Stupid use of stock footage

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I just watched "Ensign Ro".
It's been a very long time since I saw it last.
So I didn't expect to see a srew-up like this.
The scene where teh ship arrives at the starbase clearly shows Earth in the background, including our moon! that was adead give-away.
I really thought the time of unexplained twin planets was over since Kirk's era.

 

[Christopher]

You mean the recycled Spacedock footage from The Search for Spock that was also used in "11001001"? And that required us to believe the Spacedock was considerably larger than the identical-appearing one in TSFS (because the E-D would never have fit through the doors of that one)?

You have to keep in mind that this was before computer-animated FX became commonplace. To make a shot like that from scratch would've required creating new miniatures and matte paintings, compositing them optically, and so forth, and it would've been pretty expensive and time-consuming for a single shot on a weekly TV series. Recycling stock footage was a budgetary necessity, so it can hardly be called "stupid."

Anyway, it's not like you could clearly see the continent shapes on the planet. And Earth can't be the only planet in the galaxy with a single large moon.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

I could buy that the space dock or at least the hangar doors were enlarged sometime between the TOS movies and TNG.
I also understand the need for stock footage.
But the captain'S log clearly stated they were at an alien planet while showing us our own planet. If it's not stupid than is at leas an unfortunate choice. I would have prefered if they had reused that Excelsior rendevouz shot instead... no need for an orbital station here. In the next scene the Ent was already somewhere else again anyway.

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

Now we're REALLY straining at gnats.

 

[SonicRanger]

Thingol said:
But the captain'S log clearly stated they were at an alien planet while showing us our own planet.

Tell us all exactly what part of Earth we're looking at here:

http://tng.trekcore.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=102&pos=16

 

[Trekker4747]

Clearly the blue part.

 

[Jack Bauer]

Mutai Sho-Rin said:
Now we're REALLY straining at gnats.

Welcome to Modern Trekfandom.

 

[Stag]

Trekker4747 said:
Clearly the blue part.

I would have said the cloudy part personally.

 

[Chindogu]

Here's the shot from TSFS, for comparisons sake.
The Search for Spock

It's interesting to look at the subtle changes that were made. I do gotta say that despite the added cloud cover you can still see the same continent shapes in TNG shot as you can TSFS one. The moon looks like it was added in for TNG due to the change in the aspect ratio.

Personally, I don't mind the reuse of footage as long as it's not too blatantly obvious. TUC/GEN exploding Bird Of Prey I'm looking at you!

 

[nx1701g]

^ I know - that was a horrible idea.

Just to let everyone know: in Star Trek: Generations - the game they must have gone along with an earlier script version. At the end in orbit of Veridian III B'etor and Lursa were using a Vor'Cha Class Cruiser

 

[Timo]

...This was probably nixed because the cruiser model lacked cinematographic detail. Refurbishing one model (the E-D) for movie work would be expensive enough.

Sure, there's more plot to the plot when the sisters fly a galactic VW Beetle. But it makes less sense overall.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Christopher said:
You mean the recycled Spacedock footage from The Search for Spock that was also used in "11001001"? And that required us to believe the Spacedock was considerably larger than the identical-appearing one in TSFS (because the E-D would never have fit through the doors of that one)?

I'm not sure if it's in the Art of Star Trek coffee table book or the Next Generation coffee table book, but Andy Probert (or Rick Sternbach?) did a sketch that would allow the re-use of the spacedock model but with an outer attachment for the larger Galaxy-class starship.

 

[StewMc]

nx1701g said:
^ I know - that was a horrible idea.

Just to let everyone know: in Star Trek: Generations - the game they must have gone along with an earlier script version. At the end in orbit of Veridian III B'etor and Lursa were using a Vor'Cha Class Cruiser

Probably to make it more of a challenge for the final battle, gameplay wise. There's a massive fleet of Soran's that can be fought at the end of the game (and produces an alternate ending in which the Enterprise-D doesn't crash land and survives!) that features Romulan, Klingon and Chodak ships, which wasn't in any early draft! The Generations game came out a couple of years after the film, I don't think development even started until after the film's release.

 

[Borjis]

Generations was one game I never got to finish.
It was so buggy.

 

[nx1701g]

StewMc said:

nx1701g said:
^ I know - that was a horrible idea.

Just to let everyone know: in Star Trek: Generations - the game they must have gone along with an earlier script version. At the end in orbit of Veridian III B'etor and Lursa were using a Vor'Cha Class Cruiser

Probably to make it more of a challenge for the final battle, gameplay wise. There's a massive fleet of Soran's that can be fought at the end of the game (and produces an alternate ending in which the Enterprise-D doesn't crash land and survives!) that features Romulan, Klingon and Chodak ships, which wasn't in any early draft! The Generations game came out a couple of years after the film, I don't think development even started until after the film's release.

There were a couple of additional endings. In one you could play as Kirk in the Stardrive and try to shutdown the Warp Core or another where you have to take over the Stardrive and fight the enemy while the Saucer gets away.

 

[StewMc]

^
Not quite, in the game Kirk dies on Veridian like in the film, but Picard is then contacted by Riker from the saucer and is beamed aboard the stardrive section to stop Soran's very last attempt at destroying the Veridian star. There's no way to save the stardrive in that ending. You can save Spot however!

But I seem to have gone off topic.

 

[Nebusj]

Christopher said:
You mean the recycled Spacedock footage from The Search for Spock that was also used in "11001001"? And that required us to believe the Spacedock was considerably larger than the identical-appearing one in TSFS (because the E-D would never have fit through the doors of that one)?

That didn't particularly bother me, since it was supposed to represent a different structure, and there's no particular reason a 24th century space station couldn't have the same general shape as a 23rd century station while being much larger. It's not as though there haven't been modern buildings made to look like more classic structures, and thanks to the resolution of 1987 videotape compared to that of 35mm film you can argue the difference in details between the two would be as obvious to the naked eye as the difference between the New York City Post Office and the Acropolis would be.

 

[Trekker4747]

Nebusj said:

Christopher said:
You mean the recycled Spacedock footage from The Search for Spock that was also used in "11001001"? And that required us to believe the Spacedock was considerably larger than the identical-appearing one in TSFS (because the E-D would never have fit through the doors of that one)?

That didn't particularly bother me, since it was supposed to represent a different structure, and there's no particular reason a 24th century space station couldn't have the same general shape as a 23rd century station while being much larger. It's not as though there haven't been modern buildings made to look like more classic structures, and thanks to the resolution of 1987 videotape compared to that of 35mm film you can argue the difference in details between the two would be as obvious to the naked eye as the difference between the New York City Post Office and the Acropolis would be.

I just figured they made the doors in the Spacedock(s) larger. Yeah it "fudges" the scale of them a bit but that's how I figured it. Given the limitations with models TNG was never very good with a consistant scale as it was anyway.

 

[nx1701g]

StewMc said:
^
Not quite, in the game Kirk dies on Veridian like in the film, but Picard is then contacted by Riker from the saucer and is beamed aboard the stardrive section to stop Soran's very last attempt at destroying the Veridian star. There's no way to save the stardrive in that ending. You can save Spot however!

But I seem to have gone off topic.

That's strange. Mine had a level on the E-D where you could play as Kirk on the Enterprise D. It's how I finished the game (it wasn't Picard).