Wednesday, November 12, 2008

On my way out the door this evening, I found Snow the cat fretfully pacing around a tree, staring up at a bird rustling in the branches, and addressing it with plaintive mews, as if pleading with the bird to relinquish its meat.

I noticed a wire hanging from the tree and saw on the ground below it a small wooden birdhouse. I bet my grandmother had no idea the birdhouse was there. Probably it was something left by my aunt or grandfather many years ago.

Eventually, Snow scrabbled quickly up the tree. Of course, the bird got out of the way immediately and I thought I was going to have to rescue Snow. I was trying to figure out how to grab him when he made a graceless leap to the concrete.

So this is the new look of the starship Enterprise;



I don't like it. But I'm not sure if this is simply because it clashes with the Enterprise shapes I grew up with. I do like it better than the ship from the Scott Bakula series (which always looked too much like an upside down Miranda class vessel to me). Mostly this new Enterprise looks like a super-deformed version of the Enterprise-A to me. The curves of the warp nacelle pylons are somewhat reminiscent of the Enterprise-D, but the glowing blue main deflector dish, hull colouration, and saucer are all suggestive of the Enterprise design featured in the 80s movies. I'll be interested to see if the bussard ramscoops glow red or not.

The saucer and the warp nacelles are too big for my taste. The saucer recalls the sharpness of the Enterprise-A's, but loses a lot of impact for having a sort of hamburger quality by comparison. The nacelles remind me of modern cars.

Mostly, I think this new Enterprise is confused about what she wants to be. She can't decide if she wants the hard, angular Enterprise-A look or the organic form of Enterprise-D. It just comes out as a mess. Personally, my favourite is still the Enterprise-D, which somehow to me still best conveys something that is curvy and pretty while seeming as though her curves are integral to an optimal design. Which is why the Enterprise-E seems so odd. She looks like something made out of Construx.

No, I did not have a girlfriend in high school. Why do you ask?

I think Abrams would've been better off sticking closer to the design of the Enterprise-A (or refit). I don't think anyone would've complained, and this new one can't look significantly better from any objective standpoint.

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