It was Gene Roddenberry's glimpse of the future: a 1977 series called Star Trek, Phase II, meant to reunite nearly all of the original cast members, only to be scrapped two weeks before production was to begin. The result of that decision was the first Star Trek motion picture.
This change to a new feature film, brought the requirement for a new filming miniature. The new art direction staff was given the mandate of updating the ships "look" as well as increasing the surface detail present on it. Since the ship was now going to be seen on 40 foot wide motion picture screens it needed greater detail to realistically convey its size. The new miniature had originally been built with a new TV series in mind and when it was decided to produce effects shots for a feature film instead, special effects supervisor Douglas Trumble found the miniature far too "miniature". The studio did not want to pay the costs involved in building a larger miniature so the existing one had to be brought up to feature film quality.

This is where the stops were "pulled out" and the result was the finest built miniature ever produced in Hollywood! This model represents a high-water mark of craftsmanship that has yet to be surpassed. The model builders turned out a filming miniature approximately seven feet in length that was so finely crafted the cameras could be placed within one eighth of an inch of its surface in any location and maintain believability. Tiny docking ports no more than one quarter of an inch across featured working recessed lights. I had the extreme pleasure of seeing this model with my own eyes and I have never seen a model as perfectly crafted as this one. What a pity that its beautiful finish would be ruined in the next Star Trek feature film when most of it was repainted to represent battle damage. The photos seen here in the B&W gallery were taken by me shortly after the first film had wrapped up production. You will notice in these shots that the ship appears real even in these poorly lit photographs, a testament to the ultra-high quality of the builders efforts.

Source: Phil Broad

By RaptorNet

Rest assured Kirk gets his own back. When he lowers the Reliant shields using the prefix code.

In remembrance of my great aunt, I dedicate this image to her. In sight of her untimely death, I only hope that her life was good. I am honored to have know her. Her kindness and warmth are things about her. Which make it impossible for me to forget her.

Farewell and god bless

Well here you have my attempt at the great barrier. I think maybe I got it right. But please, I'll let you be the judge of that.

The barrier was created with Photoshop 5.5. Using a plugin called flux.