NASA pilots Jack Nickel (in the jet with tail number 62) and Charles Justiz fly over for a bird’s eye view of two shuttles on the launch pad. Shuttle Atlantis is in the foreground and Endeavour can be seen in the distance on the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The two are flying T-38 jet trainer aircraft.
Image Credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz
The NX-02 model, as built by Koji for a drydock scene in Enterprise.
We only saw the second NX class ship in four episodes (The Expanse, Affliction , Home, and Divergence). When we first clapped eyes on it, it was under construction. This intricate model was built by my dear friend Fred “Koji” Kuramura. It’s hard to believe that this kind of thought and detail goes in to a shot that lasts a matter of seconds on screen, and is produced on a television schedule. I’ll see if I can get Koji to drop in and answer some questions, he’s a busy guy at JPL in Pasadena, doing CG simulations for NASA (along with our other mad brother, Mike Stetson).
Koji also built the uncanny CG model of the ISS in the Enterprise title sequence. It’s positively amazing. Koji has promised to put together a presentation on that for the blog. Keep your eyes peeled! Continue reading ‘Starship Columbia NX-02 Construction Pictorial’
The BSG VFX department was right across the street from Ronald D Moore’s office at Universal. We let our feelings be known. Ron loved it.
NX sickbay workstations typify the sense of organization which defines a term coined by Ira Behr: “Starfleet Clean”.
The first thing you notice about the sickbay department on board the NX-01 is the overwhelming feeling that you really are in a high tech ER. So much so that it is actually uncomfortable, in a primal sort of way, to spend time in it. I think that’s as it should be.
The brushed aluminum consoles that line the top of the desk are highly reminescent of some of McCoy’s portable medical bio-comps. Overall, one can see what will evolve into the workstation lab on board 1701.
Mike just sent over the Jupiter Station graphic. It was designed by Voyager scenic artist, Wendy Drapanas
Amazing Rick’s Jupiter Station design for Voyager… a design which cleverly used decomissioned starship hulls. I asked Rick Sternbach for some background and memories of designing this outstandingly cool space station. As a kid who grew up on Bonnestell, and Freeman, Jupiter Station was the kind of thing that kept Rick awake at night as a kid. Here is master space artist Rick Sternbach with the low down -
Jupiter Station was one of those little treat assignments that came around only once in a great while on Star Trek. That’s not to say that the hundreds of other vehicles and props weren’t fun – this is Trek we’re talking about and it was 99.44% fun. Jupiter Station was particularly fun because it afforded a giddy chance to do things with the hardware that hadn’t been done before.
Continue reading ‘Rick Sternbach + Jupiter Station = Classic Starfleet’
Ok! I need your help!
Tell me what ships you are looking for, right here, right now, and ‘ol Doug will see what he can excavate. I’m down about five thousand feet, and there is no end in sight!
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Everyone loves a good TLT sandwich.
We once had a Targ on Next Generation. They dressed a pig in a Targ suit. It turned the mighty Enterprise bridge into a true poop deck. For Enterprise, the Targ entered the 21st century before entering the 22nd, when Lightwave ace John Teska built a better pig out of ones and zeros. True, It doesn’t taste as good as a pig, but then it doesn’t make big potty on the flight deck either. That’s progress!
(Below) Teska’s Targs as they appeared in the Enterprise episode Sleeping Dogs.
Targ frame grabs courtesy Jörg
This cover was for “Kobayashi Maru”, written by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangles. Part of the Enterprise series of novels continuing the voyages of the NX.
Here are a few of my favorite covers for Margaret Clark, Marco Palmieri, and Alan Dingman at Pocket Books. Continue reading ‘Trek Book Covers for Pocket’
I thought I would surprise him, but the surprise was on me! Probert went from zero to sixty, punching me in the neck. I dropped to the pavement clutching my throat, unable to even cry out.
Continue reading ‘Probert’s Greatest Hits – One Day at the Burbank Marriot’
Mike Okuda just sent this to me. You have to see it to believe it. It just happened today. Be sure to watch from the beginning, and get a sense of just how big this thing is! Wow!
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This time for real! Here it is, one of the most mysterious of all the Enterprise ships, the S.S Emmette. Teasingly seen in the notorious title sequence over what appears to be a moon base.
Finding this was like opening Tut’s tomb. A gust of musty air from 2001 rushed out as the scene loaded up.
Back in the day, Gene Roddenberry made regular appearances at colleges and other venues. I went many times, and he was always wonderfully charismatic and thought provoking. Before the Internet, one of the ways to transfer information was the “flyer”. This was Gene’s flyer.
I’ve finally cracked into my reference files of the Star Trek CG fleet, and first up is one that I know many folks are curous about. The “Warp Delta”, fleetingly seen on Enterprise. For a moment I mistook it for the title sequence ship, but my buddy “Starship Freak” pointed out my error. As the true identity becomes clearer, I’ll add it to the entry. It’s mindboggling the amount of work and detail that went into this ship considering what a tiny bit of it was seen by the audience. At any rate, here is everything you ever wanted to know about this ship. ..Tear the curtains asunder!
Thanks to L.M. Oliver for this drex files bulletin!
Profiles in History is auctioning off INCREDIBLE contact sheets from The Cage. Some amazing new-old stuff! Get out your wallets, and… BEHOLD!
Landing platform at the Rigel trading post.
Built for the Enterprise pilot episode, the expansiveness and fun of this cool set up was not lost on anyone working that day. It was the OK Corral, and all of this was designed for one big old fashioned shoot-out in a storm. Got to love it! When the effects guys let the big fans blow up a whopping maelstrom of plastic snow, and you mix that with strobes and squibs, and talent, you’re really cookin’! Note the Enterprise shuttlepod with it’s engine module pulled out. Did you know that you could swap engines out for bigger beefier power plants?
OMG -
Go and look.
- From Mike Okuda
The NX bridge module was designed to visually conform to Herman’s sets, and evoke a 1701 feel in it’s general design and the way it juxtaposed with the nacelles. (Gigantic kudos to Light Wave modeler Pierre Drolet, good buddy and the best in the business. We are still working together and having a lot of fun). Check the big “gas cap” in the mid ground. Those are big deuterium ports.
I clipped these out of an old TV Star Parade magazine when I was around 15 years old. It’s 1968. Candid shots of TOS are hard to come by.
The one! The only! Groucho! Check the look of incredulity on my face.
The art department was a big nest of Marx Brothers fans, so when this weisenheimer showed up in full Groucho, we were roaring! He was our courier guy, of all things! He had the voice, he had the lines, and he delivered them with unerring accuracy-
The NX design lineage leading to the constitution class warp nacelle is plain in these examples. Just look at the large intercooler assembly and spillway. Externally, the major cosmetic difference between the NX and the Constitution nacelle, is that the NX has more external access hatches, and a heavier construction. Continue reading ‘NX Tech Briefs – 02′
(Above) Dorth, Jimmy and Luna leaving our digs on the upper west side on the isle of Manhattan. We’re on our way to the “South Pacific” reunion at Lincoln Center, while I play papparazzi! … Taxi!
“Luna called while you were out,” said Dorth, ”she’s going to the South Pacific reunion at Lincoln Center and wants to know if we could go… I told her probably not”. I had just come to the end of six months of seven day a week, and was still on standby.
“South Pacific” is a historic Roger’s and Hammerstein American musical… and to go with Luna? That would be astonishing. Besides, She and Jimmy are fun as hell, and Luna is a wild card. What a New York adventure THAT would be! Bah! Never happen!
The next night we were watching an episode of Tony Bourdains’ No Reservations called Disappearing New York, and it was painfully wonderful. We wept at the parade of cuisine… of fine French fare… of fat New York pastrami, of Chinatown’s incredible dim sum and lobster, of Mulberry Street’s wondrous Italian sausage and chicken parmigiana. Vacation! A worship word! The phone rang. I answered it.
Oh you incredible universe! Oh you beautiful galaxy! We’re going to have a lull in production! I can take a week off! Book tickets tomorrow, Dorothy Duder… because you and I are going to Noo Yawk City!
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