Enterprise Refit Question To Original Series Fans That Ain't Kids

I had just joined the USMC and had zero time to go to the theater, so I read the book first. The Enterprise will always be the first thing that comes to mind when I think of a starship, I have loved her in all of her incarnations, from the first day the series aired. The thing that struck me the most from TMP, when I finally made it to the theater, was the music...from the beginning to the end I was hypnotized...
 
I've been watching Star Trek since the original series first aired in September of 1966; I was five years old. Like most fans I loved everything about it, and grew to appreciate it more and more watching the reruns repeatedly as I grew older. So much for my credentials. ;)

I can't recall the first time I'd read or heard about Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but I recall thinking it was long overdue. I don't like spoilers and I purposely avoided as much promotional material as possible, so the first time I saw the Refit in all her glory was on the big screen. After seeing what they had done with the pajamas...err, I mean the uniforms, I was filled with a feeling of dread. To paraphrase Dr. McCoy, "I know filmmakers; they love to change things."

Fortunately, that feeling of dread was misplaced; it was love at first sight. I think I sat through the entire "fly around" sequence with my jaw in my lap. I thought the redesign was a sensible approach; not necessarily an improvement, but a progression. To this day I can't decide which I like more, the Original or the Refit. Whether or not the Refit is actually the Original...I don't care; with all of the other implausibilities inherent in sci-fi, that's a minor consideration. :D

I must admit, however, that I still miss that "going to warp" sound effect from the original series.
 
I was 14, and I too read all the previews in Starlog, so I knew what to expect. The TOS E is a great design and will always be my fave, but the refit looked REAL. Every detail was thought out, and the reflective paint gave it a "futuristic materials" look that just sold it, this was no flat gray battleship in space.

All the designs in this film had this quality. It wasn't about what looks cool, it was what looks believable in a real world sense.
 
The refit E has always been my favorite starship design. She just exudes elegance. Don't get me wrong, the TOS E is still awesome, but there is something about the refit E that just gets me excited when I see her.

Scott
 
I liked it just fine. The sweep of the nacelle supports added extra grace, the inclusion of where the hell the weapons come from was welcome, the docking ports were interesting.
The navigational deflector dish gone for something more advanced.

I wasn't thrilled to see the light show of the nacelle domes gone. They implied vast energies captured and under control. The glowing rectangular nacelles didn't quite give that impression. But they are more like sails on a ship I guess, so there was a subtle sense of a sailing vessel over the the rocket like appearance of the old TOS nacelles.
 
I wasn't thrilled to see the light show of the nacelle domes gone. They implied vast energies captured and under control.

I couldn't agree more. Someday if I ever get around to it, I would like to make a "missing link" X version enterprise, generally keeping in form with the refit but things like the glowing, swirling bussards from the classic.
 
My take at the time was a little different. I was 24 in 1979.

I had been lucky to have seen the original series filming model in working condition when it was on display at Golden West College in the early 70s. No doubt about it, that was a great model.

After seeing TMP, I was uncertain over whether or not I liked the new Enterprise. Many features were nice touches. The new warp engines took the most time for me to get used to. At that time, I know I would have preferred the round engines and straight pylons but updated with the new paint scheme and better lighting effects. The new Enterprise sort of grew on me and eventually I was enthusiastic about all of the changes.
 
My take at the time was a little different. I was 24 in 1979.

I had been lucky to have seen the original series filming model in working condition when it was on display at Golden West College in the early 70s. No doubt about it, that was a great model.

After seeing TMP, I was uncertain over whether or not I liked the new Enterprise. Many features were nice touches. The new warp engines took the most time for me to get used to. At that time, I know I would have preferred the round engines and straight pylons but updated with the new paint scheme and better lighting effects. The new Enterprise sort of grew on me and eventually I was enthusiastic about all of the changes.


Lucky!

I keep wondering if there are pictures sitting in shoe boxes of that college event.
 
I saw the first episode broadcast back in '66 at the tender age of 5. I was a senior in HS when ST:TMP came out. I love the original ship. When the movie publicity was ramping up, I bought my first and only supermarket tabloid (The Star? The Enquirer?) because if featured a full color center spread of the new model. This was not the painting; it was a photo of the final model, completely lit, against a star background.

I loved what they'd done to the old girl. While the Refit will never replace the original in my affections; the sense of realism and scale was fantastic.

I agree with an earlier poster. Some thought the inspection tour scene went on too long. Not me. It wasn't long enough.

Now I had a completely different reaction to the interiors. I hated the sparseness of the bridge. While the original had a very forward thinking ergonomic design, the movie bridge seemed a huge step backward to the "just stick on some blinky lights" school of design. And the blandness of the color scheme was also a turn off. The only two improvements I could credit were the seat restraints and raising the level of the railing. In TOS, the railing was dangerous. It was just high enough to guarantee that anyone on the top level who lost his balance would knock his knee on it and pitch into the lower level on his head. That's because it wasn't put there as a safety feature -- it was put there for Captain Kirk to lean against dramatically. The refit bridge fixed this. Now Kirk practically rests his chin on it when he declares that he feels "young" in TWOK.

M.
 
Hello CessnaDriver,

I was on a HS field trip and seeing THE USS ENTERPRISE in person came as a huge surprise. I had to be asked to leave so others could have their turn. Hey...the grid lines did exist on the top of the sauce. They were delicate in terms of line size and darkness. The model's color was also a surprise. At that time, I thought it was a special grey paint that showed white under bright lighting. It was quite a treat to see. The only defect was the sensor dish was missing. Had I known that was part of the field trip beforehand, I would have brought my camera. I tired to go back later before we had to leave, but the room was packed. Lucky sums it up just right.
 
Well, I recall being a little dismayed when I first saw the painting used for the movie poster. It looked like the engines had been replaced by alien technology (they looked sort of Klingon to me at the time) or hadn't been finished yet (like they hadn't finished adding the outer skin yet). I asked James Doohan about this at a convention and he said something about how it was like the changes seen in car designs over the years.

So yeah, my first reaction was pretty negative... but on opening day, the fly around of the ship in space dock changed that impression. It seemed far less unfinished than it had previously to me.

Oddly enough, I've since found out that the original TOS engines were a compromise because Jefferies was running out of time during the designing of the Enterprise. And that the design of the Klingon engines was more like what he would have wanted for the Enterprise, and why the engines on the Phase II Enterprise started moving in that design direction.

While I like the TMP version of the Enterprise (specially after seeing it in action in TWOK), the TOS Enterprise is still my favorite version.
 
I was just 14 as well but had made the geek-study of the TOS E my sole reason to exist. I also drew it all the time despite my lack of skill. I was awestruck at the new ships despite what I'd seen in Starlog and other magazines of the day. It was sleek, which didn't make a lot of sense to me as it's in space, but beautiful. The detailing bugged me as I felt they had sold out to the 'Star Wars' design of having the hull covered in stuff, but at least it didn't have random crap hanging outside of its new lines. The interior was drab and lifeless, except where it had 70s green and orange, which I hated even during the 70s. Carpet pad is not futuristic. I loved the open areas as it gave the ship a sense of scale.

The uniforms were another matter and OT, but I totally agree with the folks here, except for Kirk's admiral uniform, that rocked!

Tib
 
Oddly enough, I've since found out that the original TOS engines were a compromise because Jefferies was running out of time during the designing of the Enterprise. And that the design of the Klingon engines was more like what he would have wanted for the Enterprise, and why the engines on the Phase II Enterprise started moving in that design direction.

Shaw,

I've never heard about this. Where did you find this tidbit?

Thanks,
M.
 
I'm one of those that watched TOS. I loved the refurbished Enterprise (something Ken Ralston did not). My only feeling about it at the time was it's size. Though they called it a refit, in my head, I just took it as a 'new' Enterprise. Hey, we had such a long stretch without any Star Trek, ST:TMP was a real shot in the arm. Thenfilm it's troubles but the E? Great!
 
Originally Posted by Shaw
Oddly enough, I've since found out that the original TOS engines were a compromise because Jefferies was running out of time during the designing of the Enterprise. And that the design of the Klingon engines was more like what he would have wanted for the Enterprise, and why the engines on the Phase II Enterprise started moving in that design direction.
Shaw,

I've never heard about this. Where did you find this tidbit?

Thanks,
M.

Some of Jefferies' early drawings show small rectangular nacelles. I don't know about a "compromise", but it did start that way. I like the "looks like a duck" note :lol
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I have to admit, like others here that it took a while to get used to the new TMP sweeping design. But I realy feel the TMP E is one nice design - plays well on the screen and has a feel of always moving forward even when it is still. All that being said, the TOS E will always be the queen bee - even if it looks a bit 1960's ish.

The pearlescent finish on the TMP is a very slick change, too!
 
I've never heard about this. Where did you find this tidbit?
I'll try to find where it was that I got that... I'm thinking it was most likely a correspondence someone had with Jefferies rather than an interview (as most interviewers wouldn't have asked about the Phase II design).

Honestly, if anyone else but you had asked, I would have thought of you as the first possible source.
 
Whether or not you like the original Enterprise, is going to depend a lot on how old you were when Star Trek the motion picture came out. I was 17 at the time, I grew up loving Star Trek, And the original Enterprise. Therefore, my experience was, that they took something that I loved and felt was perfect and completely reworked it, with little or no regard for the original. If the original version had never existed, then I would probably like it a lot more than I do.
What I really felt was lost, was the potential of the original design. The movie version of the ship, shares no single dimension or line with the original television version. To me, the original ship looks big, sleek, graceful but robust, smooth and shiny, and has details that cannot be defined by 20th or 21st century technology and hence, is an extremely futuristic design. Imagine, that you could take a modern iPhone back to 1965, and assuming that it would still function, somehow bridging the gap through time, and set it on a table for someone to find. When the people of 47 years in the past do find it, are they going to know what it is, what it does, or how it works? Maybe if they can touch it they might figure it out eventually. We are talking a 23rd century starship, originally 300 years in the future, now closer to 250 years, something we can only see, not touch. What are the odds that we (the people of 2012) would actually understand any of the surface details or structures of the original design of the Enterprise?
The designers of the movie Enterprise wanted to make the ship look more modern or up-to-date, and so they infused it with modern (i.e. 1979) technology. Such as putting lights shining on the hull, to elimunate markings. This is an extremely low-tech, old-fashioned way of addressing this perceived problem. Again, this is a 23rd century starship. Why are they even being elimunated? Anyone out there to see them, more than likely have technology capable of seeing them even in complete darkness. Most likely the numbers and markings would be created using a process or materials that are capable of change. Maybe, these markings change from black to elimunated, if desired by the crew of the ship. The potential was there, even in the original design. It may not have been within the budget of the series, but the potential for it to happen was there. When the motion picture shined spotlights on the markings to elimunate them, that potential ceased to exist. This is only one of the many potentials that ceased to exist with the new design.
I will admit the movie version of the ship, looked new, shiny, more detailed, but, it looked like we had somehow made the ship today, with today's technology. And I feel the same way about the 2009 Star Trek Enterprise.
 
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