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Originally posted by Daniel Butler:
I have to ask, was that sarcasm or do you mean the runabout sans mission module might fit? I don't know much about the nova class myself, but I've heard its half the size of the Intrepid, in which case, ehh, I think not.

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Originally posted by AndrewR:
Just looking at the MSD - would the Nova class take the place of the Oberth Class starships?

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The Oberth, first of all, wasn't meant to be a re-use of the Grissom miniature. The ship Rick designed would have been a smallish ship in the Ambassador design family, appropriate for the registries used.

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Although I did know about the "Oberth" issue (with the re-use of the Grissom as the Tsiolkovsky, instead of making a new model), I was unaware that Sternbach actually had a design for the Oberth on the drawing boards. I was only aware of his Ambassador-style design for the Pegasus, which yet again the Grissom stood in for

Are there any pics of this "Oberth" design sketch?
 

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Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
 
As I recall, you'd have a hard time fitting a Danube inside even a Galaxy's shuttle bay. The interior volume is obviously enough, but getting it through the door would be a problem. We know however that they are capabable, somehow, of holding at least three. Could've been in those giant garage doors on the underside of the Saucer I guess... But if you can barely get one in a Galaxy, it's doubtful you could get one in a Nova
 

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Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :
 
At the time of "The Naked Now", it was only an idea. He got short-circuited before he had drawn anything meaningful. But the set was built with the intention of it being an older ship, but not as old as the movies (this WAS the Next Generation, after all!). The single drawing he did for "The Pegasus" was the same idea he'd had for the Tsiolkovski, but again, that got axed -- although he did make it a little further that time.

For me, every instance of an Oberth in TNG is/should be that design, with the Grissom belonging to some other class that was retired by then.

--Jonah
 

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Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
 
What a shame. You know, I remember reading somewhere that TPTB, when TNG first premiered, didn't want to spend any money building new Starfleet or Klingon ships (other than the Ent-D), because they didn't know if the show would last past the first season and didn't want to waste money building models that would never get used.

First of all, to think that the show would tank was just stupid. But what was worse, they still DID build new models, only they were guest alien one-off ships like the Terellian globe-ship and the Straleb ship, while alternately using old movie models & movie stock footage to represent Fed & Klingon ships that would most likely need to be re-used many times!
 

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Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :
 
Took them a while to figure things out. At first they were going to use matte paintings for all the planet and space establishing shots -- including of the Hood -- but that was changed to model shots (and then back to matte paintings for the planets). And by "The Battle" they knew it was worthwhile to spring for new Starfleet designs, as the Stargazer was first going to be Constitution-class. Couple examples of overdubbing are in the final cut. But I am still frustrated by the pletora of Excelsiors, Grissoms, and even Constellations poking around in the latter-24th century.

--Jonah
 

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Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
 

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At first they were going to use matte paintings for all the planet and space establishing shots -- including of the Hood -- but that was changed to model shots (and then back to matte paintings for the planets).

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And by "The Battle" they knew it was worthwhile to spring for new Starfleet designs, as the Stargazer was first going to be Constitution-class.

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But I am still frustrated by the pletora of Excelsiors, Grissoms, and even Constellations poking around in the latter-24th century.

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Since a point was made in that episode about how Starfleet was strapped for ships, it's possible that ship had been in mothballs at a Starbase, and was used for the same purposes at the Hathaway.

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Originally posted by Dukhat:

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And by "The Battle" they knew it was worthwhile to spring for new Starfleet designs, as the Stargazer was first going to be Constitution-class.

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Actually, the Stargazer was always supposed to be the type of ship represented by the model in Picard's ready room (which would only later come to be known as the Constellation class). Only by the time of "The Battle," they had to quickly replace it with a substandard-looking Constitution class model when they made the decision to go with the movie Enterprise. Luckily, Greg Jein had his model ready in time for post-production.

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I think you miss my point here... The model in Picard's ready room was always supposed to be some "former command". Had no name or class name. When they did "The Battle" and we were going to see Picard's old ship, they were going to have it be a Constitution just to get across he hadn't seen it in a while. But two things happened more-or-less simultaneously: someone pointed out that the Constitution class should have been way retired by the time Picard was in Starfleet, and someone else pointed out this nifty model sitting in Picard's ready room that could be made into a more detailed model to represent his old ship. In the episode, you can see both Geordi and Wesley shape the word "constitution" which is then overdubbed with the word "constellation". It wasn't a goof -- it was something changed in post.

I know about the model switch whilst the proto-Constellation was being examined to build the filming miniature from. I wasn't talking about that crappy Constitution. I'm talking about the episode itself.

--Jonah
 

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Posted by Dukhat (Member # 341) on :
 
Oh, I knew what you were talking about

However, I'd have to disagree with you over one thing. The name "Stargazer" as Picard's former command was established way back in the novelization of "Encounter at Farpoint," which came out before TNG even premiered. (However, I don't recall the novel stating a class name or even a description of the ship). So when "EaF" aired, that ready-room model was clearly supposed to be the Stargazer.

And the story I heard was a bit different than your info (not saying you're wrong, just that I heard another story that may well be false). I heard or read that the producers, writers, etc. had every intention of building a new Stargazer filming model for "The Battle" based on the ready-room model. However, like the Hood and the Tsiolkovsky, the budget-watchers didn't want to spend the money, so yet another movie model would be reused, this time the movie Enterprise (as for the age of the ship, remember that at the time there wasn't a consistent dating scheme for TNG, so they could have rewrote the script to say that TNG took place only thirty or so years from the movies). Luckily, Greg Jein built his model anyway, and on time for post-production, so that the new model was used.
 

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Posted by Peregrinus (Member # 504) on :
 
The reality was probably a combination of all of that. *heh* And I've somehow never acquired the "Encounter at Farpoint" novelization. I wonder how I missed that.

--Jonah
 

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Posted by Mars Needs Women (Member # 1505) on :
 
Really sad about those Oberth plans coming to fruition.(Actually I just posted a response for the wrong thread, so this is a cop out.)
 

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Posted by Treknophile (Member # 1869) on :
 
Of course it will fit! You just have to use Landing Procedure 'B' for barricade.
 

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