How the New “Enterprise” Compares to the Original?
Heaven know we’ve debated this topic into the ground on the Slice of SciFi Voice Mail show and Farpoint Media’s very own, “SciFi Smackdown” podcast.
But with the debut of J.J. Abrams’ new “Star Trek,” it seems there is new fuel to add to the fire in the great debate about which is the superior starship.
The folks over at Gizmodo have crunched some numbers and can tell you which ship is larger–the original Enterprise, the Battlestar Galactica or the new Enterprise. To help things out, they’ve even included visual evidence to back up their point, based on technical specifications provided by the creators of each ship.
The article points out that despite it’s larger size, the new Enterprise is only half as long as a Star Destroyer from the original “Star Wars” trilogy. However, it doesn’t look at size difference between the Enterprise and the Death Star.
So, let the debate begin again–who would win in a fight: the new Enterprise or the Death Star?
Well there are two schools of thought here….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1IQGMODcis
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6N-PZXeCUE
I like both. They’re pretty funny.
I thought the Death Star had been destroyed . . . twice!
Death Star is long gone. Now the Enterprise vs Ewoks, there’s a battle for you. What they di to those stormtroopers, just brutal.
Tim
Well, if you want to talk about the “Enterprise” in the last 3 original series movies, that’s fine since they are using NCC 1701-A (look at the ship number used in the pictures-they even used it for the new version of the original ship in error) as the template but how about the original Constitution-class ship NCC-1701??? I’m sure someone has an original Star Fleet Tech Manual lying around for the specifications of this fine ship, which could outfly 1701-A even after taking damage while whipping up on a bunch of Klingons in their D-7 battlecruisers. I say this because in “The Making of Star Trek” by Gene Roddenberry and Stephen E. Whitfield there is a picture of the original “Enterprise” imposed over the Aircraft Carrier “Enterprise” (CVA(N) 65) to show roughly how big the “flagship of Starfleet” is compared to what was at the time one of our largest aircraft carriers in the US Navy.
Maybe I’m wrong here, but the new Enterprise doesn’t have the “A” designation, does it? Just asking, because the picture shows it as “NCC-1701-A”.
I believe the size comparison above to be completely wrong….. if you do a deck to deck comparison between the original enterprise ncc 1701 and the new enterprise ncc 1701, the two sips are the same….. and just look at the bridge module…… the size of the windows …….and the overall size of the entrance to the shuttle launch bay… the actual opening to the bay is just an exit hatch just big enough to get the shuttles in and out…. it does not reflect the entire depth and height of the bay… This puts the whole thing into perspective….. not to mention that the new ship would be so dam big (if you believe the above size charts) …. oh yes…. and just look at the size of the shuttles in the movie when they fly past and over and then into the ship… that should give you a better size comparison…. Both in my opinion are fantastic ships…… they are both called “ENTERPRISE” and we know what picard said in the next generation…..”lets make sure history never forgets the name…Enterprise”…
I must point out that there are several errors in this comparison. 1st and foremost, the “new” Enterprise is not larger than the original. THis is obvious from watching the films. 2nd, despite what everone thinks, A battlestar is actually a tad Larger than an Imperial Star Destroyer. This is based upon watching both shows/films. Only the
Super-Star Destroyer is larger. If you compare images of Vipers landing on the Galactica and compare it to the scene in The Empire strikes back where the Millinium Falcon latches onto the back of the star destroyer to hide, You can see that indeed the Galactica is bigger. Also, for the record, the “A” after 1701 is to designate that it is the 2nd ship named Enterprise. The “new” one, is suppose to be the “original” Enterprise. Hope This helps.
Hmm…
Hate to bump an old thread, but if ths is so controversial - -
These numbers come from replica artists - they may not be canon (I don’t have an encyclopedia). That said, they are true to scale based on film comparisons and FX folk leakage. And they are approximate - say 5% max. SOme are very approximate because when FX went to CGI, the scales became mutable.
Colonial Viper = 28 Feet
Romulan Bird of Prey TOS = 417 Feet
NX-01 = 700 Feet
NCC 1701 2009 = 725 Feet (Not meters)
NCC 1701 TOS = 840 Feet
1701 Refit = 985 Feet
1701A = 1000 Feet (any where from 985 to 1050)
1701B = ???
1701C = 1630 Feet or 975 depending on the the shot used - I suspect 1630 is closer to correct.
USS Kelvin (from a mockup) = 1300 Feet (NCC ???)
1701D = 2100 Feet
1701E = 2217 Feet
Battlestar Atlantia (CLassic) (a few feet longer than Galactica I think) = 6150 FEET (Not 615 Meters) - from Custom Replicas.
That likely doesn’t help, but canon or know, thats how they appear
Okay, for the new Enterprise size. If you want a great comparison, if you watch the movie, you get to see the bridge close up and see the officers inside the view screen as well as the bridge module from the outside, I can safely conclude that unless the average human is 12 feet tall there is no way the new Enterprise is as big a depicted in the above picture. The New Enterprise does however look big in the movie due to it’s elegant design and the way you see it in the movie in comparison to how you see the other Enterprise ships in the original series and movies, but in reality is just as big as the original Enterprise, maybe a little bit bigger. Now about the Enterprise vs the Death Star. In a battle like that, being bigger is not a good thing. Being bigger means you are slower and less maneuverable meaning it’s an easy target for the Death Star. The Death Star was designed to fight massive fleets with massive ships, and destroy the largeast of the enemy fleet to weaken then drastically making it easier for the Imperial fleet to defeat the attackers. If you put the 700+ meter Enterprise vs the Death Star the Enterprise would not last because of it’s size, it would get destroyed quickly from a distance (if you watched Star Wars you’d know this). Now if you assume the Enterprise is as big as the original, it’s still screwed because of the Death Stars close range defenses would take down the Enterprise. Remember, it took fighters to destroy the Death Star, not Star Ships.
The thing everyone always forgets is that the Enterprise has deflector shields and in no other show do you see that. Inn Star Wars there was some mention of “shields” but they were never used (or looked as effective) as starship deflectors. So I think that no matter how powerful their weapons, the Enterprise could fight off ships from any of the other movies. And not only that, but since Star Trek is the only show which has transporters, all they would really have to do is beam a photon torpedo inside any of the other ships and …Pow!