TFF vs. TUC Enterprise Shots

[Ssosmcin]

Ferren did a far worse job than ILM on many counts, of course, but I don't think ILM had any idea how to light the model properly either. But at least ILM knew how to do motion control well.

1989 was an extremely busy time for ILM and going by the other films of that season, I can understand why Bennett and Shatner decided to look elsewhere. Ghostbusters 2 and Indy 3 were below par for them. Back to the Future Part II and The Abyss seemed to get their best people. Star Trek would have probably taken a hit either way. The problem is when searching for a substitute, the chose unwisely.

My next call would have been to John Dykstra or Dream Quest so see if they had time. When TNG is doing better model shots on TV than a feature picture, you know you're in deep tribble droppings.

I think this is the best non-TMP shot of the Enterprise in the whole movie franchise.

The work on TWOK was among the best shots of the Enterprise done by ILM. They matched the look of TMP well enough for the model to feel in concert with the footage from that movie. Even TUC didn't match ILM at their strongest. I know the money was tight, but the lighting and camera moves still made the Enterprise feel less like a ship than a model in a lot of shots.

However, there was some stunning imagination there. Watching the BoP torpedo come up from beneath the ship and the camera pans to the underside of the Enterprise is great.