We continue our look at the Eaglemoss Official Starship Collection special releases today with one of the more unique entries in their model series: the S.S. Enterprise, original NX-01 designer Doug Drexler’s take on a refit of the starship featured in Star Trek: Enterprise.
Meant to evolve the look of the NX-01 towards the two-section configuration of the classic Enterprise NCC-1701 seen in the Original Series, Drexler began to tease his work on this design to fans in early 2010, and finally debuted the finished redesign in the 2011 Ships of the Line annual Star Trek calendar. 2014’s revised Star Trek: Ships of the Line hardcover also features graphics depicting the NX-01’s extensive refit.
Drexler did clarify in 2010 that as far as use in Star Trek: Enterprise, there were “no official plans to refit the ship” but that this refit was “something that [he] would have liked to have seen” as an evolution of the NX-class.
While this model itself is about 3 inches longer that Eaglemoss’ subscription-size Enterprise NX-01, there are number of notable modifications to the ship itself in Drexler’s design that are immediately noticeable – the largest of which is the addition of a secondary hull, which is to contain a larger, more powerful warp engine.
The existing warp module (mounted on the NX-01 between the nacelles) has moved to that secondary section, and the nacelle struts have been extended to reach; the nacelle caps also now have spires, a similar design element later seen on “The Cage” version of the Enterprise NCC-1701.
The entire ship has also received a light blue wash, slightly changing the tone of the ship, save for the underside of the hull addition and the new plating on the outer sides of the warp nacelles – though it’s unclear why the bottom of the ship is still silver.
Both the secondary hull and warp nacelles now also carry the classic Starfleet gold-and-red markings, along with a stylized S.S. Enterprise tag on the side of the new engineering section.
One disappointing part of the upgrade is the new deflector dish, an untextured piece of molded plastic which almost seems to have been an afterthought; Drexler’s concept graphics for the ship seen in the 2001 Ships of the Line calendar, along with the Eaglemoss magazine for this release, show the deflector having the same ridged detail later seen on the Constitution-class Enterprise.
A final note on this release; the display stand for the NX-refit finally holds this design in place in a sturdy and stable manner. Unlike the original NX-01 model, the NX-refit is grasped by its stand on the outside of the nacelle mounts, finally keeping the ship in place for display.
Overall, the NX-Refit model is a nice, interesting part of Eaglemoss’ growing line of “non-canon” Star Trek ship models, along with the Titan and Aventine from the literary Star Trek line – and with more expected to follow, as Eaglemoss’ Ben Robinson told us back in August – and you can order your own edition at their web shop.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more of our Official Starships Collection reviews, including looks at the large-scale XL Enterprise-D Enterprise-E, and Enterprise NX-01 starships, space stations Deep Space 9 and K-7, another round of shuttlecraft releases, and more!
In Eaglemoss’ US store, TrekCore readers can use promo code TREKCORE at checkout for 10% off any ‘Star Trek’ collectible purchase $50 or greater (Starships, Plaques, Binders, Graphic Novels).