What Makes Star Wars and Star Trek So Great, Part III
What Makes Star Wars and Star Trek So Great, Part III
Part 3: Star Trek Features Great Sequel Ships
As I discussed in previous parts of this little discourse, Star Wars and Star Trek before it, offer superbly designed spaceships and interesting and advanced tools used alike by the heroes and villains. However, they have since fallen from the lofty heights of their best days. In this week’s episode, I would like to explore ships featured in sequels. For the most part, in both properties, the early sequels feature great ship designs that take past designs to make really wonderful new ones.
I have a lot to say about Star Trek in this edition, so I am splitting off my remarks on Star Wars to Part IV.
Star Trek features ships in sequels that are generally worthy successors to the original Enterprise. I’ve already waxed on about how much I like both the original Enterprise and the original cast movie Enterprise, but allow me get into that a bit more here.
The basic Enterprise design remained the same for the entire run of the “TOS” series. Early on there were indeed some changes made to the first model of the ship. The bridge section on top of the saucer was larger at first—this was reduced in size to give the appearance of much larger vessel. The engines too were enhanced—the front globes, first just a basic dark red, then featured an interior, more colorful spinning mechanism. Embedded balls were added to the rears of the engines, when before they featured only a pattern of tiny holes. Also, the deflector dome was larger at first.
While the newer version came out in season one, as was the custom at the time (I am given to understand), the show runners continued to show the older version of the ship. If they had footage they could re-use that worked for a scene in a new episode, they just used it. Thus, in the original version of the series, you can see a mixture of the older and newer Enterprise in many episodes. (They fixed that in the early 2000s when they remastered the series and redid the space special effects.)
I first started watching Star Trek TOS when it was in syndication in the early 1970s, when I also caught the animated series on Saturday mornings. This too featured an unchanged Enterprise. So, from my perspective as a fairly early fan, the TOS Enterprise was the one and only Enterprise, and it in fact remained so for many years—13 to be exact.
Then came along the first movie in 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I was at first a bit scandalized that they had made changes to the ship! (I was 13 too at the time.) The long cylindrical engines with the colorful front end globes! The golden sensor dome! The lit-up planetary dome! All changed!
However, they didn’t just change it with no explanation in the movie. It was a refit, they explained—a practice that’s taken place with many, real Navy ships over the years. I could accept that, and I soon got over it. I realized I could love them both—the old and the new. And there was no doubt that the movie version looked very cool indeed.
This new version of the Enterprise became “the” Enterprise for the next 12 years of movies, nearly as long as the old one. Yes, the original was destroyed in Star Trek III, but an identical sister ship took her place, and she was right back again at the end of Star Trek IV.
In Star Trek III, we also get our first look at the intended fleet upgrade to the aging Enterprise, the more advanced U.S.S. Excelsior. She had the same layout as Enterprise with a saucer section, a lower section and two engines, but with a very thick neck and a much longer, more prominent lower deck, curved engine pylons, yet she was twice as big and with a sleeker shape overall. She starts out as the Enterprise’s adversary (giving chase to Kirk when he steals the Enterprise from space dock) and then later joins her in a battle at the end of Star Trek VI. To complete the circle, in Star Trek: Generations, they build the new Enterprise-B as an Excelsior-class vessel.
That takes us to the Enterprise-D of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I have to admit right up front that it is not a favorite of mine. I never hated this ship, but always felt that it was, frankly, weird-looking. She’s just not beautiful like the previous Enterprises. For example, I can look at models of the previous Enterprises and admire them from all angles. Not so much with the D. Her oval saucer section, widest at its sides, was no longer a perfect circle. Her flattened engines were no longer the longest part of the ship. Further, her thin back end is, I believe, is her least attractive part. Rather than a shuttle bay (which is moved to the saucer section), there’s an added aft torpedo launcher, a delightful new improvement.
These design departures were no doubt intentional to show a radical transformation of ship design in a time 100 years after events of the original series. While she’s not beautiful, much like Battlestar Galactica, the D does offer a massive, imposing presence, exuding power and advanced technology. Her best features are the squares of light in an oval pattern below her saucer section and all over her neck, as well as her red and blue sensor down and engine lights.
Later episodes of The Next Generation do indeed feature views of the ship from more flattering points of view, which emphasized the ship’s better-looking parts, such as close ups on the saucer section, and the lower section.
The next Enterprise, featured in all but the first Next Generation movies was an improvement over the D. The Enterprise-E, marked a return to the design features of the original Enterprises. Like her previous sisters, her engines are again larger in proportion to the rest of the ship, and her back end features a shuttle bay. While her saucer section was still an oval, this one is long-wise, revealing a more sleek look. She is even more imposing and powerful in appearance than the D. Still not as beautiful as the first two Enterprises, she is the best of the latter ships.
Another Enterprise to come along was the “reboot” Enterprise of the three new Star Trek movies that started in 2009. This version attempted to take the best features of the first movie Enterprise and the original TOS, but also some design ques from the Enterprise D, in particular, more curved engine pylons. The problem I see is that she seems over complicated—her engines, for example, feature lots of extra layers and components. I found myself missing the simplicity of the first two designs.
In the next installment, I’m going to go through the sequel ships of Star Wars. These fared quite well in the original trilogy, but not so much in the recent movies. If you’ve noticed a pattern in my analysis, you are quite correct.
See you next time!