Question for Steve Neill:
Like many people on RPF, I DID like the last Star Trek (2009) film but I had reservations about the art design.
I felt that the new Enterprise design was out of balance and disproportionate. Furthermore, it looked more like an attempt to do a redesign of the TMP Enterprise versus the original 1960s version.
I took a look at Jason Ware's 1/175 scale Refit model and it got me to thinking... IF you're going to blatantly design an Enterprise based on the Refit, wouldn't it have been better to just go back to Matt Jefferies' plans for the Phase II Enterprise, rip off the rectangular nacelles on that one, and graft on cylindrical nacelles and the main deflector dish from TOS Enterprise? It certainly would have been more respectful to both the TOS Enterprise and Matt Jefferies in particular (IMHO).
(SIDENOTE: One thing I liked better about the Refit was the detail on the pylons. I felt that the Phase II design's abrupt 'cut' in the aft section of the pylons just before they graft onto the nacelles didn't look good. I liked the fact that the Refit detail enhancers/designers/artists/modellers continued the connection instead of cutting it. That detail of the Refit is about the only thing I would have liked to have seen on the Phase II ship. At least the Phase II ship reused the TOS saucer, albeit at a slightly increased diameter.)
I have to admit one basic thing always bugged me about TOS Enterprise. I never could understand how those pylons could support those long nacelles. They always seem a bit too thin and looked weak. If anything, I've preferred the sweepback of the Refit's nacelle pylons (greater sense of speed -- I know it doesn't make sense, but a lot of stuff in Trek was done for drama's sake at the expense of scientific accuracy!) as well as the positioning of the (new) nacelle pylons closer to the dorsal neck of the Refit. There was nothing majorly bad about the TOS Enterprise but the Refit always seemed a bit better balanced engine wise with a slight proportional improvement with the increased diameter of the saucer.
Getting off those quibbles, it's been real obvious to me for several years (even before I saw the HD-Remastered Star Trek episodes) that the original TOS Enterprise looks very good with the Aztec paint job and better lighting that wasn't available in the 1960s. It disturbed me to read that production personnel on the last film felt the original TOS Enterprise was "too static" and lacked dynamism. I just wondered if I had seen the same show they did!
As controversial as the Remastered Star Trek was, it proved to me the original design STILL works and that the main problem a lot of us had with the original series was all the stock footage that got reused time and time. Also, there were many implied space battles but just no budget to do them in the '60s. The great thing with the Blu ray sets is that we still get the original versions of the episodes if for whatever you can't stomach the new CGI sequences.
Sorry about this rambling post, but I felt I had to write 'long' to make sure I made all the points I wanted to...
