All I can do is tell you what I see. Feel free to agree or disagree. If someone tasked me with professionally remaking the TOS Enterprise that existed in the “prequal” years leading up to TMP but to also update the look for 2009, I guarantee you it would look fairly similar to what JJ and company did. Why? Because I see the design process in the new ship (with a few other influences too).

I would start with setting the TOS and TMP Enterprises side by side (just like the photo given here) and mesh the best parts of those ships together in a number of different “permutations.” You want both ships to influence the new ship not only to synch with the “timeline” and Star Trek tradition but also for familiarity to the fans. Obviously, they couldn’t possibly reach a consensus through polling the fan base as evident by the completely different reactions posted on all these sites. Enterprise would be grounded on the artboard forever.

Individually, I see the TOS ship primarily in the bussards (the nacelle fronts) and the fact that the deflector dish protrudes forward unprotected. I see the TMP ship in the saucer rim, the neck and body and the color choices. The saucer section looks to be an equal meld of both. I would think most people would agree that those are where the basis of each element comes from and it is a good mix to begin with.

That just leaves the nacelles, which to me have always been the most weakly designed elements of any Enterprise and is clearly the most maligned feature in the new one. Here is where JJ and crew took the boldest step in upgrading the look and made some really smart design decisions in my humble opinion. If you look at the new ship in a sideways still shot, I grant you the nacelles look heavy. But this is a 3D motion picture we’re talking about. The ship has to look good in motion and look good at all various odd angles. So why did they make the nacelles so big? Believe it or not, balance.

On previous Enterprise iterations, The nacelles have always looked a bit neglected or undersized in capability when compared to the rest of the ship. Now, they look like serious pieces of machinery that actually belong on a hard-working starship. Besides, when is she ever going to be subjected to a side shot in the movie. Think about it. Side scrolling shots are pretty much a thing of the past (think of the old black and white serials now cheesy in comparison) unless you’re doing a closeup to emphasize the scale of the ship. But in that case you’re usually not looking at the whole, you’re only looking at the part being focused on.

So she’s well proportioned now which is crucial to making great shots, something they surely learned from Enterprise D, where photographers lamented her difficult proportions and unfriendly camera angles. They can’t afford unfriendly camera angles when the camera is flying wildly all around the ship now. I also think they shifted away from the sideways design in a bit more favor of the ship’s front view. Those big nacelles make a beautiful triangular symmetry with the deflector dish when viewed from the front. But as they are further away from the camera, they had to be enlarged to create this symmetry. Some of the best and most memorable shots in this movie are of Enterprise approaching head on, point being that the nacelles work in favor of the ship’s design now instead of against it.

That just leaves the updating. Look at cars today. Look at modern office buildings and architecture. Look at simple household appliances. Curves are in again. Again? Yes. Someone mentioned it earlier, 50’s and 60’s auto design. Remember how boxy 70’s and 80’s designs were until becoming increasingly curvier with the advent of vector design and manufacturing that began to proliferate at the turn of the millennium? Design preference come full cycle. Curves in the 60’s, curves in 2009. They’d have been flat stupid to update the new Enterprise any other way. Not to mention it ties nicely into the scene earlier in the film. Jim Kirk’s ride…Jim Kirk’s ship.

Personally, I think the ship is a considerate, well-planned and vastly improved design. My thanks to JJ on a brilliant job well done!

after seeing the film and the ship in action I have this to say about it:

personally if they redid the skin color to match the kelvin, moved the neck closer to the deflector dish, just a little closer than it was on the tmp.

Moved the engines about 15% further down and the pylons about 5% down and a little further out and thicker at the top where it connects and redid the impulse engines to be closer to the tos one I’d say its perfect,

and I’m amazed that they remebered where the aft torpedo launchers we’re supposed to be and maximized the space used in the shuttle bay, to me its not ugly it just needs a little rebalancing and a new paint job

atleast it didn’t look like this
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/akiraprise/nx-01-john.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/enterprise_design_comment.htm&h=837&w=675&sz=58&tbnid=_sJpr7DFcPZWXM::&tbnh=144&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnx%2B01&hl=en&usg=__bkjQh7ZyB9jrxQI7ytTN2-Iiesc=&ei=rKwOSp_hI4yMtgeZhJSMCA&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=2&ct=image

or this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Enterprise_NX-01.jpg

How can you call this a remake of the original when almost nothing of the original is there, oh, theres a few names and thats about it. This is Star Trek 2009 not the TOS and not never will be.The (so-called ) film makers will make back their money and its be number 1 for a while, and a classic will have passed away, replaced by this.

Nothing of them remembering what the original Enterpise looked like or what Star Trek was about. To them a classic means nothing. In my heart
I will remember my Star Trek and leave you children to your Star Trek and hope you will fine it has much fan as I found mine.

I wish it looked more like Koerner’s design…Hey, maybe in an alternate time line?

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Abrams and his cronies have STOLEN Star Trek, and RUINED IT.

In the 60’s big glowing buttons seemed futuristic and the Klingons symbolized the Russians. In the 80s we were given TNG and a slew of different looking ships, uniforms, etc. Then we had Enterprise which had an obvious leap in perception of the future when compared to the TOS ship that would come in the show’s “future”.

Now it’s nearly 2010 and they’re looking to reboot the franchise.

Of course the ship will look different. Our vision of the future has changed. Those who cling to the ship designs of 40 years ago as a means to bash the look of this version are, in my opinion, violating the very spirit of Star Trek. The franchise is suppose to mature as our perception of the future matures.

I think we should all take a step back and be thankful that through the decades the Enterprise has always retained as much of its original look as it has. Sure the details change, the proportions change. But when I look at this ship I still think “Enterprise”. And I think it will serve a new generation of actors and fans nicely.