Restored 1960s VFX of the Enterprise
- Thread starter Lord Garth
- Start date
If you’re showing ships from a distance this isn’t that far out an idea. But a little more care could be taken with some details of each vessel. Also one might want to consider opening a particular can of worms: do they all have to be Constitution-class ship? Yes, that listed of suggested names for Connies existed, but it wasn’t carved in stone or ever definitively established onscreen.No it's classic Trek which used AMT model kits. Totally within their wheelhouse.
*Ducks and runs after uttering such blasphemy.*
Aside from "The Ultimate Computer," there are only references like "twelve like it in the fleet" from "Tomorrow Is Yesterday." Other ships are mentioned but never conclusively as Constitution class. Exceptions include "The Omega Glory" and "The Tholian Web" where we can see they are Connies.
Edit: Oh, and of course the Constellation from "The Doomsday Machine."
Edit: Oh, and of course the Constellation from "The Doomsday Machine."
I'm sure the producers of Blakes 7 were inspired!
Very true—unless this particular test, the potential advantages of the M5, were so great that it was worth the expense across the Federation. (The physical capabilities of those ships, with those commanders and crew.) If M5 had worked out, it might have been easier to build smaller ships without all the "wasted space" required for a live crew, or much smaller crews, yet the "same" capacity for battle.
We saw such "similarity" in post-TOS productions, such as Reliant in TWOK. But suppose something about the geometry of the Constitution class was vital to the design? Say, the placement and spacing of the warp engines was needed to envelop the ship in whatever manner was dictated by "warp" technology? In that case, the ships might look virtually identical, differing only in the internal facilities.
That might be what “Starship class” means.
You could have some diversity, still.
I would call Constellation and Republic members of a Conestoga class (AMT lines) that went up to 1699…Constitution (read—11 footer) is 1700+
All “Connies” and all Starship class (or superclass)
Now where to put the 3-footer…make those 1600s like Republic….and NCC-1000s the AMT…uprated to Achernar later.
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that's the Sombra class from SNW, Connie externally, but smaller crew and built for speed.
Since we saw the AMT-kit-based Constellation close-up in "The Doomsday Machine" that could be a variant class, IMHO. The other times the AMT-kit was used for the Enterprise was seen at a distance where you can't make out the details and differences. The ships in the "The Ultimate Computer" wargame could easily be variant classes since they were also seen at a distance where not all the details and differences can be made out. YMMV.
It’s old news, but my biggest complaint about the AMT based Constellation was that it looks like an unfinished model. It looks like they just slapped it together unpainted then took a torch to it. They didn’t even paint any of the windows on. At least thats how it looked to me.
One can always say the beam blanched out the thermocoat.
In my minds eye, I see a space suited figure going to the hull in a spacewalk, and it crumbling off in his hand like chalk…like bone powder.
That’s as surreal as the ordinary scorching. A dry lakebed close up maybe.
My head-canon tells me the scoring came not just from the anti-proton beam…but from other debris that hit the crumbling outer hull.
Thus the bridge could look intact but loose seals…Andromeda Strain fashion.
Hmm…plaster of Paris in an AMT mold…hit with a sandblaster filled with scotchlite powder…
I could see an even more irradiated scenario where digital blooming could make even a large object look fake…like how security cams make moths look like ball lightning.
They had early videotape then..bad for Twilight Zone…but the artifacts they show…how jewelry glints blackly—I might have wanted to capture that on film…leave it out in Sunlight…and do rear projection on a bridge screen slowly turning up the light to get something extra ghostly.
I once saw some crappy security camera in a dusty enclosure.
The artifacts made it look like you were inside Chernobyl.
In my minds eye, I see a space suited figure going to the hull in a spacewalk, and it crumbling off in his hand like chalk…like bone powder.
That’s as surreal as the ordinary scorching. A dry lakebed close up maybe.
My head-canon tells me the scoring came not just from the anti-proton beam…but from other debris that hit the crumbling outer hull.
Thus the bridge could look intact but loose seals…Andromeda Strain fashion.
Hmm…plaster of Paris in an AMT mold…hit with a sandblaster filled with scotchlite powder…
I could see an even more irradiated scenario where digital blooming could make even a large object look fake…like how security cams make moths look like ball lightning.
They had early videotape then..bad for Twilight Zone…but the artifacts they show…how jewelry glints blackly—I might have wanted to capture that on film…leave it out in Sunlight…and do rear projection on a bridge screen slowly turning up the light to get something extra ghostly.
I once saw some crappy security camera in a dusty enclosure.
The artifacts made it look like you were inside Chernobyl.
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There were some windows painted on the B/C structure and on the starboard rear of the saucer that are visible on the Constellation in close-ups (at DVD resolution). We don't really get a good close-up of the engineering hull to know either way as details at medium and distance shots will make windows vanish.
I imagine that in-universe the crew shuttered some windows and other ports to protect from damage.
Constellation was an older not refitted Connie?
Considering its older registry number, 1017, it could well be an older class of cruiser. That could tie in with its physical differences from the Enterprise.
Well, the obvious intent at the time was that the Constellation was the same type of ship as the Enterprise, with the registry number the way it was to easily differentiate it from the Enterprise's number. I would think that if they really wanted to portray a different class of ship but still use the AMT model, that they would have made significant changes to the model to imply a different class. But they didn't.
I think the best look we get of the secondary hull is this one:
https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/al...-doomsday-machine/doomsday-machine-br-067.jpg
Looks like they did decal the ship and paint the dish.
I don't think anyone thinks that They intended for the Constellation to be a different class but there are enough discernible differences between the AMT model and the Enterprise filming model that you could legitimately recon it as a different class. There are certainly enough RW examples of similar-looking Navy ship classes for 1017 to be of an older class.
Yep they sure did. I think that with the lack of film resolution back then that even if the AMT-kit Constellation was fully finished that the fine details would be impossible to see. Below is a screenshot from DVD which I think was originally less saturated when compared to the BR version.
The Engineering Room inside the Constellation was slightly different than the Enterprise's new Season 2 Engineering Room, suggesting that the Constellation's internal design is different (maybe "older") from the Enterprise. Kirk's search for the Constellation's Auxiliary Control Room sort of implies that he knew roughly where it was, not the exact door. Another indication that the Constellation is different from the Enterprise. IMHO, I envisioned the Constellation with its lower registry number as an older ship design than the Enterprise; it's still a Starship Class with similar capabilities, but not a Constitution design. Now, do I include the Constellation as one the "12 like her in the fleet", yes I do. 
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