Do you mean interior or exterior? Like Timo said, they used the bigger model for the big screen, as was necessary for the higher definition. Still, it seemed like they skimped in costs by reusing shots from the series. I think they should have built another model for the big screen, maybe refitting it a bit for the higher resolution. The Galaxy Class had a lot of life left to it in many ways. Including interior. They didn’t know how to shoot for the big screen, and the interiors weren’t as spectacular. They played with lighting, putting more shadows on the bridge, but it wasn’t enough. They needed to use different cameras if they wanted to reuse sets and uniforms. They rebuilt the bridge from scratch, having destroyed the original after the series, but they didn’t update where they might have, instead including IMHO pointless side bridge stations that defeated the purpose of the more streamlined original. They should have played with cameras and updated materials. The DS9 uniforms didn’t look great on the big screen either. I think all of this is why we was the E and FC uniforms in the following picture.
I loved the GENERATIONS 1701-D Bridge changes with new port and starboard side workstations. I wish the 1701-D ship had been in all the NG films. http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/gallery/artoftrek/ed-bridge-generations.jpg http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/gallery/bridges/ed-bridge-generations.jpg
I thought the expanded bridge, port & starboard consoles, were excess, changing things for the sake of changing them, and didn't make the Enterprise appear better. Face lifts are great if I see a cause and effect for the lift; the addition was made IMO to have the crew roll into the main viewer, and not make the overall vessel appear improved or better than the TV series version. I suspect the choice presenting low lighting schemes was because they didn't have the budget to repaint the bridge dark or installing clocks all around the workstations and the main viewer; excesses ridiculously done in the previous movie (which was a decent movie BTW).
i think they added the port and starboard consoles so there weren't just blank beige walls on either side of the set. but yeah, the lighting was done so the sets would hold up better to scrutiny on the big screen since they weren't originally built for that.
pst, not only am I looking at the consoles but the entire facelift appearance. I think they wanted to have stunt people launch off of those consoles and the production team added a step for the bridge to launch into the main viewscreen. IMO not necessary, those new workstations should've had a purpose instead of just to be blown up and have crew people flying all over the bridge set. Let me add: I didn't see anything wrong or non-cinematic of TNG bridge, I mean it's not as spectacular as OPS on DS9 but I wouldn't have mind if the facelift was done with a similar presence of qualify done on the Final Frontier bridge- -which was a nod to TNG.
fair assumption, but i think they look a lot better than the equipment bays so i was down with the "facelift". and i even liked the moody lighting. though the green-ish hue of the blu-ray transfer makes the warm yellow sunlight coming in through the windows look a sickly green. so that's unfortunate.
Love it. After TNG ended, I can't name a single new Federation ship design I like. One or two interesting approaches, but nothing good. Just one ugly ship after ugly ship. And the Enterprise designs F to J, official and not, are worse and worse.
The Enterprise D has a very elegant design. It is a beauty. I wasn't fond of the layout of the bridge though. I didn't like how the stations behind the captain's chair were elevated on a higher level. The commanding officer should be able to see what is happening on the entire bridge from his seat. The captain shouldn't have to stand up and move around in order to see all the stations and the people manning them. Being on different levels plus having the security station as an obstruction behind the captain's chair, it doesn't make for efficient communication between the captain and the people behind the captain's chair. Another thing I didn't really care for was the pairing of the captain's chair with the two side chairs. The setup of the captain's chair with the two adjacent chairs looked somewhat imperial. It kind of looked like a throne. The captain (his majesty) in the middle, with his number one (heir apparent) on one side and his counselor (with Troi sitting next to Picard, an alien viewing the bridge could just as well have assumed that she might be the captain's queen) on the other. Otherwise, I liked the color scheme of the bridge and the carpeting as well.
When the DS9 camp hired Jim Martin to illustrate, he was a great addition IMO and the designs were beautiful and very Star Trek and I thought he should've been hired to at least make an attempt to design the new Enterprise. Nope, they hired Star Wars super fan John Eaves and his ugly work has smeared Trek til this day. There's nothing smooth or sleek about his work. Bleh!
The additional stations in GENS didn't just ruin the 'technology unchained', streamline design philosophy of the TV show bridge, the whole thing (packing the set full of crewmembers, too) serves to make the set feel smaller... which is ironic, for the big screen... on TV, 1701-D's bridge always felt huge. It wasn't actually that big in real life, but on TV it felt big because of the lack of crewmembers and the use of camera angles and the command chairs being in that pit, there was a lot of stuff that gave the illusion of height and depth, but the movie version basically looks cramped and way too busy. I used to love the movie bridge, but over time I've come to appreciate the TV version more than it.
The E-D is a thing of beauty, especially in those opening shots where the camera sweeps from right to left across the front of the saucer and she just fills the screen. The luxury angle as a means of showing advancement is terrific as well - for fans of the Mass Effect series, it's like earlier ships being like the interior of the Normandy (not that she ain't a pretty ship), and the E-D basically being a flying Citadel.
In some of the behind the scenes books, they talked about wanting to add side stations during the series runs but held back for budgetary reasons. I liked the design better without them, for reasons nicely articulated by others upthread. One thing that really bugged me about those side stations were that they appeared to have wheeled chairs on a narrow ledge (this isn’t the first time trek has done this). Who’s bright idea was that? ETA: guess the wheeled chairs on the side stations was an invented memory, according to this photo. Still seems like an unnecessarily hard backward fall from the back-less stool.
I recall reading they added the side consoles because, doing a movie, they could afford extras to man them (see also: Ten-Forward being Saturday night busy for the only time ever)
I think another reason was that the movie was in widescreen, and the original bridge layout was created to fit everyone into a 4:3 frame so by adding side stations there's something happening on the sides of the frame and not just empty ramps. I read the new framing is also why they raised the command chairs and lowered Worf a bit by finally giving him a chair.
For years, I thought the Enterprise-D in "Generations" had been refit on the outside as well as the inside, so that the nacelles were placed further back on their struts. Below is a comparison image I edited together:
I would have liked to see the E-D's stardrive survive, with the saucer still crashing and being irreparable. The stardrive could have been fitted with a new saucer (smaller, no room for families) and new nacelles. A refit E-D would have been a nice call back to TMP in the first full-TNG film.
There were several reasons, but the biggest is that I was a kid with a wild imagination, lol. I think the Amargosa scene certainly helped, but the main movie poster (the one with Kirk and Picard's faces on it) show the Enterprise in a sort of angle that I hadn't seen it from before. Again, being a very wildly imaginative kid, I figured if they made all the changes to the inside of the ship, there had to be some exterior changes, as well. Also, I had to distinguish my lego Galaxy class ships I built at that age from each other, so it gave me an excuse to make the movie Ent-D look different from the TV Ent-D.
I think the E-D looked incredible on the big screen, especially when you consider it was never built for that resolution originally (heck, it wast built for HD either and also looks great). For generations they repainted the model and, as previously mentioned, brought out the 6 footer which they essentially stopped using entirely after BOBW pt 2 separation sequence and battle (at least when it came to new exterior shots). If you think about it, the fact they were able to reuse some of the very same footage ILM created for the Pilot 8 years prior is a testament to their work.