This will be long, so please don't read if it wastes your time, all theoretical an me trying to theorize. Quick note and request: Some old school fans (TOS IS MY FAVORITE SERIES) who dislike "nu trek" may want to respond with "oh this doesn't work because it takes place in another time!", I would prefer not to hear this please, because eaxh show changes and retcons (ex: first and second pilots compared to TOS later on with the United Earth or UE space probe agency to Starfleet and UFP in later episodes/seasons). I'm REALLY sorry for any offense here but want to keep this on track about fun hypothetical ship designs. Regardless I hope you have an amazing day, stay optimistic for the future and (early) happy first contact day 
. Okay, into the main article!
So I've been doing some useless research and wasting time putting thoughts on the transition from DSC/SNW era into TOS. Picard season 3 confirmed at the fleet museum that the TOS Constitution appearance is correct, also disproved the theory that paramount couldn't use/lost rights to the original TOS models and visuals. So... In SNW (and a bit DSC) the Enterprise has it's iconic red accents in every room (which I damn love and is likely based off the interior of Disney and Wernher Von Braun's orbital moonship RM-1 from the Man in Space - Space Age film from the late 1950s) combined with the more white colors (I like to think it is because of the white walls interior in the SpaceX Dragon 2) to match. SNW (and DSC) also have the iconic Enterprise buttons and sounds (view screen, button sounds, similar transporter energize sound from the original Pilot, DSC season 2 ending even has the computer sound when Spock gets to the Bridge). The interior is clearly quite similar, though a bit bigger and less compact (get to that later!). This matches up with TOS, mostly. I like to think (and it's pretty clear) that things will evolve in a more simplified/streamlined (visually because of technology advancement) more advanced technology. I can confirm this, go look at Space's Raptor 2 and Raptor 3 engine designs, Raptor 3 is SO sleek and sci Fi, almost looks fake. As for the TOS "downgrades"... Clearly budget limitations of the 1960s, so not much choice here. However, one thing never shown was the crew interacting with the black screens (with the different colored lights that change) on the bridge stations. I firmly believe that now (modern day) these can clearly be touchscreens since we never see the crew at all interact with them or even look at them. It would have been too much money for Star Trek TOS' already limited budget to make extensive use of those, and they didn't need to because of the main view screen. So yes, I think in universe it's quite plausible these can be touchscreens because we don't know enough about them, and DSC/SNW has both buttons and touchscreen which are used in tandem. Screens on the upper wall? Show images of space stuff, can't make them tvs of recorded stuff or change such as the communications array and intake of bussard collectors (seen in the back of Pike in SNW s1 e1) because no budget for that and no CGI. Yes, they did use those twice: once in the original Pilot and the other in the Doomsday machine as maps, but those were slides (I think?) and I don't know enough about how they could make that work. So that's the interior explained.
Scaling and size: The Enterprise is about as big as the Discovery in season 2. I can easily confirm this, they show runners explained in a post (pls Google it) that the Enterprise model in CGI was scaled up to the DSC because of that special spore drive crossfield variant's ships's very long Nacelles (likely for the spore drive again) and some images taken by (Trek Central?) zoomed in on one of the scenes during Pike's introduction and debut in DSC season 2 when the viewscreen showed the Enterprise stats, the zoom in confirmed that the specifications of the Enterprise were in fact what was established earlier before DSC, just meaning the scale up was as said by the show runners.
External multiple ship visuals: With the size wrapped up, let's move on the the visuals. First things first: design updated for a modern audience, the TOS or first Pilot Enterprise will not suffice on screen with today's CGI. Now as for quick anylasis of ship design differences in DSC: Nacelles come in all different shapes and sizes in TNG, DS9, Voyager, Lowedecks, Prodigy, Picard, and (beta canon) Star Trek Online being the result of technology from different ages. All these ships have new and nacelles and armaments from technology development and their roles. DSC? Same thing. ENT, DSC/SNW, and TOS nacelles? Starfleet was expirmenting. And though not shown due to not good enough glances and potential bright lights, at least in STO all these DSC ships have bussard ramscoops with the rotating impellers just the Enterprises from ENT, DSC/SNW, and TOS. These are all ships of different era. As for not seeing other ships in TOS? Very limited budget to make other different looking ships. Botany bay scenes were reused for the Antares freighter ship in the episode with Charlie X. Klingon D7 did not show up on screen due to not enough money to make model until season 3 then repurposed for Romulan D7 ships with an explanation of Klingon- Romulan alliance/tech trading. TOS Movies? Reused their already much higher quality models from previous films, and kept the Reliant similar to film Enterprise for consistency.
*Darker and different colored hull plating: TNG and other golden era track show ships have different colored hulls, technology differences and upgrades.
Enterprise external changes: yes I know there are some major differences, but again - updated for modern visuals.
Consistent to TOS:
* deflector dish
*shuttle bay interior (mostly)
* shuttle bay doors
*3 windows at the front of the saucer, * airlocks and docking ports, kept under the ship's retractable hull plating (confirmed for docting tubes in DSC "such sweet sorrow" and SNW s1 e "Momento Mori", Airlock on saucer was under hull plating in TMP when they step out to V'Ger.)
* Turbolift, on top of the ship sticking out a bit, possible reference to now removed bridge module/deck 1 in the original Pilot, with the upper sensor dome/bridge roof window covering what used to be there
Differences:
* deck 2 which likely contains briefing/ready rooms in Pilot 1 and TOS still contains those as seen in Short Treks and SNW, but the bridge has been moved to deck 2 for DSC/SNW and a bridge window added in front. Is changed back in TOS after the new bridge module/original deck 1 is added back. Moving bridge module down a level makes the Enterprise look more streamlined, seeing the bridge module sitting on top of deck 2 always made me think Enterprise looked a bit off.
* Warp engines and nacelles, pylons: removed and replaced with simplified but more advanced and refined (visual budget of TOS) nacelles, weight shifts require changes to pylons due to more mass changes.
* Impulse engines: show runners said they wanted impulse engines to look more primitive but took inspiration from Excelsior 2, in TOS impulse drive had a drive with dual engine ports. In SNW this location is here showing where the new TOS impulse engines will be put, though it serves no (known) function ATM, besides the probe launch tube which is also present (never use shown) on the TOS engines if one looked closely. The DSC/SNW engines are on the sides of the TOS engine ports and do in fact look more primate than the single exhaust port of both sides on the TOS impulse drive, there are 3 exhaust ports on both sides of the SNW one. May look faster, but as shown and referenced and implied in TMP, the TOS impulse engines are better and have been further upgraded In TMP while still being dual single port engines.
* Neck: additional baggage removed, extra structural support (different plating and color) at the front for more support on gravity.
* Shuttle bay "extension"/runway: I hate this hull extension, ruins the form of the SNW Enterprise for the side for me. Removed due to unneeded extra mass.
* Cargo bag below hull: Ship's after SNW don't have a large cargo bag with separate doors after SNW, however in TMP there is a large bay at the forward end of the shuttle bay, making the shuttle bay used for large cargo transfer. In ST 5 there are 2 garage like doors in the shuttle bay which may be access points for the cargo bag so worker bees can transfer stuff out.
Escape pods: never shown in DSC, SNW, TOS, or TOS movies. All Starfleet ships have escape pods, so just like airlocks and docking ports, located under retractable hull armor to be protected.
Super long! I think that's it? Anyways some of the DSC and SNW ships are off screen on Starfleet during the TOS and SNW eras, they just didn't the the budget to really show other ships beyond the look of the ships resembling the Constitution 2 and Excelsior. Hope you enjoyed and LLAP
. Okay, into the main article!So I've been doing some useless research and wasting time putting thoughts on the transition from DSC/SNW era into TOS. Picard season 3 confirmed at the fleet museum that the TOS Constitution appearance is correct, also disproved the theory that paramount couldn't use/lost rights to the original TOS models and visuals. So... In SNW (and a bit DSC) the Enterprise has it's iconic red accents in every room (which I damn love and is likely based off the interior of Disney and Wernher Von Braun's orbital moonship RM-1 from the Man in Space - Space Age film from the late 1950s) combined with the more white colors (I like to think it is because of the white walls interior in the SpaceX Dragon 2) to match. SNW (and DSC) also have the iconic Enterprise buttons and sounds (view screen, button sounds, similar transporter energize sound from the original Pilot, DSC season 2 ending even has the computer sound when Spock gets to the Bridge). The interior is clearly quite similar, though a bit bigger and less compact (get to that later!). This matches up with TOS, mostly. I like to think (and it's pretty clear) that things will evolve in a more simplified/streamlined (visually because of technology advancement) more advanced technology. I can confirm this, go look at Space's Raptor 2 and Raptor 3 engine designs, Raptor 3 is SO sleek and sci Fi, almost looks fake. As for the TOS "downgrades"... Clearly budget limitations of the 1960s, so not much choice here. However, one thing never shown was the crew interacting with the black screens (with the different colored lights that change) on the bridge stations. I firmly believe that now (modern day) these can clearly be touchscreens since we never see the crew at all interact with them or even look at them. It would have been too much money for Star Trek TOS' already limited budget to make extensive use of those, and they didn't need to because of the main view screen. So yes, I think in universe it's quite plausible these can be touchscreens because we don't know enough about them, and DSC/SNW has both buttons and touchscreen which are used in tandem. Screens on the upper wall? Show images of space stuff, can't make them tvs of recorded stuff or change such as the communications array and intake of bussard collectors (seen in the back of Pike in SNW s1 e1) because no budget for that and no CGI. Yes, they did use those twice: once in the original Pilot and the other in the Doomsday machine as maps, but those were slides (I think?) and I don't know enough about how they could make that work. So that's the interior explained.
Scaling and size: The Enterprise is about as big as the Discovery in season 2. I can easily confirm this, they show runners explained in a post (pls Google it) that the Enterprise model in CGI was scaled up to the DSC because of that special spore drive crossfield variant's ships's very long Nacelles (likely for the spore drive again) and some images taken by (Trek Central?) zoomed in on one of the scenes during Pike's introduction and debut in DSC season 2 when the viewscreen showed the Enterprise stats, the zoom in confirmed that the specifications of the Enterprise were in fact what was established earlier before DSC, just meaning the scale up was as said by the show runners.
External multiple ship visuals: With the size wrapped up, let's move on the the visuals. First things first: design updated for a modern audience, the TOS or first Pilot Enterprise will not suffice on screen with today's CGI. Now as for quick anylasis of ship design differences in DSC: Nacelles come in all different shapes and sizes in TNG, DS9, Voyager, Lowedecks, Prodigy, Picard, and (beta canon) Star Trek Online being the result of technology from different ages. All these ships have new and nacelles and armaments from technology development and their roles. DSC? Same thing. ENT, DSC/SNW, and TOS nacelles? Starfleet was expirmenting. And though not shown due to not good enough glances and potential bright lights, at least in STO all these DSC ships have bussard ramscoops with the rotating impellers just the Enterprises from ENT, DSC/SNW, and TOS. These are all ships of different era. As for not seeing other ships in TOS? Very limited budget to make other different looking ships. Botany bay scenes were reused for the Antares freighter ship in the episode with Charlie X. Klingon D7 did not show up on screen due to not enough money to make model until season 3 then repurposed for Romulan D7 ships with an explanation of Klingon- Romulan alliance/tech trading. TOS Movies? Reused their already much higher quality models from previous films, and kept the Reliant similar to film Enterprise for consistency.
*Darker and different colored hull plating: TNG and other golden era track show ships have different colored hulls, technology differences and upgrades.
Enterprise external changes: yes I know there are some major differences, but again - updated for modern visuals.
Consistent to TOS:
* deflector dish
*shuttle bay interior (mostly)
* shuttle bay doors
*3 windows at the front of the saucer, * airlocks and docking ports, kept under the ship's retractable hull plating (confirmed for docting tubes in DSC "such sweet sorrow" and SNW s1 e "Momento Mori", Airlock on saucer was under hull plating in TMP when they step out to V'Ger.)
* Turbolift, on top of the ship sticking out a bit, possible reference to now removed bridge module/deck 1 in the original Pilot, with the upper sensor dome/bridge roof window covering what used to be there
Differences:
* deck 2 which likely contains briefing/ready rooms in Pilot 1 and TOS still contains those as seen in Short Treks and SNW, but the bridge has been moved to deck 2 for DSC/SNW and a bridge window added in front. Is changed back in TOS after the new bridge module/original deck 1 is added back. Moving bridge module down a level makes the Enterprise look more streamlined, seeing the bridge module sitting on top of deck 2 always made me think Enterprise looked a bit off.
* Warp engines and nacelles, pylons: removed and replaced with simplified but more advanced and refined (visual budget of TOS) nacelles, weight shifts require changes to pylons due to more mass changes.
* Impulse engines: show runners said they wanted impulse engines to look more primitive but took inspiration from Excelsior 2, in TOS impulse drive had a drive with dual engine ports. In SNW this location is here showing where the new TOS impulse engines will be put, though it serves no (known) function ATM, besides the probe launch tube which is also present (never use shown) on the TOS engines if one looked closely. The DSC/SNW engines are on the sides of the TOS engine ports and do in fact look more primate than the single exhaust port of both sides on the TOS impulse drive, there are 3 exhaust ports on both sides of the SNW one. May look faster, but as shown and referenced and implied in TMP, the TOS impulse engines are better and have been further upgraded In TMP while still being dual single port engines.
* Neck: additional baggage removed, extra structural support (different plating and color) at the front for more support on gravity.
* Shuttle bay "extension"/runway: I hate this hull extension, ruins the form of the SNW Enterprise for the side for me. Removed due to unneeded extra mass.
* Cargo bag below hull: Ship's after SNW don't have a large cargo bag with separate doors after SNW, however in TMP there is a large bay at the forward end of the shuttle bay, making the shuttle bay used for large cargo transfer. In ST 5 there are 2 garage like doors in the shuttle bay which may be access points for the cargo bag so worker bees can transfer stuff out.
Escape pods: never shown in DSC, SNW, TOS, or TOS movies. All Starfleet ships have escape pods, so just like airlocks and docking ports, located under retractable hull armor to be protected.
Super long! I think that's it? Anyways some of the DSC and SNW ships are off screen on Starfleet during the TOS and SNW eras, they just didn't the the budget to really show other ships beyond the look of the ships resembling the Constitution 2 and Excelsior. Hope you enjoyed and LLAP
