Every Version Of The USS Enterprise Ranked Worst To Best

[StarFuryG7]

Every Version Of The USS Enterprise Ranked Worst To Best

[TrekBeatTK]

Don't entirely agree with the list.

A channel I watch sometimes did his own ranking a while back and here's what he came up with:



though I don't fully agree there either. I think just from my gut, I would rank them this way, from worst to best:

Enterprise-J -- we saw too little of it, it looked too much like the NX-01, and just kind of alien.
Kelvin 1701 -- They took the good parts and then made them ugly, with those bulbous hot rod nacelles, not to mention all the wide open empty space inside.
Kelvin 1701 from Beyond/Kelvin Ent-A -- they actually slightly redesigned the ship for Beyond, which made the nacelle pylons look so much better and just gave it a better more classic silhouette. Has most of the same issues from the previous design, but improved.
Enterprise-B -- I've never loved the Excelsior class, and the B is an even bigger boxier monstrosity than the original in its class. I hate it.
Enterprise-C -- A perfectly serviceable middle-ground ship. fine for one episode, though it feels small.
NX-01 -- I never loved the exterior, with the nacelles just sort of tacked on. But the submarine interiors with the push-button functions that felt both modern and a nod to the later TOS designs was marvelous.
DISCO/SNW 1701 -- So much of what the Kelvin movies screwed up in redesigning the Enterprise were done much better in the recent series. Now, it bothers me that it's redesigned at all when it's supposed to be the "same ship" canonically. And in terms of the timeline the color scheme changed to early. But the exteriors are very close and yet a good modern take on it, they didn't screw up the silouhette and when properly lit it actually looks pretty good. The internal sets are all too big, but at least they sort of tried with the color. They failed, but there was an attempt. I like that they kept the vents on the back of the nacelles.
TOS 1701 - It's classic for a reason.
Enterprise-E - it's a sleek ship and looks cool. It rarely has a real "hero" shot though that really makes it look pretty. There's one or two spread out across three movies that almost do. It also feels partly like a design made to service one specific film (hence all the little escape pods on the hull), which doesn't entirely hold up in later films. Heck, they weren't even consistent how many decks there were! The dish is a little too small for my taste. But it manages to have that "cool" look of the nacelles without them being utterly ridiculous like in the Kelvin films. Still, a shame we never saw more Sovereign class ships, like in DS9 or VOY. Or in new shows like Picard.
Enterprise-A -- It's essentially the same as the earlier refit, but the internal sets are all over the place, changing a lot from film to film. The TUC bridge is nice, but feels like a redressed set in some ways. I like the little observation deck in TFF with the old ship's wheel. But this poor ship never really feels like a ship with a history.
Enterprise-D - I grew up with it, and always thought it looked cool, so streamlined and curvy, like an oyster. Honestly, it was seeing that ship in promos for TNG that made me want to watch Star Trek in the first place. While the interiors may have gone a little too '80s hotel lobby and don't date as well, they also still feel homey to me in many ways. The horshoe design of the bridge is nice and so much better than the cramped more "efficient" leveled bridge of Voyager. There are areas that are weird, like the zebra walls we never see much past season 1, and the nacelles are bitty little things that make her look top heavy. But that deflector dish is beautiful to me, and she's like a sensual cobra of a vessel.
1701 Refit -- All the best hallmarks of the original Matt Jeffries design, but lit for features. While I like the little balls with lights in the nacelles, the angular ones are nice too. I think the saucer looks GORGEOUS in TMP, and the new deflector dish is an improvement. Plus the interiors have made use of the budget improvements as well with a bigger sickbay, an observation lounge full of games, and in TMP I even love the orange furniture. Some of the crew quarters feel small in TWOK, but on the whole I think the took what worked and in most cases just sweetened them. She's a beautiful ship.

[Mel]

I enjoyed both articles. I'm glad the first one had images. My days of having a favorite ship are behind me as my memory is not that good anymore. Maybe it's be the one against the Borg on the TV show, as I love that battle.

[CRAMBAM]

You can't top the original, and I don't get why Strange New Worlds messed with the exterior of the ship. No reason.

[Mel]

I saw Star Trek, the Motion Picture, the day it came out. Back then, I wasn't impressed with the ship. I was in it for the story and crew.

I recall how wonderful it was for so many of you to finally get a sense of how large and capable the ship was. For most of you, the scene with Kirk and Scottie looking over the Enterprise from the shuttle craft wasn't too long. You enjoyed every bit of the images. There were probably many things you liked about it interior of the ship as well.

If I did the math right, that was 43 years ago. I just watched the movie again. I found myself enjoying everything about the movie (perhaps because, by now, "real" Star Trek is hard to come by). I even like the ship.

Back then, I didn't much notice the appearance of the ship. What I noticed was that it took forever for Kirk and Scottie to get from the shuttle area to where they boarded the ship. (MAD Magazine noticed that too.)

This time, I noticed -- and enjoyed -- how beautiful the ship is in space dock, and how we were teased, when trying to see the ship, by the dock structure and equipment in the way, not to mention all the scenes that cut back to Kirk and Scottie. Finally, the shuttle went out of it's way to get in a position to admire the ship from stem to stern, as the theme music played, with more scenes of Kirk's reaction, which, this time, I loved.

Back then, once we got into the ship, some things bothered me, like how huge it is from the outside and how huge engineering is, yet the bridge and transporter area weren't any bigger; they were way too small (also too small was the area where they met to talk; I forget where that was).

As for the transporter, on a ship that big, it would seem like it should be able to transport many crew members at once. The movie had a transporter accident, but that's no reason for the the transporter area being the same size it was on TV, and darkly lit.

A last note. Oh my, how young and attractive the crew looked back then. There was a lot of speculation that a crew that old wouldn't interest new people in the show and movie. But for me, I couldn't help but admire -- again -- how good looking everyone was, and how capable they were (with the exception of Kirk's lack of knowledge about the upgraded ship).

As I said, this time, I completely enjoyed everything about the movie.

[CRAMBAM]

I wasn't a huge fan of that movie, but not because of the scene you mentioned. The whole movie just dragged for me.

If you think about it, it was only 10 years after TOS when TMP came out. That's not THAT long and it makes sense they still looked so young. Some of them were still in their 30s and Shatner was only 48.

There was an homage to the shuttle scene in the Bring Back Kirk trailer from 2004.

[Mel]

Nov 26, 2022 10:17:51 GMT -5 CRAMBAM said:

I wasn't a huge fan of that movie, but not because of the scene you mentioned. The whole movie just dragged for me.

It dragged for us all back then.  It doesn't mean I can't enjoy it now due to nostalgia.

If you think about it, it was only 10 years after TOS when TMP came out. That's not THAT long and it makes sense they still looked so young. Some of them were still in their 30s and Shatner was only 48.

I was looking at their appearance from this point in time. That's why they seem so young, not because they weren't that old at the time they filmed the movie.

There was an homage to the shuttle scene in the Bring Back Kirk trailer from 2004.

That was fun. I enjoyed it.

Btw, I greatly appreciate you always replying to my posts. That means a lot to me.

[CRAMBAM]

No problem. The board isn't that active, but I try to check in from time to time. Other boards were like Twitter pre-Musk. If you don't conform with certain political beliefs and attitudes, you get banned. This board will never be like that, even if I'm the only one who posts on it.