maybe I can watch it. If the new movie does the same, I'll have to walk out of it for the same reason. And not *everything* has to be sex and violence... I see the direction that BSG went to be the same road that Babylon 5: Crusade was asked to walk down, and JMS shut the show down rather than go there. I *like* not having all that drek in a story.. it means that they have to actually write something, not script:
[
i]13:45 [scene]: Dark hallway with female Cylon and human male. Camera pans, no one is around. Female Cylon pushes human male against hallway wall and they start to undress.
14:35 [ad lib talking and kissing]
14:55 - 16:59 [scene pushes R rating]
17:00 fade to commercial.[/i]Now what is actually accomplished in this sort of scene? You kill three minutes and fifteen seconds of the fourty two or so minutes to tell your story, and you never get that back. To be honest, if I wanted to see that sort of story, there's adult entertainment shops where I can rent that, and they don't ever have to pretend to be set in space.
I watch science fiction because I want to see a science fiction story, and that means that there has to be a story to watch. Guess that puts me into the camp that prefers TOS styling, good story telling, and has at least a nodding respect for its fans... as opposed to the beheading and execution of a good story and show in order to make time in the show for soft porn. And I *hope* that they don't walk down this road..