A SOTL bonus next year will be a tech manual style centerfold featuring a couple of the more unusual additions: the NX-01 refit, and Matt Jefferies revolutionary ringship, the XCV-330. Above is the rough blocking out of the page with spaceholder text. The final image will be fully rendered with tech by Mike Okuda. Mark Rademaker is doing an awesome job fleshing out Matt’s novel design, and we can’t wait to get a look at the final.
We need more magnification on the viewscreen, Mr. Sulu!
ARRRGH!! You’re such a tease, Doug!
To quote the Big Bopper, oh baby that’s a-what I like!
I wasn’t expecting any new NX stuff today, at least not really with any new info…I about fell out of my chair! Those views may be small, but just look at those lines!! This indeed would have been a sight to see every week flying on the screen…oh man!
Thanks dug!!!
This is one centerfold I can get excited about.
Haha! Dea! You’re funny!
I think you should take the revolutionary step of releasing a 2011 calendar only a few months into 2010. Get a lead on all those lazybones who will wait to release their 2011 calendars until close to 2011.
You are a genius!
Damn straight!
I KOVE this kind of diagramatic presentation of stuff we don’t know much about. It takes me back to the Tech Manuals.
Wow again. I am going to have to get this calendar.
Sweet mercy, I think I just fell out of my chair. I cannot wait to see this thing in all her glory and splendor! Even from a far she’s looking great Doug!
Wow! The NX-01 always looked incomplete and a little top-heavy to me without a secondary hull, and I’m excited to see what the completed starship should have looked like. More detail, please! Is that a hanger deck in the back?
Doug, this is really quite awesome! I am very much looking forward to the calendar.
Thanks for sharing this with us!
Best,
Alex
Doug, amazing day at the drex files. I waited all month and was just soooo happy to see the NX-Refit has moved along so well. I was sad to see Enterprise go. Anytie I pop in a DVD or catch an episode on televison I imagine all of the stories that could have been told but never will be. I think of the growth Travis Mayweather would have experienced as, what might have happened between T’Pol and Trip, and getting to see Trip oversee the refit of the ship. Maybe even getting to see the ancestors of the Original Series Crew at some point. Maybe someday. All I know is im glad to have seen what I had the chance to see and Im happy you are continuing the development of the Starship for all of us to see. Thank you.
I love it already now!
Now that is a Starship.
Almost like this was how she was suppose to look from the beginning.
Wow…
Amazing.
I missed the updates on the day as I was way from home. But what a treat to come home to.
This NX refit looks superb
I kind of fell of my chair yeah, but… her sideview bugs me. A lot. While it does impose a sense of completeness, I can’t help but think that it’s tacked to the underside. The proportions of the ship don’t let it be attached in any other way, I know, but it’s still a bit strange. The side view is the only one to give me that feeling; I guess it’s true what they’re saying that you can’t have a perfect view from every angle
Excellent! Thanks Doug!
I don’t think I have shaved or washed since you’ve been away Doug. Great to have ya back, and what a day!
Consider my pants well and truly soiled, sir!
Those are amazing! Two Enterprises for the price of one. I’m buying six copies of this baby.
Heh! Paul, I hope you found the time for a shower today.
Happy New Year Doug,
Oh wow, great stuff! That’s getting framed and no mistake!
I know this one isn’t out yet but might you consider the possibility of doing something similar in the centrefold every year? (speaking as a wistful fan of the old tech manuals!).
Borgman, I can see where you’re coming from regarding the profile view. In my opinion, it does look a bit on the clunky side from that angle. That said, I cannot imagine any other logical/linear way of how the progression to the eventual Constitution class would go. It is more or less how I would envision the design process to move forward. I really like it!
This is a treat – and coming from this site that is saying something! Thank you, Doug!
The January 2010 Drexfiles fix is now complete. Gollum awaits his precious’ return on the 28th of February…
Wow. When I saw the NX-01 Refit sneak preview (AKA “Tactically Shadowed Edition”) I immediately adopted it as a desktop image to speculate on. Some details get through with a little magnification – nice to see that some of my personal hunches were correct.
So, does this mean we can now declare “These Are The Voyages…” in error?
(ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease…)
I spent most of my time trying not to throw up.
An error? No. Total smeg up? Yes.
I’ve come to realize that “These Are the Voyages …” is Star Trek’s version of “The Star Wars Holiday Special”, only without the ’70s kitsch, the Boba Fett cartoon, and Bea Arthur.
Wasn’t that just a hologram program to start with? Whatever the 24th century folks based that on, they obviously got it wrong.
See The Good That Men Do by Mangels and Martin. The discussions of Jake Sisko and Nog in that volume are…enlightening.
Happy 2010 Doug.
I’ve made the suggestion a few times on the TrekBBS of using the SOTL calendar or centerfolds of the magazine as “back door” tech manuals, since the tech books don’t seem to sell well enough. I have no idea if this percolated up from such suggestions or if you came to it independently (it’s certainly a simple-enough notion to have multiple fathers), and frankly, I don’t care.
It’s here, and I like it. So, when can I pre-order it?
Whoohoo! The ringship! Did you use the original Matt Jefferies blueprints for that “Starship” series proposal? AFAIK, those were published as a poster set in the 70s. I stared at those for a few days while making these: http://fleetyard.net/temp/trek/declaration-final-1.png
So eagerly awaiting bigger images of how you interpret the engineering bits of that particular ship. Especially the lack of obvious rockets and the odd device in the center of the rings.. it’s really a lot more than just a stick and a ring
Harry, these are indeed the blueprints I use.
The orthos are my primary source, on that scale I stayed as close to them as I was able to.
Nope…
Those aren’t the original Jefferies blueprints for the XCV, these are;
http://s829.photobucket.com/albums/zz212/Vahmp/Blueprints/
I’ve said it before, but I couldn’t get into Enterprise as a show. The ship was alright. Then Drex went through the details showing that it just wasn’t an Akira repaint and I loved the ship more. Seeing the “complete” ship makes me miss all that could have been.
I think if you had even released a rough sketch of this right after the first images were released of the ENT Enterprise to show what she could progress into, people would have been more receptive of the ship as a whole, and maybe even the show. These images, no matter how small, make me feel bad for not watching Enterprise and doing my part to keep it alive, just so I could see THIS ship in action.
Excellent work, Doug. I wish more people could see it outside of a calendar. We are going to get wallpapers and full breakdowns of this next year, right?
Also, is that a rough Enterprise-A-looking secondary hull on the front of Jeffries’ ring ship in the far left image?
This is basically as Jefferies designed it. The very short version is: the ringship appears to originate from sketches done for the Enterprise, but it was later proposed as the lead ship for Roddenberry’s “Starship” concept. A set of posters with “Starship” blueprints was published in the 70s:
http://fleetyard.net/temp/trek/three-view-1280x816p.jpg
Maybe its the angle, the way its pointed at the camera gives the illusion that the front is wider than the back, much like the secondary hull. It would also explain why it doesn’t look like that in any of the other angles.
Harry, that link you posted is broken. Were you maybe trying to point at the “Declaration” class plans posted here?
http://s829.photobucket.com/albums/zz212/Vahmp/Blueprints/
That is beautiful. I could SO see this as a season 5 update. can’t wait to see the finished version.
Anybody? Can you clean up the image so we can read what it says Anybody?
It looks like most of it says “ABCDEFGH…” etc. at the moment.
Doug calls out the lettering as “spaceholder text” for laying out the page…just hold on there, big fella, we’ve got a ways to go before this calendar’s released!
Looks great Doug. I would’ve loved seeing this on the TV screen. It actually looks like a good step between the NX-01 and the 1701 (TOS)
Great new images of a truly intriguing design. I love how it tells the story of how the constitution class type configuration evolved. How the modular design allowed engineers to develop upgrades while allowing the ship to continue it’s mission. Great stuff
Is it time yet? Is it time yet? Is it time yet?:^DDDDDD
What I want to know, is how big that second reactor is – in other words how much effect would it have on warp speed?
To my way of thinking they should be the same size. Which of course would double the power available for the warp nacelles.
The next thing I want to know, is that secondary deflector accompanied by additional sensors, permiting an interfarometer to exist? The offset would make things quite interesting, when one considers that the sensors behind the original would already be set up that way…
You know that this is science FICTION, right, John?
Uhh duh!!!
Of course it is sci-fi. ST ony sometimes has good scripts, only sometimes. Most of the time they aren’t so great.
But we aren’t discussing scripts here, but ideas.
Ideas can be refined down, taken apart, and put back together again. As for what I do, with them, well it beats twiddling my thumbs.
That centerfold is a great idea. Can’t wait for more.
And that new Enterprise looks very interesting.
How about some Daedalus pix too??
Doug,
Thanks for the sneak peek!
I always get the calendar, so I look forward to seeing the full version. I have to agree with some of the above on the side view being a little “hokey” or “off”. And it does violate “These are the Voyages” continuity, but that does not say much since Enterprise would violate it’s own continuity and the franchise’s. But I due truly appreciate your effort to “touch up” the NX/Enterprise Class.
P. S. Nice to have you posting again
Paul F.
I notice it looks almost the same from above. I’m imagining an FX shot where the newly re-fitted ship glides onto screen seen from above, then the camera sweeps over and around to reveal the secondary hull. Oh Doug! If only you and your fellow design gods had been in charge, what a show we could have seen!
When we get the promised flybys next year, this HAS to be one of them!
I think it’s open to question whether or not it violates the continuity of ““These are the Voyages” since that episode took place on the Holodeck of the Enterprise – D in the 24th Century.
It’s… beautiful.
It’s… perfect.
I must have this calendar.
I WILL have this calendar.
The Refit’s looking nice, wish there was one more season.
BTW Doug, is there a CGI Video that we might get to see someday?
A M A Z I N G Work!
Hi Doug, just a few questions, whats with 2 deflector dishes? is the one on the secondary hull an auxiliary deflector or the original one on the saucer section like Voyager?
Anyways good work, looks nice !!
WANT. So MUCH.
As one of my other favorite science-fiction characters would say, “Fant-TAS-tic!”
The RINGSHIP!!
Holy crap!
Beautiful!
Reminds me of the NX-05 Atlantis from http://www.chrisjonesgaming.info/images/4/41/NX05.jpg, but this still has the saucer section deflector dish. Can’t wait to see this rendered in all her glory. ^_^
I like it. It reminds me of a nice mod I saw for the Bridge Commander game. I do have one nitpick, though – I think you were too generous with the undercut at the back. It doesn’t make a lot of sense as far as space goes, and it also has the added disadvantage of reminding me of the JJ-Prise’s engineering hull.
This idea seems to have a lot of fans. Check out the “NX-01-D” at the bottom of this page:
http://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/blueprints/starfleet-vessel-enterprise-nx-01-sheet-16.jpg
This guy’s version makes the secondary hull too tiny, though, IMO.
I have one question… why two deflectors?
I can’t say I’m that thrilled with this refitted NX-01 but I would like to see it put back in flight. A fifth season of Enterprise is what we all need now. Why can’t CBS bring it back. I t would probably do a lot better in the ratings today than in 2005.
It’s good as a standalone design, but it’s a bit too 23rd century-esque for my tastes. It just looks too ahead of its time for the 22nd century era, design wise anyway. Like I said, though, certainly not a bad job on the design itself, just when taken into context it’s a little too similar to future designs.
There are vast gaps in the time line of the Trek Universe yet to be explored, The series Enterprise covered some of the holes, but many of the answers were almost like instant message answers and like moved into the scripts. Though the Klingon smooth/ridged forehead did get time but a little glimpse in time not a look or even study.
If they ever did a revival of Enterprise, I’d say use the NX-02 so you do not have casting problems. And the Romulan War would be a perfect fill to answer so many questions.
The first biggie was why the Federation could not do cloaking but the Romulans can, then they can let Klingon’s use their toys. This is like the SDI thing with Reagan, and in ways helped kill the USSR.
And it could also be like the modern day argument of US/China/Japan becoming Federation/Romulans/Vulcan. this since Romulans were once Vulcan and China/Japan are both Oriental. The bad aspect would be China holds sre ever bulging spending debt, and TV could upset their desires to buy our spending habits.
So could a TV show by inadvertent ratings ploys may us go bankrupt.
But outside politics, which Sci-Fi tries to be, a Romulan War series with the NX star ships would be a great show.
Star Trek has already altered our future and given us desires of a good future. Romulan Wars would be threading a line with good stories but could give us also bankrupting America type stories.
May Rodenbarry’s dream of a great future only come from the Star Trek Universe he gave birth to almost half a Century ago. And as Spock would say may Star Trek live long and humanity prosper from it.
I always thought the circular hull sections of the TMP mystery Enterprise were intended to be O’Neill habitat rings.
http://dsc.discovery.com/space/top-10/spaceships/space-ship-concepts-05.html
The whole annular warp drive invention seems unnecessary to me, though I suppose it gave the Vulcan ships a distinct appearance.