HOME | DD

Description
I've been looking at all the different variants of the Constitution-class starship. (There are plenty of different versions at this point!) And I thought it would be fun to combine the my favorite features from all the different versions to create my own personal favorite "ultimate" version of this classic ship. I hope you like it.

Goal: The goal wasn't to innovate a shockingly new version of the ship. Instead, the goal was to "optimize" this classic design, combining the best features from previous variants to capture the spirit of the original, while also suiting my own personal preferences.

Here is some of the thinking behind my design choices:

Interconnecting Dorsal (Neck): The thing that I like best about the "Discoprise" is that simply by shortening the interconnecting dorsal (neck) and the warp engine supports, they dramatically streamlined and flattened the look of the Enterprise without really changing ANY of the other features or proportions. It's a brilliant and subtle design solution. While the original design is classic (of course), this one simple modification dramatically improves the lines of this ship (in my humble opinion) is such a subtle way that most people probably aren't even aware of the change. But at some level you find yourself thinkng, "Wow! I don't remember the original Enterprise being quite that beautiful and sleek!) Needless to say, I followed suit in my design. Having dramatically reduced the overall height of the ship (by several decks), I was surprised to discover that I didn't really want to make major modifications to the rest of the ship's proportions. I was excited by this because this would allow me to preserve most of the original elements of the design, with only subtle enhancements.

Saucer Section: For a long time now, I've wanted the bottom surface of the saucer section to be flat (as opposed to scooped out.) While the scooped out lines are admittedly beautiful, and catch the light in fascinating ways, I just always figured that they were losing a lot of deck space with that feature, and for no discernible reason. The fact that the "re-imagined" Enterprise and the Discoprise both went with the flat underside on the saucer section helped reinforce my original thoughts on the subject, so I incorporated that feature here. The bridge complex here is identical to the one from the original series, but reduced in height, resulting in proportions similar to the Discoprise. I skipped the distinctive recessed lighting that we see on the Discoprise, in favor of a more traditional upper surface of the saucer which is nearly identical to the TOS version.

Impulse Engines: I really liked the Discoprise interpretation of the impulse engines. They are wide and massive and look quite powerful (as opposed to the TOS and movie refit which seem to have relatively dainty impulse drives.) While the Discoprise has 3 engines on each side, I gave my version 4 engines on each side to suggest even more power.

Phasers: My refit includes "movie style" phaser banks, on the upper and lower surfaces of the saucer, but I added a phaser bank on the aft section of the saucer, because it seemed like it belonged there. Also, it never made sense to me that Constitution-class ships couldn't fire backwards. I also added phasers to the upper rear surfaces of the secondary hull to further improve the aft firing arc.

Torpedoes: I added twin forward-facing photon torpedo tubes to the underside of the saucer section, (again reminiscent of the Discoprise) but I also added additional tubes facing to port and starboard. Again, this just seemed logical, and I'm a little surprised that it still doesn't appear on most Starfleet vessels. I also have a pair of aft-facing torpedo tubes on the back of the saucer, between the impulse engines.

Bussard Collectors: The lovely red spinning Bussard collectors from TOS are just perfect the way that they are (IMHO), so I didn't want to lose them. (The fact that the Enterprise C, D, E, etc. all have glowing red Bussard collectors proves that not only is this a beautiful, distinctive, and instantly recognizable feature on a Federation starship, but also that it is not outdated technology.) As beautiful and graceful as the warp engines are in the movie-refit, I just always missed those spinning red Bussard collectors, so I decided to include them here.

Warp Nacelles: I pretty much maintained the warp nacelles from the original series. But I enhanced them by placing glowing blue plasma vents running down the inside and outside of the nacelles. This is the future of warp engine design for the Federation, so I want to incorporate it here. Visually, they sort of replace the red stripes and NCC-____ that were there on the TOS version. While the Discoprise, and movie-refit both have glowing panels along the inside of the warp nacelles, I wanted to expand that to the outside of the nacelles to brighten things up a bit, and also to hint that (despite the familiar design of the warp nacelle) this refit is very advanced, and is actually somewhat ahead of its time. I also made the spheres at the back end of the warp engines glow, because they just look much more exciting that way. So yeah, these engines glow all over: in the front, in the back, on the insides, and on the outsides.

Warp Engine Supports: The one feature from the original series that I just couldn't keep was those spindly little warp engine supports. They just look like sticks. By contrast, the graceful "wings" from the movie refit really seem to be the right design solution. I think they look good here with the more traditional cylindrical warp engines.

Navigational Deflector: I toyed around a lot with making more dramatic changes to the main Navigational Deflector, but I pretty much came back to something pretty close to the original. I extended the cowling a bit and added a ring of lights (very similar to the movie-refit) to add a little extra excitement to this area. In my version, the copper disc has been made highly reflective (as opposed to the dull version we see in TOS and Discovery) which I think adds just the "zing" that this features always needed.

Secondary Hull: I was all ready to make major modifications to the secondary hull, but once I had made all of the other modifications, I was surprised to discover that it didn't really need it. I considered modifying it to be more reminiscent of the movie refit, but that version looks slightly bloated to me, so I left it mostly unchanged (except for the aft phasers and navigational deflector mods which I already mentioned.) For a while, I considered including a much more sleek "Excelsior-style" secondary hull, (which I may still pursue at some point.) It actually looked pretty cool. But for the purposes of this project, I wanted to stay pretty close to the original look.

Graphics/Lettering: For the longest time, I had planned to include the black military-style block letters from the original series, but when I tried the movie font, it was just beautiful, so I went with that. Likewise, I subtly updated the graphics on the side of the secondary hull to include the Starfleet arrowhead instead of the old-style yellow "boomerang" from TOS.

In my "headcanon" this would be a "custom refit" of the U.S.S. Constitution, (as opposed to the "traditional" refit that we see in the movies.) My justification is that due to the Constitution's unique mission, (to explore alternate timelines and alternate dimensions) it has different priorities. Also, while the movie-refit of the Enterprise seemed to change or replace every single inch of the original design, Captain Drake wanted a quicker refit that made less extensive changes to the aesthetics of the ship, but that would dramatically enhance his ship's performance and combat effectiveness. By preserving more of the original design, the ship could be back on duty much more quickly, while the Enterprise was still laid up. In general, I love the feeling of the original TOS Constitution class ships. They always seemed indomitable to me. By contrast, the movie Enterprise was constantly being bested by aliens, Reliant, and Klingons. I know that this was all done for story purposes, and for enhanced drama, but the overall effect left me feeling that the refit Enterprise was very vulnerable and fragile. So I wanted my version to hearken back more closely to the era when Constitution-class ships were seemingly unbeatable.

Description
I've been looking at all the different variants of the Constitution-class starship. (There are plenty of different versions at this point!) And I thought it would be fun to combine the my favorite features from all the different versions to create my own personal favorite "ultimate" version of this classic ship. I hope you like it.

Goal: The goal wasn't to innovate a shockingly new version of the ship. Instead, the goal was to "optimize" this classic design, combining the best features from previous variants to capture the spirit of the original, while also suiting my own personal preferences.

Here is some of the thinking behind my design choices:

Interconnecting Dorsal (Neck): The thing that I like best about the "Discoprise" is that simply by shortening the interconnecting dorsal (neck) and the warp engine supports, they dramatically streamlined and flattened the look of the Enterprise without really changing ANY of the other features or proportions. It's a brilliant and subtle design solution. While the original design is classic (of course), this one simple modification dramatically improves the lines of this ship (in my humble opinion) is such a subtle way that most people probably aren't even aware of the change. But at some level you find yourself thinkng, "Wow! I don't remember the original Enterprise being quite that beautiful and sleek!) Needless to say, I followed suit in my design. Having dramatically reduced the overall height of the ship (by several decks), I was surprised to discover that I didn't really want to make major modifications to the rest of the ship's proportions. I was excited by this because this would allow me to preserve most of the original elements of the design, with only subtle enhancements.

Saucer Section: For a long time now, I've wanted the bottom surface of the saucer section to be flat (as opposed to scooped out.) While the scooped out lines are admittedly beautiful, and catch the light in fascinating ways, I just always figured that they were losing a lot of deck space with that feature, and for no discernible reason. The fact that the "re-imagined" Enterprise and the Discoprise both went with the flat underside on the saucer section helped reinforce my original thoughts on the subject, so I incorporated that feature here. The bridge complex here is identical to the one from the original series, but reduced in height, resulting in proportions similar to the Discoprise. I skipped the distinctive recessed lighting that we see on the Discoprise, in favor of a more traditional upper surface of the saucer which is nearly identical to the TOS version.

Impulse Engines: I really liked the Discoprise interpretation of the impulse engines. They are wide and massive and look quite powerful (as opposed to the TOS and movie refit which seem to have relatively dainty impulse drives.) While the Discoprise has 3 engines on each side, I gave my version 4 engines on each side to suggest even more power.

Phasers: My refit includes "movie style" phaser banks, on the upper and lower surfaces of the saucer, but I added a phaser bank on the aft section of the saucer, because it seemed like it belonged there. Also, it never made sense to me that Constitution-class ships couldn't fire backwards. I also added phasers to the upper rear surfaces of the secondary hull to further improve the aft firing arc.

Torpedoes: I added twin forward-facing photon torpedo tubes to the underside of the saucer section, (again reminiscent of the Discoprise) but I also added additional tubes facing to port and starboard. Again, this just seemed logical, and I'm a little surprised that it still doesn't appear on most Starfleet vessels. I also have a pair of aft-facing torpedo tubes on the back of the saucer, between the impulse engines.

Bussard Collectors: The lovely red spinning Bussard collectors from TOS are just perfect the way that they are (IMHO), so I didn't want to lose them. (The fact that the Enterprise C, D, E, etc. all have glowing red Bussard collectors proves that not only is this a beautiful, distinctive, and instantly recognizable feature on a Federation starship, but also that it is not outdated technology.) As beautiful and graceful as the warp engines are in the movie-refit, I just always missed those spinning red Bussard collectors, so I decided to include them here.

Warp Nacelles: I pretty much maintained the warp nacelles from the original series. But I enhanced them by placing glowing blue plasma vents running down the inside and outside of the nacelles. This is the future of warp engine design for the Federation, so I want to incorporate it here. Visually, they sort of replace the red stripes and NCC-____ that were there on the TOS version. While the Discoprise, and movie-refit both have glowing panels along the inside of the warp nacelles, I wanted to expand that to the outside of the nacelles to brighten things up a bit, and also to hint that (despite the familiar design of the warp nacelle) this refit is very advanced, and is actually somewhat ahead of its time. I also made the spheres at the back end of the warp engines glow, because they just look much more exciting that way. So yeah, these engines glow all over: in the front, in the back, on the insides, and on the outsides.

Warp Engine Supports: The one feature from the original series that I just couldn't keep was those spindly little warp engine supports. They just look like sticks. By contrast, the graceful "wings" from the movie refit really seem to be the right design solution. I think they look good here with the more traditional cylindrical warp engines.

Navigational Deflector: I toyed around a lot with making more dramatic changes to the main Navigational Deflector, but I pretty much came back to something pretty close to the original. I extended the cowling a bit and added a ring of lights (very similar to the movie-refit) to add a little extra excitement to this area. In my version, the copper disc has been made highly reflective (as opposed to the dull version we see in TOS and Discovery) which I think adds just the "zing" that this features always needed.

Secondary Hull: I was all ready to make major modifications to the secondary hull, but once I had made all of the other modifications, I was surprised to discover that it didn't really need it. I considered modifying it to be more reminiscent of the movie refit, but that version looks slightly bloated to me, so I left it mostly unchanged (except for the aft phasers and navigational deflector mods which I already mentioned.) For a while, I considered including a much more sleek "Excelsior-style" secondary hull, (which I may still pursue at some point.) It actually looked pretty cool. But for the purposes of this project, I wanted to stay pretty close to the original look.

Graphics/Lettering: For the longest time, I had planned to include the black military-style block letters from the original series, but when I tried the movie font, it was just beautiful, so I went with that. Likewise, I subtly updated the graphics on the side of the secondary hull to include the Starfleet arrowhead instead of the old-style yellow "boomerang" from TOS.

In my "headcanon" this would be a "custom refit" of the U.S.S. Constitution, (as opposed to the "traditional" refit that we see in the movies.) My justification is that due to the Constitution's unique mission, (to explore alternate timelines and alternate dimensions) it has different priorities. Also, while the movie-refit of the Enterprise seemed to change or replace every single inch of the original design, Captain Drake wanted a quicker refit that made less extensive changes to the aesthetics of the ship, but that would dramatically enhance his ship's performance and combat effectiveness. By preserving more of the original design, the ship could be back on duty much more quickly, while the Enterprise was still laid up. In general, I love the feeling of the original TOS Constitution class ships. They always seemed indomitable to me. By contrast, the movie Enterprise was constantly being bested by aliens, Reliant, and Klingons. I know that this was all done for story purposes, and for enhanced drama, but the overall effect left me feeling that the refit Enterprise was very vulnerable and fragile. So I wanted my version to hearken back more closely to the era when Constitution-class ships were seemingly unbeatable.