Mystery ship? Can anyone help?

Discussion in 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' started by gavinwatson, Nov 29, 2012.

  1. gavinwatson

    gavinwatson Cadet Newbie

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    Hi All,

    I have been going crazy trying to find a specific scene from a specific episode of TNG. A friend is telling me it never happened which I just cannot believe.

    What I remember is that the Enterprise approached a planet and an immensely superior and futuristic ship appeared with both energy and physical shields, it shot at the Enterprise with energy weapons that Gordie mentions as creating a huge energy surge in the Enterprise. The Enterprise fights back and the ship flys away, the Enterprise chases but the ship matches the Enterprises acceleration perfectly, so they can't catch it. Eventually they give up and Ricker says something like, "The one that got away".. I think Q summoned the ship to try and keep the Enterprise from going to the planet, but can't be sure. Thing is, I've searched every episode with Q and can't find this scene.

    Has anyone any idea? I know I've seen this but can't find it.

    Thanks guys,
     
  2. Start Wreck

    Start Wreck Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    It sounds like it's from The Survivors (season 3?). Although it wasn't summoned by Q, it was summoned by a god-like being, and I recall the scene matching your description more or less.
     
  3. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Yup... Sounds like it's this baby all right:

    http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s3/3x03/thesurvivors106.jpg

    Seems this model was later extensively modified to become Kivas Fajo's private ship in "The Most Toys" (the engines at the rear are the telltale), and then redone several times until it became a Bajoran (Cardassian?) ship, the triangular one with triangular nacelles. One of the better reworkings, as the ship is nearly unidentifiable each time she gets a makeover.

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  4. gavinwatson

    gavinwatson Cadet Newbie

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    That's it!!!! Thank you so much guys! :D
     
  5. EmperorTiberius

    EmperorTiberius Captain Captain

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    I wonder if Husnock would have posed a serious problem to Starfleet. That ship is 5 times the mass of Enterprise, which shows they have a decent industrial capacity, and at 50 billion population they would have had a small empire at least.
     
  6. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    That's assuming the ship was perfectly modeled after the Husnock and their ship and capability and not just a general ship created by the Dowd as a threat to the Enterprise.
     
  7. EmperorTiberius

    EmperorTiberius Captain Captain

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    Yeah I guess so. Dowd said that he tried to trick the Husnock in the simlar way. Perphaps he used the same ship or a fake Starfleet ship.
     
  8. jimbotron

    jimbotron Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    The Husnock ship was originally made with CG. I'm sure it's gonna look great on Blu-ray.
     
  9. Mott the barber

    Mott the barber Commodore Commodore

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    Never heard that before. You sure about that?

    Either way it was a cool battle and neat to see the Ent. go up against something superior.
     
  10. Tosk

    Tosk Admiral Admiral

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    It wasn't CG. The filming model was built by Tony Meininger.
     
  11. Timo

    Timo Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    In the scene where the model dives towards the planet to destroy the Uxbridge estate, you can see the stern and the telltale shapes of the red-glowing engines and the angled tubular things.

    http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s3/3x03/thesurvivors203.jpg

    This rear end will pop up again several times in TNG and DS9... With significant physical modifications and added detail, as the initial Husnock model appears very smooth and lacking in "scale establishers" other than the portholes.

    This variant is seen in "The Most Toys" and "Silicon Avatar":

    http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s3/3x22/themosttoys001.jpg

    This one is seen in Bajoran and Cardassian hands:

    http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/s5/5x03/ensignro230.jpg

    Timo Saloniemi
     
  12. Mott the barber

    Mott the barber Commodore Commodore

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    Nice catches!
     
  13. jimbotron

    jimbotron Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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  14. Tosk

    Tosk Admiral Admiral

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  15. Ar-Pharazon

    Ar-Pharazon Admiral Premium Member

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    ^ I think he meant that CGI would allow them to replace all those instances of the same model being used, if they decide to go that route.

    Or at least that poor quality shot specifically.
     
  16. Trekfan76137

    Trekfan76137 Ensign Newbie

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    Actually I believe it's fairly well documented that that shot is an experiment with using a cg Enterprise model.

    The giveaway had to do with the running lights I believe.

    Possibly referenced in Larry Nemecek's TNG Companion book and some other places if I remember correctly.
     
  17. Tosk

    Tosk Admiral Admiral

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    It's the two-footer. There are no CGI shots of the Enterprise in TNG.
     
  18. jimbotron

    jimbotron Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    I remember reading the same thing. That it was an experiment, and they didn't like the results, so they never tried it again.

    This used to be in the article from Memory Alpha, but was removed for not citing a source. I guess that's where I got it from:

    That being said, it looks very fake and low resolution. Even the worst shot of the 2-foot model looks better than that. I guess we'll find out one way or another when it's remastered.
     
  19. StewMc

    StewMc Commodore Commodore

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    There doesn't seem to be a confirmed, legitimate source of the "CGI Enterprise-D" claim, a Google search only really reveals the Memory Alpha page and a couple of threads on this BBS where its brought up. It certainly looks less detailed than the 2 footer, infact it reminds me of the CG Enterprise-D that appeared in the cutscenes of the game "A Final Unity". In this thread, even Rick Sternbach doesn't know what model was used.

    Did the 2 footer actually appear in new footage much after the second season? I seem to remember most of the new shots being of the 4 footer.
     
    Last edited: Dec 8, 2012
  20. Tosk

    Tosk Admiral Admiral

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    Can't be that, as the running lights can be seen in operation on the 2ft in Pen Pals.

    The 4ft didn't debut until The Defector, eight episodes after Ensigns. So if they needed a small scale Enterprise, it was all they had until then.


    There's another way to know it's not CGI. Just watch the shot in question. Often times with the model work, the hull pass would be cropped ever so slightly differently to one or more of the lighting passes, so at the edge of the frame you would see the lights where there was no hull or vice versa. And that happens on this shot. There is visible space where only the lighting pass is visible and the hull element is cut off.


    That said, it still looks like crap and I hope it is replaced in S3. Which is what TrekFan was saying originally. :)