These 2 ships

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

Soooo... what are these 2 ships? Not only in the opening credits, these 2 appear in such a vast number of episodes, it's almost comical. (This image doesn't show the one of the left very well, but it's there.)

Presumably one is a maintenance craft of some kind, or a shuttle, and the other is a cargo ship. But what's also funny about it is that you never see either of these ships from any other perspective in any kind of active role (to the best of my recollection). They're just always flying by at this exact angle at the same exact time as one another. I mean, I get the need to reuse footage, but this was a little excessive in how often these 2 passed by on our TV screens.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

They just reused the footage. Motion Control photography ain't cheap

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

They just reused the footage. Motion Control photography ain't cheap

Yes, but it's like as if they had the same 2 people walking past Sisko's office every time they showed it. It gets silly after awhile. Shots without the ships would've made more sense than showing them over & over again on repeat like an old cartoon where they reuse the same table & flowers when there's a chase scene.

 

[DS9forever]

John Knoll of ILM designed the ship on the right, with the blue engines.

 

[Gepard]

I'm pretty sure the one on the left is a TMP style workbee.

 

[kkt]

Always gotta keep an eye on the bottom line. Remember, in the 90s there weren't too many people binge-watching the show and noticing that the same two ships kept showing up.

In-universe, perhaps it's the DS9 to Bajor shuttle...

 

[Dukhat]

John Knoll of ILM designed the ship on the right, with the blue engines.

It's too bad we never got to see the CGI model up close.

 

[Timo]

Indeed, seems like wasted effort, when DS9 was fairly heavy on "guest" ships that were intended to convey specific ideas of who the guests were. A bunch of plastic models were fairly consistently used as Bajoran and Cardassian guests, but beyond that there was always also the need for specifying that the guests of the week are all-new. Why leave this ship unused?

Heck, the Defiant herself is a reuse, although not of a ship appearing on screen - she's reuse of a concept originally intended to say "Bajoran" and then "Wild Mirror Sisko", with the signs still showing. So they pushed a bunch of drawings to frontline service. If they had a whole shootable model available, why not shoot? (Say, for the Bajoran ragtag blockade fleet in "Shadows and Symbols.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Nakita Akita]

Yes, but it's like as if they had the same 2 people walking past Sisko's office every time they showed it. It gets silly after awhile. Shots without the ships would've made more sense than showing them over & over again on repeat like an old cartoon where they reuse the same table & flowers when there's a chase scene.

In the Tom and Jerry cartoons, it was an open type of floor plan and the two are chasing each other in a sort of circle.

 

[Dukhat]

They just reused the footage. Motion Control photography ain't cheap

I believe those were CGI models, so no motion control was used. Berman-era Star Trek just liked reusing stock footage for the hell of it.

 

[DS9forever]

It would have been the best footage of the station, why not use reuse the best?

 

[Spot261]

Always gotta keep an eye on the bottom line. Remember, in the 90s there weren't too many people binge-watching the show and noticing that the same two ships kept showing up.

In-universe, perhaps it's the DS9 to Bajor shuttle...

This is probably the single most pertinent explanation.

TV viewing styles have changed (which ironically DS9 was a forerunner in many ways) and what producers could get away with then would be a glaring blemish now.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

In the Tom and Jerry cartoons, it was an open type of floor plan and the two are chasing each other in a sort of circle.

For that, too, it was obviously a cost-saving measure, because that there is not how circles operate!

 

[Nakita Akita]

For that, too, it was obviously a cost-saving measure, because that there is not how circles operate!

At my BF's house the kitchen is sort of a room which is enclosed on three sides and we can chase the dog around through the family room, through the living room, through the dining room and through the kitchen. We're not Tom and Jerry and we don't have as much energy but if you go around it a few times you do keep seeing the same stuff over and over.
I guess you had to be there.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

At my BF's house the kitchen is sort of a room which is enclosed on three sides and we can chase the dog around through the family room, through the living room, through the dining room and through the kitchen. We're not Tom and Jerry and we don't have as much energy but if you go around it a few times you do keep seeing the same stuff over and over.
I guess you had to be there.

If I did that with my dog, there would be no living room, dining room or kitchen left.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Kinda reminds me of Smallville's Daily Planet stock footage, with early-2000's CG helicopter wooshing around the Daily Planet globe.

Again and again.

And again and again and again.


Makes me appreciate that modern Trek has zero stock footage and creates all-new space shots every time.

 

[Tosk]

I believe those were CGI models, so no motion control was used. Berman-era Star Trek just liked reusing stock footage for the hell of it.

The station is a model though, so there is motion control in that shot.

 

[NewHeavensNewEarth]

I find their redundant fly-bys easier to stomach if I make up a very short story about it:

Every day, this couple parts ways to captain their respective vessels as the workday gets underway. They disembark at the same time, and wave at each other as their 2 ships pass. But more than 2 ships passing in the night, this is a romance for the ages. Etc., blah blah blah, and the end.​