Damage to the Enterprise D 6 foot model

[treknician1701]

Hello, Everybody.

I wanted to ask this here, since there are so many people with knowledge about these things here, and I wanted to make sure of the facts. I had left the show, and was working elsewhere, when I heard a story about the large 6 foot Enterprise model, and the fact that it was really damaged. Rumor went that a tech, working at "Image-G" in Hollywood, programmed a computer for a motion control shot, started the program, and left the area to go to the restroom. When he came out, some time later, the camera, and it's lens, were embedded in the top of the saucer, going thru the 10 forward area, and moving into the "NCC" area, where it stopped.
A short time later, I found out that Greg Jein had been commissioned to build a smaller, 4 foot version of the Enterprise-D, which followed in my mind, that the rumor must be true, since everyone really hated dealing with the larger model, which was actually two pieces, since the saucer would separate, and both sections had a support rig, and a smaller, lighter model would be easy to work with.
I just wanted to know if anyone had a clue on this story.
Many Thanks.

 

[DonIago]

Or they just wanted a model that would be easier to work with.

In any event they used the 6 foot model in GEN, so if it was damaged, they repaired it.

 

[trekker670]

I hadn't heard that story, and I'd be weary to believe it as I'm sure heads would roll if that a tech had damaged a model that cost tens (hundreds?) of thousands of dollars.

I'd imagine it would have been extremely costly to repair the model from such damage for use in Generations. I'd also think that, if that were the case, it would have been mentioned in the Generations DVD.

 

[treknician1701]

Or, what they could have done, was use the 6 footer for shots of the separation only, and used the smaller 4 foot for other shots, since they had the big 15 foot saucer section to be used for the landing scenes. They could have shot the 6 footer from angles that would not show the damage, if they hadn't repaired it. The kid from "Image-G" was fired on the spot, according to the rumor. But I just want to know the facts, not conjecture. I'll ask Doug Drexler, he would know.

 

[Trimm]

All of the shots of the Enterprise in GEN that are not cg are of the 6 foot model. As to the rumor you speak of, given that they broke the 6 footer out of storage for BOBW2 it would be highly unlikely that any such damage would have occured.

 

[BillJ]

Isn't there a picture of the six-footer floating around where they had changed the registry to 1701-E before packing it away after Generations?

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

This thread is the only result I found on a quick net search to try and verify the story. If it did happen, there doesn't seem to be anything about it on the net.

 

[BillJ]

This thread is the only result I found on a quick net search to try and verify this story. If it did happen, there doesn't seem to be anything about it on the net.

Didn't they end up selling the six-footer at the Christie's auction several years ago?

http://www.mutara.net/Christies/EnterpriseD.html

I'd say that there's no truth to the story in the original post.

 

[doubleohfive]

This thread is the only result I found on a quick net search to try and verify this story. If it did happen, there doesn't seem to be anything about it on the net.

Didn't they end up selling the six-footer at the Christie's auction several years ago?

http://www.mutara.net/Christies/EnterpriseD.html

I'd say that there's no truth to the story in the original post.

 

[feek61]

If it did happened certainly they would have repaired it.

 

[Alrik]

This thread is the only result I found on a quick net search to try and verify this story. If it did happen, there doesn't seem to be anything about it on the net.

Didn't they end up selling the six-footer at the Christie's auction several years ago?

http://www.mutara.net/Christies/EnterpriseD.html

I'd say that there's no truth to the story in the original post.

Calm down people. I've now read it on the internet, therefore, it must be true.

 

[HIjol]

Hello, Everybody.

I wanted to ask this here, since there are so many people with knowledge about these things here, and I wanted to make sure of the facts. I had left the show, and was working elsewhere, when I heard a story about the large 6 foot Enterprise model, and the fact that it was really damaged. Rumor went that a tech, working at "Image-G" in Hollywood, programmed a computer for a motion control shot, started the program, and left the area to go to the restroom. When he came out, some time later, the camera, and it's lens, were embedded in the top of the saucer, going thru the 10 forward area, and moving into the "NCC" area, where it stopped.
A short time later, I found out that Greg Jein had been commissioned to build a smaller, 4 foot version of the Enterprise-D, which followed in my mind, that the rumor must be true, since everyone really hated dealing with the larger model, which was actually two pieces, since the saucer would separate, and both sections had a support rig, and a smaller, lighter model would be easy to work with.
I just wanted to know if anyone had a clue on this story.
Many Thanks.

...maybe this is what you are remembering?


From 'Memory Alpha", http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Studio_model


Molds were taken from the original D7 model for Star Trek: Phase II and from the USS Grissom model to produce the SS Vico. However, there was a realistic chance to damage the original models (it is conceivable that the repaint performed on the D7 model in 1977 was done to repair damage when the mold was removed).

 

[treknician1701]

Well, here's the reply from Doug:

Hi Greg!
Never heard that story. Unsupervised motion control camera... I guess accidents do happy... but motion control is very slow tedious stuff. Hard to imagine a runaway.
I know that Dan and Gary disliked the big model. It was too unwieldy, and it they felt it was too smooth. Nothing to catch the light. They built the 4 footer out of practicality.
Doug


The only last thing that I want to check, is to contact Greg Jein. I'm sure that Doug would have known about this situation, however Greg would have been the final word on that, since he was the one to build the original, and then the 4 footer as well. But I'm pretty sure that this story is just that, a STORY! I have to take what Doug said back to the original person, and confront him with this, and find out exactly where he heard the story, trace it back to the creator of the story. I'd bet a nickel to a donut that it ends with this person!

I'd bet!

I'll let you know.

 

[Salinga]

I only know that the 6 footer was damaged at the nacelles (a crack) and it was sold at Christies with this damage.

Here is a gallery of the 6 footer when it was auctioned off:
http://jsbin.com/cotaxefe/1

 

[Dukhat]

The only last thing that I want to check, is to contact Greg Jein. I'm sure that Doug would have known about this situation, however Greg would have been the final word on that, since he was the one to build the original, and then the 4 footer as well.

Do you have Greg Jein's contact info? I've been searching for his email for years because I wanted to ask him some questions about BoBW.

 

[wtriker1701]

The only last thing that I want to check, is to contact Greg Jein. I'm sure that Doug would have known about this situation, however Greg would have been the final word on that, since he was the one to build the original, and then the 4 footer as well.

I think, that's the best approach for you to get behind the truth.

 

[jimbotron]

Speaking of damage, the 4-footer looks extremely rough lately. I saw it a couple years ago when the Trek Exhibition made a stop in San Jose. Included there was the Stargazer/Hathaway model and a Borg cube.

The 4-footer still had scars from the All Good Things modifications. It looks like they were glued on, and then ripped off, leaving depressions and removing chunk of the original material. Decals for NCC-1701-D were reapplied, but not very well.

Even if you look at the model just after it was built, it looks pretty rough. You can tell in TNG-HD that the impulse engine is covered by a thin film of red plastic. There's an apparent crack and some poorly filled seams along the neck, extending down to the nacelle pylon. Then there's the not-so-clean line separating the pylon and the nacelle.

http://tng.trekcore.com/hd/albums/3x26/the_best_of_both_worlds_part1_hd_173.jpg

I understand the convenience of having a smaller model with more apparent surface detail, but it looks like the model was rushed.

 

[treknician1701]

Perhaps it was rushed, being built quickly to be rushed into production. Perhaps there is a reason that it had to be, to get it quickly before the cameras. You may have hit on something there, Jim!

 

[sojourner]

Yeah, that makes sense. Building an entirely new model is much easier than repairing a damaged model.

 

[Maurice]

Models crack over time without cameras running into them. Materials decay, heat expansion and contraction due to the lights in them, etc. etc.