Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise refit?

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

In case anyone needed a reminder....here's the girl in this blog post.

http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=26393

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

Sorry, but I must be in the minority, but I really don't care for it, and I'm glad they didn't go to it. I still hope they don't.

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

You are not alone.

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

Given they didn't use Ilia in "The Child" because they didn't want to to break continuity with ST:TMP, it would be inconsistent to go to this ship design for the same reasons.

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

As was mentioned earlier in thread, though, it could appear as a different ship. Suggesting the advancing design and tech of the Star Fleet subtly and more natural.

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

Is there actually anything explicit in canon that precludes a somewhat less drastic refit prior to the TMP version? I certainly don't recall anything.

That said, it seems unlikely to me that the ship would undergo two major refits in such a short period of time. That said, I don't think it's impossible either.

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

Looking at those pics, the only objection I have is the saucer windows. Would look better if they'd stayed with the TOS window layout and simply added the TMP "ribbing" over them. Maybe add a blue glow behind the recessed deflector dish as well.

I'm guessing the emergence of the TMP-style Klingons (and the K'Tinga-class warship) is the reason for this "quick-n-dirty" temporary refit. Look at it close, and you see it's still 85% percent the TOS Enterprise - the engine nacelles/pylons, photon torpedo launchers, deflector dish and saucer ribbing are all "plug and play".

Question - wouldn't this refit necessitate a new (or at least modified) Bridge set? To say nothing of Engineering, which hasn't been seen in P-II to date. To borrow from Kirk, once those new warp engines go in "They can't expect us not to look them over now!"

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

Dennis's model of the ship kept the window layout your describe, and I think it a better looking model than Daren's.

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Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

I agree on the window layout of the saucer in Daren's version, would look better if it remained true to the TOS layout. However, I feel overall that Daren's version stays more true to the lines of the TOS Enterprise, especially when you look at the Engineering hull. Dennis appears to have given the lower part of the ship more of a TMP shape. Somewhere between these two ships, the perfect version exists.

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

Dennis was trying to follow the plans for the actual Phase II model, which did have those TMP curves.

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

Curious...very....curious.

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

The goal, in my case, was to create a model that was as close as possible to what was apparently actually being built for Star Trek Phase II, with as little embellishment or artistic license as I could stand (both Jefferies's plans and the partially-completed model were so lacking in detail in some areas that I invented a very little bit). I based the whole thing on photos of Don Loos's model, Jefferies's plans and a couple of pieces of production art by Michael Minor that have been widely reproduced.

The reshaping and reproportioning of the engineering hull and saucer are both changes that Jefferies made in his Phase II drawings and that were implemented in the model built for the series - they were simply continued into the ST:TMP redesign.

If there's a "perfect version" of the Phase II model aesthetically, IMAO it's the ST:TMP model.

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

Well, there's always that model that's converted 95% into the movie version (hints: saucer superstructure, the top of the impulse engines and the domes on top of the nacelles, red band around the nacelle cut-out to echo the TOS Connie's stripe, ...):

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

It's an ugly thing, though, with a plain white enamel paint job and really blocky, simplified detailing added on. It'd have been more interesting to see it finished as intended.

[EDIT]: I couldn't see the picture above, earlier. I thought you were referring to the Loos model as it was converted for display some years later - basically, they tacked on a lot of detail to heighten its resemblance to the ST:TMP model. The photo you're displaying isn't the model built for Phase II, but the ST:TMP model as originally constructed by MagicCam specifically for the big-screen movie - before Trumbull came onto the project and asked for additional detailing.

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

Oh yes, I realize that. I just meant that from the perspective of maintaining the believability of the upgrade within the new episodes, it's much more realistic that the main hull would still look pretty much the same and not adopt the new lines on the main body of the ship. I do think Daren's version would look better with more of a TOS styled saucer though.

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

Just to be clear, that pic is the TMP model before the self-illumination was added, and the superstructure and a few other bits were redesigned to accommodate it.

Price's Phase II model, TMP-ized in order to display at Planet Hollywood, looks like this (link).

 

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Yeah, that was the model I was referring to as having the blocky details and terrible paint job.

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

I've never much cared for the Phase II design. It's too much a product of 70s television thinking and that dates it horribly. They were only half way to a good design; getting the budget to redo it for the first movie finished the job properly.

Your version, Mr. Legion, is a well-done implementation of a half-decent design, and though I don't like the glowing "bussards" on yours or Daren's, I marginally prefer yours. But honestly, I never want to see either as anything more than a blind alley visited briefly out of curiosity and then scrupulously ignored thereafter.

 

Re: Did Phase II ever explain why they backed off on the Enterprise re

What about Matt Jefferies' design is "a product of 70s television thinking," and what does that even mean?