The Lost Enterprise of Phase II: a path not taken

In this video, we look at the aborted Enterprise designed for 'Star Trek: Phase II'.
#StarTrek #StarshipEnterprise #culture

[@scottk3292]

There's something about the old moonshot technology and aesthetic I really love, and I imagine that carrying over somewhat to the rather basic geometry of the original Enterprise. I love the design of the original Enterprise, maybe because the ultra-high-tech is very understated and hidden. The more they try to make something look high tech, the less mystery it carries. Imagine if they made the movie Enterprise look really high tech by having vacuum tubes and what would now be very outdated circuit boards visible in all the consoles. I guess I really like simple high-tech designs.

[@greyhawk4898]

I totally agree, I love 1967 Enterprise, and all the digital mucking about did absolutely nothing to enhance the effects of the series. The clean effects and looks are definitely better than the newer stuff.

[@CMVBrielman]

Phase II/TMP had a second in command named Will whose name ended in -cker, and whose love interest had empathic abilities, named after the city in the Trojan War. TNG had a second in command named Will whose name ended in -cker, and whose love interest had empathic abilities, named after the city in the Trojan War.

[@kargaroc386]

hmmm "Wilia" doesn't really sound like a nice name

[@Anvilshock]

Riker, not Ricker.

[@moxica93]

Also had a completely "logical" character who was looking for ways to experience emotions.

[@leeroyjenks]

Decker? The guy from 7th Heaven?!

[@SporeMurph]

​@@kargaroc386Willusa? 😉

[@DIYDaveOK]

Keep in mind that most of the sets for Phase II were constructed and screen tests for the principal actors filmed (with TOS-style uniforms) when Paramount ditched the fourth TV network idea and shoved Trek into a full-blown theatrical event. After they brought in Robert Wise to direct, he inspected the sets and advised the studio none of them were suitable for movie filming, and had to be substantially rebuilt or restructured at significant cost. Those expenses, among others in TMP's well-documented and troubled production, were contributors to its $50m pricetag.

[@rochedl]

Interesting fact, the youtube fan series Star Trek Continues used many of the unused scripts of Phase 2 for their episodes.

[@needsarewrite]

They did not, you’re thinking of Star Trek new voyages. The James crawley series.

[@DRGames-dm2dz]

@@needsarewrite Your correct ! Thank you :).

[@williammitchell4417]

Vic Todd and the gang did a great job with the Continues series.

[@dionysislarson6352]

@@needsarewrite Thanks for saying his name. I always forget it and end up calling him Elvis Kirk.

[@byronflint6153]

​@@needsarewrite Yes they did. Specifically episodes 1, 3, and 4, with hints in 2, and 5.

[@Concreteowl]

In my headcanon the Phase 2 Enterprise is the ship that concluded it's last 5 year mission and was refitted for the Motion Picture.

[@TightPantsJack]

0:58 Somewhere in the multiverse there's a KZbinr scoffing at the idea that the hit movie “Scorn" was almost called “John Wick."

[@MattMcIrvin]

The finned Discovery of "2001" is how Arthur C. Clarke described the ship in the book--it also had large hydrogen tanks. All of that was actually more technically plausible for a nuclear-powered spacecraft (you need thermal radiators and a store of reaction mass), but Kubrick thought it looked better without all that, and that adding "wings" to a ship built to operate in vacuum would confuse the audience.

[@RaddSpencer]

I like to think that the Enterprise did get this refit in the years between TOS and TMP. I know it's not canon, but I just like the idea of a more gradual evolution.

[@3Rayfire]

I would think that another Constitution class got this refit before the Enterprise went in for hers.

[@mrtrek2117]

I mean, that Captain's chair on the phase2 Enterprise though...

[@ryant282a]

Very well done re-creations. Thank you for putting it all together. I've seen bits and pieces of the Phase II ship and sets, but not as complete as this. 👍

[@Eduardo99922]

Cool video.

[@Kiyosuki]

The captain's chair being this gigantic couch for one person never fails to make me laugh a bit. It's like damn, I know the captain's chair is supposed to be important and all but does it have to take up 1/3 of the bridge? 🤣

[@gus.smedstad]

I never liked the couch of TNG's command group either. It was rather PC - intended to make the captain look less authoritarian, and sharing importance with the XO and the (ugh) ship's counselor. Really foolish, frankly, since there are good reasons why the captain is the ultimate authority on board. It's not like Picard took a vote on decisions. The original captain's chair was much more functional. Among other things, Kirk used the arm controls to issue ship-wide addresses on a semi-regular basis.

[@wendigos_eat_people7177]

@@gus.smedstad The only thing I didn't like about the original captain's chair was the low back. I would be uncomfortable if I couldn't lean back. The refit chair was a lot better but it was much smaller.

[@QuantaSolace]

@@gus.smedstad TNG layout made some sense because it was mostly an era of peace before the conflict with the Borg and Dominion. The captain didn’t need to have a full 360 view of the bridge.

[@ironsides982]

It reminds me of those 70's and 80's egg chairs, but cut in half.

[@axelhopfinger533]

Well Shatner has to lounge his manly regal stature somewhere appropriate. And when the captain is on the bridge for a 10 to 12 hour shift, he gotta be comfortable.

[@scottgardener]

This would make for an interesting ship to feature in a parallel universe storyline

[@williammitchell4417]

It has possibilities.

[@hemaccabe4292]

It’s fascinating to imagine what that ship might have looked like. Would have missed Spock so much.

[@koalabrownie]

The series might've failed without Spock

[@chaImers]

Roddenberry Archives just showed an amazing model of the phase 2 enterprise and it’s bridge, as well as the planet of the titans enterprise designed by Ralph McQuarry

[@bbartky]

Thanks! 👍 I’ll check that out.

[@xheralt]

That design was eventually used as the basis for the Crossfield-class in Disco.

[@scottysgarage4393]

McQuarry's design influenced the Enterprise D as well. I wish it would go away. Even McQuarry stated it "wasn't one of his better efforts"

[@davidgifford8112]

Just note on Discovery from 2001. The “dragonfly” wings proposed in development art would been required as radiators for the nuclear engine. Kubrick rejected them as he didn’t want the audience to confuse them with real wings. Interestingly original concepts for atomic powered interplanetary spacecraft by the British Interplanetary Society (1950) settled on a dumb-bell configuration without radiators: Clarke AC: Interplanetary Flight 1950.

[@mahatmarandy5977]

I always wondered why they didn’t orient the radiators vertically and sidestep the problem

[@davidgifford8112]

@@mahatmarandy5977 that would have worked. The concept designs had longitudanol radiators simply because the support structure mass would be a little less. Current fusion rocket concepts still look much the same.

[@mahatmarandy5977]

@@davidgifford8112 yeah. I read “Lost worlds” and some other stuff (it all blurs together in my head as it was 25 years ago) but it doesn’t sound like they ever even thought of it.

[@davidgifford8112]

@@mahatmarandy5977 Lost Worlds of 2001, I read it back in 1972, some useful stuff, however I think the argument over the radiators was between the NASA engineer consultants and Kubrick not Clarke. They were a little annoyed by the final Kubrick edit which eliminated a documentary style narrative and left a lot us explained. Great art, not so great NASA promotional movie.

[@mahatmarandy5977]

@@davidgifford8112 yeah, I can see them being irked about that (though I admit I’d forgotten). Oh well. There are other ways they could have cooled it, though they’re more resource-intensive

[@jollyjohnthepirate3168]

I've seen the Phase Ii costumes. They were still in storage at Paramount when they were auctioned off in the 1990's with all the other ST stuff. The color scheme remained the same. Gold for command. Blue for sciences/ medical. Red for support. But they were shiny like disco suits.😅

[@darthandeddeu]

Dear god I'm not even a treker/trekie and that's just bad. But sisko is best

[@Novasky2007]

Part of me wants to see shiny uniforms done today with modern post Marvel costume materials

[@sartainja]

Never understood that wrap around shirt that Kirk wore that looked “green” but was supposedly yellow all 5:37 due to some strange lighting issue. The shirt is still green in all the remastered versions and all these expensive monitors we have 55 years later.

[@teebob21]

@@sartainja The command tunics used on-set in TOS WERE green. William Ware Theiss, who designed Star Trek's original Starfleet uniforms, intended Kirk's costume to be lime green. But in 1966, color televisions were still relatively new, and the green uniform appeared gold on on film, due in part to the iridescent nature of polyester velour, and in part due to studio lighting using tungsten filaments which produced a spectrum that was not color-consistent and often requires correction during post-processing. “It photographed one way - burnt orange or a gold. But in reality was another; the command shirts were definitely green”, Theiss recalls in an interview. However, the second, wraparound, V-necked uniform designed for Kirk was made of different material, and it did appear green on color television. Kirk's command uniform was later accepted as gold, but he sometimes wore the strikingly unusual green variant tunic, usually without rhyme or reason.

[@HAL_NINER_TRIPLE_ZERO]

That Captain's chair...sheesh! Made for Shatner to be able to canoodle with the hot green alien babe of the week or some random yeoman. The bridge crew station seats were designed to make it easier for the actors to fall out during battle scenes and pop right back into.

[@pauld6967]

A good presentation and thank you for putting in the effort create the 3-D representations.

[@moxica93]

I actually think it's a good thing that Phase II didn't happen. It wouldn't have been as "bold" as the original series and probably would have ended the franchise like other late-70's sci-fi series.

[@nefariousgremlin7554]

Agreed. I'd rather have what we got-TNG and DS9 are my favorite trek shows and are the principle reasons why I'm a fan of the franchise in the first place.

[@williammitchell4417]

@@nefariousgremlin7554 if it weren't for TNG, we wouldn't have had Peter David's books.

[@brendancaulfield970]

I agree, however, if I could hop over to the parallel universe in which Phase II aired, I'd grab a copy of the HD remaster.

[@nowhereman1046]

Phase II was to have been tied to a new network that Paramount was planning on. Think UPN, but in the mid-1970s. If that'd been the case, it most certainly would've crippled or killed the franchise had that attempt at a fourth network gone through and Star Trek tied to its success or failure.

[@M167A1]

I disagree, a series if successful would have not only beaten Star Wars to market but very well could have become the biggest franchise out there. Admittedly I'm not a big fan of the movies until you get to first contact. I would also like to think that something like DS9 could have taken place, maybe even in the 80s.

[@adamselene5957]

Thank you for this detailed look and added information.

[@bwc1976]

Thank you so much for this! I've always loved trying to imagine what this series would have looked and sounded like.

[@hondomurray7927]

I enjoyed the video. Well done and very informative. Thanks for creating it.

[@jamesabernethy7896]

A wonderful video that clearly took some work. There is some vague information out there on what Phase II would have been, but looking at what the physical Enterprise would have been like. In some ways, the production of this and TNG aren't all that far apart, but at the same time, they are generations apart in terms of concept aesthetics.

[@rafaelsays175]

Awesome video! Thank you!

[@alonespirit9923]

Discovery there after the 33 second point, those "fins" were radiators for the ship's power plant and the film creators rather arrogantly assumed the public was not intelligent enough to get that they were radiators and not wings, which was more likely another way of saying the film makers were not talented enough to show that they were radiators.

[@keith6706]

Arrogance or understanding the audience regarding something that had no effect on the movie?

[@JohnALong-nl2hj]

I'm disappointed that phase two never happened. It might have been a good TV series, and a good series of books.

[@Dowlphin]

Well, for TOS-hungry fans we have the excellent Star Trek Continues at least. 👍

[@paulwhite6745]

It might, but if it had happened, TNG probably wouldn't have. And without TNG, it's unlikely there would have been DS9, or Voyager. I'm happy with what we got.

[@Shipwright1918]

Funnily enough, "Kitumba" finally saw the light of day as a fan-made episode.

[@R0yB477y]

Well done, as always.

[@kaitlyn__L]

Yes!! I don’t know whether my comment about Phase II is all that prompted this or not, but I’ve been wanting to see a thorough recreation of that engineering set for so long!! You did such a good job with it :)

[@WeTravelbyNight]

I wish my bridge had been as good, but yes, engineering turned out reasonable. It was the first model I built for this project.

[@AndrewChapman]

6:23 I work in a gift shop on a pier for 6 or 7 hours and I sit on a stool too😄

[@mahatmarandy5977]

Just a quick explanation as to how TV series worked back in the 1970s and 1980s: the first season of phase 2 was not intended to be only 13 episodes. The way they did shows back then was they would greenlight the series for half a year, and if the ratings were good enough to justify it, then they would greenlight the second half of the season. So ideally, has everything gone right, the first season of phase 2 would have had between 22 and 26 episodes depending on the network, and the initial contract. However, had ratings been bad, they would have canceled it after episode number 13. The reason there were only 13 scripts commissioned was that there was no point in developing episodes for the back end of the season if there wasn’t going to be a back end of the season. Likewise, you do not commission Scripts for season two if you don’t know if there is going to be a season two. Does that make sense? A standard season for a drama between about 1965 and about 2000 was usually 22 to 26 episodes, however, as time went on dramatic hour long shows tend to get slightly shorter orders, towards the 22 end of the scale, whereas sitcom seasons tended to continue to run towards the 26 end of the scale because sit comes are generally cheaper

[@admiralsquatbar127]

An interesting design. If it wasn't for a certain film that dive bombed into cinemas in 1977, things could've been very different for Star Trek.

[@morgan97475]

I recall seeing the Phase II Enterprise in Starlog back in the 70s. Now, I like to think of it as a R&D ship, maybe a Constitution or Bonhomme Richard class being used to test the new developments we end up seeing on the refit Enterprise. Cool design.

[@CIS101]

Nice video - well done.

[@DrewLSsix]

My head canon is that the refit was originally going to be what the phase II design was, a new set of engines, some other updates but largely the same ship. But project runaway happened because certain people wanted the Constitution to keep pace with the new Miranda and similar style ships. This led to the radical refit in the movies, a refit that doesn't really fit the original ships basic hull plan and really drives home Deckers comment about it being almost entirely new. For this reason I also like to think that any other refit style ships we see or hear about are new builds and not refit original Connies. It's just jot a practical approach to getting the end product. Better to build a new ship from scratch if all you would be left with is a hand full of structural members anyway, and the remaining original connies likely recieved the Phase II style refits, assuming they remained in service at all.

[@keith6706]

That said, Roddenberry was on record stating that the film 1701 was more along the lines of what he imagined the one in the TV show was "really" like, if they'd had the budget (and effects technology).

[@jollyjohnthepirate3168]

I don't think the Connie's refits made economic sense. After all we saw Star Fleet using the rebuilt Enterprise as a training ship for their cadets just a few years later. New build usually costs less in the long term.

[@travisboyle285]

​@@jollyjohnthepirate3168 I think there was 14 years between TMP and WOK in universe. 2271 and 2285.

[@Rocketsong]

Presumably the "refit" Enterprise was Star Fleet doing an end run around the Federation budgeting process. She IS a new ship, but Star Fleet had to pretend it was an upgrade to get the budget. Kind of how the US Navy pretended the Super Hornet was an upgrade to the F-18 Hornet when there are almost zero parts compatibility.

[@filthycasual8187]

@@Rocketsong You guys talking about budget when the Federation doesn't actually use currency.

[@CT-uv8os]

Thank you for this. The Engineering section somewhat reminds me of the Krell machinery in Forbidden Planet!

[@lancepharker]

I enjoyed the video, but please consider losing the gong between chapters. Repetitive interruptions like that are very annoying.

[@ironsides982]

I remember in The Motion Picture with a deflector dish that appeared a light amber color before changing to blue at some point in the movie. I assume that means it went from unpowered to powered, or something like that. I don't believe we ever see that effect on screen again in subsequent movies. At least is was a minor nod to the Phase 2 version.

[@TheRyujinLP]

Pretty much.The idea was that as the ship got faster the dish would glow into a brighter blue to show that the as the ship moved faster the deflector array needed to do more work pushing particles out of the way.

[@ironsides982]

@@TheRyujinLP But was that the original function? I know that TNG solidified the functionality and systems of Starfleet ships after that show began, thanks to the writing of Mike Okuda. The logarithmic warp scale, for example, or that dilithium crystals went from a power sources to a focusing mechanism for antimatter.

[@TheRyujinLP]

@@ironsides982 Even in OG trek it was always the deflector dish as stated in the shows writers guide. While some things were added later like the glowy bits being bussard scoops (which I never liked, I always took it to be the warp plasma) and the warp core being in the engine room (originally each nacelle had their own core, in fact the engine room was supposed to be where the impulse engines were, hence why it was called that. Only later did this get a little murkier), a lot was already figured out even back in the 60's.

[@ironsides982]

@@TheRyujinLP Fair enough! On the topic of the Bussard Collectors, I have no issue with a ship needing them, but why did they glow? And why all the time even when not at warp (or impulse if that's when they collect)? Also the hydrogen would have to be re-piped back down through the nacelle pylons to be used by other systems. Just seems a bit hand wavy IMO. Lets be honest- It's a stylistic decision.

[@TheRyujinLP]

@@ironsides982 oh yeah, totally. That's why it makes more sense for that glow to be part of the nacelles power generation since the ship is always going to need some amount of power. Gene had some idea of what given systems did but didn't think he had to point out every detail since some things just would be tech beyond our understanding.

[@michaelwiley7000]

Fantastic video - thank you. One small note: Harold Michelson's last name is pronounced with a hard c sound, like the name Michael. MY-kull-sun.

[@mikevanroy9356]

Also TMP should have been a one-hour episode. A lot of the stuff in it - Spock on Vulcan, the wormhole, long panoramic shots with no action or dialogue, didn’t add anything to the plot. The Klingon battle was cool and it set V'Ger up as being powerful enough to easily take out 3 warships so that part made sense.

[@phonotical]

Wonderful, and not a sign of a gatekeeping okuda in sight! The thing by the screen may well be a bosun

[@user936]

Well I learnt a lot today, so thank you

[@WrexFX]

The deflector choice in TMP along with every other design choice fir that ship in that film are incredible. Still my favorite ship from any of Star Trek. I ended up loving the Titan A of Picard S3 mainly cause it seemed to really take the style of the refit Enterprise into account.

[@nickthx1138]

Fascinating.

[@tonyyoung3985]

Since one fan company filmed Kitumba, there should be others taking on the task of some of the other unused scripts as well. I believe the original Child was done as well.

[@johnbockelie3899]

This captains chair would have fit the mirror universe I.S.S. Enterprise better. Imagine mirror Kirk lounging around in it.😂

[@k.b.tidwell]

And the nav and com stools look appropriately hemorrhoidally abusive for those bad attitude dudes.

[@gavincampbell2862]

The Captain's chair would have made Kirk look even more of a lounge lizard than he was already.

[@trekicb]

Only with the Phase II Enterprise the refit of The Motion Picture makes sense. Cool analysis.

[@kaneo1]

TMP Deflector wasn't ONLY blue; it went reddish to blue depending on speeds/power output. Other movies seem to stick with blue. Maybe the later writers forgot?

[@wendigos_eat_people7177]

You must be right,they did forget. only three times as amber. First time in TMP when leaving space dock and when in the worm hole scene, and TWOK but that was reused footage from the space dock departure. One can explain it away as the technology was improved that it no longer needs an amber start up.

[@kaitlyn__L]

That’s not a writer decision, but the model makers and shooters (usually same team). Between TMP and TWOK all the interior lights and control systems had been swapped-out, by ILM who weren’t impressed by the original work. There were all sorts of electrical problems with the TMP version. Unfortunately when it was crammed with running lights up to ILM’s standard, they couldn’t pack all the same functionality inside. So it became a single light which could fade off, instead of two lights which could be individually faded and also combined together.

[@lancebaylis3169]

Every photo I've seen of the Phase II sets under construction have looked like what the Phase II television 'bible' described them as: recognizable as the same ship from the '60s show, just sleeker and with new consoles etc. The corridor sets under construction looked almost but not quite like the same corridors from TOS (Mike Okuda once said these sets were simply built on top of with the angular corridors of the movie, and that if you climbed the gantries and looked down on Stage 9 from above even in it's TNG reconfiguration, those old corridor walls were still holding up the newer flats), while set photos of Kirk's quarters and Engineering still featured the charactistic red grills from TOS, a nod to this being a refit rather than a redesign. And of course, test footage and screen tests show actors wearing TOS uniforns. On some level, the show might have ended up feeling less like an after show or sequel, and more like a fourth season that just happened to be made 10 years later, even if Spock would be absent and other characters introduced. When the project became The Motion Picture and Robert Wise was tapped to direct, it seems everything underwent a significant overhaul. I've seen enough of the Phase II sets under construction to know that simply assuming Phase II would have been TMP on a TV budget is a very simplistic way of looking at it. I truly think Phase II was intended to be an evolution of the 1960s show, and would have looked much more like an intermediate stage between it and what we now recognize as the movie aesthetic.

[@DANTHETUBEMAN]

The clean design of the first one looks more advanced 😊

[@stevenewman1393]

🖖😎👍Very cool and very nicely well done and very well executed and informatively explained in every detail way shape and form possibly provided indeed, But unfortunately your CGI model of the Phase 2 Enterprise is missing the forward glowing red end caps on the newly designed nacelles as per the original design and art drawings and paintings and so forth of it as per the original model that was being built at the time as well; And P.S. even the model that Eaglemoss put out on the Phase 2 Enterprise even had the forward glowing red end caps on the nacelles as well!,🤔.

[@terranempire2]

Kitimba was actually made as part of a fan series a few years back.

[@Nickthejoker2003]

There was an actual filming model of the Enterprise made. I saw it once on an old prop collector show. It was in a box marked Phase II. Unfortunately, it was in pieces, but you could still see the Motion Picture lines.

[@wyattmann8157]

The Enterprise of the movies was a better-looking ship than the Phase II concept. However, the Phase II concept is more believable as a refit of the TOS ship...rather than looking like a completely new vessel.

[@Novasky2007]

I should imagine the targeting screen effect was imagined to look and work similar to darth vaders targeting screen in his tie fighter display - outline of enemy ships and torpedos locking on etc

[@Voodoomaria]

Starlog Press put out a book detailing the episodes and characters of Phase II. Many elements and characters were drawn from the Phase II proposals to make up Star Trek The Motion Picture, and Star Trek V.

[@deathstrike]

I have to admire the more "lights and buttons" appearance of the TOS Constitution Class. It has a more minimalist design, less displays and clutter to distract the crew. It had a more "military" aesthetic to its already graceful lines. More function, less frill. This would make perfect sense in a starship designed for both exploration, and potentially battle. As you don't need a million "visual" readouts to perform the job. This would have been a good reason for the more mechanical workings of a starship back then. In the 22nd Century, a hideous mechanical and cybernetic race was discovered by then Captain T'Pol. They identified themselves as the Borg, and tried to take over the then NX-02 (Enterprise with a secondary hull). T'Pol escaped, and with the sensor scans and information obtained, in THIS universe, the Federation grew understandably both concerned and a little frightened. So they began advanced development of a starship that cleverly concealed it's advanced technology by becoming minimalist in form and function. If it was scanned by a Borg ship, it would appear to be less technically advanced as the Borg were accustomed to visual and display technology. Since this Connie didn't have as much, the Federation surmised that perhaps encounters with the Borg either could be kept to a minimum, or avoided period. After nearly a century, the Borg were surmised as not being a threat, and the Federation decided to risk it and create new starships that better reflected advanced visual and tactile technology.

[@watchm4ker]

Honestly, I just wished they'd leaned into the TOS-era aesthetic a bit more with Enterprise. But then, I also wished they'd just have put Dorn in TOS-era Klingon makeup in Trials and Tribblations, and let the joke stand unsaid.

[@danivarius]

What’s with the ominous Cadfael style bell tolls?

[@BELCAN57]

There's an excellent book that covers the origins of "Phase II" and segues into " The Motion Picture " Star Trek: Phase II : The Making of the Lost Series Book by Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Judith Reeves-Stevens

[@sartainja]

In Phase II, we would have got to see a dreadnought class in action when the captain was killed in a battle with the Romulans at the neutral zone. Kirk takes command of the dreadnought named “Little Bighorn” and fights off an invading fleet of renegade Romulan ships with Spock saving the day with an “Hail Mary” move from the Enterprise (known forever as the “Spock Maneuver”).

[@Unclebarry94]

That’s a good looking ship

[@KelsaRavenlock]

There is actually a Kirk Douglass and Michael Sheen film called "The Final Countdown" about a ship going back in time to just before the attack on Pearl. The ship was a 1980's aircraft carrier though.

[@rustyshackleford3978]

Martin Sheen!

[@karlc2869]

The Phase II design of the old girl would have been awesome but the TMP refit of her was still cool tho.

[@brainysmurf74]

That phase 2 bridge is insanely 1970s

[@jeffcoats2230]

Well done

[@fuzzwork]

those nacelles look like kit-bashed gato class submarine models

[@liamscienceguy8153]

I hope that for SNW they take the unaired scripts of phase II and make epsiodes out of then

[@NullStaticVoid]

I love the older designs. Well except for the costumes. They really fumbled around with some pretty goofy looking implementations of Starfleet uniforms on those until they settled down with the STNG unis. Which like TOS are pretty simple, if not forgiving.

[@MatthewCaunsfield]

It seems that Phase 2 answers the question in your previous vid a about why the tactical station was nestled behind that odd structure, because that is where the Bridge Transporter was going to go! I think ive reqd elsewhere that theyd already begun construction of the Bridge when the decision was made to do a film instead, so the builders probably carried that over

[@kaitlyn__L]

The photos from Phase II show at least the front with the screen, and the helm and navigation console, had been built. So presumably it’s the exact same walls yeah

[@PerspectiveEngineer]

Nice modeling

[@blanemylke4144]

Credit the designer for not adding incandescent collectors or grids on the pods for this Phase II render without the fan service; it was designed as such by on the page during pre-production for the series before it was dropped.

[@deegee6863]

I like to think this one became reality off-screen with the uss constitution being the test bed for the refit designs

[@mikevanroy9356]

Phoenix: Has a warp core. NX-01: Has a warp core. Discovery: Has a warp core. NCC-1701: Has an empty room with levers you can easily take out of their sockets.

[@ryancox4498]

The entire premise behind the original design was that the "warp core(s)" were housed in the nacelles, safely away from the crew. Phase 2/TMP put it in a more illogical spot for the sake of having an impressive glowy centerpiece to the Engineering, and everything afterwards copied that.

[@noppornwongrassamee8941]

Maybe it's just me, but I think I prefer the TOS version of Enterprise Bridge over the refit version. The wall stations of the original are much more spacious and make better use of wall real estate. The refit stations and their monitors are tiny by comparison and the cubby stations look like they;re designed for midgets. Of course, I understand that the reason the screens shrank on the Refit bridge is likely because they're using actual CRT screens in the consoles instead of dummies that the actors are only pretending are monitors. As such, they have to be small for the FX people to work with as giant, wall filling CRTs would be big, need forklifts to move, and likely consume so much electricity as to be outright safety hazards. The Enterprise D went back to fake screens full wall stations, albeit ones that improved FX could put animated images on if necessary.

[@butchkaminsky9470]

Where's the bridges bathroom or head? Is it mix or a his and her or its?😮

[@timbradwell3205]

The episode the child was also used in space 1999

[@designsforutopia0.0]

Ideal for a fan made show.

[@grahamturner1290]

🖖

[@williammitchell4417]

The engineering section looks like the TARDIS's console.

[@synaxarion]

The Beryllium Sphere!!

[@The_Mighty_Fiction]

3:15, Speaking of the extra hull details, I was just thinking of this modern trend of making it possible to see interior details of starships through the windows on flybys because it looks cool. Regardless of the privacy issues of potentially glimpsing some chick in the shower (😁), surely if you could actually see through the windows from the outside, that would mean everyone on the inside would be blinded any time they passed too close to a light source. I would think the exterior of the windows would have to have some kind of reflective/polarizing film, something like mylar preventing dangerous levels of light passing through, wouldn't it?

[@JJHoover70]

if I recall correctly the phase 2 enterprise was going to have a triangular haul and I think they used it in the battle of wolf 359

[@ryancox4498]

You're thinking of the "Planet of the Titans" design.

[@CIS101]

It's hard say if a new Star Trek TV series would have been better than going the route of movies, but then TNG probably would never have been produced. The advantage of TV series is that there can be a lot of bad episodes, but still still end up with a good season. And it's too bad so many of the movies were so mediocre.

[@Wirrn]

wait every other Phase 2 enterprise depiction I've seen had the caps on the nacelles glowing orange? Your model seems to have a line around the cap but its all plain grey?

[@kaitlyn__L]

He mentioned they were given glowing red caps at the end of development, was kind of waiting for that to be reflected in the onscreen model but it didn’t happen. I’ve seen photos of both states

[@badwolf7367]

The bridge of the Phase II Enterprise looks claustrophobic. All the other additions are just eye-candy and does nothing to promote the idea it is a more advance refitted Enterprise. The typical mistake of those who do not understand that the ultimate expression of sophistication is simplicity - not complexity.

[@ryancox4498]

Real ships are pretty claustrophobic. I'd be interested in a series that tried to make the sets feel like a space efficient ship and not a tryst fund baby's yacht.

[@wargodsix]

They should of used it in the movies and then the refit being the A so we would of still got phase II

[@fragglet]

Nice videos but you should really invest in a better microphone so we can hear you better!

[@hubbaman9885]

I would have been interested in this series had it actually been green lit. But I have a feeling it would have suffered a similar fate like the original Battlestar Galactica as being too expensive to maintain on a TV weekly series. Battlestar was like 1 million per episode in 1978 dollars, and wad canceled after like 12 episodes, not because its rating were bad, on the contrary their ratings were starting out strong. What became of Star Trek TMP was basically meant to be the pilot retooled for a feature length film. And even then, as a movie, it went way over budget. It was obvious that it didn't look cheap even for then, so ya, i think it would have been too expensive as a tv series even if it did do well in ratings.

[@watchm4ker]

That basically came down to the hideous overuse of effect shots. Yes, they looked great. At first. But then they just. Kept. Going. Never ceasing. Never changing. Minutes on minutes of little more than establishing shots that meant nothing for the plot.

[@algi1]

Was this the basis of The Final Countdown?

[@buzzinpoa]

This could be canon if they had not gone with the "18 months" of refitting... Supposedly being short after the original 5 years mission. They should have made it ten real years after TOS and then it would have been possible to have a first "lost era" to link to original Enterprise to the refitted one in TMP...!!

[@jamesb3843]

we got ST Phase 2 from Cawley......Kitumba especially.

[@nealsterling8151]

0:49 -genius- laziness.

[@peterkeijsers489]

Looks more like a BBC Workshop film set from Blake's 7

[@TheMimeFromHell]

Have a look at Otoy/The Gene Roddenbetry archive.🖖

[@tardisrider25]

I'm glad Phase two never happened. The TMP enterprise was an elegant upgrade. The phase two one seemed to be going for a bigger is better mentality. It's an interesting design but just not as good as the path taken. I'm talking about the triangle design that was proposed at one point.

[@fredrikcarlstedt393]

And then we got the Phase 3 in 1987 .

[@huskerjpg]

Nuthin' beats the original TOS Enterprise.

[@wyattmann8157]

Star Trek: The Motion Picture. AKA, "Where Nomad Has Gone Before".