Fix the NX class

[McAvoy]

We all know the NX class is a direct ripoff of the Akira class. Now if you had a chance before the show started to fix the Akiraprise how would you do it? Let's not talk about what is inside the ship, the characters or anything else. Just the look of the ship. You have to keep the look of it, as in don't make it a Deadalus class or change the name or whatever. It still has to have the basic look of the NX class we know.

I for one, would like to see that square shaped 'platform' on the top part of the ship either removed or extended to the deflector dish so it would encase it (and then wided the dish itself). Or that platform could be forward facing heavy beam cannons coming from the opening. Kinda of like a hard hitting prototype weapon. I would also like to see the polarized hull plating. Sort of projectors in the shape of the grid, so you can see that not everything is yet internal. I would lengthen the nacelles by ten or more meters.

[Graham Kennedy]

Something that looked a lot more like the Conestoga.

[McAvoy]

With a saucer?

Anyway, I meant you have to keep the basic shape of the NX class.

...Now i think I will mess with the Conestoga with a saucer...

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

Keep the basic shape and... TOS the exterior?

[Jim]

Something that looked a lot more like the Conestoga.

I agree. i do not think that going strainght to the saucer shape is logical. No other race uses the saucer shape so I think that that is a design that would have developed, not one that would have been started with.

[Graham Kennedy]

I wouldn't have had a saucer at all. Would be a good way to distinguish it from later ships.

[Tiberius]

We all know the NX class is a direct ripoff of the Akira class.

We all know that modern kayaks are rip offs of the canoes that have been used for centuries.

Honestly, I don't see that the Akira class having the same basic hull shape as the NX class is a problem.

[Mikey]

We all know the NX class is a direct ripoff of the Akira class.

We all know that modern kayaks are rip offs of the canoes that have been used for centuries.

Honestly, I don't see that the Akira class having the same basic hull shape as the NX class is a problem.

It's only problem in that if we look at the NX as a point in the design evolution that later created the Akira class, we have to completely ignore all the ships in between which began and evolved a design aesthetic quite different to that of those two widely separated classes. In other words, we'd have to assume that we started with the NX, went to the Daedalus and thence to all the primary/saucer type designs that then came and were refined for centuries, then decided all of a sudden to revert to a design style that hadn't even been considered for centuries.

[Jim]

I wouldn't have had a saucer at all. Would be a good way to distinguish it from later ships.

Agree. Potentially the saucer would be developed later as they want more ship volume and realize that fillinf the inside of the warp bubble allows for the smallest warp bubble but mose ship volume. However, that would not be in the early designs, that would be later.

[McAvoy]

We all know the NX class is a direct ripoff of the Akira class.

We all know that modern kayaks are rip offs of the canoes that have been used for centuries.

Honestly, I don't see that the Akira class having the same basic hull shape as the NX class is a problem.

No... It would be the other way around. Canoes ripped off modern kayaks. The Akiraprise is a direct ripoff of Akira even with same features that in some cases make no sense at all. If the NX class vaguely resembled the Akira class with the basic design then there wouldn't have been much of an issue.

Yes, it was a ripoff.

[Atekimogus]

I "would" keep the basic shape, if that's what they really wanted...HOWEVER I would change every major system to make it look more dated.

For example the deflector dish. It is much to small imho. It's the beginning of warp-travel for humanity, yet they manage to produce a deflector dish which seems just as small and efficient as everything which comes after? No way, this ship needs a huge ass deflector dish, probably as wide and tall as the whole ship is.

Secondly, make the warp nacelles MUCH larger and move the whole warp drive into the nacelles. It was basically the first idea for the orignial enterprise that those things are "power units" so it makes sense that those early warpdrives are so ineffecient, that each nacelle needs it's only little warp reactor to function, also the lack of a dedicated engineering hull could be explained that way.

Use the room gained by moving the warp drive into the nacelle sections for a proper shuttle bay. This is a ship which operates mostly without transporter technology. It would make sense that they have more than two super-small shuttles. They should have a proper shuttle bay with shuttles the size seen in Star trek 11. Proper troop and cargo transports, maybe even able to transport some sort of "moon buggy" to the planets they are supposed to visit and explore. (remember, no transporter...)

Make then the shuttle bay have a rugged, used and industrial look like the one seen on the Kelvin, that was great imho, a far cry from the sterile and clean enviroment of later ships.

[Tiberius]

We all know the NX class is a direct ripoff of the Akira class.

We all know that modern kayaks are rip offs of the canoes that have been used for centuries.

Honestly, I don't see that the Akira class having the same basic hull shape as the NX class is a problem.

It's only problem in that if we look at the NX as a point in the design evolution that later created the Akira class, we have to completely ignore all the ships in between which began and evolved a design aesthetic quite different to that of those two widely separated classes. In other words, we'd have to assume that we started with the NX, went to the Daedalus and thence to all the primary/saucer type designs that then came and were refined for centuries, then decided all of a sudden to revert to a design style that hadn't even been considered for centuries.

First of all, who's to say that there weren't ships that bore a resemblance to the NX class all through the ages?

Second, if we are looking at a space vessel that is designed for a certain function, why not use a layout that has been proven to work? After all, we have the "Saucer on top of a neck, with a cylindrical secondary hull, then some pylons with warp nacelle" design that has worked. You don't have a problem with Starfleet using that layout for a few centuries, so why do you have a problem when they use the "saucer with booms coming out the back that have warp nacelles connected to them"?

No... It would be the other way around. Canoes ripped off modern kayaks. The Akiraprise is a direct ripoff of Akira even with same features that in some cases make no sense at all. If the NX class vaguely resembled the Akira class with the basic design then there wouldn't have been much of an issue.

Yes, it was a ripoff.

Some features that make no sense... You do realise that you are talking about a FICTIONAL spaceship in which any and all features make sense as soon as they show says they do?

[Griffin]

First of all, who's to say that there weren't ships that bore a resemblance to the NX class all through the ages?

So why haven't we seen any? Absence of evidence and all that.

Second, if we are looking at a space vessel that is designed for a certain function, why not use a layout that has been proven to work? After all, we have the "Saucer on top of a neck, with a cylindrical secondary hull, then some pylons with warp nacelle" design that has worked. You don't have a problem with Starfleet using that layout for a few centuries, so why do you have a problem when they use the "saucer with booms coming out the back that have warp nacelles connected to them"?

Because if the "saucer with booms coming out the back that have warp nacelles connected to them" was any better than "Saucer on top of a neck, with a cylindrical secondary hull, then some pylons with warp nacelle" then "Saucer on top of a neck, with a cylindrical secondary hull, then some pylons with warp nacelle" wouldn't have become the norm. And if "Saucer on top of a neck, with a cylindrical secondary hull, then some pylons with warp nacelle" is better why would they change that for the Akira when "saucer with booms coming out the back that have warp nacelles connected to them" is inferior?

Some features that make no sense... You do realise that you are talking about a FICTIONAL spaceship in which any and all features make sense as soon as they show says they do?

That's only the case if it doesn't contradict anything already established by the canon.

[Mikey]

First of all, who's to say that there weren't ships that bore a resemblance to the NX class all through the ages?

Four series and a bunch of movies, all of which were produced prior but set subsequently to ENT, are who's to say that precise thing.

Second, if we are looking at a space vessel that is designed for a certain function, why not use a layout that has been proven to work? After all, we have the "Saucer on top of a neck, with a cylindrical secondary hull, then some pylons with warp nacelle" design that has worked. You don't have a problem with Starfleet using that layout for a few centuries, so why do you have a problem when they use the "saucer with booms coming out the back that have warp nacelles connected to them"?

You're arguing against yourself. What I am a proponent of is that Starfleet DOES stick with a design that's been proven to work. As you mention they've stuck with the saucer/secondary/nacelles arrangement for so long, and continued to refine that same basic design aesthetic, that we can't help but assume that it's in general the design that works and has won over Starfleet in a big way. Now, I don't have a problem if they then go ahead and design the Akira-class, based on some innovation and promising theoretical testing; the problem I have is that they went ahead and designed a precursor to all those centuries of saucer/secondary/nacelle ships - one which was supposedly successful enough to be the true progenitor of all those ships - which isn't built like a precursor and progenitor of those ships. In other words, I don't have a problem with the design of the NX of itself, which you'd know if you'd read what I wrote - but there is a HUGE problem with it being the design for the NX' given place in the history of human (and later Starfleet) spaceship design.

Some features that make no sense... You do realise that you are talking about a FICTIONAL spaceship in which any and all features make sense as soon as they show says they do?

Then none of us have anything to talk about, ever. Don't be ridiculous, we're obviously all talking about how things make sense within the framework of the show. Believe you me, I can pretty safely bet that McAvoy isn't walking around with his head tilted upward because he expects to see a Constitution-class starship hurtle through the sky. But if certain paradigms are established in the show - even ones that are nonsensical in the real world - it is eminently reasonable to discuss whether issues from other parts of the franchise "make sense" according to those previously-established paradigms. To say otherwise is dishonest debating.

[Tinadrin Chelnor]

Because if the "saucer with booms coming out the back that have warp nacelles connected to them" was any better than "Saucer on top of a neck, with a cylindrical secondary hull, then some pylons with warp nacelle" then "Saucer on top of a neck, with a cylindrical secondary hull, then some pylons with warp nacelle" wouldn't have become the norm. And if "Saucer on top of a neck, with a cylindrical secondary hull, then some pylons with warp nacelle" is better why would they change that for the Akira when "saucer with booms coming out the back that have warp nacelles connected to them" is inferior?

Why would you do that to my head

But I agree with the NX "Akira-isation" being a daft design. I guess they were feeling less than imaginative. Though, to be fair, Star Trek does have a knack for reusing ship designs a lot, even with races that are quadrants apart.