Why did he need to do it?

[lawman]

Obviously a highly subjective view point but IMO, the new E seems a mix of different styles and a little disproportionate in terms of the secondary hull and the engine nacelles. When I first saw the TMP refit Enterprise, it was beautiful. When I first saw this one, I was saying "huh?"

Same reactions here.

I see the Brewery as a flawed B plan, since they could not use the original designs due to budget constraints.

First I've heard of this. Where was it discussed? What were the "original designs"? (And "budget constraints"? On this movie? Seriously? It's hard to believe in the first place, but if it's true I can see a dozen things that could've been cut to help afford an engine room.)

 

[OneBuckFilms]

Obviously a highly subjective view point but IMO, the new E seems a mix of different styles and a little disproportionate in terms of the secondary hull and the engine nacelles. When I first saw the TMP refit Enterprise, it was beautiful. When I first saw this one, I was saying "huh?"

Same reactions here.

I see the Brewery as a flawed B plan, since they could not use the original designs due to budget constraints.

First I've heard of this. Where was it discussed? What were the "original designs"? (And "budget constraints"? On this movie? Seriously? It's hard to believe in the first place, but if it's true I can see a dozen things that could've been cut to help afford an engine room.)

These have been mentioned, I believe at TrekMovie.com, as well as Star Trek: The Art Of The Film, which contains some of the original concept art for Engineering.

$150m is a lot of money, but it is not infinite, and the bottom line still has to be watched.

They had to create tha Narada, the Enterprise, Vulcan, Starfleet Academy, and a few other locations, as well as create everything completely from scratch.

Past Star Trek movies had the advantage, after TMP, of many elements already existing in terms of sets and models.

For this movie, you had far more sophisticated visual effects that had to be achieved, they had little-to-no pre-existing materials (sets, costumes etc.), and all of that costs money.

The VFX alone were far more complex that Star Trek: Nemesis, or prior Star Trek movies.

 

[OneBuckFilms]

Also, there are some concept paintings here, including a couple from Engineering:
http://conceptartworld.com/?p=2121

And Ryan Church's Engineering concepts are located at the Memory-Alpha page here:
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Engineering#Background
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Engineering

 

[thumbtack]

$150m is a lot of money

James Cameron won't even take the lens cap off his camera for that much.

 

[OneBuckFilms]

$150m is a lot of money

James Cameron won't even take the lens cap off his camera for that much.

Which lens? He has two per Camera now

 

[lawman]

Thanks for the links! There's some fascinating concept art there. I'm still not a fan of the catwalks-and-vast-open-spaces approach (which seems terribly impractical and just screams "Star Wars" to me), but at least this looks like it fits with the overall Enterprise design a lot better than what we actually got.

In terms of where money might've been saved, the first thing that springs to my mind is the whole Kirk-on-the-ice-planet sequence, which added absolutely nothing to the film. That's just the first, though.

 

[OneBuckFilms]

Thanks for the links! There's some fascinating concept art there. I'm still not a fan of the catwalks-and-vast-open-spaces approach (which seems terribly impractical and just screams "Star Wars" to me), but at least this looks like it fits with the overall Enterprise design a lot better than what we actually got.

In terms of where money might've been saved, the first thing that springs to my mind is the whole Kirk-on-the-ice-planet sequence, which added absolutely nothing to the film. That's just the first, though.

Lets see, it added:

- A fun action sequence.
- Some eye candy beyond what Trek had before.
- A chance for Kirk to meet Spock Prime, gain some exposition and meet Scotty.

That's quite a lot, actually.

They originally were going to hjave something vaguely akin to a dusty outpost int he middle of nowhere, but that was scrapped for being too expensive, and because Vulcan was a Desert Planet as well (the reason for changing to an Ice Planet).

The Makeup artist who designed the Aliens for that scene got to use his designs on the Enterprise, at the Bar and at Starfleet Acedemy.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Thanks for the links! There's some fascinating concept art there. I'm still not a fan of the catwalks-and-vast-open-spaces approach (which seems terribly impractical and just screams "Star Wars" to me), but at least this looks like it fits with the overall Enterprise design a lot better than what we actually got.

In terms of where money might've been saved, the first thing that springs to my mind is the whole Kirk-on-the-ice-planet sequence, which added absolutely nothing to the film. That's just the first, though.

Wide open spaces in engineering would be very TOS. You could hold a Prom on the floor if its engineering set(s). Or at least a wrestling match.

 

[lawman]

Wide open spaces in engineering would be very TOS. You could hold a Prom on the floor if its engineering set(s). Or at least a wrestling match.

It never looked that huge to me... but even if it was a large room, at least it wasn't criss-crossed with catwalks from which one could fall to one's death.

(The worst case of this was the Narada interiors, of course... apparently the Romulans didn't even believe in handrails?...)

 

[Nerys Myk]

Wide open spaces in engineering would be very TOS. You could hold a Prom on the floor if its engineering set(s). Or at least a wrestling match.

It never looked that huge to me... but even if it was a large room, at least it wasn't criss-crossed with catwalks from which one could fall to one's death.

(The worst case of this was the Narada interiors, of course... apparently the Romulans didn't even believe in handrails?...)

Not sure if this is from the Prom or the wrestling match.

Handrails are for weak scared humans. Romulans like taking chances, even on casual walks.

 

[F. King Daniel]

(The worst case of this was the Narada interiors, of course... apparently the Romulans didn't even believe in handrails?...)

I loved that. The idea was that Romulans are stronger than humans, so that huge jump Kirk does is nothing for Nero. No railings? Maybe Romulans just never thought of them, since they have better balence then humans?

I thought the Nerada looked awesome, inside and out.

[insert obligatory mention of Borg tech and Countdown for those who wanted a bird of prey and small green sets]