Well this is a melancholy anniversary. “STV” was my first venture into the Star Trek galaxy and in those early days we were very excited about what we were about to do. The film had a great script. It was going to be Shatner’s directorial debut, Jerry Goldsmith was back, Herman Zimmerman was the new Production designer, Mike and Denise Okuda were on board, Nilo Rodis was designing the spacecraft, Greg Jein was the model shop supervisor, but one thing was missing,,,,ONE MAJOR element that was key to the visual look of Star Trek was not coming back and that was ILM. There were some heated exchanges between the higher ups and ILM about VFX costs during the filming of “ST IV” The shot of the Bird of Prey flying under the Golden Gate bridge and the cost of the mechanical Motion control whales was looked at in the light of being excessive and during these arguments the decision was made (to generalize the answer) we’ll show you ILM that we can get someone else to do the VFX and they’ll look just as good and for a lot less. And so be it, let the new VFX house grant their skills and talents to the legendary Star trek Universe. Greg Jein who was a veteran of the previous films and also a major part of TNG was picked to supervise the Miniature construction and also to build a great deal of the props for the show. Greg Jein for those that don’t know is one of the greatest model makers ever!!! (Stay Tuned for Greg Jein week in the near future) His assignment was to build all the miniatures, Shuttle craft’s two sizes of the Enterprise Shuttle bay, Oversized pieces of the Klingon Bird of Prey and so on. Once completed everything had to be packed and shipped to New jersey to be filmed. Greg is the nicest guy in the world but He was treated like complete ((#^&%#*^^&%)) on this one and so undeservingly so, but he kept a smile on his face thru-out the apocalypse hanging over his head… we had a great time working together despite all the bad and Greg’s dark and evil joking side was in full gear!! The film was doomed with every kind of production problem and in the end Shatner was made the proxy and the one who ultimately got all the blame. The film didn’t do well theatrically and sadly is considered the least favorite of all the films but if you look past all the bad there is a great heart beating thru the interaction of the original crew and the introduction of Spock’s brother. The scenes that play out between the actors in regards to finding their pain is brilliantly written and the performances are exactly what you would expect to see. As an introduction to Star trek I had the best time working for Greg and in all honesty I wasn’t ready for all the responsibilities he gave me and in many ways I feel I didn’t have the knowledge to perform as good as I wanted to!!!!! but he continued to nurture me on and I am so grateful for that opportunity. As always Jerry Goldsmith’s music scores as one of the high points of the film, and his theme entitled ” a busy Man” stands out as an incredible and iconic moment in Jerry’s brilliant ST themes. Herman’s work shines brilliantly with his beautiful klingon bridge as well as the Enterprise bridge. Twenty years have lessoned the pain to the point that I can joke and enjoy this one again so take all my comments in a light hearted way and can’t wait to hear everyone’s comments and feelings about Trek 5, So with that here are some images from the film and Happy anniversary STV.

teaser poster

another beauty by Peak

the opening at El Mirage dry lake bed

a light moment between Kirk and Spock

One of Herman's masterpiece sets!

The (god) planet was the Trona pinicles North East of Edwards AFB, also where Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes was shot

The elaborate Paint job on the Enterprise was brought down with what looked like a white wash of some kind.

the white wash is very evident in this one

we used to watch silver paint swirl like Miso soup in the Acetone bucket at Apogee, looked a lot like the elements in this shot

hey is that a cardboard cut out of the BOP???

uuuuuhgg!

this was a nice shot!
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