Project:
Latest render, from the rear – the “retro” thin saucer section reminded me of the original “multi-deck” concept which was a feature of the OS Enterprise and later versions – looking at this “new” retro approach, it would be hard to imagine a series of multiple decks for the saucer section, unless you have a different scale for the whole ship – I’ve fattened the connecting pylon so this could conceivably accommodate several decks vertically.
The “Multi-deck” concept functioned as a clever conceptual device to fix in the viewers mind this idea of the scale of the USS Enterprise, apart from the series’ “turbo-lifts”, you never got an exploded sense of the deck concept – you just accepted that they were there – the designer (Matt Jeffries) then had to carry through this idea in the design of the saucer section, even if the design is driven (like most sci-fi film spacecraft design) purely by aesthetic considerations.
In most cases – very few sci-fi film art directors applied a practical, scientific approach to design until people like Derek Meddings came on the scene and definitely post the landmark Kubrick “2001” – so you see echoes of this in the OS Enterprise design.
I’ve deliberately gone back to a more romantic era of sci-fi spacecraft design in developing the Retro Enterprise “U” designation.