Starship Design and Evolution Across Star Trek

Hello and welcome to another edition of future

imperfect. I'm your host Steve Megatron Phillips

and joining me is that sci -fi guy Leo Thompson

Hello and followed by his cohort Nick Yep, Nick,

right? I am the artist of Peach which is on the

idle state comm I also help with the writing

and do the art for that sci -fi guy Which you

did very awesome art for the future imperfect

posting over there by the way. Thank you Hopefully

I represented you well. Yes. Yes you did excellent.

So The focus of this week's episode and Unfortunately,

Dodd could not be here with us due to weather

conditions and possible power outages darn that

nature Yes, damn you nature He shouldn't have

gone to the South Pole, I told him, but he just

went anyway, so. Yeah, he was a free trip. Yeah,

can't turn that down. He can't turn down free.

So, yes, with that, this week we will be talking

about the ships of Star Trek. So, I guess we

should break it down to as far as by which grouping.

of ships, meaning Federation, Klingon, Borg,

Romulan, Cardassian. Yeah, this was not as clear

cut as the old Captain's thing. Yeah, I was wondering.

Ah, that's true. Yeah. See, I don't think it

was as well thought out as it could have been.

However, we're going to roll with it. All right.

We'll do it live. Yes, we'll do it live. We'll

do it now. So I think that we should just cover

the Federation at least initially. Since they

have the broadest variety of Starships Right,

right So so with that What do you guys thoughts

on? How the technology of the Starships changed

between the the various series? We were Definitely

saw an evolution of it. I mean There like in

the the original series there seemed to be a

lot more They had the replicators but it seemed

like there was more cooking am I wrong am I wrong

in thinking that I don't think they had the applicators

yet I mean in the that was seemed like a next

-generation. Oh, wow. Check it out We can actually

do the effects for this now. So let's have it

Yeah, but I mean they had like a thing they slid

the door on I don't guess I was ever They may

have explained whether or not it was just like

materialized because there was all the tribbles

and things like they're in the equipment All

right It was yeah, they we see they they they

did have some pretty Basic replicators at the

time. I kind of like how they they shot out of

the wall Yeah, where is later on they actually

appear before you So it was more like a vending

machine, yeah, it was it was it was an automat

Yeah, it was definitely more like a vending machine

in that sense. Mm -hmm as far as The Starship

designs are concerned. I noticed in the the original

series that most of them are Basically the enterprise

tore apart and reconfigured in different Fashions

more or less. It was pretty pathetic to say the

least I mean, I know they got more creative as

they got more funding more creative in the movies,

too Oh, yeah, and that definitely gave them more

budget to play around with that and have industrial

light music Play around with that. Yeah So I

Guess what what are some of your favorite class

starships? from the Federation well, I mean if

you saw my Five and five on sci -fi vehicles,

you know, I gave my rule is like one vehicle

per franchise So I went to track my my favorite

track vehicle to still be defiant Okay, and these

days none yeah, and that is the class so it's

kind of a It is a mighty fine class to say the

least Bored crushers and all Did either of you

guys play Trade Wars 2002 back in the day on

the old BBS? The Defiant reminds me of a ship

on there that was called the Scout Marauder.

And it was basically twice as powerful as any

other ship, but it could only hold a certain

amount of weaponry to translate to Star Trek,

because that game was kind of a cross between

Star Wars and Star Trek. But that always kind

of reminded me of that. It's just light, quick,

powerful. Don't want to mess with it in general

if you can avoid it. And various kind of new

experimental things on it too. Which we've been

looking into the ablative armor lately since

we finally managed to get Leo through the entirety

of Star Trek Voyager. I still have not watched

the entirety of that show yet. I'm still kind

of skimming through a little at a time. more

so watching favorite episodes and then kind of

going back and watching other episodes. Mostly

because, like I stated last episode, I'm more

of a TOS, TNG fan. I don't have anything against

Voyager or DS9, but those are my two favorites.

I do have to agree with you guys that the Defiant,

I do like that ship as well, even though it's

not your typical Enterprise or anything like

that. I do like the war fashion of that ship

and the heavy artillery and, of course, the cloaking

device, which no other Starfleet vehicle has.

Yeah. So I kind of stole but under fair circumstances,

I'd say. Yeah, it wasn't like the Pegasus where

it got stuck in a rock. Nice But um, yeah, I

like how they they implemented that into that

particular Starship besides Basically doing the

same thing in all good things with the galaxy

class dreadnought That was the one I was gonna

mention. That was that was pretty awesome. That

one stuck with me Yeah, the three nacelle Enterprise

D from all good things. Yeah, that was pretty

cool. There goes warp 13, which I don't It's

not possible. That one, I'm always just going

to remember it coming up and just blowing that

hole through the Klingon bird of prey there.

It just made my heart jump in my chest, and it

still does to this day when I see that. I'd have

to say that's my favorite interpretation of the

Enterprise -D. Oh, yeah. Most definitely. It

would have been cool to see what they could have

done had the Enterprise -D not gotten destroyed.

but that was definitely one of my most favorite

Enterprise or Galaxy class ships. To me that

experience was really cool because it was the

first time you really see Star Trek just come

out guns blazing. It's not really a guns blazing

type franchise, but you see, you know, to put

that much weaponry in it and just kind of blow

everybody out of the water, that was one of the

best parts of the finale, definitely. So Roddenberry

had already passed by that point, hadn't he?

Yeah. Yeah. Imagine that. I think he passed like

a year or two before that episode. So yeah, I

don't think it would have quite happened the

same way had he been around to pilot the Star

Trek franchise. They had access to a whole new

bag of tricks. Yes. Rick Berman. Yeah, Rick Berman

totally tore this down. Not to sit here and bash

him, but he kind of just went down a rat hole

real quick. Which, you know, we'll talk about

the future of Trek TV later on in a future episode.

But I would have to say that one of my favorite

class starships is the Constitution class. Albeit

the original was not my favorite, I liked the

retrofitted version. from the film franchise

Gotcha. Yeah, that was very nice clean looking

shit Yeah, I liked how streamlined it looked

the new colors the new designs Although the the

bridge designs that they used for every single

film was different Yeah Right. Yeah, I guess

that could be explained away with you know You're

upgrading new technology on the inside probably

faster than your overall whole design. You know,

that basic ship's still gonna be in use for a

little while. Yeah. It's got new carpeting. Yes,

new carpeting. Well it's like in Star Trek IV

you get the brand new Enterprise A and then in

Star Trek V it's totally different and there's

parts broken everywhere and they're like oh it's

a piece of junk and then Star Trek VI it's completely

different again. It's like we had to retrofit

the garbage part and uh yeah. Retrofit all the

things. And speaking of Constitution class starships

we'll be jumping over to the Elkar segment. We'll

be back after this. This computer terminal provides

full access to the L -CARS computer net. It can

be operated both by voice and keypad commands.

Initiating update. Hello, and welcome to another

edition of L -CARS. I'm your host, Steve Megatron

Phillips, and today, being that our discussion

on the main show is Starships, figured I would

cover the ship which it's been featured pretty

heavily mostly in the original series in those

films but it's it's popped up from time to time

throughout the other franchises that would be

the Constitution class starship which is a class

one heavy cruiser It was the premier front line

Starfleet vessel in the later half of the 23rd

century. They were designed for long duration

missions with minimal outside support and are

best known for their celebrated missions of galactic

exploration and diplomacy which typically lasted

up to five years. The Constitution Class lineage

was launched sometime prior to 2245 and served

as Starfleet's frontline vessels for the rest

of the century. The Constitution Class also served

as a mighty deterrent to both the Klingon Empire

and the Romulan Star Empire, several times taking

part in combat actions which determined the fate

of the entire Federation, if not the Alpha Quadrant

itself. In 2267, there were around 12 Constitution

Class Starships in the fleet. the USS Constellation,

the Defiant, the Enterprise, the Excalibur, the

Exeter, the Hood, the Intrepid, the Lexington,

and the Pot - Potemkin. But, however, the most

famous starship of the Constitution class was

the USS Enterprise. In the late 2260s to early

2270s, the Constitution Class Starship underwent

their final major refit program. The actual refitting

took 18 months of work and essentially a new

vessel was built onto the bones of the old, replacing

virtually every major system. Thus, the Constitution

Class continued in service for further 20 years.

Some of the most noticeable changes in the Constitution

Class Starships were, of course, their bridge

configurations, which... It's been changed numerous

times over the duration of Star Trek the original

series The animated series and of course every

motion picture therein until its final debut

in Star Trek 6 the undiscovered country So with

that I send it back to the guys on future imperfect.

Please confirm deactivation request Deactivation

complete now disconnected from this terminal

So there you have my in -depth report on the

Constitution class starships Just a quick reminder

this show is sponsored by Starfleet the largest

online Star Trek fan club, which you can visit

at SFI .org Unfortunately the from the replicator

segment is well offline as Birdman has fallen

into the great Bajoran wormhole and is lost to

us and an And to make things worse, he left the

holodeck running. So that's also why we have

no from the replicator. He killed the damn power!

Tell him to run a level five diagnostic. Yes,

level five diagnostic. Do it, Data. Do it. Or

EMA, EMH. Take your pick. Do it. Yes. So we've

talked a little bit about Starfleet. So I guess

we should probably jump into... I guess maybe

the Klingons since they pretty much had one of

the earliest exposures in Star Trek. Yeah, that

D7 class in the early series. Not a lot of detail

to that one. No, that one's pretty straightforward

and unfortunately they kept using it. They sure

did. That is one ship design that they used.

throughout the entirety of Star Trek. Yeah, they

used it pretty close to the towards the end of

Voyager. They found a D7 class ship that had

been left generations ago. It looks like a manual

transmission gear shift. Just pick it up by the

head. You can go to second, third. Make sure

you double clutch. There's always been a little

bit of weirdness between the... Klingon and the

Romulan stuff because you know the the Klingon

ships were the Bert Bert of prey right in the

Romulan tour the war birds and at some point

the Klingon ship that was designed for I think

undiscovered country around that area you know

when they whatever class Klingon ship that was

was it the Katinga class the Kronos one Possibly

here. Let me see. It's the one gorkin was not

the fire when cloaked bird of prey Right. I mean

they they continued to like I think that ship

was originally designed as being like a Romulan

thing and which is why I had the bird markings

on it like the other Romulan warbirds But they

decided to make it cling on and I don't know.

There's a lot of weird. I tried to look it up

And I was really confused by it all so and I

guess there was a basically what people theorize

is that the Klingons and the Romulans at some

point Were allies and shared some technology

so there's influences of each other ships design

and or they birth both really liked birds That

could be to the line between the line between

the war birds and the birds of prey really got

Muddled quite a bit, especially in the broken

bow broken bow. Excuse me first episode of Enterprise

They they actually you know, they screwed up

and they called the Klingon ship a war bird And

I think Manny Cotto admitted to it later on.

I was like, yeah, yeah, we didn't mean to do

that. Sorry. But it's easy to get them mixed

up. I mean, I was always getting them mixed up

in my head as I was growing up watching this

stuff. Like I said, the more that I've tried

to look into it, the more confused I get. Yeah,

it's very hard to differentiate all the different

ships as far as early on because they just, I

think they were also because of the budget, they

just didn't It gave them an easy out. Yeah, but

yeah, I would assume that at some point before

Kirk's time they must have treated technology

and then Diverted from there That seems like

the most logical explanation. We'll go with that.

Yes And then of course, you know, you have the

the first ever Well, you had the the bird of

prey previously in in the film franchise. I believe

starting with Star Trek III, the search for Spock.

Right. You had the first Bird of Prey, which

I love that design. It's a nice little 12 -person

ship, but I really loved it when they got it

to the point where it could fire when cloaked.

Yeah. That was by far my favorite moment. Of

course, I love Star Trek 6 anyhow, but that was

just really cool how they managed to implement

that and change how the Klingons were able to

attack without being caught. They were no longer

like predators. No, no longer. They can just

squeeze on by and nobody knows. Lame it on their

cousin except for that What are that? Well, what

do they use? Disruptor no, they don't use disruptors

for the ship. They use photon torpedoes or something.

Yes Yes, they they they did and then I it was

great. Where did that photon torpedo come from?

Yes, it shows it was shot from us but um the

cause coming from inside the ship Open debit

open anyways bad transformers, but uh I I like

how they Were able to figure that out by the

plasma exhaust Yeah, and then send the the magic

torpedo that was doctored up directly at it which

how you could do this and not prevent one torpedo

from destroying you is beyond me, but It's it's

a movie so but yes then later on they of course

got the more powerful class of starship yeah

they definitely you definitely saw some evolution

in the klingon technology and it definitely all

kind of i like that they did keep a you know

there are certain variations from you know like

shuttles and smaller things and whatnot but like

for the most part they do kind of keep a similar

Overall design kind of a long neck and you know

the wings and Yeah, and and I like how they they

eventually evolved it Into Trying to think of

the name of the ship Damn it's it's like the

d7. However, it's the I want to say it's the

vulture class Yeah, that's it. Yeah That's like

an updated version of that d7 or the Kronos one

basically Yeah for TNG era and I really like

that. I actually had the Model of that back in

the day and I think that's a really nice update

of that design You know in the enterprise that

actually even went in Went backwards and made

a d4 and d5 class. Oh, that's cool Just you know

kind of same idea I'm glad Steve knows the TOS

stuff because yeah, I don't think yeah We've

seen episodes here and there but I've seen I've

seen probably a bit more than you because you

know I've owned the DVDs and I've been going

through See, I don't own the DVDs, but I have

this wonderful thing called Netflix. Yeah. Yeah

No, yeah, we live in the future and that's yes

in the future when we don't have to own them

I have it on DVD and on blu -ray you still have

physical media you and your discs and I don't

use them when I go to watch it what do I use

Netflix unless you're reviewing something then

you have to use and then I go get it so I can

actually I do like the I can't find the name

of the damn ship but it's the one from balance

of terror and it's the actual first Romulan ship.

Yeah. Which, you know, has that bird kind of

design. Yeah, that bird painting on it. Which,

actually, it's kind of reminiscent of the, almost

of the underside of the Daedric's class Romulan

Warbird and TNG. Sorry. Go ahead. Oh, I'm sorry.

If you just take the bottom of it, though, it

kind of looks like that ship. I've seen that

referred to as a bird of prey. A Romulan bird

of prey. That could very well be. Yes, it actually

is. I just found it. I wasn't a huge fan of the

Romulans back in the day, like their ship designs.

I still favor the Klingons, and I believe I still

do up through the TNG era, however. Once they

got that big war bird. The TNG warbirds like

that thing is a beast and that's a that's I mean,

I don't know Sometimes some people just didn't

think it didn't look all that great. But I mean

it was it was huge It was like twice the size

of the Enterprise and I know it dwarfed it and

is powered by a singularity Like they're they're

insanely powerful. Oh Yeah, and they're And they

actually do look like a bird in a sense Yeah,

like a like a bird of prey like a hawk or an

eagle or something. Yeah, they're pretty nasty

and it's almost like they took the the classic

Romulan bird of prey and Slapped it underneath

and then took one of the Klingon bird of praise

and slapped it on top If you look at it like

that, it almost looks like that I could see that

Yeah, and I have to say that's one of my favorite

ships out of the the Romulans up until you get

to as Bad as Star Trek nemesis was they did have

some cool ship designs. Yeah I mean the nemesis

was I mean the first time that you really got

to see a lot of good Romulan stuff, which is

I Always crave I like the Romulans Yeah, I I

do believe like the the TNG Romulans were way

better than Future Romulans. Yeah. Yeah They

just or past Romulans I should say Both in ship

design and technology and as far as their there

were like Get up that they had So I think we'll

switch gears again over to another race which

is the Borg yeah very Simple and efficient Yes,

simple efficient and probably cheap to manufacture

on screen Which would explain why that they're

all either spheres or cubes or diamonds Yes,

every time I go a diamond shape you mean a cube

on its side Yeah, oh yeah It was very iconic

seeing the Borg cube for the first time. So to

some extent, I understand why they had to end

up going with spheres and other shapes later

on. But I really think that that was the one

that really hit it and just defined that. And

you only get one chance to make that kind of

impact. Yeah. Yeah. And despite it being a giant

cube or a sphere, the way they made them look

just looks downright creepy and just how they

portray them, it makes you feel little. You have

this entire fleet that cannot defeat a giant

square. That are powered by decorations from

Spencer's. Yeah, I know. That's the first thing

I thought of when I saw that on TNG, which it

probably came before the ones in Spencer's. I

remember walking into those stores and just saying

hey, it's the Borg thing and then people my parents

were like, yeah Yeah, I keep going Because I

was like I want one and they're like, no, I'm

gonna go stand in front of it Which I did Sneak

up when they enter my room. I'm a Borg leave

me alone. But yeah that that that ship is it

is really menacing despite having Spencer's props

for Now where the Spencer's where the Spencer's

perhaps popularized after the Borg or was it

around the same time? I don't know that I Don't

know that for certain that would be kind of an

interesting thing to find out But it's it's definitely

different. I'll give you that it's But they they

probably have the most you know Like you guys

said most menacing out of the the different fleets

that they fought that the Federation's fought

or any other Faction for that matter. I really

like just just walking watching through Voyager

all Seeing that the Borg does kind of have like

even within the cube. It has different classes

of cubes Like the you know, there are some that

are a little bigger and there's like the one

that's like super armor plated That's more of

a you know, I guess like tactical kind of You

know offensive vehicle and I don't know I mean

it makes sense Oh, yeah, and Those are even more

Strange -looking. Yeah, I mean especially like

the other tactical one. They like it was a cube.

It was still a cube it just had more the shield

plating looking stuff, you know, it's I'd like

to see a Borg cube. That's solid So you can't

see the insides like the monolith yes, but This

is really tiny board ship No, that's oh, yeah,

they they had those little tiny ones like the

one that Hugh was on but um, I I think I think

the the scout ship the Sphere is probably the

most cool out of them, even though it only you

know was featured a few small small times. Yeah

and that that sphere ship was part of what kind

of created the The paradox that they introduced

in enterprise Yeah, I definitely like how they

did that I I may not be a huge fan of enterprise

which I've already stated and yes, I haven't

really given it all my a Good college effort.

Yes. I haven't given it an open mind at all just

because I watched a little bit of it and for

one saw quantum leap in there which yeah, that's

kind of a Yeah, that's kind of not opening my

mind fully to it. But also the technology still

looks more modern than TOS. They did try to keep

it, you know, because, you know, they, you know,

they had handheld communicators. It was still

more of a nudge nudge wink wink kind of thing

than it was a natural progression, because I

mean, who wants to really see all the boxy, you

know, brightly colored 60s technology? I mean,

there's definitely a place for that and we saw

that later on when they, you know, I don't want

to spoil anything, but they do encounter a TOS

era ship at some point. But yeah, I think, you

know, and in a lot of ways people consider Enterprise

to have just so much crap happened on that show

that they figured that created its own alternate

timeline, along with the new movie alternate

timeline and everything else. Yeah, I mean, and

it did. I mean, with the example of that board

ship. Right and there's a lot of people who are

like I don't like it near for it's an alternate

timeline, and I don't have to believe it Which

is you know what? That's fine Yeah, and I can

kind of see that to some extent But as much as

I don't like the concept I do believe enterprises

Even in the new new film universe. I believe

it's canon Although the only thing that makes

it somewhat confusing is the fact that the Borg

went to the past and therefore how would they

get to the past if the cards there I never Got

Q so it creates another paradox there in itself,

but I see because because Q originally introduced

the Borg to them in TNG and that's what you know

caused them to I guess come this direction, but

in the enterprise one, you know, they The because

of the events of first contact The Borg sphere

that got blown up is you know recovered and that

alters the timeline Yeah, but then yeah, whatever

we're getting off topic. Yes. So I think we pretty

much covered the Borg. Mm -hmm. So I'm gonna

jump over to The Dominion. Yeah I know that a

lot of people love the ships of DS9 much more,

and the entire Dominion War. You just saw a lot

more of the ships in DS9, especially towards

the end. That's just something that I always

thought was cool. Well, every other episode was

like a Braveheart battle towards the end. Everybody

rushing onto the field. Yeah, and I have to agree

with you guys there I That despite Whether I

liked or disliked DS 9 back in the day I like

it now and I definitely love the fact that there's

so many ships on screen It by far blows away

anything that TNG ever did with the Borg Wolf

359 Yeah with Wolf 359 But there's just no comparison

just because of how huge this war was But the

thing about DS 9 that got both of us in the first

place was Trying to get through that like second

season that really awkward area with the Bojoran

religious politics Once you get past that there's

really cool battles and really neat ships and

stuff Yeah, that's been one of my problems with

that show too the Bojoran politics just get to

me If the show didn't have that I think it would

have been much better and I think it would have

been much more General accepted by the fan base.

Yeah But I mean it the the Dominion ships were

I mean they were pretty cool They were definitely

unique because they had that they were very beetle

looking Yeah, they definitely had a lot of strange

and different designs than what we were used

to And part of it is, you know, they do a pretty

good job of the use of color of kind of letting

you associate certain color schemes with, you

know, which in a space battle and everything's

very dark, you know, it's a good way to do it.

It's kind of glows of light and people's engines

have different colors kind of helps signify.

You know, most of the Federation stuff, at least

in that era, it's a lot of blue. You know, the

Romulans generally had a lot of, I guess the

Romulans and the Klingons kind of had a lot of

green. The super green saturated green and the

Klingons were not as much green Yeah, the olive

green. Yeah, and then the Carnassians had like

a yellowish color kind of yellowish color Yeah,

and the Dominion very much had a lot of purple

Their ships don't look like much to look at them.

Yeah But they definitely had some balls Yeah,

you just have to have the knowledge of what they

can do and then you look at it. It's like, oh,

that's pretty impressive Yeah, and some of them

like You know they I'm not as as familiar with

DS9 as probably you two are But just from what

I'm seeing of it they they almost look like a

mixture of Like some of the features from Cardassian

ships and like ships like the Voyager or the

runabouts Kind of mixed in there a little bit.

I can see what you're saying. Yeah like some

of the same People may have designed them. Yeah,

the same people did design them And yeah, I can

definitely see the debug designs though just

with how they Have the variations of color and

how they're just I mean really from the bottom

like from the top Bet we're all looking at the

same image that Jim Hadar fighter with the purple

bottom and like the two Glowing blue nacelles.

Yep. That's the image. I'm looking at you. Yep.

I mean the bottom of it really has that like

Insect kind of abdomen. Yeah, there's a shell

over it kind of look a carapace And I think it

was also interesting of note the Jim Hadar ships

don't have chairs That for whatever reason they

are genetically engineered to not sit down That

was I think they took over the defiant one episode

and was one of the first orders was to have the

chairs removed All the chairs are moved from

the bridge. Oh That's awesome We're too good

for your Federation chairs Well, you know sitting

for three for more than three hours a day is

bad for you anyway, so that's our that's an evolution

As I recall I had that kind of like villain interior

I think we're I think I saw in a vlog spoonie

has really funny like why is it all the villains

are walking around these poorly lit? Hallways

with lights from the floor Yeah, maybe if I could

read something I would be so mad all the time.

I always look like I'm telling campfire stories

Yes So I Think we can switch gears from just

faction ships over to the ships of either a times

that don't actually exist or such as future imperfect

or The the last episode of Voyager or for instance

the new JJ Abrams Star Trek film Yeah, the one

from the last episode of Voyager does actually

exist, you know, they ended up bringing it back

Yeah, I mean they brought it back and that was

the last thing we saw a Voyager was I mean you

just watched it so Hopefully you might you might

know better than I do I mean the the weird little

shit that Janeway has some sort of ship from

the future Mm -hmm It croaked Right, right. Yeah,

but I mean they brought back technology that

was just Voyager upgraded with future technology.

Yeah, that's right. That's right I mean, yeah,

some of the interesting alternatives Definitely,

you know that new enterprise from the Abrams

Remember watching the trailer for it and seeing

what looked like a turbine and that just kind

of confused me It's like you don't need turbine

and even in the movie. There was a lot of like

Water turbines which in a starship kind of confused

me a little Huh, yeah, I did think that that

was kind of strange how they they manufactured

that That that struck me and so I don't know

maybe maybe the new that JJ Abrams Enterprise

runs on water It's hydroelectric No, what they

do is they transport people in there and grind

them up for You know organic energy. They don't

use dilithium Either that or it's steam powered

I mean mostly that mostly would be a future kind

of stuff because really like as far as like Like

yesterday's Enterprise, that was just from, it

created an alternate timeline, but it wasn't

anything, it was Enterprise C. Which I liked

how they went back and actually showed that ship,

because at that time you'd never seen Enterprise

B or C. That's true. And that was a good nod,

and it had a good look for what you would believe

came in between. Yeah, it fit very logically

between B and D. Well, in this case, between

what we had seen as A and D. The odd thing about

it is that ship almost looks like the Abrams

Enterprise. If you took a side view of both ships,

I'm pretty sure that they'd almost line up. And

then I think when you get into the Mirror Universe

ships, they didn't really... I mean, they looked

a little like... The TOS, you know, the nacelles

had little points and it was different colors,

you know, it wasn't, but ultimately the same

ship, and even on Enterprise when they did their

mirror, you know, the top of the ship had different

war painting on it, basically, you know, like

different, and they re -rendered it from the

upper angles, I think. I don't even think they

bothered to re -render it from the lower angles.

I think any of the lower angle shots were just...

The evil is always from above, right? Yeah, they

don't even below shots unless they're walking

around and they had the campfire look then you

know But they did an enterprise to they showed

the enterprise J or Something like that. Oh,

yeah, and it had a crazy kind of like giant saucer

and skinny body like and it was it's kind of

a weird evolution of the but you can kind of

see it like from the From the way that the D

goes to the E, you can see it kind of going in

that direction. And doing some episode or another,

I actually found somebody drew like schematic

or like an outline drawing of Enterprise E through

J. And like little by little, you know, how it

kind of got to that point. I do like, like in,

for instance, Star Trek Online. they had the

Enterprise F. Yeah. Which was a new class of

ship. And it was kind of based off of, it looks

similar to the Enterprise E, but it was different

enough to be its own thing. Yeah. Well, I mean,

it kind of continues in that style of it getting

more angular and the saucer getting a little

bit more kind of separated from the rest of the

body. Like it used to be back in the olden days

Like 1701 D was actually, you know, the saucer

was pretty darn huge compared to the nacelles

and everything else But I can see like I guess

the the idea is that the technology for the nacelles

Continues to get better just like our cell phones

were for a while there Everybody was bringing

out a new smaller cell phone every year. So yeah

engine compartments and get the actual Mechanics

that drive the ship into a more compact form

and then you have more room for saucer Yeah But

so overall like the the ships As much as many

of them seem to change there are aspects that

keep them very very similar and I I know myself

personally like I I love the just watching the

progression of the enterprises from past to future

Yeah or really any of them, I mean, they've all

got the same kind of evolution line. And some

of them take cues from older ships or they jump

generations and take cues from certain ships.

Yeah, because like the NX -01 on Enterprise,

it looks more like the Akira class as far as

like, have you seen the Akira class on TNG? I

mean, if you look at that side by side with The

NX01, they are really similar. But it's almost

got the TOS nacelles. Well, yeah, and that's

where it's different. Like, you know, it's got

that older kind of TOS looking nacelle and technology.

But as far as its configuration, it looks more

like an Akira than it does, you know, an Enterprise.

That's a good point. Now it looks like they took

the same saucer almost. I thought it looked familiar,

but I couldn't really pinpoint and put my finger

on it at the time. But it almost looks too advanced

for the past. Yeah, that goes back to what you

were commenting on earlier, Steve, with the technology

and enterprise being too good for where it should

be in the chronology. I mean, I understand they

don't want to give it this. So I don't know if

I'd call it too good because I mean they definitely

scaled it back where it's supposed to be you

know they gave it the simpler nacelles and like

the Akira class has the the deflector still kind

of on the bottom of the Of the saucer and you

know, it's kind of your big Starfleet deflector

as we're on like the NX01 their Deflector is

that weird little strip at the front of it, you

know, right? It's definitely they definitely

made it simpler And you and I see where they're

going with going with that design rather than

like the classic kind of Enterprise with the

the body and the sticks is it's a simpler design

You know, it's one less section of body so I

guess that's where they were going with that.

Yeah Which I can definitely appreciate that but

it's still Just overall looks more advanced than

what it actually is Or supposed to be I think

part of that is just because it's The design

was 40 years in the future, and we had HD and

all this other neat stuff. You're not gonna make

a show that looks like crap. No, you're not gonna

make it look like the 60s, obviously. It's the

Enterprise with a Taser in the front. And it

shoots toe lines out. That was always a little

weird. I'm definitely I think gonna have to actually

watch the show so I get some of the references

Just because I'm so I've always been so against

this show I've only watched the episode with

the Borg and then of course the last episode

where it leads into God Yeah, if you watch the

last episode that explains why you hate that

show That almost made me hate the show and I

was loving it up until that point Yeah, so if

that's your first impression for those that are

enterprise haters. I am myself going to go back

and watch it so I actually understand the show

instead of just passing judgment. That's kind

of the beauty of it all being available on Netflix.

I have several friends that have kind of gone

back and even myself, you know, I had it, you

know, I had DVDs, but what did I end up doing

watching on Netflix? Watching through Voyager,

you know, the first handful of seasons actually

watched on DVD and then it all came out on There

because it's really easy to keep track of everything

But yeah, if you haven't seen it and you're a

fan of the series, you know Just you know watch

them watch them slowly, but that's what I'm doing

Yeah, I definitely am like I say gonna have to

try and check this out because Obviously enough

people liked it for it to have gone on as long

as it did and Granted, they may have bumped into

certain aliens sooner than what they were supposed

to, or at least as far as the original timeline.

Yeah, they always make an excuse about it. They

actually ran into the Ferengi at one point, but

they never found out they were called the Ferengi

and they didn't really know much about them.

But yeah, I can definitely see that. very hesitant

on the show, but it's It ships do have a Decent

design enough to and warrant not seeing the 60s

style What's interesting about enterprise too

was you know you're looking at you know pre -federation

Timeline so The Vulcans have their own ships.

It's not just Federation, and that's what we

get with the NX -01. That's true. But we get

to see Vulcan ships, and they have a really unique

ship design. They're kind of these long, pointed

things with a ring around them, and the ring

is the nacelle engine somehow. Right So almost

kind of like the Spock ship from the new Star

Trek movie I Guess kind of I know I read that

there was like a prequel comic to this new Star

Trek movie And supposedly that ship was designed

by Geordi Hmm it's an interesting little for

pay our for issue Set in the next -gen timeline

of spot going back and Huh, I know I read a part

of that comic I just called a countdown or something

like that Yeah, I think I read like the first

one or something when data comes online right

thing I don't know at least according to that

Whatever that the jellyfish or whatever it was

called. Yeah was built by Jordan Maybe he had

a fast. Yeah, maybe he had a fascination with

ancient Vulcan Starships Or maybe he worked with

Spock. Yeah, it does kind of have a I mean not

not the same but you know a similar kind of Feel

to it. It definitely does seem more Vulcan than

it does Geordi Yeah, he may have been the engineer

behind it but Like putting it together, but Spock

may have given him the plunt blueprints of what

he wanted. That's true Fair enough. We'll go

with that. Yeah, that's what we'll go with I

approve Yes, he proves this message so it is

it is canon the gavel has fallen So I guess in

in wrapping up What if you had to choose like

one particular Faction or or timeline for that

matter of starships. What would your your favorite

be? It's kind of a cop -out, but I would say

I would go with the star this Starfleet Galaxy

class to the whole progression between the original

the NX01 through the Enterprise E Okay, I Mean

there's just a lot of variety there and just

a lot of different ways that you see and of course

It's got the most screen time so that's to be

expected Yeah, I could definitely see that Myself,

I would have to also follow the cop -out because

despite the fact that every ship has a different

class type, I do like the varying styles of every

single Enterprise that they've had. Despite my

not caring much for Enterprise, I do have to

give them props that their ship design does look

pretty kick -ass. Yeah, it is a nice looking

ship. Yes, and all the way through to, and the

JM a little kind of iffy on, but that's, I think

I'll have to actually watch the show to kind

of get the gist of that. Yeah, I don't really

go into it. It's just there. Hey, check it out,

and there's an Enterprise, and here's something

else. My favorites overall would be the enterprise

a and and of course the e just because they had

the most Film screen time the e was pretty awesome

as far as like what my favorite enterprise would

be probably The the e was pretty pretty cool,

I mean the e took on the Borg yeah, it took on

that other Skin stretching weird We won't talk

of those people. Yes That's that excuse for a

film. Yeah and then of course branding speed

against Shin's on ship Yeah Well to see another

ship oh well for Troy Yeah, she broke another

one Damn it. Don't let the woman behind the wheel

want want want So yes. So I'd like to thank you

guys for joining us on this episode of Future

Imperfect. Stay tuned for next time when we'll

be talking about the weapons of Trek. So in closing,

I've been Steve Megatron Phillips with Leo Thompson,

that Sci -Fi guy. And Nick Wright. So until next

time. Core setting, Captain. Second star to the

right. And straight on till morning.