Spoilers SFA Ships & Tech

[B.J.]

Those were definitely the limited budgets when Physical Models ruled & CGI was expensive & new.

The Trek Production teams were slower than B5 on adopting early CGI.

It helped that B5 premiered 6 1/2 years later than TNG, and CGI tech improved a lot during that time. TNG was already locked into physical models in 1987, and they had to wait for CGI tech to improve enough to (mostly) match the look of the physical models.

 

[137th Gebirg]

Well, that’s all fine and dandy until they started using the same models for ships from both the other side of the galaxy (VOY) and from 200 years in the past (ENT). That stretches credibility a bit.

Just to fuck with us, they're probably going to throw a D7/K't'inga in the background somewhere.

 

[NCC-73515]

In a clip, the EMH has an unfamiliar padd. It seems to do more than data manipulation. Also what did the Tricorder look like?

It's odd that he asks for a medical tricorder, and then we only see him hypospray her. Maybe those two are now combined...?

 

[Unicron]

Just to fuck with us, they're probably going to throw a D7/K't'inga in the background somewhere.

I’ve mentioned this before, but it has always annoyed me that TNG, which had a modest production budget, would constantly reuse models and stock footage, while classic Doctor Who, with a shoestring budget, never reused a model or stock footage, even once.

I can't speak for Dr. Who, but I recall one of the other factors with TNG was doing non-ship SFX. Particularly for episodes like "Yesterday's Enterprise" where the effects quota would be higher than other episodes. Reusing stock footage would certainly be a continuation of the TOS tradition.

I do agree with you about how some of the ship models were reused in ENT and VOY, though. Even as a means to keep costs down it didn't always mesh well.