Famous Location Standing in for a Vulcan Birth? + More On The Enterprise

[Possible minor spoilers] Last weekend TrekMovie.com revealed that the production for the new Star Trek movie would be shooting at the famous Vasquez Rocks location (scene of many Trek shots including the Gorn fight in “Arena”). Now according to a source of IESB, the shooting at Vasquez this week will be for “a birth.” The source, who was picketing the location with the WGA, also stated there were “plenty of Vulcans” around. Vasquez Rocks could easily stand in for planet Vulcan, as it did in Star Trek IV. Of course Spock’s birth was already featured in Star Trek V, so that part is a bit harder to decipher.

Same, but grittier Enterprise?

IESB’s report also included another brief description of the Starship Enterprise. Their ‘top secret informant’ told the site the ship was “the basic shape” as the familiar ship, but it has “a new, grittier metal texture.” They speculate this is based on some designs that have been sent out to licensees, but TrekMovie.com has been told recently that licensees have not yet been sent any ship designs (possibly this has changed in the last week). Last month TrekMovie.com did convey reports that the Enterprise for the movie will have the same basic shape (saucer, primary hull, nacelles), but reports also indicate the changes are more than just the texture or ‘skin.’ However with all of these second hand reports, it is difficult to really tell since the descriptions are all subjective. The only thing that seems clear is that the Enterprise will be neither an exact copy of the 1960s design, nor a radical redesign that does not follow the same shape.

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First!

first?

So, it’s like an NX-1701 style. That’s fine with me. I still prefer the streamlined TOS look but this will do.

I went there several times as a child and climbed those rocks. It kept us busy while my dad was shooting scenes. It brings back a bunch of great memories.

Hi there Chris, WOW now I can say I greeted James Doohan’s son. Pleasure to have you on the site.

As long as she has the same shape and appears like a pre-refit version of the TOS 1701 we all grew up with, I don’t mind a some “grittiness” at all. Can’t wait to see the first pictures!

I love Vasquez rocks. My stories are not as cool as your, Chris, but still fun.

Can’t wait to see images of the Enterprise. the anticipation is killing me.

With all the talk of JJ Abrams using many different locations for shooting, I wonder what other nods he’ll have towards past locations. As long as the new Enterprise model is respectable towards the Original, I’ll be happy.

Thank the Great Bird of the Galaxy, if they don’t change the E too much. I expect much more detail, but keep her figure intact!

Man, just don’t mess with the Enterprise, guys. That would really suck!

Why struggle to stick within canon story-wise and character-wise, then change the ship design?
Seems bit odd to me.

They may not be changing the ship design… just adding more texture for the big screen. Same thing happens for superhero costume. I can live with more surface detail, as in ST:TMP.

Chris,

You should write a book about all your trek-oriented memories, a lot of people would be interested! :)

It’s gotta be a closer resenblence to Archer’s time and hull design meaning that style lasted longer than anticipated. Like I said, NX-1701.

Strangely I could live with this.

Somebody had a prefect design incorporating the the elements of ENT and TOS.

New rule. When you say “first” you are actually saying “I am a fracktard”

A little texture ala TMP Refit and some spot lights would be pretty cool. Maybe some activity within the grills of the nacelles when it’s at warp speed. Little things like that would do a great deal to “modernize” the Enterprise without making it look too weird. I just want it too look huge and majestic.

#8: With all the talk of JJ Abrams using many different locations for shooting, I wonder what other nods he’ll have towards past locations.”

It would be really cool if they revisited the location used in “Operation: Annihilate!” (the one with the flying fried eggs). According to Memory Alpha, those outdoor scenes were shot at the headquarters of TRW in Redondo Beach (currently the Northtrop Grumman Space Technology headquarters). It was such a futuristic-looking place and the fact that it was real made it even more impressive. Although I recognize that the movie might have to invent a reason to be on Deneva just to do this, and they can probably create an even more futuristic-looking outdoor setting with special effects, I think the coolness would come from the fact that it would be a location instantly recognizable by fans of TOS. In fact, outdoor Deneva was my first thought when the original article about revisiting locations was posted here.

Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere, like in another thread, but is this movie going to make use of the *entire* Trek canon? For example, given Phlox’s presence on Archer’s Enterprise, obviously Denobulans were a known species in Kirk’s time, even though we didn’t see any. It might be interesting if they threw a Denobulan or two in there. They wouldn’t have to figure into the plot — they could just walk by. The type of thing that’s just there and isn’t commented upon, like when E.T. started following the kid dressed in the Yoda costume.

I have said before that I think the “modern look” will be in its detail, as we never really see the ship too “up close and personal” in TOS. Otherwise, it should look the same. This is the trickiest part of any “prequel”. Simply showing a younger and newer audience (which the Trek franchise must win over to survive) the old 1960’s Enterprise will just not do (what we saw then as spectacular, the young ones will see as boring), so these changes have to be impressive, yet still subtle enough not to ruin it for those TOS purists(like myself) among us.

#3,
Huh?

How do we know that the Enterprise didn’t see a cosmetic re-fit and coat of paint between this movie and “Where No Man…”??? Really. We’re all going to recognize it as the Enterprise. End of discussion please.???

Please STXI peoples throw us a bone here!

OK, same basic ship design. Here is what I would hate to see:

Cutaways
Nacelles that weren’t round
Gun turrets
Formerly non-moving parts of the ship now moving.
Anything resembling the NX-01.
Anything too forward looking like the TMP E.
Landing gear.

I know that it’s too much to ask that they keep the ship exactly the same, but I am a collector of these things. I have a fleet of starships from all sorts of science fiction programs and movies but my Enterprise collection is my pride and joy. I have them all dating back to the original Enterprise models from the early seventies with the green bridge domes and white plastic. To change the ship too much just for the sake of change would just diminish, in my mind, the ship that I have grown up with. Am I being too personal and posessive? Probably, but I guess I’m just trying to be a squeaky wheel.

Details and a bit of streamlining if you must but please use discretion, for the sake of those to whom it seems to be an important matter.

WE WANT PICTURES!! At least I do anyway. Two hundred thousand quatloos to the first thrall who comes up with pix, drawings, scribblings, any images of the new Enterprise, finished, unfinished, whatever. I’m frikkin dyin’ over here! IMHO, that ship was the most important character in the show. It wasn’t “These are the voyages of James T. Kirk”, it was “These are the voyages of THE STARSHIP ENTERPRISE”. Ok, sure, she’s taken a variety of forms over the years and another change shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but the curiosity is killing me. GIMME PIX!! …please?… :)

It sounds to me like the Big E will possibly look a little like Gabe Koerner’s interpretation, which wouldn’t be so bad, I guess.

Although I do hope they keep it a bit more like the original than his design.

Youtube Link to Gabe Koerner’s Enterprise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aON_SnlcPA4&feature=related

#19) I think that shows more of a problem with the young people today than it does with anything else. I am only 21 myself (so I’m saying this from a young-er fan’s point of view) and I still think the Classic Enterprise is the most beautifully designed and sculpted vessel i’ve ever seen on ANY science fiction program or movie. To change that design any more than updating it as we see it in the remastered Treks would be a true shame. There’s nothing wrong with the Big-E as she is; I think that she looks just as, if not more, realistic than any other ship we’ve seen in Star Trek.

IMnsHO, I just think that the youth today has become too accustomed to these ridiculous-looking, quasi-futuristic, overly-exaggerated, war-machine-esque ships in sci-fi nowadays (modern-era Trek included) and have never come to realize what a timeless and gorgeous gal the Classic Enterprise really was.

Trek doesn’t need a “reImagining” or “reInventing”, it just needs a good story, good characters and The Great Bird of the Galaxy’s spirit to guide her to the stars. At least we still have the amazing crew at New Voyages to give us that, even if Mr. Abrams can’t.

=/\= James

#3
Did you mean the Hull material or the design?

Perhaps the new Enterprise will have a texture that could resemble the familiar movie version Enterprise. I could but that with all the shield arrays and such. It would be much in line with Star Trek Enterprise and the Star Trek movies and the other Star Trek spinoffs.

Aztec panel lines again, I am sure.

I always thought the lack of panel lines was a tribute to the advanced engineering that is available in the 23rd century.

THE WAS PART OF THE ‘WONDER FACTOR’ OF THE ORIGINAL TREK!

Surely with advancements like the Transporter, engineers would be able to manufacture a seemless hull (down to the last molecule). Would’nt that also greatly help reduce friction or drag and increase strength should the ship ever need to enter an atmosphere?

A perfectly smooth hull may have assisted the ship when at high Impluse power too. Considering that Impulse propulsion BRINGS THE SHIP VERY CLOSE TO LIGHT SPEED! Even a minor panel gridline would create resistance that would rip it from the hull!

Another thing that has been ACCEPTED for many years is the understanding that parts of the hull are “Transparent to Energy.” If you look at the original Enterprise you will see that there are glowing squares on parts of the ship. Mostly on the Saucer (advanced propulsion?)
I always thought that they assisted the ship in maintaining a steady Warp Field, Shields, or for slowing the ship’s forward prgression, when needed, at impulse power. I’d be surprised if they don’t address that issue. Sure the whole ship could spin around and fire its impulse engines to slow. But we have never seen any Starship ship do this maneuver.

I also always considered that the Enterprise’s deflectors are part of what makes the ship always visible in deep space. No need for unrealistic mood lighting around the ship if there is an energy field that illuminates the hull.

KUDOS TO THE ORIGINAL ENTERPRISE DESIGN!

It truley envisioned science, WHILE ONLY NEEDING TO HINT AT THE WONDER of future technology.

Also, PLEASE do not show any more arc welders in space! I think we are all capable of uderstanding that there will be advancements that we are surprised to see. Considerable advancements that are not easily understood by us 21st century primates.

My two cents.

#16 Good idea. F.I.R.S.T. is an acronym for F***ing Idiot Reeks Start of Thread.

#26 A little detail under the gray thermocoat is reasonable, and would fit in the period of refits between what would have been the end of Pike’s 2nd 5YM, and the WNMHGB stage. If we get a bit of exposition, I don’t think the movie NCC-1701-in-refit-stage will be so unreasonable. At least I hope they’re smart enough to do that. A couple throwaway lines right up front fix this issue, and then we can move on. That the GEOMETRY appears to be exactly the classic 1701 is a superb sign.

#21 – EXACTLY. Love it or hate it, any time period that wasnt show on TV doesn’t really have established canon (or alot of it anyway.) Im’ REALLY looking forward to this.

One thing for sure… whichever site posts the first pictures of the new Enterprise will have a traffic spike the likes of which has never been seen.

You hear me, Internet? Scoop it for the ad views!

A birth on Vulcan?Maybe Spock will have had a son.

One other item concerning my post #29.

Since the transporters were an early development on Archer’s Enterprise the development of a seemless hull would have been a logical next step.

Period.

i love the original enterprise, but i wouldnt hold them to the original look any more than i’d expect them to hang crappy looking probes on wires and have them wobble through the ship. have to modernize. as long as it has the same basic design, go ahead and update.

I think Enterprise was paramounts best and worst shot in re-imagining and look what happened. I can’t stand the design of the NX-01. Let’s not have a repeat of what happened with enterprise..Please?

33 – Or possibly a grandson.

They tried to make the ship as modern(futuristic) as they could on TOS with a limited budget.I think the movie makers should go with THAT and forsake looking ‘gritty’.I’d like to see that vision of the future portrayed(seemless,modern,visionary)like TOS but with the resources of a big movie budget.

#29 and #34 – Exactly!
I hope the producers REALLY thought this one through.
They must understand that if they are respecting the history as they say, changing the E just for the sake of change would make them look like idiots.
Let’s also hope that they’ve still been visiting HERE, where the only logical paths lie.

Gotta say folks, I don’t trust IESB with news that sounds good to me any more than I do with news that doesn’t sound good to me. So I think we need to cool off and remember the unreliable source of this rumor before we all get excited about what it means.

Yeah, I especially enjoyed seeing how the “Mirror Darkly” episode depicted the crew being in AWE of the Defiant’s tech.

37.Pragmaticus.How would that work?The movie is supposed to show their first voyage with an TNG older Spock doing a backwards time travel.

#36-Agreed

Go ahead and cast Peggy as Scotty. Let the Enterprise crew drink Slusho. You can cast Shatner as the chef if you want.

But please, oh please, do not radically change the E too much.

Addendum to my above post #23:

No fins, flames, or transformations. It shall not become a giant robot.

I’ve been out to Vasquez Rocks near Cold Water Canon for a wee walk…it was the middle of August and DAMN it was hot!! The film crew will no doubt be glad its Nov / Dec and not the middle of the summer! Pretty awesome place, spectacular view from the rocks (theres two actually, one often used to film and pretend its the same thing from a different view) over the valley/canon to the highway. I always remember it being repeatedly used in Bonanza!!

#23 might have a problem, considering that the NX-01 was heavily based on the original 1701.

# 23 – THX

Hear, Hear. The classic shape is beautiful and iconic.

Well, we’ll know.

#45: “#23 might have a problem, considering that the NX-01 was heavily based on the original 1701.”

Yep. A ship that looked like the NX-01 but with the addition of an engineering hull below the saucer and nacelles would fit the iesb description to a “T.” ;)

42 – Maybe the kid is named Jim, which then segues to a scene of older Spock reminiscing about his fallen friend.

#45. How was the NX-01 based on the original E other than a few token details like the dish in the front and the black docking strips? Its totally based on the Akira. And the hull is texture just like any other TNG type ship.

Screw the “Bring back Kirk” movement.

Bring back our ENTERPRISE NCC-1701!