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Do you prefer the hulking majesty of a Galaxy class, the sleek curves of an Intrepid class, the retro-futuristic Constitution or something else?

I've grown quite fond of the Danube class runabout. Small, agile, warp capable, and weapons. Most of the amenities of a larger ship in a smaller package. Where the large ships are like flying cities, the runabouts are more like space RVs and the quadrant their open road. There's just something more personal about them that appeals to me.

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[–] MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Absolutely loved the design of the Enterprise D at the time. And still do.

Loved the Enterprise E when it came out in the movies.

Also quite fond of pre-Burn Discovery’s "retro-futuristic Art Deco" style. *

And DS9.

Not yet a fan of the new ships in Academy; it’s like they were made without much thought of function, but made only to look more alien.

(*) fixed my terminology

[–] Kirk@startrek.website 7 points 1 day ago

Also quite fond of pre-Burn Discovery’s “retro-futuristic Art Deco” style.

There are dozens of us!

[–] IcedRaktajino@startrek.website 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Also quite fond of pre-Burn Discovery’s "retro Art Deco" style.

I almost added "retro Art Deco of the Crossfield class" to my examples but wasn't 100% sure that was right. Thanks for confirming lol. But definitely love the style of it.

And yeah, I'm still warming up to the detached nacelles of the ~~31st~~ 32nd century ships. I'm assuming it makes sense in-universe, but my brain is still trying to figure out how.

[–] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I’m assuming it makes sense in-universe, but my brain is still trying to figure out how.

In "Scavengers", right after Discovery gets her refit, Saru says, "even her nacelles are now detached, improving maneuverability and enabling us to be more efficient in flight."

I found this pretty puzzling, but it eventually dawned on me that the explanation is probably seen most clearly with Book's ship. There are a few times when we see his ship rearrange itself on the fly to navigate the many, many debris fields present in the post-Burn galaxy - it looks like the detached bits let them dodge debris without actually changing their course or speed.

We do get a glimpse of Discovery doing something similar late in season 5, when they ram their way into the Breen dreadnaught - the nacelles tuck themselves up and behind the saucer, reducing the ship's profile.

USS Discovery ramming a Breen dreadnaught's shuttle bay, with her warp nacelles tucked up and behind her saucer section.

[–] IcedRaktajino@startrek.website 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Good catch. I knew Book's ship did the fancy, in-flight reconfiguration but never caught the Discovery refit using similar capabilities. Guess it was a subtle thing I just missed.

Edit: The other "how" I'm still struggling with is how the detached nacelles receive the warp plasma from the core. Is it more efficient to just do a continuous transport of warp plasma? Are there many, distributed warp reactors in each nacelle/throughout the ship? I long for the technical manuals on these newer models lol.

[–] ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I don't have a satisfying answer for that one - wireless power transfer is NBD in the TNG era, so maybe it's just an extreme version of that?

Reno once had a line about replacing the warp plasma conduits with "polaric" ones, so maybe they don't use plasma at all?

But the Athena seems to, so 🤷

maybe they don't use plasma at all?

Never even thought of that. There was a lot of dialog and plot points about finding alternatives to warp after the Burn, and we know they still use dilithium as a regulator, so I assumed they're still using the same M/A reaction as before. But it's very possible they extract the energy from the reaction in completely novel ways now.

Was just assuming the same way as we've always known because (checks notes) the nacelles still light up blue lol.

[–] MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

retro art deco

I’m no expert though that’s how it appears to me, though I just realized I should have written: "retro-futuristic art deco"…

The detached nacelles, I can somehow live with it, but those weird curves and lack of windows on most new ships are just too off for my brain… it’s like they were made only in CGI with no physical models were ever made, which feels kinda "wrong" and unpractical… as an example, comparing the Enterprise D in Picard season 3, vs in the series and movies. As much as they try, it’s just not the same.

However, the new Academy ship feels mostly okay with me—aside from the Atrium protruding under, which feels is missing something

[–] IcedRaktajino@startrek.website 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm not versed in the arts, but going by this definition of art deco:

the principle that various simple geometric shapes like triangles and squares are the basis of all compositional arrangements.

[–] MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 day ago

That closely fits within the definition.