Redesign RANT!!!! (Plus, an op to post my model pic again)
- Thread starter Chrisisall
- Start date
I'll always love the original design. It was a bit more animated than any of the others. The later Enterprises seemed very static. I always loved how a few of the window lights would turn off on the pilot 2 version as if someone was leaving the room when the ship flew past, something they never did with the later Enterprises or the CGI replacement.
That is the type of statement I cannot understand. The Enterprise-D has people walking behind windows, for crying out loud!
People? It was one guy in observation lounge that was a teeny tiny spec on the screen that if you blinked you missed it in the opening sequence and that was it.
Well, it so small, it could have been two people walking really close together.
And if you blinked you also missed the window lights turning off, so what's the point again?
You must blink an awfully long time. It can be easily seen in the stock side shot of the pilot 2 moving left to right. A couple turn off on the neck and then a few seconds later the ones near the shuttle bay turn off. The stock pilot 2 fly away shot also has the lights near the shuttle bay turn off aswell.
When I think of the TOS Enterprise I envision the whole unblemished ship in my mind's eye and not the incomplete filming miniature. I love its clean lines and straightforward design. It was inspired in how all the components integrated so well together. While the TMP refit added a layer of detail to the concept I still prefer the TOS original. It looked so convincingly far future because it looked like nothing else before or since.
And the way it was shown in motion--it behaved like a spacecraft and not like a fighter jet. Of course it's a matter of limitations of the camera work of the day, but those limitations actually added to the ship's credibility. The TMP refit was treated much the same way in how it was shown to move. After that even the Trek ships started being shown to move like vehicles in Star Wars. That little added layer of credibility was now gone.
Those limitations helped in another way. Rarely were two ships shown in the same frame. And that made sense because interstellar starships moving at unholy multiples of light would be hundreds if not thousands upon thousands of miles apart (reinforced by dialogue referencing such distances). No wonder distant ships were often just bright points on the viewscreen. But after TWoK you could kiss that bit of credibility goodbye as well.
And the way it was shown in motion--it behaved like a spacecraft and not like a fighter jet. Of course it's a matter of limitations of the camera work of the day, but those limitations actually added to the ship's credibility. The TMP refit was treated much the same way in how it was shown to move. After that even the Trek ships started being shown to move like vehicles in Star Wars. That little added layer of credibility was now gone.
Those limitations helped in another way. Rarely were two ships shown in the same frame. And that made sense because interstellar starships moving at unholy multiples of light would be hundreds if not thousands upon thousands of miles apart (reinforced by dialogue referencing such distances). No wonder distant ships were often just bright points on the viewscreen. But after TWoK you could kiss that bit of credibility goodbye as well.
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I have to agree on this. The ONLY time I fully accepted fighter-jet-like motion of a starship was in the new FX for Doomsday Machine, and even THERE, it kind of strained my understanding of movement in space. By the time of Nemesis, I felt like it just went hog-wild with the Star Wars thing.
Folks who saw the TOS-R version of "The Menagerie" screened in theatres couldn't keep from gushing about how magnificent the Enterprise looked up on the big screen.
The original ship would've worked just fine in a movie.
The original ship would've worked just fine in a movie.
Absolutely & unequivocally.
In an alternate universe they did, and there was much rejoicing....
I was one of those who saw "The Menagerie" on the big screen back in '07. The Enterprise looked fan-damn-tastic up there. I was so jazzed by seeing it, my gall bladder promptly failed and I had to have it removed.
(Okay, maybe that wasn't the cause, but I did go from the theater to my house to the emergency room that night, and had my gall bladder out two days later. The story's better the other way, though, don't you think?)
Oh God, my dyslexia read that as "ball grabber."
^ No, that part was okay.
What?
What?
And In A Mirror Darkly proved that the old sets and costumes (with minor tweaking) could hold up in HD.
I love a thread where we all reach.
TMP's Enterprise's pylons splay too far back & out, and the nacelles are too boxey. The NuE's pylons curve in too much, and the 'neck' is too far back.
Only the original got everything correct.
I don't think the TOS E is absolutely perfect. But even the most beautiful woman (or man) or the most beautiful designs have small imperfections that actually add to the overall look. I can only think of one angle that looks odd with the original design. Otherwise it looks damn good anyway I see it.