Star Trek: Discovery Episode 3.6 Review: Ups And Downs From Scavengers
8. The Refit In General (DOWN)
However, despite what has already been said about the new technology - which is admittedly fantastic - the refit itself comes with issues, enough to give the overall refit a down.
Let us start with the registry. The Discovery is now registered as NCC-1031-A.
Why?
The ship was not destroyed, nor is it replacing anything. It is not a new build in the same class. Going back to Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the beautiful Constitution class redesign was still the same ship, therefore it required no new registry. Unfortunately, it seems as though this A was added purely for cool points.
Second, there is the issue of the detached nacelles. This comes with a caveat. In Calypso, the shots of the Discovery show the nacelles attached. Now, if this is something that can be changed with the flick of a switch (and with programmable matter, it could be) then there is no problem here. If this is a permanent change, then has the show hampered its own continuity? That is not to mention the fact that there was no A on the Discovery in Calypso.
Then, there is the interior of the ship itself. There is a throwaway line referencing that they have decided not to change much of the interior. This begs the question: why?
Shouldn't the bridge have been upgraded to meet modern standards? Shouldn't sickbay have been upgraded?
In every refit that we have seen throughout the history of Star Trek, there has been structural changes along the way. The Constitution class alone has had more bridges than Meuse, so to leave the Discovery bridge set standing, to this writer, speaks more to cutting corners than anything else!