Star Trek III Question...

[cardinal biggles]

Maybe trevanian can shed some light on this, but I was under the impression that ILM hated the Enterprise model not because of how it looked, but because of its size, weight, and Magicam's pearlescent paint job, where light reflections caused problems with ILM's bluescreen photography.

 

[trevanian]

Maybe trevanian can shed some light on this, but I was under the impression that ILM hated the Enterprise model not because of how it looked, but because of its size, weight, and Magicam's pearlescent paint job, where light reflections caused problems with ILM's bluescreen photography.

There was an oft-quoted remark from Ken Ralston the ilm supervisor about there only being two good angles on the refit. He also bitched about size, weight, paint job, reflections, etc., but angles and how it looked were big probs as well.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Some guys at ILM hated the model, claiming it had few to no good angles on it, but when given the chance to replace it they concocted the Excelsior, which has even fewer good angles, so I wouldn't put too much stock in that opinion.

It wasn't only the angles. The model was very large and very heavy, thus difficult to mount, and the angles were restricted by the mounting poles. The newer Excelsior was much smaller (despite representing a bigger ship), much lighter and more easily manoevered and mounted.

 

[Search4]

I'm not sure why the Excelsior model would be "much smaller" given that it more or less fit into the same space dock in the beginning of Generations. Lighter, perhaps, given more modern materials... not at "tall" perhaps... but not much smaller.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I'm not sure why the Excelsior model would be "much smaller" given that it more or less fit into the same space dock in the beginning of Generations. Lighter, perhaps, given more modern materials... not at "tall" perhaps... but not much smaller.

I'm talking about the scale of the models, relative to each other.

 

[trevanian]

I'm not sure why the Excelsior model would be "much smaller" given that it more or less fit into the same space dock in the beginning of Generations. Lighter, perhaps, given more modern materials... not at "tall" perhaps... but not much smaller.

EXCELSIOR was probably 18 to 24 inches shorter than the refit. Unless you have access to BTS pics, your best bet for reference is to look at GENERATIONS. There you have a truncated drydock, same model as first film, but with the midsection removed to 'size' to the E-B model.

 

[Search4]

Actually - the Generations Drydock model was changed in multiple ways.

- the three rows of lights became two rows, e.g. the model was now "shorter"
- the light boxes for the rows were replaced by new light boxes
- repainted a different color
- the top portion mating the the Ent-B was added
- the office complex in front of the Ent-B was added (in theory, that's where they were watching the champagne bottle from)
- the model was shortened by 18 inches, e.g. the rear section was literally cut off

So, you're right, if the original Ent filled the spacedock and the Ent-B filled the spacedock shorter by 18 inches, its probably a bit smaller model.

 

[Anticitizen]

Since they were on a "simple training cruise", and weren't even meant to leave the solar system, it's quite possible that the torpedo launchers had been offline/in mothballs, and the grills were part of that. The cadets were just needed to get the torpedo launcher in what would be its normal state of readiness had the Enterprise been out on a real mission with potential danger.

That's what I came here to say.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Meyer, as much as I like him, has a hard-on for over-complicating things with an overly military feel and look. It makes no sense that Torpedo tracks have to be uncovered, a tube has to be lowered (the first time it's ever suggested that there's a physicality to "torpedoes" when it was always asumed that "torpedoes" were simply packet of antimatter that reacted with the matter of the target) and manually placed in the track in the 23rd century.

Something like that undoubtedly would be automated.

But it was just Meyer's masturbatory need to show overly "militaryness."

Or...his attempt to make a good film...which he did...

Rob
Scorpio

 

[EEE]

Well...

Its pretty ridiculous that these things have track covers to begin with. Something like that would surely be automated. Having said that, I enjoy the artistic license Nick Meyer took in TWOK, so we have to assume that's how they were loaded.

I also enjoyed the artistic license taken (and no, it did not make any real Trek sense). And like most in here, I like option #3 the best. But I submit it wasn't quite as much artistic license as we think... watch the phaser crews in Balance of Terror. The flavor is similar.