What Happened with the Phase II Enterprise Design?

[ViceAdmBaxter]

So in essence you guys have decided to ignore canon, instead of doing it the way the producers had wanted it done?

I say this only because the Phase II refit was done for Phase II, not the aborted show that became TMP....

It's almost as if you have created an alternate timeline ..................

You say that "the Phase II refit was done for Phase II, not for the aborted show that became TMP," except that Phase II *was* the aborted show that became TMP.  So I'm confused about what you are saying about ignoring canon.  Can you be a bit clearer?

I apologize for that. "not" was part of a work related e-mail I was working on at the same time. Darn multi tasking

[kc5tja]

Another thing to consider, too, is that we're not even done with completing the Enterprise's original five-year mission yet.  Remember that Phase-II was supposed to be its second five-years.  So, assuming 23 episodes per season (this seems to be about the average), we're looking at a total of 46 episodes to go before we effectively have to refit the Enterprise.  We're up to what, now, 7 episodes?

We have time.  As much as I love to see the phase-II Enterprise spread her wings and fly, we have a looooong way to go yet.

[Titon]

Nice work on this one... i liked it a lot.

Question is then...i know it sounds redudant but if you are not considering using the Phase 2 design why is the name even part of the sites designation?

Sorry just had to ask.

[Trekfan77]

One thing I should ask if anybody knows.  But When TMP was made, and the Enterprise was redesigned for that, did anybody complain?  If not, Why?

From what I've been told via Youtube, many fans moaned and groaned about the redesign. About as much as fans do today when it comes to the JJ Abrams design. I guess some things never change.

I would've liked to have seen the Phase II design as well. We still could. Who's to say it couldn't make an appearance in later episodes as a newer ship.

[evil_genius_180]

Who's to say it couldn't make an appearance in later episodes as a newer ship.

I like that idea.  It could start appearing in the background of effects shots and slowly be seen more clearly as the episodes progress. 

[Bhodi Li]

Far be it from me to stic my nose in, but couldn't that design be seen as a new ship? 

[Sarge]

As Spock once said, "There are always possibilities."

[Moeskido]

FWIW, I'd like to see a Phase II ship appear within a future plot. I can easily imagine a prideful Scotty, having examined the specs for the new design, turns his nose up when one appears on the screen, perhaps one of Enterprise's sister ships, perhaps an experimental craft.

"Looks nice, but it's not ready for real work," says Scott as he continues to keep Kirk's ship in its customary top-level condition for the remainder of its five years.

[IlSisko]

Hey, a fan has made a real model of the Phase II's Enterprise!   

Star Trek Phase II Enterprise – Scratch & Bash by Warren Zoell

[mos6507]

One thing I should ask if anybody knows.  But When TMP was made, and the Enterprise was redesigned for that, did anybody complain?  If not, Why?

From what I've been told via Youtube, many fans moaned and groaned about the redesign. About as much as fans do today when it comes to the JJ Abrams design. I guess some things never change.

I would've liked to have seen the Phase II design as well. We still could. Who's to say it couldn't make an appearance in later episodes as a newer ship.

I don't recall a lot of moaning and groaning.  It's hard to be too nostalgic for the TOS Enterprise when the FX shots in TOS are so grainy you can barely even tell what the thing looks like.  TOS Remastered, maybe, but not TOS.  It's an iconic design but was never showcased in a way that would look epic in a movie.

Along those lines, there's a big difference in how the TMP Enterprise was "sold" to the audiences vs. the 2009 Enterprise.

The TMP Enterprise was "sold" to us in 1979 via the infamous dry-dock sequence, followed by the dry-dock pull-out sequence, both featuring some of the very best music ever written for science-fiction.

People argued over the pacing of TMP, but few if any argued that the TMP Enterprise was a sexy piece of rolling sculpture that was a huge improvement over the 1960s version.  The Enterprise symbolized the franchise and the lugubrious rollout in TMP was Paramount's way of saying "here it is, Star Trek reborn, this time with a big budget that will make you feel the size and heft of these ships."

The 2009 film, coming as it does long after audiences have become jaded by FX and demanding quick-cutting, simply rushed through the introduction of the Enterprise.  Since the filmmakers didn't communicate to the audience that the Enterprise "meant something, dammit!" by giving it the proper screentime, then it makes sense that the audience would be equally "meh" about it, no matter what it looked like, but it was made worse by it looking like crap.