The problem is that Mudd's Class-J ship appears more as an over-exposed (camera term) ship but not as a glowing blob. This is a glowing blob. Regarding to models from TOS, were there ever any bts photos of the Eymorg ship from "Spock's Brain" or knowledge of what happened to it? The TOS' FX information is a bit fragmentary so just not knowing much of Mudd's ship or how it was created or its disposition doesn't seem out of the ordinary, IMHO.
Unseen TOS....
- Thread starter Warped9
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The problem is that Mudd's Class-J ship appears more as an over-exposed (camera term) ship but not as a glowing blob. This is a glowing blob. Regarding to models from TOS, were there ever any bts photos of the Eymorg ship from "Spock's Brain" or knowledge of what happened to it? The TOS' FX information is a bit fragmentary so just not knowing much of Mudd's ship or how it was created or its disposition doesn't seem out of the ordinary, IMHO.
One is a glowing blob cube, and the other is a glowing blob ship with nacelles. 
Believe or not I initially started this as basically a triangle with nacelles at each trailing corner. As I fleshed it out with more detail it morphed into the form you see now with a more discernible central hull and “wings” not raked nearly to the nose. Mind you that initial idea might still be worth exploring. This looks perhaps like Jefferies trying out certain ideas before revisiting it all out two years later.
Very nice work there
It's coming together. I like this.Believe or not I initially started this as basically a triangle with nacelles at each trailing corner. As I fleshed it out with more detail it morphed into the form you see now with a more discernible central hull and “wings” not raked nearly to the nose. Mind you that initial idea might still be worth exploring. This looks perhaps like Jefferies trying out certain ideas before revisiting it all out two years later.
“The model number "D7" comes from a joke played on Gene Roddenberry on the set. According to Roddenberry, as he showed up on the set one day, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy appeared to blow their lines. The two started shouting at each other: "Leonard! What do you mean saying this is a D7 Klingon ship! It's a D6!" "No, you idiot! The D6 has four doors over here and the D7 only has two!" Roddenberry at last intervened. But as he did so, he realized that he himself had no idea what the difference was -- even though he came up with the idea of a Klingon ship. To hide his embarasssment, Roddenberry told the two that "it really doesn't matter." Tha's when the whole crew burst into laughter, and Roddenberry realized he'd been played.”
http://www.sciencefictionarchives.com/en/collections/785/klingon-battlecruiser-model-museum-replica
I think I read this somewhere before years ago. But where did that get translated onto an “official” document such as a drawing? Again I don’t recall seeing it recorded anywhere until fans started referring to it in the ‘70s-80s.
Was it the Star Trek - The Motion Picture Blueprints?
I also recall reading somewhere that D7 was an abbreviation for Drell or D’rell.
I’ve also been thinking “Friday’s Child” isn’t the only episode with reference to a Klingon ship present in the vicinity. There is also “The Trouble With Tribbles” and “A Private Little War.”
In “A Private Little War” you don’t really have to show the Klingon ship although in-story a scoutship might make sense if the Klingons are really trying to be lowkey. In “Friday’s Child” the Klingon references a scoutship, but later Chekov references a Klingon warship. Semantically almost any Klingon vessel could be tagged a warship. Finally there is a Koloth’s ship in “The Trouble With Tribbles” I don’t recall immediately whether it’s referenced as a warship or a battle cruiser, but we know that Jefferies didn’t design the D7 until later, unless we want to assume he did design it a year earlier which is really changing history.
My roundabout point is my little design could be reused in “Friday’s Child” and “A Private Little War,” but would it still work story wise in “The Trouble With Tribbles?” Or do we assume, even for all his bravado, that Koloth commands a mere scoutship?
Or do I rescale my design a bit larger and come up with another idea for a scoutship?
*Sigh*
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After checking out the TMP blueprints online at Cygnus X-1, neither "D7" nor "K't'inga" appear on the pages. This is, however, where the "Drell" designation comes up, as in "Drell-4":
... which, of course, confuses the issue even more!
... which, of course, confuses the issue even more!
The Klingon lettering that Jeffries that put on the model was later expanded on by fans. Those three symbols apparently says D7A, but this was WELL after the series finished, and may well be influenced by the Shatner/Nimoy prank!
Yes, but D74, actually (although an argument can be made that it's DY4). The Klingon alphabet in question (as far as I am aware) originated from the "USS Enterprise Officer's Manual" (1980) by Geoffrey Mandell. I think it was called "Klingonasse". There may be an earlier instance, but I don't know of it:
"D7A" was a FASA invention - an upgrade to the D7, called the K't'agga class.
Almost reminds me of some of the FASA "Gunboats" - albeit larger, of course.
So pretty much all the classification references came after the fact rationalized by fans. There isn’t anything concrete established by Jefferies and/or Roddenberry.
That still leaves the question of how can you depict a Klingon battle cruiser in “The Trouble With Tribbles” when Jefferies hasn’t designed it yet. If Jefferies designed a battle cruiser a year earlier in Season 2 he either designs the D7 earlier or he designs something he later rejects or someone else (Wah Chang?) designs something Jefferies later rejects in favour of his own D7 design. Or you simply go with how the episode was filmed without showing the Klingon ship.
If you show something else it could mean/establish the Klingons have more than one ship design that can be classified as a battle cruiser—certainly not an impossibility.
You might want to check this, but I think the story above was first recounted in “The Making on Star Trek”, in which case Michael McMaster probably got D-7 from there. And from him and those seminal blueprints it caught on.
Also, according to this rather complete rendering of the design, the D-7 as we knew it was fully imagined and visualized by November 1967, so well before the third season. Early second season, in fact. It is arguable that this design was on the board during the production and possibly even planning of TTWT.
https://www.tumblr.com/startrekships/148692058451/klingon-battle-cruiser-original-design-by-matt
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