I remember the flyby of the TMP Enterprise getting a standing ovation on opening night. Then again, Chekov got a standing ovation, so it was that kind of night. The only thing I remember people grumbling about at the time was the way the movie recycled the plot of "The Changeling." I remember jokes along the lines of "Where Nomad Has Gone Before." But I don't remember any bitching of the ship itself. It was the Starship Enterprise--on the big screen! What else mattered?
Excellent topic! I was 16 when TMP came out. The fanbase had been primed for many months by articles in Starlog and Cinefantastique that the ship was going to change. I can only speak for myself but I suspect most everyone would have been happy to see the same sets and costumes from the TV series. When I started seeing the new uniform designs in Starlog magazine, I was horrified. I remember being okay with the bridge redesign. When i saw the movie, I was terribly disapponted that all those blinking lights that seemed to have a purpose on the TV bridge were replaced by what looked like Christmas tree lights that just blinked randomly, especially at Spock's station. I must admit liking most of the changes to the ship. i was most upset that technology that seemed commonplace in the series now was treated as if it was dangerous. On the show, the transporter was just a room with a console and the transporter platform. In the movie, there was visible machinery and conduits in the walls giving the magical transporter the feel of a dangerous power station. Worse yet, the transporter operator had to stand behind glass as if to shield them from something equally dangerous. What was fantasy in the show was now cold, hard, functional and drab work. The characters on the show seemed to enjoy being on the ship. The characters in the movie seemed to have dangerous jobs, or worse yet, boring jobs. I've tried to imagine what those poor people at the standup stations on the new bridge must have felt after a couple of hours staring at their small console while their legs got tired. Having said all that, I finally had some sort of epiphany a couple of years ago. I watched TMP and wasn't hung up by what I missed from the TV show and suddenly accepted the movie on its own terms. Now, I consider it to be one of my three favorite a trek movies of all time.
When I saw Galaxy Quest I identified with Alan Rickman's character's reaction to seeing the full-scale working replica of the Protector in space dock, and sort of wondered if it had been inspired by fan response to that ST:TMP drydock sequence: "My god, it's real!"
The Opel GT was made from 1968 to 1973. And it was pretty, in spite of looking a bit like a Corvette that had been through a trash compactor. He can't possibly be thinking of the Studebaker Avanti, one of the most beautiful cars ever built. Besides, the original Avanti was produced from 1962-1964. That Indian-made DC Avanti is a new 2013 model. And it looks like a dozen other contemporary high-performance exotic cars.
It was the Opel, somebody suggested that and it clicked for me so I acknowledged it upthread. The kid was driving it in 1978 & 79, so maybe it was a used model from the early 70s?
I understand fans' problems with the TMP Klingons even less than I understand their issues with the refit Enterprise. The new Klingons in TMP were scary, in contrast to the nearly laughable types of TOS that owed more than a little to the Emperor Ming. Granted, TMP made them so by using fairly straightforward tropes, such as red lighting, smoke, makeup, fangs, guttural speech, etc. But it worked: they seemed much more threatening than before. More animalistic. Too bad later Trek rendered them all but ineffectual in hand to hand with our beloved protagonists. (Frankly, I never saw the need to "explain" the "discrepancy" of their TMP appearance with TOS by the augment virus, either, but that's another story.... Fans can be such literalists!)
I don't think so. The bigger problem was the film being a rehash of The Changeling and Nomad with a bit of The Immunity Syndrome with the scale of the cloud and the endless fly through.
Someone made a fan design for 1701 based on the Planet of the Titans reimagining of the Enterprise by Ken Adam. I wonder how fans would have reacted if the "refit" had looked like this: http://www.galacticempire.org/2011/05/star-trek-planet-of-titans.html
Yeah, sorry, I skipped over your earlier post. Naaah, I just don't see it. Now, THIS looks like a car with the back half missing.
I think the original boxy design comes from before Star Wars. We're also talking about the same designer, here.
Actually, the design is postSW, but more importantly, it is McQ's version of Ken Adam's much cooler sleeker charcoal sketch. He really did SWize it.
that looks like you could use it as a work bee if you took the wheels off, stuck waldoes on the back fender and dragged it backwards.
I assume that's meant to be the photon torpedo launcher. But what about those illuminated slots on the sides of the engineering hull? I keep thinking of shoving a CD in there.
Wes, there was. Stuff like: "The new nacelles look like they where lifted from a Klingon Battle Cruiser." "Why suddenly mount the photon torpedo launcher on the neck?" "Why two Turbolifts to the Bridge now?" "Why did they move the location of the science station?" and more All the above ending with the (now classic): "THIS IS NOT TREK!" admonishment.