In Naked Truth Pt I, reader Mark Delgado commented on the creative process, and it’s impact on the Enterprise C filming miniature.
Mike Okuda shares his memories of those challenges…
Doug -
The main issue with the original design for the Enterprise-C was that it was conceived with a beautiful elliptical saucer, half-way between the round saucer of the Excelsior, and the elegant ellipse of the Enterprise-D. Round is, indeed more expensive to build than sharp and square, but elliptical can be a lot more expensive than both. This was a big deal for a model that had to be built on a very tight schedule for an episode that was already very expensive. Rick Sternbach and I sat around, trying to figure out how to make the Enterprise-C model affordable. After a while, we realized that the model would be considerably faster to build (and therefore cheaper) if Rick changed the saucer from an ellipse to a circle and made a few other changes. Rick will be the first to admit that the resulting design wasn’t as elegant as the original concept, but I think he did a great job of preserving as much as possible of Andy Probert’s vision, while keeping the cost low enough that our producers wouldn’t be forced to re-use the Excelsior or the movie Enterprise. And, of course, Greg Jein did his usual brilliant job in building a new starship in record time, on an embarrassingly low budget.
-Mike
Ok, Gary… you’re walking through the desert, and you come across a tortoise…”
Mike in action.
The funny thing is that I’ve always liked Ambassador-as-built far more than Ambassador-as-intended. While the original lines are lovely, there’s something fare more…utilitarian?..about Mike & Rick’s redraw that’s always captured me.
“…What’s a tortoise?”
“Know what a turtle is?”
“Yeah.”
“Same thing.”
“Is that part of the test?”
The Enterprise C, despite the budget-imposed design restrictions (creativity versus frugality and time), came out looking quite stately – a testament to the TNG art department. What, out of curiosity, prompted the slight redressing of the C miniature for its later appearances?
Hi Doug,
Thanks so much for Okuda’s info, and the pic. Is that Gumby’s legs sticking out? My facetious take on how the production office views things aside, I agree that it’s a very important job to keep things in the budget. Also just to clarify, I was referring to the secondary hull being made tubular instead of flatter like the Ent-D’s. Rick stated that a rounded secondary hull was cheaper to make.
Hello, Doug & Mike, I have been a big fan for years. The reason I got into design was because of Star Trek.I still have my original TNG Tech Manual, and the footnote on page 36 started it all for me. I can’t wait to see more post.
Thanks for taking out time to post the articles and photos.
“Let me tell you about my mother.”
I very much like the C, if only because our first view of it was battle-damaged. I retro-wank it as being an interim industrial design, like the iPod mini. Something that worked very well for its time, but was on its way to becoming something far more elegant. A professional, successful attempt to present a midpoint between the B and the D.
I also have opinions about the door this ship opened up to imitatively OCD Trek fans who then felt a need to fill in gaps in Starfleet’s shipbuilding history. Aside from Masao Okazaki’s sensible Starfleet Museum (http://www.starfleet-museum.org/index.htm), there aren’t a lot of those I can plant my flag upon.
Sorry for the negativism. I like seeing professional work when I can get it!
Hey, Moeskido! Are you saying I have OCD? If so, how did you know?
PS: Doug, this is Masao Okazaki. I wanted to thank you for the great job you did on modeling and rendering my Vanguard designs. Also, thanks for starting this very cool blog.
Hi Masao! It is truly a pleasure to make your acquaintance! Thank you for the kind words!
I am an admirer of your site, and appreciate the variety, and huge number of designs you have come up with. I dig Vanguard station because it looks appropriately old school, while embracing the design directions of the original feature films! Great job!
Happy New Year, and welcome! – Doug
Masao, I make no insinuations. I merely admire how real talent can channel certain afflictions. I very much admire your Starfleet Museum.
Thanks, Moeskido and Doug!
A question, Doug. Did you model the Vanguard-ish station that appeared in the remastered “The Ultimate Computer”?
Hi Masao! No, I did not, but I can probably find out the geneology of it. We’ll come back to this – Doug
No need for research. I was just curious about whether your model was used. But the differences in size between Vanguard and the onscreen ship probably made a new model more practical. Thanks.
Masao! Too late! Here is Mike Okuda’s report:
Doug -
It was Dave Rossi’s idea to use Vanguard Station as the basis for the station in the remastered version of “The Ultimate Computer.” At one of our planning meetings, Dave showed us one of your beautiful book covers from one of the Vanguard novels. The next day, we got an OK from John Van Citters and Paula Block of CBS Consumer Products, and Margaret Clark and Marco Palmieri at Pocket Books to use the design. Masao Okazaki was also enthusiastically supportive.
The actual digital model in the episode was built by a talented artist named Apollo Kim at CBS Digital, under the supervision of visual effects supervisor Niel Wray. They based it closely on your renderings, although it was somewhat simplified because we knew it would be relatively small in the frame.
I was the one responsible for having the station re-scaled. For our particular shots in this episode, I didn’t want the starbase to dwarf the Enterprise and the Lexington.
- Mike
Thanks, Doug. Thanks and Kudos to Mike Okuda and all the guys at CBS Digital. To have my design part of Star Trek was a dream come true.
Masao, write me up a paragraph on the development of the Vanguard station, and I’ll run it with thumbnails of the three Vanguard covers. – Doug
OK. Will do.
Ahahaha too funny and perfect caption for that pic, AND a Bladerunner nod to boot… rich.
It would be a hoot to build C with the original elliptical saucer and/or even better, as she fully stood before she had to be down-sized. Any chance Rick still has those plans before she had to be design-hobbled?
PLL,
deg
Wonderful insight into the design of the E-C. It would really be something to see her rendered as originally designed.
I know this may not be an opinion held by too many people out there, but I’m grateful for the budget and schedule-induced simplifications/changes to the E-C design. The Ambassador-class design has long been one of my favorite Star Trek starship designs not because it’s particularly sleek, or graceful, or alludes to some ethereal future technology, but above else the Ambassador design with its thick circular shapes and stocky pylons looks SOLID. It projects a sense of strength. It’s the kind of ship that looks like the giant hand of Apollo from “Who Mourns for Adonais?” could throw into an asteroid and it would just bounce off and keep on Trekin’. The kind of ship that go through hell and still bring you back in one piece.