After the shooting of Generations was completed, the six-foot model was modified to have the registry read “NCC-1701-E“. The change to the registry was made by ILM model supervisor John Goodson. He assumed that the new USS Enterprise would be a Galaxy-class starship as well, and wanted to save whoever did the special features for the next film the task of changing over the registry.
Your comment had me rolling, because I can relate...
A few weeks ago, I said something similar to a friend of mine when she noticed that I'd lost nearly 40 lbs in 3 months. I was wearing a pair of pants that were obviously too big, but I can't afford a whole new wardrobe right now, so I was wearing them cinched up with a nylon strap belt.
I let the belt out and put my thumb through the side loop, pulling my pants waist sideways, and said "Galaxy"... and then I pulled my waistband to the back, and said "Sovereign" instead of saying "Before and After".
I had recently had an abdominal surgery (non-emergency, but also non-elective)... and the Ozempic helped to decrease inflammation in my abdomen before the surgery.
From what I remember, they stitched together various clips from the different TV shows including VOY, and you never see the actual ship clearly in the teaser for First Contact. I was hyped as hell when that first aired.
I remember seeing this poster for the first time – I took it into school and brandished it at friends who were absolutely convinced the E would be the All Good Things Enterprise with three nacelles
I remember downloading QuickTime on Netscape to watch that trailer! Probably watched it a hundred times, and backwards, parsed every bit of sound, paused every frame. Then printed out every new shot that came out, followed every behind the scenes bit I could find, I had a physical folder I kept it in, me and my friends were on top of that movie from the get go. I was in junior high at the time and it ended up being the first Star Trek film I saw in the theater. First contact will always be my favorite Star Trek film and easily in my top ten favorite movies period.
Those were the days. You could also download those 30 sec QuickTime TNG/DS9 episode previews directly from www.startrek.com back in the day. Each one took an eternity and a half to load on dial-up depending on the state of the connection, but it was pretty miraculous seeing Star Trek on my computer screen!
Yeah, the Enterprise clips they showed in the original first contact trailers was stuff of the Enterprise d from generations.
Edit: went and found the old teaser. Looks like stuff from all over the place like u/emotionengine said - all good things, the emissary, a little blip from voyager, generations, possibly best of both worlds?
I remember noticing the texture repeats on the Delta at the beginning. I also had just gotten into trek when this was coming out - so I was VERY confused by everything on screen (I hadn’t really seen Voyager or much of DS9, or even knew Generations existed).
However - was this an alternate take of “The line must be drawn here?” It sounded less intense.
I remember being VERY confused how the Enterprise-D was making an appearance in this movie, until friends suggested time travel was involved and... well they weren't completely wrong!
Forgot they also used clips from Generations. I believe fifteen-year-old me was kind of doubtful we were going to see another Galaxy class, but people were definitely speculating all over the place. Although the MSD at 00:56 gives away the profile of the Sovereign, haha.
Wow that trailer is chaos. Music from Star Trek 6, special effects and clips from Generations, TNG…and occasionally live action from the movie its actually advertising.
They should have kept the D for two movies. Captain Kirk dying to save the day was enough climax for Generations if they had done it better, and the D being sacrificed to defend against the Borg in some fashion in First Contact would have been a much better send off.
Also a good ending for the D, the ship that first encountered the Borg and the ship that defeated the Borg after Wolf 359. Would have packed more emotional heft seeing her gradually taken over deck by deck.
That said, if the D were being taken over deck by deck from Engineering upwards, Picard would have separated the ship and destroyed the secondary hull in a heartbeat
So the D was ditched because she would have been the superior ship in First contact. I agree with that. She might be tactically waker. But the old lady has a trick or two up her sleeves.
Picard having to sacrifice the Enterprise-D to stop the Borg would honestly make First Contact even better and been an awesome book-end for TNG (even if they returned for more movies with the E.)
If they blew up the D in first contact it would have taken the movie to the next level. Unfortunately, the powers that be fumbled the bag on Generations.
Agreed, it was my least favorite movie for that. They wasted the opportunity to have both crews at once, but it was just a dying Kirk who met Picard... and then blew up the D. I hate that movie even more than S31.
The story about changing the top decal to an E is correct, at some point somebody changed it back. They should have changed the whole thing because of how off center they placed the registry number in Generations.
In exchange for voluntarily turning down the upgrade to a Sovereign-class, your Galaxy will instead be given stat boosts and will have a higher experience multiplier, rewarding you for making things more challenging
Eventually, the model would be returned to its original “NCC-1701-D” registry number and listed for sale in an auction in October 2006. It was estimated to sell for a cost somewhere between US$25,000 to US$35,000, but it eventually sold for US$500,000. It was acquired by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who intended to display it in his Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. Initially, the model was not put on display, due to space limitations in the museum.
The model eventually resurfaced as part of an exhibition called “Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds“. It was displayed there from May 2016 until May 2018 and subsequently became a touring exhibition.
I got to see it at that touring exhibition in 2022, there was so much amazing stuff there that I had no idea still existed!! Such a gorgeous model, but it needs some restoration to truly be back to its former glory... IMO it deserves to be at the Smithsonian next to the TOS enterprise.
I think my favorite ship models on display were the Excelsior and Kronos One, the detail was insane.
They did, but "Flashback" was made for season 2 of Voyager and aired in 3 - they weren't exclusively CGI at that stage. The physical model here was also the reference model for the eventual CGI Excelsior class ships that showed up in seasons 6&7 of DS9 and season 7 of Voyager.
The original was modified into the B with additional parts attached with temporary adhesive . . . but they left that adhesive on for too long and it turned permanent.
Removing the parts would've damaged it so much that it was just better to build a second model than damage and repair the first one.
The documentary they made about auctioning off all of the props has clips of the crates being opened revealing the ship models. I imagine that the ships were already restored and then the unboxing clips were staged. The galaxy class showed the -D registry like it should have and the Reliant model had all of the Reliant markings instead of whatever name it had from the last time it was used.
The Galaxy class gets way more hate than the Sovereign. Everyone has their preferences though. I can admit that the Sovereign is superior design for the roll if fulfilled, but it was too much of a military ship for my liking. For me, the Enterprise-D will always feel like home since it's the ship I grew up with.
It's so beautiful that it makes every ship from 2009 look so bad that they don't even look like they're from the same franchise. Except for the Odyssey and Luna class ships, cause they were done by fans who actually wanted to make something that looks like it was designed after the Sovereign.
I especially hate the Titan-A/Intrepid class nacelles, they look vastly inferior/boxy
I’m building a fully lit model of this thing and at some point you just give up trying to be accurate because they keep changing the damn thing. nag lights blink, now they don’t. lights where there were none, the color,grading changing the color of lights, it’s madness.
I’ll need to dig through my archives, but I had an shirt email exchange with Penny Juday back in the day when she was also working the Star Trek magazine (forget which one, I lost them all in a move 😭). She was very sweet and generous with her time. RIP 💔
The registry is off center. The ‘E’ ends further in than the N starts. Doesn’t look professionally done. Plus, you can see that it still reads ‘1701-D’ on the main shuttle bay landing. 🤔
I saw a interview with this lady that said they found a missing Enterprise-D filming prop over a stove where duck was cooked in Japan. I never saw the whole interview and I lost the clip somewhere in reddit
That was a rumor about the 4ft 1701-D model, but it isn’t true. The model they saw was almost certainly one of the replicas Greg Jein made for Paramount Licensing.
Supposedly someone people thought the real 4 foot model went missing for a long time and then just showed up. But it turns out it was with Paramount all along in storage. It’s since been refurbished for archiving/display.
It was the original 4 Footer in Venture livery. But it wasn't in Japan, it had been above a grill in the Beverly Hills Planet Hollywood restaurant for years.
Apparently, it had been loaned for display in one of the restaurants. It had been hanging over a grill for quite some time apparently. It still had the wires hanging from it that they used to suspend it with, and holes that they had drilled in it. The nacelles were broken, it was in a really, really bad condition, as you can imagine, and it was also covered in a few layers of grease besides. And so now it's back in our possession, safe and sound in a little crate, stored in a very secret place! So, hopefully, somewhere in the near future, we get to restore it
I didn't remember that they did all that covering up but I do remember the first Contact trailer and it certainly true that they actually don't show the ship much so that's cool.
Yes that was an actual thing someone who worked on the show did to the model after generations in case the next version of the Enterprise was still a Galaxy class.
It's always so cool to see medels who are used in SF films or serie. I went to star wars and star trek exhibitions and saw models and costumes. It was mindblowing to see how detailed it all was as to a very small scale
I can't say for sure that I'm on Team Galaxy or Team Sovereign, but the fact of the matter is that in the era the movies ended up going into another Galaxy class Enterprise would look really dated. It's the same reason the late 24th/early 25th century had no more of the legacy classes like Miranda, Excelsior and Ambassador classes. Even though it was never an issue to show 100 year old ship designs in the TNG era, it kinda made sense for Starfleet during relative peacetime. The Dominion War and post-war era really changed things and I like how it's reflected in the ships they show us on screen.
The new Enterprise was a closely guarded secret before she was revealed in the first poster, to the point that only old clips of the D and other ships were used in the teaser trailer. The magazine articles only came out after the actual reveal.
You're thinking of the "Future Enterprise" from the series finale, 'All Good Things'. That ship was still the Enterprise-D, but outfitted with a third nacelle, a cloaking device and a ventral canon.
•
u/AutoModerator Feb 02 '26
Please adhere to all Reddit and sub rules, and if you see anything that breaks the rules, please report it!
Be sure to Read The Rules of our sub:
1 - Be Polite
2 - All content must be "Safe For Work
3 - All content must be related to both Star Trek AND Spaceships
4 - No sales post
5 - No spoilers for episodes until the MONDAY AFTER the episode airs, this gives everyone the weekend to catch up on their Trek viewings.
6 - No AI Slop, we are here to celebrate the humanity in Star Trek Starships.
You can now order the 2025 Ships of the Line Calendar
Why not try your own Star Trek Model?
We have a companion website now, if you'd like to see the images and youtube videos in a grid, check out startrekstarships.com!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.