Enterprise, rear view
Enterprise front view
Digging through the crates at Cantara one day, I came across the huge box that housed the 8 to 10 foot Enterprise-D model…being that I had my Makita with me, I just had to pop the lid and see her before the big Christie’s Auction that at this time was just a rumor. WOW, what a beauty, even under warehouse lighting!!! As I was taking pictures, I started from the back of the model and moved forward, getting to the front of the saucer. The “E” became very evident through the view finder. THE “E”!! Holy cow! I had heard the rumors that for budget sake this was going to be the solution, but I didn’t know that they had gone to the measures of having ILM change the decal. Ronald Moore and Jonathan Frakes were the driving force to having a new ship designed and built, and so this budgetary experiment seemed to have only lived on the side lines. Great fun to see her this way, though.
Eavesdropping with Johnny 
Sweet I Think it a good thing that Ronald Moore and Jonathan Frakes pushed for a new ship.
I don’t think that Frist Contact would have worked as well with the GAL as it did with the SOV. Though to give the film a bit more of a higher rating, could have been intresting to see Families getting Asimulated instead of just the crew.
Never being a huge fan of the Galaxy-class, I’m glad they found the money for the Sovereign-development. 😉
Oh wow, would ya check that out, a Galaxy-Class E-E. Who knew? Very cool eh.
Thanks dude. 🙂
PLL,
deg
What an amazing find.
Neato… hadn’t known this before…
Wow, what an awesome discovery for you! I’m glad they went with a whole new ship, because I think after changing the design every Enterprise from A-D, it would be really lazy to just keep the same model for First Contact. But didn’t I read somewhere (no idea where) that they put “E” on it as a joke?
Is the paneling I’m seeing in this picture from the paint job ILM did for Generations? How much different is it? I asked on Drex’s “4-foot vs 6-foot” post, but no one really had any comparison shots.
I’m guessing they kept the “D” label in the box so they could switch it back for the auction?
Pretty funny. First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis would have been so totally different with a Galaxy class. Just think of a Galaxy class ramming the Scimitar instead of the much smaller Sovereign.
But I’m glad the E got redesigned.
Glad they went with a new E as it’s my favourite ship.
Hah, interesting find. As others have said I’m glad the ‘E’ was a different ship.
As much as I love the design that become the Sovereign class Enterprise-E, I always hated that the D had to die in ‘Generations.’ It felt like losing a character and I think it looked terrific on the big screen.
That said, simply relabeling the model and saying it’s a new one would have been even more insulting to me and to the memory of the D, so I’m glad they let you design a new one. 😀
Wow, I had no idea they had considered doing that!
That would have been just as cool!
The Galaxy Class is truely one of the best design in Trek history. So majestic and powerfull, yet so peacefull looking. Still, you’d think twice about locking horns with one.
The model is gorgeous. The D is always my favourite. Gald they didn’t redo it as the E. It would hurt too much aafter seeing it warp core breach and crash in Generations…
6> Wow, what an awesome discovery for you! I’m glad they went with a whole new ship, because I think after changing the design every Enterprise from A-D, it would be really lazy to just keep the same model for First Contact.
Thing is though, they DIDN’T redesign for the A. The A was the same as the refit of the “nae bloody A, B, C or D” :p
I’m just now working my way through these older posts and really enjoyed seeing these images. The six-foot Enterprise-D was always my favorite of the two–it had a sleekness and grace that the four-footer sorely lacked. The paint job ILM did for the movie looks gorgeous even with the warehouse lighting you had to work with in these pictures. What a find!
What would have been really great is if they had built a new and bigger Galaxy model from scratch.
I found the culprit ! It was ILM’s model supervisor John Goodson, as he admits in the book “Industrial Light & Magic; Into the digital realm”, Virgin , 1996, page 60. He changed it just prior to crating it up before sending it back to Paramount.