if ILM had done the FX

-i remember reading in a Cinefantasqie or one of the Making of books I think ralph winter saying if theyd gone with ILM it wouldve been their 'D' team as the 'A' team had already been booked with the other blockbusters of 89 Indy, GB2, BTTF2, Abyss etc (why did the Trek V team let that happen anyway? they knew the schedule) and that the reason they didn't go with ILM is that they gave several companies a test for the Great Barrier/God light show and their 'D' team didn't impress. So they hired Bran Ferren who did who did similar water whirlpool FX to what hed done on Altered States. (That film had a religious/god type theme so maybe Shatner or someone felt that was the way to go for TFFs FX?) And I guess they probably assumed the model space FX wouldn't be a problem for someone in 1989. But in hindsight maybe they should've just gone with ILMs 'D' team as they'll have been ILM trained, access to the facilities, experience with the models etc (with ILM already having done the FX for II, III ,IV) so surely they would've at least got the model FX to the standard of the previous films, (instead of Ferren having to figure out how ILM had done the model FX) they might've even had some of the 'A' team help out on certain things inbetween working on the other films..(especially since the majority of workers will have been Trek fans)

I Wonder what the FX wouldve been like had ILM done them (ideally their 'A' team, but if not then the D team)?

the spaceship FX for ENT/BOP/shuttle wouldve been up to Trek III standard (plus maybe wed have seen some new mushroom spacedock stuff as in VI instead of reusing the end of IV). The El Capitan fall would've looked more convincing and the Great Barrier and God light show would've been more 'ILM looking' and for the revelation I think theyd have been able to realise The Shats original 'Hell' ending vision and delivered something truly visually exciting and Hell-ish for the climax – e.g. gargoyles (not rockmen) coming out the ground after the torpedo strike and them chasing KSB back to the shuttle with Scotty accidentally beaming one up thinking its kirk and having to disintegrate it but in doing so destroys the transporter. So kirk is on the run using 2 phasers and gets to the top of the mountain and fires both phasers at the gargoyles but there's too many but then the BOP arrives and blasts them..then kirk fires his phasers at the BOP before being beamed up..(as described in The Making of The Trek Films & The Making of Trek VI)- something akin to their stuff in Poltergeist, Raiders angels end (TFFs end is similar), Golden Childs demon, Twilight Zone The Movie Nightmare 20,000s gremlin, the SW trilogy, Ghostbusters II (actually GB1 wasnt ILM – why not have got them to do Trek Vs FX?) and even Aliens ( again that wasnt ILM - so why not have got them instead of Ferren?) with the gargoyles a combination of animatronics/early CG/animation/man in suits. (dunno how 'god' wouldve fit in with all the gargoyles? maybe He would be like the overlord of them directing them/guiding them toward the trio like a big Dr Manhattan.)

so ultimately if ILM had done it I think Trek V would've got away with being thought of as a decent Razzie free entry . Not as not as good as II,III,IV obviously but probably better than TMP. however with the FX the way they were there was little chance of that