From: harp@netcom.com (Gregory O. Harp)
Subject: Re: Deep Review 9: "The Emissary" (SPOILERS)
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
Distribution: world,local
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 22:11:20 GMT

BrianT@cup.portal.com (Brian Stuart Thorn) writes:

>>>Watching that scene, the big, bad, Cardassian ship seemed to be only 2-3
>>>times larger than the Runabout.  Either those Runabouts are bigger than I
>>>thought, or there's nothing *big* about the big, bad Cardassian ships.
>>
>>Yes, the Star Trek effects people do have an annoying habit of
>>screwing-up the size relationships between ships.

>    I considered this one of the few weaknesses of the episode. Sisko
>    comes out of the wormhole towing the Card ship and the only
>    explanation we got was "they had some trouble back there" or some
>    such throwaway dialogue. Excuse me? What the hell happened?

Am I the only person who saw some sort of electrical activity (i.e.
lightning) on the surface of the Card ship when it passed through the
wormhole the first time?  My theory is that the wormhole-people zapped
it.  You had to look closely to see it, though.  Perhaps they should
have made a bigger deal of it.  A shot from the bridge with the crew
saying, "What the HELL?!" would have done nicely...  ;)

>    Perspective may play a part in the apparent size relationship
>    screwup. The Runabout was well ahead of the Card ship, and thus
>    appeared pretty big compared to the ship in the background. Still,
>    the three Card ships surrounding DS9 looked ALOT bigger than the
>    one in the towing sequence.

I blew it off as a perspective illusion.  Think of it this way: You
can block out the sun or moon with your thumb.  What does that say
about the size of your thumb wrt the sun and moon?  Nothing.  It's all
relative to your distance from them.

In other words, the first Card ship is probably the same size as the
other three (though they made the distinction of calling the other
three "warships") and all of them are much larger than the runabout.

>    Maybe that's why I came away with the feeling that DS9 was not
>    that big of a station. In other FX scenes, though, DS9 looked
>    huge compared to the Enterprise. The effects crews need to do a
>    little more work in that department, but it was better than the
>    energy beam in "Encounter at Farpoint".

I paid attention to all the relative sizes (I do that sort of thing,
for some reason) and I thought it all came out fine.  2D television
just doesn't do it justice.  The effects folks, in my opinion, were
trying to give the effects more of a 3D look, and apparently that's
too much for the general public. ;)

People must realize that perspective plays a lot in how large ships
appear on their TV screen.  The ST:TNG/DS9 folks have done a more
realistic job than most.  In their universe, ships don't travel in the
normal 2D special effects paths that most do.  The results are quite
impressive.  Of course, all ships still travel with their top sides
facing up (as compared to having each ship's idea of "up" being a
different, unrelated direction) but, hey, you can't ask for _total_
realism, can you? ;)
-- 
-----------------Greg-Harp----------------harp@netcom.com------------------
  "I think I've reached that point / Where every word that you write /
  Of every blood dark sea / And every soul black night / And every dream
  you dream me in / And every perfect free from sin / And burning eyes /
  And hearts on fire / Are just the same old song" -- The Cure
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