Undoubtedly one of the coolest sets ever built for any Star Trek series, the NX hangar bay.
Being on this set is an experience unto itself. I’ve spoken before about sets that are immersive. This is one of them. When you are here, you are on the ship. Cool is walking from the top level, down the gangway, and into the shuttle pod. Continue reading ‘NX Hangar Bay’
Enterprise "Class Picture" -- Click to enlarge
This is pretty much the family that brought you series Star Trek for nearly two decades. Behind us is the Bronson Gate Entrance, one of the most photographed studio entrances and where many movie stars took their first steps toward fame. If you have ever seen Sunset Blvd. (and if you haven’t, stop depriving youself of classic motion pictures), this is the gate Gloria Swanson entered the studio through. If you look straight back you will see stage 4, home of DS9′s OPs. Beyond that is what we referred to as Star Trek Blvd. At it’s peak, two series and one motion picture were in production there at the same time. You can see Dorth. She is the only one with a lime geen sweater. Behind her and to the right is Mike and Denise Okuda. Allllll the way in the back, on the right is me Vanover, and Eaves. Gee, I miss these guys!
Beautiful kit bash, Judy!
I’ve managed to pull together a modeler’s dream coverage of this well liked member of the “Frankenstein Fleet”. We have your coordinates, and are locked on to you. Energize!
Star Trek’s last gasp.
The episode warranted a TV Guide closeup only because of Belli’s brief appearance as Gorgan. When I pulled this out of my archive, I flipped it over and found a closeup for Trek’s competition that night, Judd for the Defense. ATCSL sounds like a pretty weak sauce next to Judd’s fare that night, and it truly was.
Trek’s bedfellow on Friday night at ten.
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I just came across this concept sketch for Enterprise, and cannot remember what the heck it was! But I’m not worried, because I have the topest of the top experts to help! Experts assemble!
Long missing images of the Enterprise J finally turn up showing the underside of the mysterious vessel.
I Opted for spindly nacelle struts because I felt it suggested a technology beyond what we were familiar with. Matt Jefferies used this same gag on the original series ship with it’s impossibly thin engine supports. It’s nacelles had a floaty appearance, defying the laws of physics. It was my opinion that the ever heavying up of engine struts over the years, took some of the magic out of the Enterprise.
(below) An aft view reveals a somewhat elegant starship, and for me, the design suggested a far-flung era.
More info on the search – http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/enterprise-j-search/
In Bob Justman and Herb Solow’s book, Inside Star Trek, they talk about Frank Oakden, a sound technician on the original series. It turned out that he was a talented characaturist. Bob and Herb include a couple of Frank’s drawings in their book, but there were more. Some of these folk will be obvious to you, some not so much. Either way, it is a supremely human look at the folks who made Star Trek for the first time. Enjoy…
This was just a topic of discussion on one of the threads, so here are a couple of nice shots of the runabout miniature with “roll bar” in place. Most of you know that the roll bar was added so that viewers could more easily differentiate between two runabouts.
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DS9′s weapons systems were upgraded with top of the line starfleet gear. This was a pop-up phaser bar which was deployed from when the station came under attack . Joltin’ Johnny Eaves designed it. Meinenger built it. You can see several different scales. The smaller bars went with the station model. The large “hero” bar was built for an oversized section of station.
A huge mural that Mike and I worked on together for the DS9 episode The Quickening. It depicted the ruined city where the story takes place, but in better days. This was probably one of the very first really large printouts made for us by the Paramount sign shop. Love the cracks in the wall. The episode was directed by Rene Auberjonois.
Johnny Hawk’s all too cool emblem for the Defiant Development Project.
In the DS9 Tech Manual I commisioned a couple of really cool emblems from Top Gun graphic designer Johnny Hawk. I don’t meant Top Gun the movie, I mean THE Top Gun, NAS Miramar.
Several entries back I mentioned The First Spaceship on Venus in reference to set design. Well I went to Amazon to order a new copy for myself and found out that the versions available can vary wildly in quality. If you plan to check it out, here is the one you want: http://www.amazon.com/Silent-Star-Yoko-Tani/dp/B0009PW3TC/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1238120734&sr=8-1
The quality is absolutely stunning, and it is subtitled, rather than the dreadful English dubbing that is available on the lesser quality versions. Includes background info, and image galleries!
On aVFX polaroid reference shot, this funky little example of a kit bashed tug was jokingly labeled USS ERTL. It was seen on DS9 towing the USS Fredrickson. Probably the most unusual of all kludges I’ve come across. There are two more shots on the next page. I look forward to your comments.
Speaking of birds, I thought this sketch was long lost, but just turned it up last night. The off the cuff concept sketch for Gary Hutzel of the Romulan shuttle.
Find photos of the finished shuttle model here: http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2008/12/24/romulan-shuttle/
Undoubtedly one of the most impressive backlit graphics ever, the two and a half story tall centerpiece of Quark’s bar on the DS9 promenade.
A great image from the all time classic space adventure, featuring the all time classic robot, Robby. Robby was not designed to sit down, so for this sequence, the scenic department painted flat cut outs of his legs in a seated position, and painted them to give them 3D relief.
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Remarkable before and after of the Enterprise D docked at starbase 74. The bottom image is the plate provided to illustrator Andy Probert by the visual effects department. Above that, the finished shot with the VFX plate incorporated into Andy’s Matte painting. Evident is additional painting on the plate itself, such as illuminated windows and volumetric light crossing the ship’s hull.
My CG sketch for the library scene in the Enterprise episode “Shockwave”.
After a drawing by John Eaves, the model was built in the art department and shipped to Threshold for the finish. John calls it the “Tiki” face starbase due to the pattern on the big hangar bay skirt.
Addendum – Our friend Pacal sent me several shots of a physical model of this starbase. As far as I know, it is fan built… or is it? A real nice job too! Was this model part of the Vegas exhibit? Extremely accurate. Someone must have had access to the CG model. If anyone else has any info on this item please shout it out! Click to the next page -
Continue reading ‘Borg Invasion – Starbase Copernicus – UPDATED!’
The Defiant’s Johnny-come-lately Chaffee Shuttle was a last minute retro-fit, seen here in the “Little Friend” SOTL offering.
When Gary Hutzel approached me about designing a new larger shuttle for the Defiant, I resisted big-time. I had just, and I mean just finished the interior cutaway for starfleets armored warship. Now Gary was asking me to find a place for this thing. As I rabidly went through all the reasons why it couldn’t be done, I saw it in my head, did a 180, and gushed about how this could be done. Gary looked at me grinning like a little kid, “I knew ya’ could do it! Is it done yet?!”
The Olympia shuttle for The Borg Invasion ride after sketches by madman Johnny Eaves. In a senior moment I incorrectly remembered this as being a version of the spaceplane from “Enterprise”. There IS an unfinished spaceplane model around here, and when I turn it up I’ll post it.
The General Motors pavilion at the ’64 NY World’s Fairwas a nexus of sci fi extrapolation influencing the look of science fiction films, and in particular Star Trek, to the present day. As a kid on the loose at the fair, I helped myself to all the printed material that I could carry. Some of it ended up on the wall of the Trek art department as a source of inspiration three decades later. The Fair was a major influence on original Trek art director Matt Jefferies, and it continued to be for us as well.
The original blog entry on the Fair’s influence on Star trek can be found here - http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/01/29/days-of-future-past-the-treknywf-connection/
(Below) Promotional flyer for the General Motors pavilion at the NYWF. The GM sail was the inspiration for Starfleet HQ in San Francisco, as seen in the DS9 episode “Homefront”.
Built for Mike Okuda by the lengendary Greg Jein. It made it’s only appearance in the Star Trek Chronology by Mike and Denise. Wouldn’t you love to see this realized and in action!
This Klingon space station is a masterpiece of kludge by the King of Kludge himself, Anthony Fredrickson. Built purely from found objects, it’s a marvel of economy. The red circle highlights an object which is like the number 47 in the Star Trek universe, and making it’s one billionth appearance on Trek, a “Buckaroo Banzai” Oscillation Overthruster. I promise a big Buckaroo Banzai entry in the near future.
In 1979 Geoff Mandel and Doug Drexler bullshitted their way onto the Paramount backlot. I am both ashamed, and proud of myself. Aside from that, we were very well behaved. (Above) 26 year old Doug Drexler on the TMP planet Vulcan set in the Paramount tank. I’m standing next to the practical foot of the collosal Vulcan Master statue . In the picture it would be incorporated into a matte painting. I don’t know about you, but when I saw that sequence in the film, I couldn’t make head nor tail of what I was looking at. It was something that would get fixed in the directors cut many years later.
It was 1979, and Star Trek was back in production. The alpha fans of the 1970′s had a lot to do with making that happen. They kept a dead television show in the public eye in such a big way that the studio sat up and took notice… and without the Internet. We were practically a force of nature. No one could explain it. Geoff Mandel and I had become friends through our involvement with the Federation Trading Post, and went on to do numerous fanzines, blueprints and books together, including the first ever Trek magazine, The Star Trek Poster Book. As Kirk once said, “Fortune favors the bold.” And if they were making Star Trek again, there was no way they we weren’t getting a peek at it. How it all came about is a long story for a future entry.
A panorama I cobbled together of the surrounding area. To the left of the tank is Virginia City from “Bonanza”. Behind that a faux mountain range which covered the west side mill. On the far right is “Blue Sky” which still stands today. To the left of that is the water tower, and dividing line between Paramount and Desilu in the 60′s. TOS was filmed on stages right behind it. The so-called “tank” which the Vulcan set stands in, could be filled with water, and was later used in “Trek IV” for the BOP crash into San Francisco Bay. That’s Geoff taking his turn at boot.
Here is the ironic part - many years later when Daren Dochterman (childhood friend of the Federation Trading Post) was overseeing the refitted director’s cut of ST:TMP, he asked me to design statues for the revamped Vulcan sequence. Oh, you beautiful Universe!
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