K'Tinga model question from TMP

[Xerxes1979]

how many were there? I ran across an ancient TMP featurette on youtube which seems to show fx crew exploding at least one with pyrotechnics.

Was this done as a test project?

Were these models smaller than the IKV Amar/Kronos One model we saw in the films?

 

[Maurice]

The explosions you see were done, I believe, before RA&A were fired from the film, and were likely pyrotechnic tests. There was only one Klingon Battlecruiser model used in footage used in TMP, which was 50-something inches long, originally built by Magicam and then had more and more surface detailing heaped on it over time, which is why some photos of the same model appear inconsistent.

 

[Christopher]

For a while, the makers of TMP were planning an ending sequence where, after V'Ger ascended, the Klingon ships it had swallowed up in the beginning would reappear and attack the Enterprise, forcing an emergency saucer separation (there are some gorgeous Andrew Probert storyboards of the separation in The Art of Star Trek). The test explosions were probably meant for that battle sequence, which was mercifully dropped. (It made no sense. Why would the Klingon ships reappear but none of the other countless things V'Ger had digitized, such as Ilia? And what story purpose would've been served by a tacked-on space battle after the climax?)

 

[Psion]

For a while, the makers of TMP were planning an ending sequence where, after V'Ger ascended, the Klingon ships it had swallowed up in the beginning would reappear and attack the Enterprise, forcing an emergency saucer separation (there are some gorgeous Andrew Probert storyboards of the separation in The Art of Star Trek). The test explosions were probably meant for that battle sequence, which was mercifully dropped. (It made no sense. Why would the Klingon ships reappear but none of the other countless things V'Ger had digitized, such as Ilia? And what story purpose would've been served by a tacked-on space battle after the climax?)

Christopher, I believe Probert himself explained those storyboards as his idea, and that there was no actual plan to shoot that sequence. It certainly would have changed the tone of the film had that been included, giving it quite a kick of action leading into the climax.

 

[FalTorPan]

Why would the Klingon ships reappear but none of the other countless things V'Ger had digitized, such as Ilia?

Perhaps Ilia did reappear... in deep space... where she died.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

Along with that poor security guard...

 

[Christopher]

Wasn't the guard's disintegration cut out of the theatrical and director's cuts?

 

[Maurice]

The guard zap has never appeared in any cut of the film.

The Klingons at the end were one of two possible endings Andy Probert pitched, neither of which ever were actually considered by the powers that be, so far as I know.

 

[Therin of Andor]

none of the other countless things V'Ger had digitized, such as Ilia?

Actually, in "In Thy Image", Ilia was also restored, and the energy probe that had first invaded the bridge, and stole her form, was found at her feet, reverted to a small, burnt-out device.

Wasn't the guard's disintegration cut out of the theatrical and director's cuts?

Yeah, but he is listed by Kirk as "missing", along with Decker and Ilia, in the novelization.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

There were early storyboards, reproduced in Future Life, of the Klingon cruisers exploding when V'Ger fired on them. Evidently the idea of the ships being "digitialized" was a later one, and I'm sure that this was the sequence that Joe Viskocil's pyrotechnic tests were conducted for.

The storyboards can be found, like so much other cool stuff, over at Otten's "Forgotten Trek" site:

http://www.ottens.co.uk/forgottentrek/images/TMP/Klingon_04.jpg