posted
Okay everybody, this is a rallying cry. We all know what a truly great job Berndt and the others have done with the Wolf 359 project, with the cooperation of many nice people who have sent them modelpics.
There are some nifty ships in those scenes, some of them we haven�t seen anywhere else. So, where are the modelpics? Are there any? Where are better screencaps? Where is the discussion?
------------------ "The Starships of the Federation are the physical, tangible manifestations of Humanity�s stubborn insistence that life does indeed mean something." Spock to Leonard McCoy in "Final Frontier"
posted
Something can probably be done with the material we already have. At least a couple of the question marks have already been erased:
The row of photos with "Excelsior class prototype?" on them look identifiable enough. The leftmost is very probably the flat prototype, and what looks like a lower port nacelle of a four-naceller is just an extension of the primary hull (so that it's not just a saucer but actually a U-shape, with darkened "corners" - see Ben's schematics). The centermost is a surefire four-nacelle Excelsior prototype. The rightmost photo is the least certain of the three, but the nacelle arrangement strongly suggests a slightly damaged version of the center ship (with the movable pylons moved a bit). However, the ship seems to lack most of her saucer - perhaps this is one of the heavily damaged BoBW ships? It seems unlikely that the four-nacelle proto model would have been damaged much, since it was pretty much intact in Okuda's recently taken picture.
Challenger class ID should be pretty much confirmed by now. The unknown saucer below it is very likely to be from the Excelsior prototype with two Oberth nacelles and an almost-finalized secondary hull. And the unknown below the Klingon/Romulan battlecruiser seems cobbled together from Imperial Star Destroyer parts, and is highly likely to be the other Talarian ship, the one with four wings - but that's also an uncertain identification.
Ungnh. I was supposed to finally get my copy of the TNG tape 4.1, with both "BoBW2" and "Suddenly Human". That should help me a bit with this Talarian identification at least. But the delivery to the local sci-fi shop was late. Perhaps next week...
posted
Yeah, that�s right, you and I have had this discussion before. And with the recent revelations on the Wolf 359 ships, the situation has improved. However, I would dearly like to see modelpics.
------------------ "The Starships of the Federation are the physical, tangible manifestations of Humanity�s stubborn insistence that life does indeed mean something." Spock to Leonard McCoy in "Final Frontier"
posted
"Unification" was probably not accompanied by a photographing spree by the modelmakers, since a lot of the stuff was recycled footage instead of actual refilmed models. Some photos might still exist, but who would have them? The people I get screencaps from are "screencap-only", no backstage info. Okuda has a photo archive, but not an all-encompassing, organized one, and doesn't volunteer pics all that often. Sternbach doesn't keep photos. Jein doesn't do the web. Convention-goers are probably the best chance, and us Eskimos from the far north of Europe don't belong to that exclusive club...
posted
Well, it�s true that a lot is stock-footage, on the other hand a lot isn�t, so... But you�re right, the odds of us getting those pics, if they exist are pretty slim, and with us here in "ultima thule"........
------------------ "The Starships of the Federation are the physical, tangible manifestations of Humanity�s stubborn insistence that life does indeed mean something." Spock to Leonard McCoy in "Final Frontier"
posted
I think the problem here is that for BoBW, Okuda et.al. did a somewhat meticulous job in cataloguing the models used, but for Unification, the film guys just went on a scavenger hunt for old junk that they could film, and had no cataloguing whatsoever.
IIRC, the only known models used were: A Klingon Battlecruiser; Stock footage of the Princeton, Melbourne, and Buran; The flat Ex-study; The 4-nacelled Ex-Study; The Phase II Enterprise Study; The Tyrus particle fountain (minus the bottom base); Some Mirandas; Some Antares-class freighters.
There were other models which we can't yet identify, but were probably not Star Trek-related, as Okuda had confirmed in an email I had sent him. There might also have been some Enterprise-D's that didn't come out of the mold right.
------------------ Lisa: "Don't you remember the story of Oedipus?" Homer: "Maybe five dollars will refresh my memory." Lisa (angrily): "Oedipus was the story of a man who kills his father and marries his mother!" Homer: "Uggh! Who pays for that wedding?"
posted
I�m curious as to what Okuda said. Did he specify anything about the models that where not star trek related?
------------------ "The Starships of the Federation are the physical, tangible manifestations of Humanity�s stubborn insistence that life does indeed mean something." Spock to Leonard McCoy in "Final Frontier"
I wonder if they tried using as many of the models as possible... then we could be facing things like
the Edo god the ships from The Outrageous Okuna the Tamarian ship The Telarian plague ship The pod from the nth factor The ships from Booby Trap The Husnok ship...
------------------ Homer: I'm gonna miss Springfield. This town's been awfully good to us. Bart: No, it hasn't, Dad. That's why we're leaving. Homer: Oh, yeah. [pokes his head out the window] So long, Stinktown!
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