Star Trek Ships Of The Line : 2005 Wall Calendar

Rating:
Summary: I Look Forward to this Every Year!
Review: Great images loaded with detail that we can't get anywhere else.
My only question is, what happened to the book that was supposed to come out last year? I'd buy at least one!

Rating:
Summary: Better than last ear, but not quite perfect says this fan!
Review: I am pleased to say that the 2005 Ships of the Line Calendar has some truly amazing artwork that rivals (some might even say surpasses) the 2001 entry. However, I do have some minor & one major point of annoyance with the selection of images. The major issue is that yet again, images from Enterprise clearly dominate most of this calendar. Counting the cover artwork, there are 8 out of 14 images dedicated to Enterprise. The makers of this calendar must have listened to last year's feedback & managed to incorporate references to all of the shows & movies. For that, I am grateful. However, due to the overabundance of images exclusively dedicated to Enterprise, we are only allowed two pictures from Deep Space Nine (apparently trying to make up for last year's omission) with only one image dedicated exclusively to the Original Series, Yoyager & The Next Generation each. Now onto my minor peeves. The cover art is of the NX Beta warp sled/rocket seen on an episode of Enterprise. I think that there are other ships that fans would have prefered to be included in the calendar, let alone choosing this dark horse to be on the cover. Also, using an image that is basically a rocket with warp nacelles on wings does not instill in a casual store browser an immediate association with Star Trek. From a marketing perspective, a better cover image should have been used. The April picture uses a much too small picture of the NX in the bottom center of the frame. Thus, it is cut in half by the binder line. Had the ship image used been bigger or merely offset to the left side of the page, it would have looked much better. But the worst mistake I observed, was in the centerfold. Here, we are treated to an image of all Starfleet vessels named Enterprise around a Fleet Museum. Beautiful! Except that instead of the true Enterprise B variant, the image used is of the standard Excelsior class. Also, & I admit freely that my obsessive fan boy tendencies are taking over, the movie era Enterpise is parked next to the version from the Original series & both clearly show the registry # as 1701. Thematically, the movie era Enterprse should have been labled 1701-A in that shot. Despite my observations, this latest calendar is a welcome addition to my Ships of the Line Calendar collection and I look forward to future installments.

Rating:
Summary: Lots of good pics...better than last years model....
Review: I wish there were more of these wonderful picutures. I especially liked the one of the Enterpise J from the time traveling Enterprise episode of last year. There is one CGI drawing for each era. Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Next Generation and the original series are all represented here. Perhaps the artists could add some CGI renderings to some of the other calender backgrounds. To have a shot the fans have never seen before in the series is very rare; especially in the well tred area of the original.

Rating:
Summary: Impulse Power Only
Review: One of the best ideas to come out of the merchandising juggernaut associated with Star Trek, over the last few years, is the Ships Of The Line calendar. The starships of the franchise are as much a "character" of the space saga as any human or alien that has been a part of its history.

The 2005 edition has a few good renderings of ships from all of the various incarnations, but ultimately loses points for "highlighting" the Enterprise-NX-01 too much. By doing so, it shortchanges all other ships. Just because the "prequel" series is still (somehow) in production, doesn't mean it deserves more of the attention. Having said that, the centerfold will wow you, just the same. I would recommend the original series calendar instead to keep track of all of your important stardates.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing artwork, Too much NX-01, and strange date layout
Review: The artwork, as always, is amazing. The 2-page spreads look great up close and 10 feet away. Like last year's Ships of the Line, this one features the NX-01 a bit too much.

My main reason for not giving it a 4 or 5 star rating is that the actual layout of the dates is non-standard! Instead of the standard five rows of seven days like every other calendar I've seen, the layout artist chose two rows of 15 or 16 days. This makes it a bit harder to glance at the calendar and see just what day "next Thursday" might be, forcing the viewer to scan along the line to find the day, labeled in a relatively small font.

Rating:
Summary: Almost a WOW
Review: The last reviewer has summed everything quite nicely. I also got my pre-ordered 'Ships of the line 2005 calendar' delivered to me yesterday. The calendar preserves the wide-screen format of the 2004 calendar with dates this time in horizontal format giving us mostly two rows instead of regular 4 rows. So we have even more less visible dates than 2004(which was a sore point to some people). However, I would state again as i did for 2004 that we buy 'Ships of the line calendar' for high-quality, paranomic, poster views of the star-fleet ships not for a memo pad . You need the most elongated surface area for poster quality images hence the dates size have to be rightfully sacrificed. You can get such memo calendars quite cheaply these days anywhere. Also the calendar usses the same hand-painted look of 2004 calendar. Infact the images now look hand-drawn only, and they dont have the patented, photo-realistic look which is the hallmark of star trek cgi in movies and tv series. I gave the calendar 4 stars because of this lack of photo-realism. Dont get me wrong, 2005 calendar has much better art than the 2004 one along with a smashing poster of all enterprise parked together in a space-dock. My main gripe is that these images are nowwhere as photo-realistic as they used to be prior to the 2004 calendar. Even though the art is much more creative this time around but the hand-drawn look gives it a cheap look like the budget was slashed or something. As before NX-01 gets the lion-share but we do get a smattering of all other series too including DS9. To sum it up, this calendar is a must for any Trekkie office or home display and will treat you to some terrific art and images of our star-fleet. Hopefully these Ships of the line calendars will 'Live long and prosper'.

Rating:
Summary: Simply amazing!
Review: When I ordered this I figured it would be the standard fair, that is, the Calendar opens up vertically. Picture above the fold and calendar below. With standard pictures/artwork/renders of varies ships.
Well wasn't I amazed when this was not the case at all. The Calendar is horizontal. The artwork is amazing. It takes up the entire horizontal surface of the calendar. With the days placed strategically out of the way but very see-able. Also, there are dates for the casts of the shows also placed on the page. But the real highlight is the magnificent artwork. This is something to keep well after 2005 is long gone. I was actually stunned by the wonderful artwork and I couldn't help but crack a huge grin on the centerfold.
If you need a calendar to write on this is NOT the one to get, but if you want something beautiful to look at and enjoy while you're looking up a date. This is a must buy.

Well worth every cent!

Rating:
Summary: Too Much NX-01
Review: With half the images being from the current flop show
'Enterprise', I'll have to take a pass on this one. A
better distribution of subjects would make this a 'must
have', instead it comes off as a cheap marketing ploy
for a miserable series.