It ain't sexy, but it is damn awesome.
B5's ship design is pretty good over all imo. Kind of hampered by the video toaster CG, but once you get past that there's some real effort put into balancing aesthetic and practical concerns in the designs.
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- Thread starter The Librarian
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B5's ship design is pretty good over all imo. Kind of hampered by the video toaster CG, but once you get past that there's some real effort put into balancing aesthetic and practical concerns in the designs.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Well, you still have to forgive the fact that the whole spinning gravity thing doesn't work like they think it does in the universe. That's assuming that the entire length of the ship isn't crewed anyway.
It does make sense though, because my main disdain for the Intreped design is how wide flat and low its profile is. The only time it's even remotely serviceable (and still not as good as the Abrams Enterprise) are when the nacelles are up.
As for the other comment, sure, but there has been decades of ship designs to choose from. The 'accession' poster looked like a terrible compromise between the two style, to be honest.
StopMakingSense
Member
Best Starfleet ship is easily the Danube class.
I think the ship might be quite a lot larger than you're thinking it is. The official length of those destroyers is supposedly about 1700m. That's like 3 times the length of the Enterprise-D. And like 10 times the length of the Discovery in 2001 which used the same mechanism. I'm not sure if that makes it a practical implementation or not, but it seems plausible.
I assume there's just no gravity in the non-rotating sections. Or there might be on later models thanks to antigrav tech from the Minbari.
lastplayed
Member
There might be crew members in the non-rotating sections, they'll just have no gravity like all the early Earth Alliance ships (Nova class for example).
That's really sad.
A design is only as good as its execution.
lastplayed
Member
The CGI's a little dated, but those ships still kick ass.
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Star Trek VI Enterprise is best Enterprise.
Externally at least, the NCC-1701 refit from STII - STIII is practically the exact same design as the -A you see in STIV-STVI.
lolwat
You complain about the new Ent being fat and include the Excelsior in your list of better looking ships?
If anything, the connector between the primary and secondary hull may make the 09 Ent appear wider in the particular shot being used in the thread, but from most angles it doesn't look wide or fat at all.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
They ran concurrently and their premises seem suspiciously similar given that JMS pitched B5 to Paramount years before either show hit the air. They're very different in practice, though. B5 is a great show, although you'll have a lot of awful effects and some mediocre actors to deal with throughout the run of the show.
Literally looks like a PS1 FMV.
It seems like Babylon 5 would be prime material for a "special edition" Bluray with updated effects, but I guess that might be too expensive for the expected returns.
Yeah but it's easier to just say the -A instead of -A/Original refit.
I really love the torpedo bays on that design too. They complement the blue deflector dish so well.
And the execution is quite good for the time and the context (namely, their budget would never have allowed models and that was basically state of the art TV CG for the time). I think the effects that fail hard in B5 are more internal shots, especially where compositing with real footage was involved, especially in the first season.
The data for the CG sequences is all gone. As in wiped from the hard drives and unfortunately never long term backed up. It'd have to be redone from scratch. Also, for the composited shots, some of the original prints without the effects are also long gone.
Well, I'm someone who didn't totally hate TNG's first season, so I think I can get through the rougher patches.
Well, I'm someone who didn't totally hate TNG's first season, so I think I can get through the rougher patches.
B5's first season is simultaneously better and worse than TNG's. Worse because the acting really isn't there at all in the way it was in TNG, even in its awful first season, but better because it was at least working towards something. There's some really fantastic moments even in B5 S1 but there's also some severe ruts.
Skip Infection, though. Or watch it but consider it something to make fun of and not representative of the show as a whole.
Interesting to know. It's relatively easy for me to go through lesser episodes of a series if it shows early promise and it's also as acclaimed as Babylon 5 is. Growing pains aren't uncommon to these sorts of series.
And doesn't the show start with some movie pilot before Season 1 proper? How's that?
Well I can understand budget issues forcing their hand, but I still can't call it good execution, even if it is understandable. Models may be cost-prohibitive, but I don't know if primitive CGI was their only option.
That's a pretty unfortunate oversight, although they'd probably have to redo them all anyway for a bluray release.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
The assumption was that effects would be easier to reproduce for HD than practical effects. It was actually pretty ahead of its time and forward-looking - notice how B5 was shot in widescreen while Trek is forever stuck in fullscreen until Enterprise.
It's more than the company went out of business and the files went kaput than anything else. Of course, maybe WB or whomever should have just bought the CAD files or whatever they used back then, but who knows who owns CG files these days.
Maybe I'm misremembering, but my assumption was that gravity would only exist on the actual part of the ship that is rotating. I remember nerds being upset that the bridge on B5 had gravity because it was the rings that were rotating and the actual bridge itself, being in the centre of B5, would have no gravity.
But I really don't want to go into the deep hole of scifi nerdery nowadays. lol
lastplayed
Member
Well at the risk of falling into that deep hole... B5's bridge did rotate, but it was very close to the centre so it would have less simulated gravity than at the edge, something the show didn't bother showing.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Enough with the ship crap. Get your minds into the gutters, people.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
Boo.
It's probably still a couple hundred feet out from the center, and yeah it did rotate.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Wait, if the B5 bridge did rotate... wouldn't the viewport be kind of pointless? Or at least cause some sort of nausea? Or did it just rotate really, really slowly?
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Enough with the ship crap. Get your minds into the gutters, people.
Does the scene with her screaming look as bad as it did in the trailer?
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
No. Context is key.
lastplayed
Member
The producers were pretty lazy in that regard. The stars didn't rotate, but I'm pretty sure they did sometimes. You can also get a good look at the C&C's location during the opening credits.
But anyway... Star Trek.
Cool. Figured it was just another Voldemort NYYEAAH case of stupid sfx in trailers.
Enough with the ship crap. Get your minds into the gutters, people.
She looks like a fembot. In the best way.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
-tetsuo-
Unlimited Capacity
Enough with the ship crap. Get your minds into the gutters, people.
Do we get that lovely accent in this one?
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Yup.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
I think a lot of my attraction to Alice Eve comes from the fact that she reminds me of Rika in LW2 - a scar that has never quite healed.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Great billboard.
The Elite
BOSS
I had the biggest crush on Rika when I was a kid. I watched that movie quite a few times just for her.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
lastplayed
Member
Great billboard.
Wait, they got Cumberbatch to hang around inside there all day? Serious marketing there.
The Librarian
Banned
For it to make sense the lower part of Voyager would have to be bigger than the saucer section, and it's not. I see where your whale analogy comes from, but I think it looks graceful.
Runabouts were the best shuttles in all of Trek.
The nacelles do it for the ship in every shot, I think, and I don't think the Excelsior looks fat.
Do not watch "In the Beginning"! It's horrible, and you won't be missing anything.
So good. Don't click on this link, Zeliard!
I'm rewatching Star Trek 2009 in anticipation of Into Darkness and I gotta say, the cold open is just so damn good.
Just a perfect way to hit the ground running while providing a brief but significant look into Kirk's past. Then you get smacked in the face with logo and the wonderful theme music. It's probably one of my favourite opening sequences in cinema, though it is weird seeing Thor in a captain's chair.
Just a perfect way to hit the ground running while providing a brief but significant look into Kirk's past. Then you get smacked in the face with logo and the wonderful theme music. It's probably one of my favourite opening sequences in cinema, though it is weird seeing Thor in a captain's chair.
The Librarian
Banned
I'm rewatching Star Trek 2009 in anticipation of Into Darkness and I gotta say, the cold open is just so damn good.
Just a perfect way to hit the ground running while providing a brief but significant look into Kirk's past. Then you get smacked in the face with logo and the wonderful theme music. It's probably one of my favourite opening sequences in cinema, though it is weird seeing Thor in a captain's chair.
The eye candy was great, and it was my favorite part when I first saw the movie. Upon rewatches, though, I've enjoyed it less and less. It's too cheesy.
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