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!
Top
Bottom
Starboard Side
Fore
Aft
(Below) The Columbia as seen on the show (courtesy Jörg)
Mike Okuda remembers that… “In Divergence, we had that really cool action sequence with the Enterprise and the Columbia flying in formation, and an EVA crew transfer between ships at warp. Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, who wrote the episode, said it was inspired by NASA’s contingency plans to rescue astronauts from a damaged space shuttle orbiter.
OMG I love it!!! Thanks Thanks Thanks!!!
I think it’s incredible that guys like Koji put so much effort into their work, even if it’s only going to be a quick two-second shot.
It’s dedication like this that makes all of you guys such fan favourites and has us lurking here and at John Eaves’ blog every day.
Many thanks from a fellow Treknology fan.
Barrie.
Ahh! Great! That’s the unfinished model from “The expanse”. She was seen , nearly complete in drydock again in “Home” and finally finished in “Affliction” and “Divergence”. It seems the change in hull colour (rather blueish for the Columbia) took place after “Home”, because in “The expanse” and “Home” the hull colour pretty much still looks like the Enterprise’s hull.
Love the differently finished nacelles, cool to get a look underneath the caps of the Bussard collectors!
You must have had your caffeine today!
You’re a posting madman!
Appreciate the good work,
The DC
Looking at the way the ship is built, the question occurred to me: did ships of this era have Structural Integrity Fields? Was it ever established in the show that they did? They obviously have gravity plating and inertial dampening, and navigationial deflectors; but not force-field shields, as we saw them being experimented with (in “Vox Sola” wasn’t it?). So how about SIFs?
Hey Doug Some photos by Rob Bonchune,of the NX-02 Deflector Dish.
http://okudagrams.com/uploads/nx02/DeflctrDishNX2_01.jpg
http://okudagrams.com/uploads/nx02/DeflctrDishNX2_top_02.jpg
http://okudagrams.com/uploads/nx02/DeflctrDishNX2_front_03.jpg
http://okudagrams.com/uploads/nx02/DeflctrDishNX2_side_04.jpg
The details on this model are incredible! Some amazing talent at Eden! The fact that Koji was able able to do something this detailed on a television schedule is truly impressive!!
I imagine as a CG artist, seeing that first shot that you spent hours and possibly days working on end up as a few seconds of screen time and sometimes just blurred in the background is a rather eye opening experience.
Excellent model, thanks for sharing it.
Wow. Nice model this. And I sure know this drill. You always try to make models look as cool as possible. Once I built the colosseum in rome for a TV-trailer, took me three weeks and 4 million polygons. In the end, it was visible for four seconds. Not exactly what I was expecting, but I made it look as good as possible anyway.
Amazing work! How would this kind of project be undertaken, starting from scratch or rather from Pierre Drolet’s NX-01 model?
I do think the NX-02 was seen a couple of times later on though, as a fully built starship.
Andru – The NX-02 construction model was built using the NX-01 for a base.
…as Jörg said !
These are fascinating images. I always loved the cut-away posters
The rendezvous sequence from “Divergence” is possibly my favorite Trek action scene ever. Nobody’s shooting at anybody, nobody’s killing anybody, it’s just about people using their ingenuity and courage to solve an urgent problem. I’ll take scenes like that over space battles and shootouts any day. (Well, yeah, it’s the result of the Klingon saboteurs trying to kill them, but it’s intensely exciting without being violent in and of itself, and that’s something I’d love to see more of.) And it’s just so imaginative and fresh, and it lets us see things that had only been conjectured in print before, like merging warp fields. The Reeves-Stevenses are good hard-SF writers with great imaginations, and it was great to have them on a TV Trek staff, although it wasn’t for nearly long enough.
Lee asked: “Looking at the way the ship is built, the question occurred to me: did ships of this era have Structural Integrity Fields? Was it ever established in the show that they did? They obviously have gravity plating and inertial dampening, and navigationial deflectors; but not force-field shields, as we saw them being experimented with (in “Vox Sola” wasn’t it?). So how about SIFs?”
I would speculate that the “polarizing” of the hull plating to give it greater strength was similar in principle to how an SIF works.
Wow, how beautiful. I love the detail under the uncovered starboard bussard collector. And don’t hate me, Doug, but I like the color of the NX-02 a little more than the color of the NX-01…
I find it reassuring to know these two definitely weren’t built on the ground.
Jonathan, the color the NX1 ended up as, was something that happened after it left my hands. It was meant to be brighter, with a slight bronziness. Truthfully I am not sure if the NX1, and 2 are different. it may just be the lighting condition. I will find out.
Wow, man. Visiting yours and John Eaves’ blogs is really becoming the highlight of my days.
I love Enterprise. There are very few episodes I don’t care for. Out of all of it, though, one of the best moments is when they show that awesome model of the Columbia being built. I’ve paused my DVD, gone into frame-by-frame mode for that few second shot jut to take in as much detail as I can. Now, thanks to you, I can just pull out the images of that gorgeous model any time I want and drool all over my keyboard.
What a sight! That was an excellent and very memorable sequence. Latter-day Trek rarely disappointed in the technical aspects, and that scene was an A+. On the more traditionally creative end of the show, I thought the Reeves-Stevens duo brought a LOT to the table and were really a breath of fresh air in that last season or two.
Amazing!
Doug, I imagine the color changes (if they were not just a trick of the light) were done to allow the viewer to make quick visual identification between the “E” and “C”. I’m curious though…if Enterprise had continued in production and additional NX class vessels were depicted, do you suspect the color changes would have remained?
Also, you alluded to the change in the color of the NX…can you comment on why the color change was made?
Hi Tim, I don’t know where the color changed happened. I’ll keep my ear to the ground. Rob, or Pierre might remember.
It’s great anytime I get a glimpse of the building or repair process of a star ship, but this was a real feast. I’m glad that Koji took the time to make such a complete and detailed finished product so that for the many years to come Trek fans can enjoy all the details at their leisure!
I absolutely love this scene! Just seeing them in formation was cool, but I agree that the whole scene was great because of, as Christopher put it, “ingenuity and courage to solve an urgent problem.”
Jörg: You’re always a step ahead!
I was noticing the obvious color difference. It was mentioned previously that they are different colors, but it’s like someone decided to pull out the paint brushes after she was completed. 
Must have been a last minute decision to make her a diff color.
Columbia may not raise too many questions as to “why the name”, but I just wanted to know if it was on purpose that she is named after the second space shuttle (first into space), after the first one was Enterprise. Columbia the shuttle was named after the sloop “Columbia” that was the first to circumnavigate the globe…nice heritage.
For those of you physical modelers out there, you know the challenge of staying motivated during a long and challenging build. It’s inspiration like this and what John Eaves gives that keeps me motivated to do better. Many thanks Doug! and by the way the is definitely a difference in the color of the two NX ships:
http://ent.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=83&page=3
Beautiful model. Thanks for posting those images.
Might the NX-02 be the S.S. Columbia of “The Cage?” I love the idea of the NX-02 being retired after decades of service, and then being purchased by the American Colony Institute.
Greg, That’s a really fun idea.
love these pics, columbias launch was a big improvement on enterprise launch, the lighting seemed much more realistic and intercated with the ship much better as she left drydock
Greg & Doug, so the location of the crashed Colombia from the SOTL calender would be Talos IV?
That kinda works. I like it.
Since General Order 7 might still exist in some form in the 24th century, it seems more likely that the scenario shown in the SOTL calendar is a “what-if” tale. Starfleet isn’t supposed to poke around on Talos IV!
The crash site of the Columbia is of historical significance. Special arrangements might have been made to document it.
Hi guys,
Doug asked me if I’ld come answer some questions here. I just found out about this blog a couple of days ago.
One question I can answer of the top of my head is yes. The color of the NX-02 is different than from the NX-01. it’s slight. But back then Rob, me and Mitch Suskin. Thought it would be cool to change the color to give them a different look. Especially since they where going to be in the same shots.
Also, we usually had about 2 weeks of time to work on each episode, with about 3-4 people per team. There were two teams working on even and odd episodes. Pierre worked for both teams as the main modeler. I filled in when he was too overwhelmed.
If you read David Mack’s awesome Destiny trilogy, the Columbia’s fate will be revealed.
Also thanks to all ,for the kind complements. Working on the show was a dream come true, and I tried to do my best with the time I had
To answer stu question, the shot of the Columbia in the Drydock was one that I did. I took some extra time to relight the shot so that the columbia showed better in that set up. I don’t remember who did the one for the Enterprise launch. But I added more lites and changed how there where lighting the ship.
Barrie beat me to it.
David Mack’s Destiny Trilogy is some of the best Trek Lit out there today! Go read it!!!!
Hi Koji! Great to have you here to answer some questions! I love what you did to Voyager in “Year of hell”, the sequence of the exploding hull with the exposed corridor is awesome!
I was wondering: what’s your favourite VOY alien starship design your worked on, and you favourite Enterprise alien starship? There were some really cool and truly alien starships seen in both shows!
thanks for tha koji and may i say well done, is a beautiful model. Does anyone no if there are any images of the Intrepid seen in enterprise episode twilight, its the ship with the half nx type hull and nacelles extending forward slightly over the the forward hull, i think its a beautiful ship and a good early nx concept
The small scenes which the Columbia construction not make justice to the work of doing the model. Amazing quality…. amazing.
Really thanks to you Doug for giving us these awesome images of Star Trek !!
Hi Jorg,
I’m surprise people know that I worked the Voyager episode year of hell. And what is my favorite alien ship from voyager… hmmm. that one’s hard, I’ll have to think about that one and get back to you. My Favorite alien ship on Enterprise, was the romulan bird of prey that I built, which John Eaves designed. I told Doug, that I’ll get some images of that ship, and tell the story about how that design came about.
That sounds great Koji! You included that starship design in one of your Ships of the Line calendars as well, can’t wait for some insight on that design. My favourite image you contributed to the calendars is the shot of Enterprise, Andorian and Vulcan ships (mirroring a scene from “Cease fire”), however. If you find the time, maybe you can also tell about the Klingon D-4. The story about the windows not being big enough never grows old…
Jörg called it that the NX-02 was also seen in “Home”. I just happened to watch that episode last night.
Dang, Doug! I love this blog, you just keep coming with the awesome stuff
I also love that sequence from Divergence. One, for the beauty of the two NX ships flying in formation, as if one of them were flying over a still lake. The second, as others have mentioned, is that amazing transfer sequence. It perfectly summed up what I wanted Enterprise (the show) to be. A group of scientists and explorers going out and dealing with the unknown and getting through things by the skin of their teeth, with the help of ingenuity and sheer luck that would make them legends for years to come.
In the 24th century, Geordi would’ve come up with a TECH way of getting to the other ship. Imagine the look on his face if he was told he had to go by tow rope! They don’t make engineers like Trip any more
Awesome work there! Gotta admit, I really do like Columbia’s hull coloring and lighting better than Enterprise’s. The big sensor/deflector dish is cool also.
Or…yet?
That’s in response to Ghostface1701’s “They don’t make engineers like Trip any more”, BTW.
Wow, that was such an epic action sequence; I’d never seen quite anything like that in Trek before.
Just a couple of questions: In scenes like that one, where you have actors interacting with a special effects background (as opposed to 100% CG scenes), do you work with the actors at all? Like sort of coach them about what you plan to do with the FX (where they should look, how to reacte, how to interact with CG props, etc)? Or does that fall more under the director’s job?
Also, wasn’t that the episode that started with the crazy zoom-in through the front of the Enterprise right into the bridge? That must have been something to work on; maybe a candidate for a future topic?
Hi CarlG, Usually someone like Dan Curry, or FX Ron Moore would be on stage supervising a second unit film crew. They would set the stage, and tell the actors what the deal is.
Let’s see the Bridge, infirmary, etc.
Hi Jason:
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/serious-hit-the-nx-bridge/
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/nx-sickbay/
Under construction shots must be pretty hard to do. On the one hand you kind of have to show the stuff that goes on beneath the surface of the ship, but on the other hand there simply wouldn’t be the time to actually show *everything* that would be there.
Interesting to see how closely it matches the concept art John Eaves made for this: http://johneaves.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/more-from-the-expanse/
And do I spot a little Probert-esque workpod bay in the spacedock structure?
Anyone who’s read the Destiny series of books is aware of what happened to the Columbia. A beautiful ship indeed!
Wow want a great start to Bank hoilday Weekend. Thanks for posting this doug.
“Jonathan, the color the NX1 ended up as, was something that happened after it left my hands. It was meant to be brighter, with a slight bronziness. Truthfully I am not sure if the NX1, and 2 are different. it may just be the lighting condition. I will find out.”
Thanks, Doug. And no worries – I remembered what you said about the test model color but I just wanted to make sure you didn’t take my personal preference… well, personally.
Thanks Jonathan! Not to worry, and thanks for caring!
CarlG ur right, that was the episode with the zoom through theship, altho it was actually columbia, enterprise flew over the camera than columbia came eacing up behind and and we went str8 thru the hull, awesome shot
and now again without the spelling mistakes lol
CarlG ur right, that was the episode with the zoom through the ship, altho it was actually columbia, enterprise flew over the camera then columbia came racing up behind and and we went str8 thru the hull, awesome shot
Stu, I remember that shot. VFX Ron Moore asked me to build the guts inside the wall, and run the camera thru it. Wonder if I still have those tests?
That was an awesome shot. It’s ashame that Enterprise ended so quickly, it was a great show. It’s one of the many star trek series that inspired me with my own works.
Oh wow… I have been so busy recently I have not had the time to come over and play. But this post makes wish I had made the time. I think I may have just clapped my hands and jumped up and down a little. I will deny ever doing that though.
All that wonderful structure and plating is just amazing. But the most exciting thing is the look at underlying mechanics of the RCS thrusters and Bussard Collectors. And the detail! This model is absolutely amazing for something used in a single episode.
Thanks for the post! Just wonderful!
Way-cool, eh. JPL, huh? Way-cool, again. And way-cool to see the two NX flying like that. Always loved that shot, eh.
Thanks guys!
LLP,
deg
I know it’s late to the game, and this probably won’t get answered (but what the heck…), but was this NX-02 COL model just a tear-down of the NX-01 ENT mesh?
Thanks.
PLL,
deg