boyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (11/28/84)
> From: dartvax!markv (Mark Vita) >> Anybody also notice that the color of the main sensor dish in front >> of the secondary hull also changed color between the two movies? > > About the changing appearance of the Enterprise model between the > first and second films--I heard a story that might explain it. The > special effects for the first film were contracted to Douglas ("Close > Encounters of the Third Kind") Trumball, but I guess he did kind > of a botch of a job, overran his schedule and budget. So sometime > during the filming he was fired and someone else finished up. > When the time came to make ST II, Industrial Light and Magic (part > of Lucasfilm) was hired to do the effects, but they wanted to use the > model from the first film, which was still in Trumball's possession. > They asked him for it, and I guess he was still a bit miffed at having > been fired, so he shipped them the model via 4th class U.S. Mail in a > cardboard box. It arrived not in the best of shape, and the ILM people > had to do some work on it. Perhaps this is why the Enterprise appeared > differently in ST II than in ST I. > > By the way, can anyone confirm the above story? I heard it quite > a while ago, and don't know if it's really totally factual or not. Sounds totally bogus to me. First of all, the observation in the first place was that the *color* of the main sensor changed color. ILM having to do a repair job on the *Enterprise* model shouldn't have affected that. Of course, this doesn't prove that the story isn't true, but.... What *does* prove that it isn't true is that it was Robert Abel & Associates that were first contracted to do the effects, botched the job, and were fired. Only pieces of their completed work ever made it into the film --- most notably the Decker/V'ger merger at the end. Doug Trumbull and John Dykstra were called in to haul Paramount's ass out of the fire by getting the special effects done by the release date (7 Dec- ember 1979). It's true that Trumbull wasn't entirely pleased with Paramount and Bennett, but it was because he pleaded with them to postpone the release a few months so that they'd have more time to work on the effects. But Paramount was firm in its resolve to release the film for the Christmas season. Trumbull, Dykstra, and company worked right down to the wire to get the job done on time. One reason that Trumbull's company didn't work on THE WRATH OF KHAN was that it was busy at the time doing BLADE RUNNER. Of course, he may have just not wanted to work for Paramount again. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA