News Exclusive: Scott Bakula Eyeing Star Trek Return In President Archer Series Pitch From ‘Enterprise’ Producer

[Tuskin38]

Isn't that kind of dealt with on roddenberry.x.io?

That isn't canon.

IIRC it was said in an interview that it's just a licenced product like the novels/comics.

 

[The Wormhole]

According to studio executive "experts", we couldn't have any functional Connies in TNG (refit or otherwise) because it would profoundly confuse the poor addled wiffle-ball brains of the viewing audience.

A decision that was made very late in the day. The original plan with The Battle was that the Stargazer was meant to be a Constitution class, in fact, that's what the actors even said when the episode was filmed. But then this ruling was made forbidding them from using the Connie, so they decided, "hey how about we use that ship Picard has a model of in his ready room?" Which they named Constellation since that was easy enough to dub over in post to match the actors saying Constitution.

Amusingly enough, when they first decided to make the Stargazer a Connie, they swapped out the model in the ready room and replaced it with a Connie model, creating the rather ironic situation where The Battle is the one episode where Picard does not have the Stargazer model in his ready room.

For the same dubious (dare I say specious) reason, we would never see the Enterprise-E (or any other Sovereign-class ships) in any episodes of DS9, even if it meant potentially turning the tide in the Dominion War, or at least some critical battles.

Behr really wanted a Sovereign class ship to be featured in the WYLB battle thinking it would sell to the audience how much of a Big Deal that battle was. But Paramount refused because they wanted the Sovereign class to be a movie exclusive ship with the belief that if they showed one on a TV show, people wouldn't bother to see the TNG movies in theatres. Though as it turned out, no one went to the theatres to see two of the three movies featuring the Sovereign class anyway.

I suppose we should be thankful we actually saw the Defiant doing what it was originally designed to do in First Contact, even though they were given explicit instructions not to destroy it. Ironically, they did that very thing in the show not long after - enter the Sao Paulo.

IIRC, that had more to do with Behr not wanting the Defiant to be destroyed in a production he had no involvement with. Which is why he was okay with it being destroyed later on on DS9 itself.

 

[Tuskin38]

Picard does not have the Stargazer model in his ready room.

The model in his ready room is not the Stargazer. Wrong registry number.

 

[The Wormhole]

Whatever, we all know what I meant.

 

[Dukhat]

New management aka Skydance.

And what would be their motivation?

A decision that was made very late in the day. The original plan with The Battle was that the Stargazer was meant to be a Constitution class, in fact, that's what the actors even said when the episode was filmed. But then this ruling was made forbidding them from using the Connie, so they decided, "hey how about we use that ship Picard has a model of in his ready room?" Which they named Constellation since that was easy enough to dub over in post to match the actors saying Constitution.

That’s not quite correct. To my knowledge, there was no ruling stating that the TMP refit couldn’t be used. At the time, the model was on loan to Bran Ferren & Associates for use in TFF, and the model was damaged and repainted between that film and TUC, rendering it unusable for TNG. But the plan for ‘The Battle’ was very much that the model would be used. Literally the only reason why it wasn’t was because Greg Jein built a new model on time and under budget based on that ready room model, which as you state was never meant to represent the Stargazer.

Behr really wanted a Sovereign class ship to be featured in the WYLB battle thinking it would sell to the audience how much of a Big Deal that battle was. But Paramount refused because they wanted the Sovereign class to be a movie exclusive ship with the belief that if they showed one on a TV show, people wouldn't bother to see the TNG movies in theatres. Though as it turned out, no one went to the theatres to see two of the three movies featuring the Sovereign class anyway.

Actually, Paramount just wanted to reuse stock footage from a previous episode for the WYLB battle, which is why we didn’t see a Sovereign. But yes, they believed that the audience would think a random Sovereign in the background was in fact the Enterprise-E, and they didn’t want to confuse them. I have no idea why they thought this.

The model in his ready room is not the Stargazer. Wrong registry number.

As mentioned above, the ready room model was just a random kitbash set dressing and was not supposed to represent any particular ship. Until it did.

 

[Tomalak]

Wasn't the damage done to the model when it was loaned to Universal to film the Star Trek Adventure attraction?

My recollection is that Bran Ferren was not guilty, and rather had to try to fix the damage that had been done before he got his hands on the model.

 

[Dukhat]

Wasn't the damage done to the model when it was loaned to Universal to film the Star Trek Adventure attraction?

My recollection is that Bran Ferren was not guilty, and rather had to try to fix the damage that had been done before he got his hands on the model.

I remember reading an interview where someone (I guessed to be a VFX person for TUC) mentioning that when they received the TMP refit model back to film, someone had painted the underside of the saucer, requiring them to repaint it back to its original paint job before they could film it. I also remember them mentioning that the model had been damaged, although to what extent I'm not sure. But if you have better evidence of what happened, I'm all ears. Maybe @Maurice has the answer?

 

[137th Gebirg]

The only repaint I recall was from TWOK, when ILM apparently had troubles filming it with all the reflective pearlescent paint. Was wreaking havoc with the blue screen compositing process and producing accidental "holes" in the surface, so they had to matte it down a bit. I do remember parts of it being painted flat white (disgusting), but not entirely sure when that happened. Maybe the VFX house that used it for TFF messed it up. Wouldn't surprise me in the least, considering the quality of that end product.

 

[Tomalak]

I remember reading an interview where someone (I guessed to be a VFX person for TUC) mentioning that when they received the TMP refit model back to film, someone had painted the underside of the saucer, requiring them to repaint it back to its original paint job before they could film it. I also remember them mentioning that the model had been damaged, although to what extent I'm not sure. But if you have better evidence of what happened, I'm all ears. Maybe @Maurice has the answer?

The Memory Alpha article is thorough and well-evidenced with interviews from the key players.

To summarise: ILM left it in good condition after TVH, with a repaint to remove the damage from TWOK and TSFS.

Universal then borrowed it for 'Adventure', at which point Ferren alleged it had been "vandalised" with a flat matte grey spray job - and this is visible in the new shots for the attraction. Ferren's team spent six weeks refurbishing the model, including re-wiring the electrics.

When ILM got it back for TUC they found it in decent shape but with the power cables "hacked off". John Goodson said that "the entire bottom of the saucer had been spray-painted flat white". So they overhauled the model - completely re-wiring and repainting it.

ILM won't have known who caused what damage after it left them in 1986. So my takeaway is that Universal's spray job was probably the original sin, but that the refurb job Ferren did was not up to ILM's standards. Which would reflect his work overall.

 

[Dukhat]

The Memory Alpha article is thorough and well-evidenced with interviews from the key players.

To summarise: ILM left it in good condition after TVH, with a repaint to remove the damage from TWOK and TSFS.

Universal then borrowed it for 'Adventure', at which point Ferren alleged it had been "vandalised" with a flat matte grey spray job - and this is visible in the new shots for the attraction. Ferren's team spent six weeks refurbishing the model, including re-wiring the electrics.

When ILM got it back for TUC they found it in decent shape but with the power cables "hacked off". John Goodson said that "the entire bottom of the saucer had been spray-painted flat white". So they overhauled the model - completely re-wiring and repainting it.

ILM won't have known who caused what damage after it left them in 1986. So my takeaway is that Universal's spray job was probably the original sin, but that the refurb job Ferren did was not up to ILM's standards. Which would reflect his work overall.

Thanks for setting the record straight

 

[I am not Spock]

My big 3 sins of the Trek franchise are/were:

1) TOS Crew going out on a whimper on both TOS and TAS.

2) TNG crew going outcwith a whimper after Nemesis.

3) ENT crew being dissed in their own finale as we go through Riker & Troi in TATV.

#1 was rectified by The Undiscovered Country. 22 years after TOS was cancelled. 17 after TAS.

#2 was rectified with Picard season 3. 21 years after Nemesis.

#3 has not been rectified. Despite some Enterprise love from LD (T'Pol!) and SNW ("Those Old Scientists."

Not saying their have not been some cancellations and characters I thought could have been done better (Kirk's death in Generations, Laris, no Kelvin wrap up), but I don't think the DS9, VOY, DISCO, LD, or PRO crews were done dirty. DISCO was close. But the finale was OK and SFA gives them more chances.

agreed.

I think ENT was done the most dirty of any of the crews.

They really deserve a better send off. Every other crew i was satisfied with where they ended it. Even Prodigy, after only two seasons, i was pretty satisfied with the ending.

If nothing else, I want Trek to give ENT the conclusion it deserved

 

[Danja]

Exclusive: Scott Bakula Eyeing Star Trek Return In President Archer Series Pitch From ‘Enterprise’ Producer

Mike Sussman talks to TrekMovie about the pitch ahead of his appearance on our Saturday STLV panel.

trekmovie.com

If this happens, I imagine there'll be a powerful temptation to introduce ancestors of 23rd/24th, etc. century characters.

I don't see this going anywhere.

And people thought Picard S1 talked too much.

 

[Tuskin38]

I think ENT was done the most dirty of any of the crews.

I think Terra prime was a fine send off.