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The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:01 pm
by Graham Kennedy
Source
In 1992 downtown Las Vegas had become a distant second to the Las Vegas Strip. Where at one time, downtown Las Vegas was the center of the action, the increasing magnitude of the Las Vegas Strip, with the expansion of Caesar’s Palace, the Mirage having opened, and with more and more mega resorts on the way, 80% of the Las Vegas market was now on the Strip, leaving only 20% for the downtown casinos and hotels. The loss of business was turning the downtown area into a “ghost town” and something needed to be done quickly. The city needed an attraction – something of enough size and power to bring the people back to the downtown area.

...

My concept was to do something so large and so epic, it would fire the imaginations of people around the world. After looking at how difficult it would be to bring people to the downtown core (from the Strip), I knew we had to have something really exciting, dynamic, and without equal. We kicked around a few ideas, and then I came up with something really unique. I went to Chuck Canciller, my lead designer then – and a genius as well – and said, “What if we built the STARSHIP ENTERPRISE – FULL SCALE – on the land at the end of the street. Imagine that…” Chuck looked at me as if I had lost my mind, but by that time he also knew I was serious about big ideas like this. He immediately started working on some ideas.
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How awesome would this have been?

Re: The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:41 pm
by Captain Seafort
I'm surprised it was a risk-averse manager who killed it off, rather than an engineer pointing out how structurally dubious the design is. You'd have to choose between massive (and, I imagine, ugly) structural supports and having a poorly-supported cantilever just waiting for the first strong gust to get underneath it.

Re: The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 6:08 pm
by Graham Kennedy
I am very curious as to whether they got as far as asking an engineer to work out a way to make it actually support itself. I suspect it would have needed a tower under the front of the saucer and another under each pylon, at the very least. But that could have worked - actually it would have been quite similar to how they depicted the grounded Enterprise in the last movie. That looked pretty neat.

Re: The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:22 pm
by Teaos
I would imagin it wouold have a bunch oh wire supports. If placed well and have the ship illuminated and not them they could be less visible.

Re: The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:37 pm
by RK_Striker_JK_5
The very definition of awesome but impractical, it seems.

Re: The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 3:57 pm
by Atekimogus
On the other hand....


they could have made a whole new series or a whole new bunch of movies in the movie-timeline and never ever again would have needed to build a single indoor-set of the ship......... .

Re: The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 8:33 pm
by RK_Striker_JK_5
:lol: A rather... roundabout way to cut costs, methinks.

Re: The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 11:38 am
by Atekimogus
RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote::lol: A rather... roundabout way to cut costs, methinks.
I was just considering a few bonus-perks for the studio. If they'd going to build it I'd sure would have made sure that quite a few rooms are suitable and available for camera-work when needed.

Heck, you wouldn't need any extras anymore, just set up a giftshop at the entrance with uniforms to buy and let those properly dressed give a chance to walk the corridors if needed :lol:

Re: The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 9:49 pm
by RK_Striker_JK_5
... And there's probably a lot of people who would do that for free, too.

Re: The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 2:10 am
by Jim
I might actually have gone to Vegas for that...

Re: The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 5:10 am
by McAvoy
Most certainly would catch everyone's attention too if just by it's sheer size.

Re: The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 4:21 pm
by Jim
You could have all kinds of great bar and restaurant names inside.

Re: The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 6:56 pm
by Sonic Glitch
I reacted to it a bit like this..

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Re: The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:19 am
by RK_Striker_JK_5
Yeah, just the sheer WTF factor of this thing would've drawn in crowds by the boatload, myself included. To stand on that bridge, to sit in that chair...

Re: The life size Enterprise that almost was

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:51 am
by McAvoy
RK_Striker_JK_5 wrote:Yeah, just the sheer WTF factor of this thing would've drawn in crowds by the boatload, myself included. To stand on that bridge, to sit in that chair...
Oh shit I forgot about being on the bridge and seeing that view!