rhboyd
Sr Member
Okay folks... all the info is, approved and ready to be delivered.
As you may know, I'm an actor in Star Trek New Voyages. As you may not know, one of our producers, and visual consultant to our FX Guru Max Rem is long time Trek illustrator Doug Drexler. Doug illustrated the Trek encyclopedia, as well as designing the NX-01 and being head FX guru on Enterprise. I've had the priviledge of getting to know Doug, and calling him friend... and so I sent him a note about all this stuff. Along the journey, I've gotten to know Mike Okuda as well, so I sent him a note about it all too. Today, I got notes back from the both of them, that in order to get the definitive answer, they went to the source... and so, I give you the responses that they forwarded to me from Gary Kerr.
First off... Red Ring...
"Yes. The ring on the Production version was *lightly* weathered with reddish-brown paint, with heavier paint in the inside corners of the ring."
I'm not sure if "corners" is the best word, either, when describing a ring, but hopefully, you get my drift.
Probably the intention was to accuentuate the ring, so the contours of the sec hull would show up better on TV. Here's a photo that shows it, and I've attached a couple more."
"On the 2nd Pilot version, the UPPER half of the ring was painted a solid, darker shade of gray. You can see it in several shots, including this clip from "Mirror, Mirror". Note how the contours of the lower, unhighlighted ring barely show up."
About the Port light thingy on top....
"Yes, Virgina, there is a bow light. Check this:"
"You can also see the dim light in various scenes from the series. The facts: the bow light was an access hole for the fwd sensor lights. It was made of the same milky Plexiglas as the rectangular lights on the upper surface of the saucer, and it was NOT painted (except for a streak of weathering across half the light.
The hole is only 1" in diameter, and the bulbs were approx 1/2 to 5/8" in dameter, so how did they change burned-out bulbs? Unless they had some specialized tool, I think they fished out the entire bulb, socket, and wires, then stuffed them all back inside when they were done. BTW, Ed Miarecki says that Rogay had apparently messed with the interior of the bow light, so part of what I say is informed speculation.
The bow light WAS fairly dim. In addition, I've seen shots from the show in which the middle sensor light was dimmer than the two lights flanking it. (I'm talking about the 3 lights on the very front of the saucer) My guess is that they maybe had two bulbs inside the front of the saucer. The orientation of the bulb(s) after they had been stuffed back inside the saucer may explain why the outer sensor lights were brighter. If the bulbs were directly behind the outer two sensor lights & facing forward, the middle sensor light would have been less bright because it was getting less direct light. The bow light, situated further from the light source, would have been even dimmer, especially if the bulbs were facing toward the 3 sensor holes in front.
Sound reasonable to you?"
So that's the poop... and for our show, the irrascable Max Rem created two ships for our last episode... ostensibly two versions of the Enterprise... the pilot and productions versions... check it out..
That's all the expert knowledge I could find.
Helpful?.?
Yours in Trek...
-r.
As you may know, I'm an actor in Star Trek New Voyages. As you may not know, one of our producers, and visual consultant to our FX Guru Max Rem is long time Trek illustrator Doug Drexler. Doug illustrated the Trek encyclopedia, as well as designing the NX-01 and being head FX guru on Enterprise. I've had the priviledge of getting to know Doug, and calling him friend... and so I sent him a note about all this stuff. Along the journey, I've gotten to know Mike Okuda as well, so I sent him a note about it all too. Today, I got notes back from the both of them, that in order to get the definitive answer, they went to the source... and so, I give you the responses that they forwarded to me from Gary Kerr.
First off... Red Ring...
"Yes. The ring on the Production version was *lightly* weathered with reddish-brown paint, with heavier paint in the inside corners of the ring."
I'm not sure if "corners" is the best word, either, when describing a ring, but hopefully, you get my drift.
Probably the intention was to accuentuate the ring, so the contours of the sec hull would show up better on TV. Here's a photo that shows it, and I've attached a couple more."
"On the 2nd Pilot version, the UPPER half of the ring was painted a solid, darker shade of gray. You can see it in several shots, including this clip from "Mirror, Mirror". Note how the contours of the lower, unhighlighted ring barely show up."
About the Port light thingy on top....
"Yes, Virgina, there is a bow light. Check this:"
"You can also see the dim light in various scenes from the series. The facts: the bow light was an access hole for the fwd sensor lights. It was made of the same milky Plexiglas as the rectangular lights on the upper surface of the saucer, and it was NOT painted (except for a streak of weathering across half the light.
The hole is only 1" in diameter, and the bulbs were approx 1/2 to 5/8" in dameter, so how did they change burned-out bulbs? Unless they had some specialized tool, I think they fished out the entire bulb, socket, and wires, then stuffed them all back inside when they were done. BTW, Ed Miarecki says that Rogay had apparently messed with the interior of the bow light, so part of what I say is informed speculation.
The bow light WAS fairly dim. In addition, I've seen shots from the show in which the middle sensor light was dimmer than the two lights flanking it. (I'm talking about the 3 lights on the very front of the saucer) My guess is that they maybe had two bulbs inside the front of the saucer. The orientation of the bulb(s) after they had been stuffed back inside the saucer may explain why the outer sensor lights were brighter. If the bulbs were directly behind the outer two sensor lights & facing forward, the middle sensor light would have been less bright because it was getting less direct light. The bow light, situated further from the light source, would have been even dimmer, especially if the bulbs were facing toward the 3 sensor holes in front.
Sound reasonable to you?"
So that's the poop... and for our show, the irrascable Max Rem created two ships for our last episode... ostensibly two versions of the Enterprise... the pilot and productions versions... check it out..
That's all the expert knowledge I could find.
Helpful?.?
Yours in Trek...
-r.
I always wanted both versions. 
