posted
I was just at the bookstore and say the (short) article ST:The magazine printed on designing the Enterprise C. It was a very short piece that left out a lot of deatils and got some of the facts outright wrong.
The article makes it sound like Andy Probert did one 3/4 sketch of the ship in color and no one knew what it was for, and then Rick Sternbach reworked this to be the C. In fact, the color drawing they reprint is the intended-to-be-a-matte shot of an Ambassador class ship Andy did for a 1st season episode (unused). It's pretty obvious Rick would have known what the picture was for, given that he worked with Andy and that it looks like the half-model that hung in the Observation Lounge.
I like design that Sternbach finally came up with. It just irritates me that articles like this get in published with such obvious factual errors that would have been cleared up just by running the piece by Sterback and Probert. It makes everything else they print suspect.
Would have been nice if they'd interview Greg Jein about making the model too.
-------------------- "Well, I mean, it's generally understood that, of all of the people in the world, Mike Nelson is the best." -- ULTRA MAGNUS, steadfast in curmudgeon
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
Damn, and I won't see this for a coupel weeks, though it sounds as though there's no artwork that hasn't always been published. I'm in Ottawa next week, maybe I'll get lucky...
Mark
Edit - Hey, someone here is from Ottawa, no? We should meet, and I can beat you up and steal all the Trek stuff I don't have!
[ July 05, 2002, 20:38: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
posted
That same magazine has the cutaway for the alternate universe Vice-Admiral Janeway's shuttle. Amazingly, it says "Starfleet Command Staff" on the side under the SC-4.
-------------------- "It speaks to some basic human needs: that there is a tomorrow, it's not all going to be over with a big splash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans." -Gene Roddenberry about Star Trek
Registered: May 1999
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posted
The artwork is pretty much the same old crap. The side-view of the final Amabassador class looks like it may be a bit cleaner than what we have seen...but that is only my opinion.
As far as I am concerned, this rehash of rehash three page article (with a front cover blurb) is just one more example of the dog-dick drivel the people from ST: the Magazine are spoon feeding us. Sure they show us some really nice pics now and again, but the quality for an $8 (US) magazine just has gone downhill. As a matter of fact...I think I may do my own "Designing the Enterprise-C" article and post it at some point...
quote:In fact, the color drawing they reprint is the intended-to-be-a-matte shot of an Ambassador class ship Andy did for a 1st season episode (unused).
Perhaps the matte was to be used in "Conspiracy" to represent the Horatio. After all, she was verbally identified as an Ambassador class ship even before the Ent-C design was created. However, I can see why they chose not to use it. It looks kind of fake for a matte painting.
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
Registered: Jun 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Dukhat: Perhaps the matte was to be used in "Conspiracy" to represent the Horatio. After all, she was verbally identified as an Ambassador class ship even before the Ent-C design was created.
This is mostly hearsay, but supposedly the painting was to represent the Hood (and/or the Starseeker from the early draft of "Encounter at Farpoint"). TPTB decided the Excelsior would be better, and, as you mentioned, it would look much more real.
It would fit with the fact that the painting apparently originated before "Encounter at Farpoint" and was christened Ambassador class by Gene himself... whether or not the conference lounge sculpture was inspired by the painting or vice versa is debatable, though.
Registered: May 2002
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posted
It appears you may be right. I got this info about the painting at Probert's site:
quote:The first or second episode called for Enterprise to rendesvous with another ship. In order to provide a ship of the era, I painted this one toward which the Enterprise would drift. Bob Justman didn't want to use a painting and chose an old miniature.
Upon looking at the painting, I should retract what I said earlier. Provided it wasn't used up close, I think Probert could have gotten away with using it to represent an actual model in the episode. I should commend Probert's work in trying to come up with newer designs instead of reusing old models, since at the time it was cost-prohibitive to build new models if the show wasn't going to take off.
-------------------- "A film made in 2008 isn't going to look like a TV series from 1966 if it wants to make any money. As long as the characters act the same way, and the spirit of the story remains the same then it's "real" Star Trek. Everything else is window dressing." -StCoop
Registered: Jun 2000
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