trevanian said:
No, the decision on the engines was a very deliberate one (stupid in my view), absolutely locked in nearly two years prior to the film's release. Richard Taylor (no relation to the Richard Taylor at WETA now) was Robert Abel's art director, and he was in charge (over Probert) on the redesign from a time (roughly dec 77) BEFORE "in thy image" scaled up into TMP. He specifically took charge of certain areas, especially the engines, so they reflect EXACTLY what he wanted (except for the changes that were added after Abel's removal, mainly the spotlights.)
Yes, but the Phase II model was built, which took time. According to the MJ Plans at
http://www.cloudster.com/Sets&Vehicles/STMPEnterprise/Phase2Drawings.htm the design of it was ongoing up until Nov 77 at least. But then it took some time to build it.
But that design and model was abandoned and additional pre-production time was wasted up when they decided to re-design yet again around Dec 77. THAT wasted even more time. Now we know from Andy Probert's pics that the redesigned bridge/vip lounge, etc. was added sometime around mid '78 to finalize the ship. So that means the ship with all of it's pearl paint was done before this time, which btw, painting it took up most of that time according to Mr. Olsen. Designing and building was a vastly smaller timespan. In that respect (1.5 years from debut) it seems correct that they decided well in advance, as you say.
Keep in mind, the Phase II model was never finished. Yet all the plans show a definitive line for a Bussard. Production paintings based on the Phase II plans show a Bussard. Even pics of the Phase II model molds show the line. So the 'how to build it, internally, in this new lateral shape'' issue of a newer Bussard wasn't easily adopted into the new model since the Phase II model didn't even reach that point either. I don't think it was simply the idea on wanting grills there instead when the new crew came in. The Bussard was a character trait of the TOS Enterprise and wouldn't get easily abandoned if it were not for a sensible reason. Everyone likes the TOS E' s engines. It was the newer angular/lateral engine shape that was problematic. It was most likely that the change in the overall forward shape of the engine and how to resolve it's look that lead to the decision to just put grills there due to the lack of time to figure it out externaly or internally.
I admit that's just speculation, but it makes sense. The production was already experiencing the enormous delays and pressures that plagued ST:TMP. This was AFTER the studio's MAJOR concerns of switching effects houses. They had to get it done and I speculate the loss of the bussard was the casualty of that time constraint.
My point really is- despite the fact that it was a year and a half prior to film release, they didn't have a year and a half to get the ship done. They were on a schedule within schedules of redesigning, fabricating, wiring, painting, and test filming. All because time equaled money and plenty of time had been wasted already.
I know I've seen it somewhere but it wasn't in the old Starlog magazine -- I looked and that was the early TMP version with vents.
