Federation Commander

Looking at SFB as a whole over the years, I've got to say that the continuity has been exceptional. Unfortunately, the Star Trek universe itself hasn't measured up to the same standard. For example, I recently watched the 'Balance of Terror' episode on the CBS website. They 'said' they were firing phasers but the special effects were photon torpedoes. In the 'Enterprise Incident' episode I remember reading that the Romulan Warbird model wasn't available so that is why they used the Klingon D6/7 design. Not sure what the Warbird was doing as I don't believe it ever appeared anywhere else??? Then of course later on we have Klingons firing Photon torpedoes and Romulans using disruptors. Point is that the continuity among authors pretty much lacked, to be kind.

SFB on the other hand has remained much more cohesive in my opinion. When I played in the 80's the Fed CA had 4 torps, 8 ph-1's and 2 ph-3's and here in 2010 it has the same. I appreciate that.

Just thought I'd toss that out there.

Bear in mind, "Balance of Terror" was one of the earliest episodes, and the writers and producers hadn't quite nailed the show down at that point. Photon torpedoes weren't introduced until later episodes, so "BoT" has the Enterprise using "proximity phasers".

Rumors about the fate of the Warbird filming mini have abounded since it's original use. All that is known is that it was "lost" after that first use and they pretty much had to use the Klingon ship for later episodes and explain it away in dialog.

One of the rumors I have heard is that Wah Chang wasn't able to deliver the Warbird filming model until the very last minute and the design (admittedly more Buck Rogers/Flash Gorden than the rest of the show's ships) ran afoul of Gene Roddenberry's desire for the show's look - I've heard it was used (there wasn't time to do anything else) and then Roddenberry smashed it with a hammer to make sure it couldn't get used again.

In the remastered Balance of Terror episode, didn't they use at least one Warbird? I haven't seen it, but thought I remembered someone mentioning it.

One way to look at the various TOS episodes is to take the same approach ADB has taken on the few changes to the game and the history that have occurred. All this info supposedly comes from top secret Air Force tapes. The tapes have had to be translated and some sections are incomplete. Every now and again some little tidbit of new information is made known that adds or changes something. In Balance of Terror, think of the "proximity phasers" as proximity photons. The term was garbled in the record of that story, but made clear in other references throughout the tapes.

Mike wrote:In the remastered Balance of Terror episode, didn't they use at least one Warbird? I haven't seen it, but thought I remembered someone mentioning it.

In the remastered BoT episode they did use the Warbird, though it was of a better looking design. Similar to the original but much sleeker. Almost TNG in appearance.

In the remastered Enterprise Incident, they also used one Warbird with two Klingon style D6/7 ships. Interestingly enough, in the end chase scenes they did not fire plasmas. In one brief scene I swear the Klingon style Romulan vessel was firing several photon torps out of the boom section similar to in the movies. I rewound the broadcast (CBS) and it is faint but it very much looked like little red balls coming out of the boom section. In the longer distance scene it is shooting the green disruptor fire out of the warp nacelles like in other remastered Klingon fight scenes.

The remastered episodes really add to the old shows imo.

David wrote:In the remastered BoT episode they did use the Warbird, though it was of a better looking design. Similar to the original but much sleeker. Almost TNG in appearance.

Actually, it's the same shape (Okuda and company are kind of retentive about things like that). It does have more modern surface details in the texturing and it was shot from much more dynamic angles (the foreshortening makes it seem leaner and meaner), but for the classic ships they really wanted the profile shapes, etc. to match the originals as close as possible.

The Warbird in Star Trek: Enterprise? That was a whole different story.

djdood wrote:

David wrote:In the remastered BoT episode they did use the Warbird, though it was of a better looking design. Similar to the original but much sleeker. Almost TNG in appearance.

Actually, it's the same shape (Okuda and company are kind of retentive about things like that). It does have more modern surface details in the texturing and it was shot from much more dynamic angles (the foreshortening makes it seem leaner and meaner), but for the classic ships they really wanted the profile shapes, etc. to match the originals as close as possible.

The Warbird in Star Trek: Enterprise? That was a whole different story.

Yes, it was the same basic shape in BoT, what I meant was that it was a more 'modern' ship based upon the original design.

In regards to the other War Bird, I'm talking about the 'Enterprise Incident' episode, not the new movie. In the 'EI' remastered episode they have one War Bird and two Klingon conversions. It was very well done with lots of close ups and angles.

As far as the new movie...don't get me started. I almost walked out!

Sorry, I meant The Enterprise Incident episode instead of the BoT episode. I *knew* I had heard that somewhere! That is one remastered that I haven't seen yet. I need to get it.

Watching the 'Errand of Mercy' episode now (remastered). This is the one with the Organeons (sp?). In the opening scene the Klingon ship is shown shooting a (photon?) torpedo out of the boom section just like in TMP. No disruptor fire out of the warp nacelles in those scenes.

The Enterprise returned fire with phasers (which were photon torps or I suppose proximity phasers)...

Wasn't that the 'magnetic charge' thing? Purple in color? Never to be seen or discussed again?

Not sure, I didn't hear them reference anything about a 'magnetic charge'. The color of both the Klingon 'photon' and the Enterprise phaser/torpedo was a blue/white. The Enterprise 'phaser' was more oval in shape whereas the Klingon was a round ball.

The folks that remastered it really did a fine job and worked well around the loose continuity of the show.

Just out of curiosity, has anyone tried using the Klingons with a forward and/or rear firing photon torpedo (with the normal nacelle mounted disruptors) like the D7C in CL #3? Or something like maybe a rear mounted photon torpedo on a Fed CA? A rear mounted torp on the Fed CA was never seen of course, but then neither was a drone rack. It would be a useful option. Just curious if anyone has played around with different options and what your results were.

Watching the remastered versions is simply bringing up some thoughts...

I've never tried it. I have enough trouble finding power to overload the ones that face front

It would be a nice option though to dissuade someone trying to get behind you. A photon and the two Ph-1's as well as the two Ph-3's do pack a bit of a punch. It would also give an option to alpha strike and then HET for another strike on the same shield as you just hit (and probably downed) rather than an overrun.

Again, just thoughts. A Klingon D7 with the fore and aft photon like in the CL scenario would also have interesting applications as above. I could see a D6 as designed with a D7 using this 'refit' just to separate the class a bit more.

Hmmm...