Previews Of NX-01 ‘Refit’ from 2011 Ships Of The Line Calendar

For the last decade or so, one of the most anticipated Trek products each year is the Ships of the Line calendar, featuring work from veteran Trek artists, wrangled by Doug Drexler. Last week Doug put up a sneak peak of a special bonus centerfold for this year’s calendar, featuring a tech manual style -look at a couple of the ships in the calendar including a ‘refit’ of the NX-01 from Enterprise, which bridges the gap towards a TOS style.

 
 

NX 01 gets a ‘season 5 refit’

The 2011 Ships of the Line calendar will include a newly designed ‘refit’ of the NX-01 from Star Trek Enterprise, that is being designed by Drexler and Pierre Drolet. Drexler describes it as a "fifth season projection" that ties into the design from the original Star Trek.

Here is a teaser Drexler put up in January.


Click to see full size at Doug’s Blog

In addition to showing off the ship, there will also be centerfold that has a technical design for NX01 refit as well as the XCV-330 ‘ring ship. A description from Doug’s Blog

A SOTL bonus next year will be a tech manual style centerfold featuring a couple of the more unusual additions: the NX-01 refit, and Matt Jefferies revolutionary ringship, the XCV-330. Above is the rough blocking out of the page with spaceholder text. The final image will be fully rendered with tech by Mike Okuda. Mark Rademaker is doing an awesome job fleshing out Matt’s novel design, and we can’t wait to get a look at the final.


Click to see full size at Doug’s Blog

More in SOTL 2011

Over the last couple of months, Doug has also dropped some other updates on the 2011 Ships of the line calendar

  • Tobias Richter will be doing a "original and soulful image" of the new USS Enterprise from the 2009 JJ Abrams movie (see previous article featuring Richter’s work)

  • Andrew Probert is doing a new TNG era Romulan "uber cruiser"

  • Dougles E. Graves is doing a TOS era Enterprise


Previously released desktop from Richter’s new movie Enterprise – he will be making new image for 2011 Ships of the Line calendar

2010 Trek calendars

And if you are still looking for a calendar for 2010, check out review of all three of the official Star Trek calendars, including the Ships of the Line version.

The Ships of the Line 2010 Calendar is out now and can be ordered from Amazon.

 

 

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Brilliant!

awesome whipped topping on top of awesome-cream!

That’s what the ship should have looked like from the start, instead of a total rip-off of the Akira-class.

PLEASE — this year, give us a 6″ edition! I only have one spot I dare hang my proud emblem of nerdom, and it takes a 6″ calendar.

Wow. That’s a far better design for the NX than the original. Wow.

Ugly and stupid. The POINT of the NX-01 was that it didn’t have a secondary hull. Now its been reduced to the same-old formula they use over and over again in ship design.

Something for the author of the next Romulan War book to think about?

I half hope so, good way to carry on the origins of the recognisable Starfleet ship design.

I like the bridging of the gap. Very nice looking ship!! The NX-01 is one of my favourite Starfleet ships, second only to the Enterprise-A and the Enterprise-E!

(…I want a model now, dangit.)

I like it!

I just don’t see a need to make something unique less unique.

“Click to see full size at Doug’s Blog”

Clearly this is some use of the term “full size” with which I was not previously familiar.

I liked the rear quarter view in the teaser, but after seeing the profile, I’m no longer enamored with the idea. To my surprise I’m used to the NX-class as it was in the beginning.

It’s really cool seeing the starship designs evolve from the NX-class to the Kelvin, to the Constitution class.

Nice to see the NX making the logical move to look more Connie-like. Love it. Can’t wait to see the 2011 calendar. :D

Thanks for spoiling that! Geesh, why do you think I subscribe to Nacelles Monthly?

note to IO9: this is a joke.

this refit was canceled, because the ratings were low……………………………..

……………….. “that’s a little joke”
come on someone had to go there.

I always thought NX-01 could use a secondary hull. That would have been pretty cool.
I might actually buy this calendar.
BTW, once Enterprise got rid of that annoying temporal cold war and Xindi disaster (and alien Nazis), it was shaping to be a decent show. They cancelled it just as it was getting good.

# 6

The point of the ship is to help tie it into the original series. Don’t like it, find a new franchise

So when does Enterprise come back?

There is just no way to make the NX look good, is there?

I like it.

Now I have to start picturing this ship as a read “The Romulan War” novel.

This serves as more proof that “These Are the Voyages…” was an inaccurately written holonovel. A crewman’s death was attributed to Trip, and the NX-01 was mistakenly depicted without its secondary hull.

Seems like it was composed by some amateur historian.

I guess adding a secundary hull to the NX design is not really a big breakthrough but honestly, it seems the artist ripped off a ST Bridge Commander design here…

http://bridgecommander.filefront.com/screenshots/File/41035/6

On to Season 5! When is Enteprise coming back to finish it’s 7 year run?

Working on a scratch build of a similar concept- as much as I groaned when the show started, I really came to appreciate what we used to call “The Akiraprise.” Miss the show too. Oh, and 22? Right there with you…

@ 11 Captain Dunsel-
Well you know how we guys can be ;-)

but it is not canon! this ship was not in these are the voyages! LOL!

@ 7, who said they were doing another Romulan War book? just because the book only covers the first year or so of the war… I never heard any announcements of future books… just waaay back a long time ago just when Beneath the Raptor’s Wing hadn’t even hit shelves yet, when it was still a proposed series, that it had been cut down to just one book. :(

Well, i don’t see the point in complaining…. its not part of cannon… so if you like you it.. great…. if you don’t… then its not part of OFFICIAL trek stuff. So fret ppl !

@27: Do you really WANT “These Are The Voyages” to be canon? Why would you inflict that on yourself if you didn’t have to? ;)

BRIDGE COMMANDER RIPOFF!!!!!!!!!

3. The TOS Purist aka The Purolator – February 8, 2010
That’s what the ship should have looked like from the start, instead of a total rip-off of the Akira-class.
——————————————————————
What’s wrong with the Akira having a lineage just like other ships?

Beautiful design. It appears to be the logical step in refitting the NX-01.

Enterprise was really something else — a very enjoyable show.

#17 – That design is very cool, though my absolute favorite is Doug Graves’s TOS.5.2 Either would have been vastly more suitable for the new movie. Oh, well…

On topic, I actually really like both the “refit” of the NX design and Mark Rademaker’s exploration of the ringship Enterprise. I am very psyched for the 2011 Ships of the Line Calendar.

The Trek ships are always best when treated as members of the cast. The Enterprise is so beloved because it was a beloved character in the show. The NX-01 was never treated that way, and they missed a great opportunity. Hell, Archer couldn’t even bring himself to sit in the captain’s chair.

For your indulgence, here’s an amateur poster of most, if not all, of the Trek ships:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jibbyimages/3524838284/

35, there’s a good reason starships are referred to in the same terms as a beautiful woman.

With apologies to Goethe, a starship of beauty is a joy forever.

Dammit!
If only Enterprise lasted 3 more seasons.

#17 :: Yeah.. um… It might just be my computer, but that Enterprise looks pretty darn.. beige. Like it was painted or something. I like the metallicy, steel/duranium/whatever metal they use on starships look.

(Maybe that’s what I liked about the Ent’-E?)

I gotta agree though. The original design is gorgeous. Me, though, I’ve always been waaaaay fond of Romulan and Klingon vessels. And the Andorian and Vulcan vessels we saw on ENT. Fabulous!

wow i like the bridge commander one better. I liked the design until i saw that side view. That just looks ……… i don’t know but its frekin ugly.

As for the show, whats wrong with you people. Enterprise was always good from day one. Sure season 4 was awsome, but that doesn’t mean that season 1 wasn’t also good.

#35 what do you mean it wasn’t a character. It was very disturbing to see her swiss cheesed during the attack in the 3rd season. It was still shocking to see it in the begining of the 4th season. When she relaunched the reused footage from the first episode was all that more powerful. I cared more about the nx-01 then voyager or ds9 (as characters). The enterprise D never really meant that much to me either. I was a bigger fan of the A.

#40 – Then we will have to agree to disagree. The ship felt like a vehicle in the series to me, and not a loved vessel that housed its crew. Sorry.

#41 :: Well, just keep in mind that throughout ENT Captain Archer and his crew were more concerned about just getting around and out alive! We’re talking a ship that didn’t even have shields, much less decent weaponry.

Personally, I liked how much the show focused on the crew and the plot… Maybe a little too much on the plot, but the character-driven stories were fabulous.

Christine – I’m not arguing the characters or stories. I’m just saying that I wished Captain Archer had seemed to love his ship as much as Kirk loved his, or even as much as Warf loved the Defiant. The show was, after all, named Enterprise.

That’s thing about Star Trek starships. Not only do they HAVE character, to most fans, they ARE characters. It’s hard to say that about any other kind of fictional starship, except maybe the Millennium Falcon.

I think that the reason for this is that we anthropomorphize the “starring” starships through their association with its crew. Ships like the various Enterprises are all at once impassive, imposing, yet nurturing, and we know they are this because the human (and alien) characters aboard them instinctively know this to be true.

I have read that when the Enterprise was destroyed in Star Trek III, there were those in the audience who cried. Could it be because they knew that a little bit of Captain Kirk died along with his ship, and because they vicariously suffered, as he did viscerally, as the source and the subject of his protect perished to save the lives of her crew?

Hat Rick – You are correct. In fact, the Voyage Home, to me, really lacked because of the absence of the Enterprise. They should never have made one of the Trek films without such an important character.

“Andrew Probert is going a new TNG era Romulan “uber cruiser”

As Dr. McCoy once said, “Going? Going where?”

i don’t know if we are looking at the same ship here or not, but I think I looks “kit-bashie” at best. Sure the NX was just an Akira upside down, but this makes it even worse. Looks like on of the new ST online starship classes. eck.

Ships in Star Trek stir the imaginations of fans in a way that Star Wars
can’t and doesn’t, except maybe the Millenium Falcon. I think that it is due to the fact that in Star Trek, the ships are treated like characters and not just vessels transporting people or blowing things up. Apart from the Millenium Falcon, its hard to get “attached” to a ship in Star Wars. I was able to become fond of all the main ships from Star Trek, ie., the NX-01, original Enterprise, Enterprise-A, Enterprise-D, Enterprise-E, Voyager and the Defiant(s) from DS9. Each ship had its own adventures, abilities and proved themselves in battle. Even ships seen only once like the Prometheus from Voyager or the Enterprise-C are ships that I can admire.
And the alien ships are cool as well. The sneaky TNG Romulan Warbird. The classic Klingon battlecruisers. The intimidating Borg cube. The dangerous, kamikaze, scarab-like Jem’Hadar attack ships. When one thinks about Star Wars, its more about what it would be like to be a Jedi or Sith. When one imagines Star Trek, its about what it would be like being Captain Kirk or Picard commanding their Enterprise exploring the galaxy or wanting to be Captain Sisko taking the Defiant into battle. Doug Drexler, Rick Sternbach, Matt Jeffries, Andrew Probert and others put a lot of love into designing ships and it definitely shows. The majority of ships in Star Trek I love. I have a hard time thinking of any I don’t like.

As for the NX-01 refit, that is a cool “redesign”. But it stayed true to the version seen on “Enterprise”. I have the “Ships Of The Line” book which is awesome. I hope that Pocket Books considers releasing a second volume hopefully with more text.

And if Mr.Sternbach is reading, I’d like to know what his “favorite” ships are and which one he had the most fun designing.

Perhaps for those who feel Enterprise was a character, she might have, had she a computer voice (Majel’s) like the other series. Then perhaps the ship might have seem more like a beloved ‘crew member.’

i.e., she needed a personality… I’m just sayin.’

I think I am not alone here in that a lot of us would like to ignore the final episode of ‘Enterprise’ so as not to experience Cmdr. Tucker’s death.

I wish Brannon B or Rick B would go on record as saying that was a plot device IF ST: E had miraculously survived for a fifth season. As is, what a stupid way to send the series!

I’m glad the writers of fiction, alas not canon, have found a way around that sorry excuse of an ending.