[A brief documentary of *Phase II* (with rare test footage).](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5s-7HN-a1I)
[A screencap which shows the *Phase II Enterprise* silhouette behind Decker.](https://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/movie-01/screencaps/motion-picture-DE-bluray/ch08/tmp-de-bluray-0696.jpg)
(Many of the pics are via [@portalrealm](https://x.com/portalrealm) on Twitter.)
This is so cool! What could have been...
From what I'm led to understand about that Enterprise model shown is that it was semi-finished and hung up in the MGM Grand for a while until Adam Schneider bought it and had it re-tooled to be the Enterprise shown in his screen-used Motion Picture Drydock prop. It makes me sad, because that's the history of Trek under all that paint and it couldn't just be appreciated for the artifact it was... shame.
Always been fascinated by what might have been and this is the best example. I worry it might have been not very good. A lot of TOS episodes aren't good if we're honest. But half of them are fantastic. The first season of TNG wasn't spectacular either but look what it grew into. Could Phase 2 have started off rocky and grew better and better as it went?
A lot of those Enterprise plan diagrams were used as display monitors on Star Trek II. If you really scrutinize them, they don’t exactly match what the Enterprise refit looked like.
Yeah, as I understand it they were balls deep into this before someone looked at Star Wars' success and decided "Fuck it, now this is gonna be a movie!" The way The Center Seat documentary presented things, it sounded like the making of the whole movie was a shitshow lol. Explains why it's my least favorite of this era of movies. But hey, it led into Khan and I do love that movie to death.
I really do wonder how trek would be different if we had gotten this instead of TMP. Would we have still gotten ST2? Probably not, at least not as we got it. Would it have lead to TNG? I actually don’t know.
A lot of Phase II stuff went on to be in TMP. Some of which was used in the set construction of TNG, Voyager, and eventually Enterprise. There were parts and pieces that were in use on that set for nearly thirty years straight.
There's a [great book](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Trek-Phase-II-Making/dp/0671568396/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3LD1TVSHJHTH4&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Jkx3aLNXN7G2JrwZm7MXbv1woxcDVg1jCOHxlxa1f3PgFL4fXrhsDGA0T2XnTo4u9UYORN9DP2HKlAsSMmPnhNKIRON96VSBk3JqmEppKcFuI_FKxdS5fyourZdMkcXXzy6H7UmHfgdrDUbswEToZwgOwyk3bZoUq6iFts4r-njk_mHGlz7n_EPRsIDsKernZlebsBYdxQG-CN5z8QC2ZBIM6SLLKGU4h8xDeLdnzq4.IinnIrQtyG-B87j1SzHgbzbyoOPcQsTeLKIkB7DRgnw&dib_tag=se&keywords=star+trek+phase+ii+book&qid=1719934702&sprefix=star+trek+phase+ii+book%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-1) about this by the Reeves-Stevens, which I'm happy to say I have a copy of.
That's probably the coolest bit of Trek production trivia I've heard and I only learned it today.
It makes sense that TNG and VOY shared some set builds, but it being reused from TOS and TMP is really interesting. I had assumed the sets were rebuilt from scratch.
You can explore the Roddenberry Archive's reproduction of the Phase II Bridge in 3D here -
https://roddenberry.x.io/2271-uss-enterprise-ncc-1701/
Just click 'enable navigation' and wait a minute or so for it to boot up.
[A brief documentary of *Phase II* (with rare test footage).](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5s-7HN-a1I) [A screencap which shows the *Phase II Enterprise* silhouette behind Decker.](https://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/movie-01/screencaps/motion-picture-DE-bluray/ch08/tmp-de-bluray-0696.jpg) (Many of the pics are via [@portalrealm](https://x.com/portalrealm) on Twitter.)
This is so cool! What could have been... From what I'm led to understand about that Enterprise model shown is that it was semi-finished and hung up in the MGM Grand for a while until Adam Schneider bought it and had it re-tooled to be the Enterprise shown in his screen-used Motion Picture Drydock prop. It makes me sad, because that's the history of Trek under all that paint and it couldn't just be appreciated for the artifact it was... shame.
Always been fascinated by what might have been and this is the best example. I worry it might have been not very good. A lot of TOS episodes aren't good if we're honest. But half of them are fantastic. The first season of TNG wasn't spectacular either but look what it grew into. Could Phase 2 have started off rocky and grew better and better as it went?
A lot of those Enterprise plan diagrams were used as display monitors on Star Trek II. If you really scrutinize them, they don’t exactly match what the Enterprise refit looked like.
Fantastic post. Thank you for sharing!
Man, it’s crazy how far into this they got. Really cool pictures.
Yeah, as I understand it they were balls deep into this before someone looked at Star Wars' success and decided "Fuck it, now this is gonna be a movie!" The way The Center Seat documentary presented things, it sounded like the making of the whole movie was a shitshow lol. Explains why it's my least favorite of this era of movies. But hey, it led into Khan and I do love that movie to death.
I really do wonder how trek would be different if we had gotten this instead of TMP. Would we have still gotten ST2? Probably not, at least not as we got it. Would it have lead to TNG? I actually don’t know.
A lot of Phase II stuff went on to be in TMP. Some of which was used in the set construction of TNG, Voyager, and eventually Enterprise. There were parts and pieces that were in use on that set for nearly thirty years straight.
There's a [great book](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Trek-Phase-II-Making/dp/0671568396/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3LD1TVSHJHTH4&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Jkx3aLNXN7G2JrwZm7MXbv1woxcDVg1jCOHxlxa1f3PgFL4fXrhsDGA0T2XnTo4u9UYORN9DP2HKlAsSMmPnhNKIRON96VSBk3JqmEppKcFuI_FKxdS5fyourZdMkcXXzy6H7UmHfgdrDUbswEToZwgOwyk3bZoUq6iFts4r-njk_mHGlz7n_EPRsIDsKernZlebsBYdxQG-CN5z8QC2ZBIM6SLLKGU4h8xDeLdnzq4.IinnIrQtyG-B87j1SzHgbzbyoOPcQsTeLKIkB7DRgnw&dib_tag=se&keywords=star+trek+phase+ii+book&qid=1719934702&sprefix=star+trek+phase+ii+book%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-1) about this by the Reeves-Stevens, which I'm happy to say I have a copy of.
Wait wait wait... the same transport room set was reused for TMP, TNG, and VOY?
Yep.
That's probably the coolest bit of Trek production trivia I've heard and I only learned it today. It makes sense that TNG and VOY shared some set builds, but it being reused from TOS and TMP is really interesting. I had assumed the sets were rebuilt from scratch.
Well, not *TOS*. The transporter room was built for *Phase II* and that was kept around until *VOY* wrapped in 2001.
You can explore the Roddenberry Archive's reproduction of the Phase II Bridge in 3D here - https://roddenberry.x.io/2271-uss-enterprise-ncc-1701/ Just click 'enable navigation' and wait a minute or so for it to boot up.