Probert's Ambassador class concept

[FalTorPan]

Probert has been working on one, with the eventual goal of offering a 1:1400 model kit for sale.

 

[miraclefan]

I prefer the ambassador we got, but I do like the ''probert'' enterprise enough that if the J.J.Verse is a success I wouldent mind seeing this ship as the NU-ENT-C some time in the future! It certainly has a ''NU'' vibe to it.

 

[swaaye]

That painting of the Ambassador was meant as a matte painting. I composited it into a TNG FX shot (above) to show how it might've looked, and Andy said it's pretty much as he intended.

Yeah I like what I see here.

 

[Praetor]

I read somewhere that they were originally going to have the Pegasus be an Ambasador Class Ship, but for some reason it was going to be to expensive to do, so it became an Oberth Class instead.

IIRC, it was actually supposed to at one point be a Nebula-style Ambassador kitbash, then was supposed to be a 4-nacelled Cheyenne class, as an LCARS diagram in the engineering set as filmed shows four nacelles.

That painting of the Ambassador was meant as a matte painting. I composited it into a TNG FX shot (above) to show how it might've looked, and Andy said it's pretty much as he intended.

Yeah I like what I see here.

Me too. Needs a glowy dish though. I can't see why Berman objected to this. Who'd have really complained?

 

[NCC75010]

I'm dull. I like both versions.

 

[Anwar]

Funny, that picture you made of the Probert Ambassador actually makes the Ambassador look more like a contemporary of the Sovereign class.

 

[swaaye]

Well after reading this all-encompassing info extravaganza about the Ambassador, it seems to me that we got the Ambassador we got because of time and money constraints primarily.
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/enterprise-c-pictorial-deluxe/#more-3164

They really had to hastily get it together for Yesterday's Enterprise.

 

[Praetor]

^Yep. That's the case.

 

[Cyke101]

Does anybody have an answer for why the Ambassador Class never saw anywhere near as much use as the Excelsior and Galaxy Classes? Or any other class, for that matter...

From what I understand, the original model itself was built rather, shall we say, economically, and in a hurry for 'Yesterday's Enterprise,' which is why it lacked the complex curves of the original design. It was 'refit' for the modern era and made several more appearances on TNG.

According to Doug Drexler, the model was later evaluated for refit and reuse in the final scene of 'Generations' as one of the ships rescuing the survivors from the Enterprise-D crash. (This was of course after it had appeared as the Yamaguchi in the DS9 pilot.) It was apparently found to need too much work to be usable, and so was excluded.

Presumably, the studio didn't want to pay for the 'fixing' necessary to bring the model up to snuff for the model-based fleet work on DS9 either, and soon after the operations switched almost exclusively to CGI. As there had been no previous reason to build a CGI model of the ship, one did not exist and it therefore did not appear. A shame, really.

I've read that too, and it's quite logical (though unfortunately so). It makes me think that if the Ambassador did end up in Generations, that it would've popped up a lot more in DS9 and then eventually make its way to Voyager.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Well after reading this all-encompassing info extravaganza about the Ambassador, it seems to me that we got the Ambassador we got because of time and money constraints primarily.
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/enterprise-c-pictorial-deluxe/#more-3164

They really had to hastily get it together for Yesterday's Enterprise.

So that's why the Enterprise-C we saw in the episode doesn't match the one on the briefing room wall on the D?

 

[miraclefan]

^Yep!

 

[Praetor]

Does anybody have an answer for why the Ambassador Class never saw anywhere near as much use as the Excelsior and Galaxy Classes? Or any other class, for that matter...

From what I understand, the original model itself was built rather, shall we say, economically, and in a hurry for 'Yesterday's Enterprise,' which is why it lacked the complex curves of the original design. It was 'refit' for the modern era and made several more appearances on TNG.

According to Doug Drexler, the model was later evaluated for refit and reuse in the final scene of 'Generations' as one of the ships rescuing the survivors from the Enterprise-D crash. (This was of course after it had appeared as the Yamaguchi in the DS9 pilot.) It was apparently found to need too much work to be usable, and so was excluded.

Presumably, the studio didn't want to pay for the 'fixing' necessary to bring the model up to snuff for the model-based fleet work on DS9 either, and soon after the operations switched almost exclusively to CGI. As there had been no previous reason to build a CGI model of the ship, one did not exist and it therefore did not appear. A shame, really.

I've read that too, and it's quite logical (though unfortunately so). It makes me think that if the Ambassador did end up in Generations, that it would've popped up a lot more in DS9 and then eventually make its way to Voyager.

I'm not sure. It doesn't seem like there's a direct correlation between the use of the original physical models and the creation of the CGI models that were used in the big Dominion War melees. It's hard for me to understand why they felt it feasible to create a CGI Excelsior and Miranda but not an Ambassador. Because we saw so many of the first two to start with? That seems silly.

 

[FalTorPan]

Maybe with limited budgets, the Art Department and/or VFX gang could choose only a certain number of ships to model as CGI, and the Ambassador lost out to the classes which were made. For example, maybe the creative types had the budget for, say, three classes, whatever those classes might happen to be, and the creative types chose the Excelsior, Miranda and Galaxy. Just a guess.

 

[Cyke101]

Maybe with limited budgets, the Art Department and/or VFX gang could choose only a certain number of ships to model as CGI, and the Ambassador lost out to the classes which were made. For example, maybe the creative types had the budget for, say, three classes, whatever those classes might happen to be, and the creative types chose the Excelsior, Miranda and Galaxy. Just a guess.

It's a good guess, but I'd argue that perhaps it wasn't the case, as DS9 still showed us new ships and kitbashes, like the Centaur. If it was a budget problem, then there wouldn't be new designs...

*shrug* I don't know what's going on anymore

 

[CaptainStoner]

Well after reading this all-encompassing info extravaganza about the Ambassador, it seems to me that we got the Ambassador we got because of time and money constraints primarily.
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/enterprise-c-pictorial-deluxe/#more-3164

They really had to hastily get it together for Yesterday's Enterprise.

That was fun to read and see, thanks. I like the ship even better now knowing that it was hatched while in production. Jammin'
And one of the quintessential magic moments of TNG - the Ent-C emerging from the temporal disturbance of the week ~

 

[Praetor]

Maybe with limited budgets, the Art Department and/or VFX gang could choose only a certain number of ships to model as CGI, and the Ambassador lost out to the classes which were made. For example, maybe the creative types had the budget for, say, three classes, whatever those classes might happen to be, and the creative types chose the Excelsior, Miranda and Galaxy. Just a guess.

It's a good guess, but I'd argue that perhaps it wasn't the case, as DS9 still showed us new ships and kitbashes, like the Centaur. If it was a budget problem, then there wouldn't be new designs...

*shrug* I don't know what's going on anymore

The Centaur was a relatively cheap kitbash of physical AMT models, though. According to Drexler, they had a big kitbash party, which gave us that, the Yeager, and all of those wacky combinations.

 

[LutherSloan]

I'm pretty sure that we saw part of the USS Excalibur when Riker was in command of that ship during the Klingon Civil War. It was Ambassador-class, of course. If I recall correctly, you don't even get to see the whole ship, just part of it.

 

[Praetor]

I'm pretty sure that we saw part of the USS Excalibur when Riker was in command of that ship during the Klingon Civil War. It was Ambassador-class, of course. If I recall correctly, you don't even get to see the whole ship, just part of it.

I think they do show the whole thing at one point at least, side by side with the D.

 

[Skywalker]

If they ever do a TNG Remastered (and yes, I know about the difficulties of such a task, this is just a hypothetical), do you think they'd use the Ambassador-class design we saw on screen, or do you think they might actually go back and build a CG model of Probert's original design?

 

[Tomalak]

She may not be the most graceful or elegant ship around, but I've always had a fondness for the Enterprise-C. There's definitely something about her that I find - dare I say it? - cool. I love the chunky nacelles, the big round saucer, and that little flare at the top of the neck.

It's a shame we saw so little of her. If TNG or DS9 Remastered ever get off the ground, I hope there'll be a few more glimpses to come.