The new "going to warp" effect

[The Castellan]

I got eye strain from it.

Admittedly, it would be hilarious to see Chewie come out of nowhere and deck Sulu to activate warp first.

Just so long as we get to see Scotty bash a bottle of scotch over a certain smuggler's head and then have that lil goblin sidekick of his kick said smuggler in the side.

By the way....what WAS that lil goblin sidekick of Scotty's, anyhow?

 

[Cyke101]

By the way....what WAS that lil goblin sidekick of Scotty's, anyhow?

The straight man to Scotty's comic relief.

^

And don't forget that the ships just accelerate really fast with next to no Star Trek like stretch, bleed or trail effect.

I don't think we see this for the Enterprise, but we do for the other Vulcan-bound ships and the Jellyfish: a brief but still elongated and glowing trail, as if the TWOK-style warp were faster and simplified into a single line. It's most notable on the Jellyfish as it warps away from the camera in an angle. Exterior shots for Star Wars ships never showed such a trail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlPO1g2e590 <-- if you actually pinpoint-pause it at the right moments, you can see a warp trail from each nacelle from the other ships. I myself paused it at :29 for the three-nacelled ship.

(on a side note, how great is it to hear the term Spacedock after close to twenty years?)

 

[SilentP]

^

And don't forget that the ships just accelerate really fast with next to no Star Trek like stretch, bleed or trail effect.

I'm assuming you mean that's what Star Wars ships do (just accelerate really fast).

I'm guessing you missed the stretching you see on the Enterprises bridge when they hit warp, a second or so before they cut to the exterior shot of the Enteprise hitting warp.

 

[Cyke101]

^

And don't forget that the ships just accelerate really fast with next to no Star Trek like stretch, bleed or trail effect.

I'm assuming you mean that's what Star Wars ships do (just accelerate really fast).

I'm guessing you missed the stretching you see on the Enterprises bridge when they hit warp, a second or so before they cut to the exterior shot of the Enteprise hitting warp.

Beat me to it. If you watch the link above (again), at about 1:09 (the same shot where a previous photo showed stretching stars) you can also see on the viewscreen a portion of the saucer section stretching out akin to TNG style. You'd have to stare at the bottom of the video, however. The letters painted on the hull even become quite long in the process.

So in the briefest of senses, it's a combination of TWOK/TNG style warp.

Edit: In kpnuts' above link to the shot in XI, you can see the elongated saucer section on the viewscreen. I suppose we were all too busy looking at the stars to notice!

 

[JuanBolio]

It's more similar to SW's hyperspace travel than to any other depiction of Warp in Trek.

I'll buy that much, but to my eye they're still not terribly alike.

Are you blind?

You can't see the similarity between:

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8891/vlcsnap2009102623h26m49.jpg

[Oversized image converted to link. - M']

and

http://www.seds.org/archive/nodes/hyperspace.gif

[Hotlinked image converted to link. Please refer to TrekBBS policy concerning posting of images. - M']

??

Ok the Trek one is a lot more subtle with far less stars, but the effect is exactly the same.

They're vaguely alike, yes. I was thinking more of the new warp "ripple" effect shown when the ship is cruising along at warp compared to the Star Wars hyperspace "tunnel".

 

[cooleddie74]

I'll buy that much, but to my eye they're still not terribly alike.

Are you blind?

You can't see the similarity between:

http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8891/vlcsnap2009102623h26m49.jpg

[Oversized image converted to link. - M']

and

http://www.seds.org/archive/nodes/hyperspace.gif

[Hotlinked image converted to link. Please refer to TrekBBS policy concerning posting of images. - M']

??

Ok the Trek one is a lot more subtle with far less stars, but the effect is exactly the same.

Dude, Trek was always doing the stretchy-star thing when it went to warp. Check out the warp effect from early TNG Season Two, with Wesley and Guinan watching out the Ten-Forward window as the ship went to warp.

True. Actually, wasnt the first time we saw the stretchy-star wipe effect in Season 1(1987-88)? Even though Ten Forward wasn't shown for the first time until Season 2, the ship at warp and how it looked going that fast was seen umpteen thousand times in the show's first batch of episodes.

 

[ITL]

I think the new "going to warp" effect looks fine. And I really can't stress anough how much I don't give a crap if it's in any way similar to the SW effect.

 

[cooleddie74]

I think it's superior to the SW hyperspace effect. The SW effect is nice and somewhat cool to see but has remained basically unaltered on-screen since 1977, whereas the TREK franchise has tried to freshen and update some of the space visuals several times over the decades starting with TMP.

 

[Joby]

It's certainly good to get rid of the streaking stars, as that never made sense. It's the one change I like.

Why is everyone so hard on the streaking stars? I quite like warp being portrayed with a simplistic look.

Yeah I don't get why people are hard on the streaking stars either. I like them, this will sound strange but they feel relaxing. I think the streaking stars works well for the TV shows, but the new warp effects are better suited for the big screen. So basically they're all good.

 

[Trekker4747]

Why is everyone so hard on the streaking stars? I

Yeah I don't get why people are hard on the streaking stars either.

Because streaking stars are silly.

Drive down the highway sometime and note the markers along the edge of the road and how the woosh by you at 60 miles an hour. Now look off to the horizon and note a bulding, tower, or some other object way off in the distance? See how it's slowly moving? Now imagine that tower is a billion miles away and you're moving at a few hundred times the speed of light.

The effect would be the same. For distant objects to streak by like that the ship would have to be traveling a heck of a lot faster than it's "supposed to be."

 

[JarodRussell]

The streaks are not stars, they are tachyons visible once you entered subspace. Don't buy that? So what's that wobbly-bobbly stuff from the new movie?

 

[Joby]

Why is everyone so hard on the streaking stars? I

Yeah I don't get why people are hard on the streaking stars either.

Because streaking stars are silly.

Drive down the highway sometime and note the markers along the edge of the road and how the woosh by you at 60 miles an hour. Now look off to the horizon and note a bulding, tower, or some other object way off in the distance? See how it's slowly moving? Now imagine that tower is a billion miles away and you're moving at a few hundred times the speed of light.

The effect would be the same. For distant objects to streak by like that the ship would have to be traveling a heck of a lot faster than it's "supposed to be."

Who cares, they look cool and it's not a gaping science flaw that most people would notice. We are talking about a franchise with all sorts of other hokey science, where people dodge phaser fire, casually use black holes and stars for time travel and beam around to get places. So you gotta nitpick a warp effect? How are the new warp effects or any other warp effects more scientifically accurate anyways? It's like Roger Ebert once said, he believes Superman can fly because he has a cape and dares people to prove him otherwise with their comic book science.

 

[Classic Fan]

I loved it.

It was different from the really old and tired "stretch-to-warp-with-streaking-stars-and-a-light-flash-boom" effect. It was used through TNG/DS9/VOY and ENT.

This effect, although very Star Wars-ish, was a nice change. It was more of a crack and was instanious, yeah like Star Wars but who cares, i liked it.

Similar also to the first warp effect from TMP, where the stars streak into a kind of vortex (Coincedentally, inspired by Star Wars in the fist place, after they decided on a movie series to, well, ahem, compete with said Star Wars) It was more aggressive and powerful and conveyed more power and speed than it did in latter sereis/movies where it became as casual as picking your nose on the train, you could almost feel the 'boom' in your chest as they warped out.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

I think the new "going to warp" effect looks fine. And I really can't stress anough how much I don't give a crap if it's in any way similar to the SW effect.

^^THIS.

Love the way it looks and i love the way it sounds.

 

[Cyke101]

It was different from the really old and tired "stretch-to-warp-with-streaking-stars-and-a-light-flash-boom" effect. It was used through TNG/DS9/VOY and ENT.

This is just me, but I would have loved it if the Jellyfish and the Narada warped this way since they came from that era, but have all the other ships in the film warp the way they do now. I like the new warp effect, but for the sake of transition and contrast, I would have liked to have seen both styles. The last time we saw that was in Generations (Enterprise-B's movie streaks vs. Enterprise-D's stretchy-warp).

(on a semi-related note: Kirk and Spock with the current pew pew phasers vs. Romulans with TNG-style beam weapons)

 

[BolianAuthor]

What do you think about the new sfx for ships going to warp? I love it! The huge amount of engery involved really comes across. Although the loud "BANG" at the end really suprised me...almost fell out of my chair. I was prepared for the usual "psscht"..but not for that...lol

This is the one thing I LOVED about this film, that I can honestly say I felt was done better than any Trek in history before it.

Finally, we had a warp effect that TRULY conveyed pure, raw, unrestrained SPEED. I first saw the film in IMAX, and when I saw (and heard) the fleet go to warp, I was utterly beside myself with amazement. THIS is what warp drive truly is, and should be.

I just hope they keep that new effect, and don't play musical warp effects, like in all other films and shows.

 

[Trekker4747]

The streaks are not stars, they are tachyons visible once you entered subspace.

Tachyons visible in subspace that coalesces into stars when you leave warp (and comes from the stars when you enter it.)

Not saying I agree with the anti-streaking stars crowd, I like them, just pointing out why they're silly.

 

[Voyagerian]

Just finished watching the film again, and yep, like the new 'pow!' into warp. Boy, it really is more noticeable at the theatre, though, isn't it, with the big speakers...and the in-warpspace effect has grown on me.