Favourite original FX shots...

That's gorgeous isn't it?

I first watched TOS in full back in 2005 or so... back then there was no remaster, but sadly now I'm so inured to the CGI that I can't remember what much of the original shots looked like.

What I will say is they are pretty much all beautiful work. Genius people working against limitations and sometimes inventing new ways to do things. One day I hope i'll own them on DVD again so I can enjoy them as they originally were.

 

I really liked the original first shot of the Enterprise firing phasers in The Corbomite Maneuver. Two very quick bolts that looks like energy rather than just lines. Same with the original "proximity" phasers used in Balance of Terror. They looked like light bots but later torpedo shots in the first season looks like colored blobs.

Not to mention the great aft view of the Enterprise firing phasers in The Alternative Factor.

And that one awkward shot of the Enterprise approaching Tantalus 5 in Dagger of the Mind, which looked like an unused take filmed for the second pilot. It was all sorts of "slide it across the screen" rather than the camera moving past the model.

 

The opening shot of the Enterprise in "The Cage." The push into the bridge gets me every time.

 

I've always loved the planet matte paintings from the first season, like the Eminiar capital city in "A Taste of Armageddon."

 

I always loved the original "Alternative Factor" phaser firing shot.

 

Original shuttle bay looked great, too.

 

I agree. The CGI shuttlebay looks like crap to me. Too small and cramped.

 

I can't see the images but you're probably showing pictures of my favorite shots of the Enterprise.

My favorite f/x is when they would do closeup beauty shots of the ship, like iirc, at the beginning of "Immunity Syndrome when they show the episode title. Another close shot of the Enterprise I liked was one showing the ship slightly above the saucer section from the front with the nacelles looming behind with the thingies in the nacelle caps spinning.

I also always like the shot of the Enterprise firing on the planet in "Alternative Factor" but it 'does' beg the question; "They have to turn the entire ship in order to aim phasers?"

Robert

 

Are you outside the United States? Or maybe you're behind a restrictive company firewall on your work computer? The links to TrekCore images work fine for me.

 

Some fans have recreated the 11 footer in 3D (more often as a completed model rather than an unfinished filming miniature) or used their own well made Polar Lights 1/350 Enterprise model and strive to recreate the exterior shots we are all so familiar with right down to simulating the original camera lens and lighting. The results are gorgeous as we see the shots as if they were crisp and pristine rather than grainy and faded originals created through the old optical printers used back in the day.

Doug Drexler once commented that to properly recreate those shots one’s model should be scaled at 11 ft. rather than 947 ft. to get the perspective right.

My essential point is that so many of the original shots of the Enterprise are fantastic and would be even more so if they were sharp and pristine as we all see it in our mind’s eye.

 

That's a bit like looking at the stock Enterprise-in-orbit shots and thinking, "Either that planet is tiny, or the Enterprise is hundreds of miles long! And why is the ship rolled over 90 degrees?" I always saw those shots as stylized and not meant to be taken literally.

 

One of the last shots of the 11 footer was chopped up…showing the Enterprise slowing turning….nacelles turning.

 

I tend to agree but I vaguely remember someone on this board (maybe @blssdwlf ) showing that you could get those shots from a ship orbiting a planet.

 

Oops, I'm sorry, I should have explained I can't see the images because I'm blind.

I still have my memories of the show and I still have a model of the Enterprise that I can feel.

Another shot of the ship I'll always remember is the one where the Enterprise is rushing toward the camera and cuts off just as a crash is imminent. It always made me catch my breath. Of course, I know in reality, the camera is moving toward the stationary model.

Robert

 

I did and the shot is entirely possible. Another TrekBBS member, CarbonCopy, calculated out on an orbital calculator program (IIRC) that the ship could be in a planetary orbit rather than just orbiting around a specific point above the planet.

 

That was me, under one of my Halloween names.

For anyone interested, the original thread is here: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/tos-enterprise-question.148570/page-3#post-5292702

A reference to it in a more recent thread about ship orbits, including remarks about the image hosting in the original post: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/starship-orbits-in-trek.301024/page-2#post-13072723

It wasn't actually a dedicated orbit calculation program by the way, but rather formulas manipulated in Maple, which is the program also used to generate the figure.

 

That is very nice.

That would be best with an orbit of K-7…but a Molniya orbit is rather straight with a severe turn at the “bottom.”

Pluto actually looks a bit like the distant planet in Requiem’

 

There are halo orbits too.

 

Love that one. Looks like a illustration from a SF magazine or book.

 

It's a shame they didn't have a chance to use the complete painting.