Rick Sternbach’s fusion of Japanes anime concepts and the famous hospital ship “Hope”, for Star Trek Voyager.
“The Dinaali hospital ship 4-2 for the Voyager episode “Critical Care” was inspired in equal parts by the flying city of Laputa from the Hayao Miyazaki anime feature “Castle in the Sky” and the mysterious floating city Tiphares from another anime film, “Battle Angel Alita.” In all three cases, the elite were positioned above the rest of the citizenry of the world. The higher levels of the hospital vessel insured better care for potentially more productive citizens, with less care applied to people in the lower levels of society. Not exactly ripped from today’s headlines, since the health care situation has been like that here for a very long time, but the story was compelling nonetheless. The distinct levels in the rough CG sketch were more pronounced than in the final, with the stylistic equivalent of field tents on the lower areas, and nicer buildings nearer to the apex.” - Rick Sternbach
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(Above) Sternbach’s rough CG sketch for Foundation Imaging delineated a tiered wedding cake-like arrangement. The lower tiers tending to citizens occupying the lower rungs of Dinaali society.
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Screen caps coutesy Jörg.
From a storyline POV, a good riff off ‘Cloud Minders’ and a worthwhile concept to examine of social inequity; a concept that deserves even more attention. Trek was good at offering such examinations without being overly preachy or placing a specific solution. Too bad we don’t have a means to further explore this on a Trek series. There are so many more ways to examine the issue.
Thanks for the post…
The DC
This is a very cool adaptation of the floating cities that inspired it. I very much like the tiered look of the original artwork. What we got was good, but it would have been great to see it remain closer to the original design.
With all of the obstacles that humans had to overcome to be “ready” to travel to distant planets and peoples, it is sometimes surprising that they came across so many civilizations with such social issues as this. This episode was obviously a pretty direct finger point to HMO’s (I think I read that Robert Picardo said that, too) and shows just what may evolve in such a system.
This is a flying hospital. It is made of wedding cake and inequality.
Oh yeah, good episode this one showcasing one of the many brilliant performances by Robert Picardo (I could watch this guy all day!). It’s amusing that the doctors in this floating hospital needed a hologram to buck their system before they thought of doing it themselves!
I actually prefer the final model to the CG-Sketch although I really appreciate the tier-design. Look at it! The people with minimal health cover aren’t even allowed to share the main complex; they’re isolated in the smaller structures on the ends of each of those arms! Compassionate bunch!!
Cool renders Doug! Cheers for posting!!
Aha! Great to get a chance to see this design out of the context of the episode. I always thought it was a very interesting design and fun to learn that it got its origns from some anime films. I’ve not watched a lot of anime in my day, but I’m intrigued by the films that inspired the design!
This was a very interesting story and funny how it reflects the current situation in regards to health care.
Here in Canada, I viewed “Critical Care” through a different lens with a different result: it was a warning to not allow ourselves to be dragged back into the days before Tommy Douglas brought in what was then called “universal medical insurance” during his days as premier of Saskatchewan. The man and his government had to face down everything up to and including a doctors’ strike in 1962 to get that legislation passed into law. Once it was in place, there were other hurdles in other provinces and at the federal level, but it became the new standard of health care up here.
To this day, there are still people and lobby groups trying to roll back the clock. What we’ve got nowadays is certainly expensive in its way. But having seen the alternatives in practice elsewhere? We sure as Hell can’t afford that either.
Sorry to be so preachy, everyone.
Wow that’s really awesome model ! (both design and tech-wise) I think I’m going to watch some more Voyager episodes now that I’ve seen the catapult and the Hospital “ship” !
On the tech side…would’ve loved to see a Starfleet Tech Report in ST: The Magazine on this baby, from the Doctor’s POV.
I would have loved that, too; shame the magazine folded. I really liked writing for Ben Robinson.