(Above) The Enterprise J was a throw-away, but in spite of only being seen briefly on a monitor, it has developed it’s own cult following.
I was digging around looking for something else, when I found my very first concept sketches of the Enterprise J. There is nothing as immediate as picking up a stick with a piece of graphite embedded in it, and pulling the trigger on an impulse. With two days before a production meeting you have to think fast and not obsess… especially since I wanted Herman to be able to show a rendered animation of the ship in flight. So! On you mark, get set…
(Above) Bang! The J cracks out of quantum warp dwarfing the NX. This was the very first sketch. There are so many ways to interpret a loose drawing like this. Looking at it years later, it creates a cascade of new ideas about how to finish the model. If we had a few weeks, it would have finalized differently. As it was, the model was bashed out in a matter of hours. I really like this sketch and it’s energy.
(Below) A slightly different study of the underside, with warp engines arching upward. It’s very organic, and once again, energetic.
(Below) Top view. There is often a sense of whimsy to my sketches. I see that in the foreshortened primary hull. The faster the ship the more foreshortened.
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For more on the J -
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/03/29/enterprise-j-search-redux/
http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/enterprise-j-search/
I loved the Enterprise J. It’s design imagery fits the overall trek theme however I cant help but feel that it is too flat around the saucer. Still loved seeing it in motion.
When you consider that it is 2 miles long, the saucer would be quite thick! By the way, those aren’t windows, but entire transparent walls covering acres.
I know it’s space and all but that doesn’t sound so private. Also flying by a sun must be hard on the eyes for the crew.
There are plenty of places for privacy. The “windows” naturally are transparency adjustable. I have a pair of glasses that are photo-sensitive and darken in bright sunlight. I figure by the era of the J, technology will advance beyond what my 21st century glasses can do : )
:p What are the transparent walls for? A kind of botanical gardens like the Botanical Cruiser in BSG?
They are there because they are beautiful. It’s What Roddenberry’s called “Technology Unchained”. You do it simply because it is beautiful.
For a couple of hours it´s a decent model – I´m sure you wished to have a little more time to come up with something even better. But I guess this is how it is if you´re on a tight schedule and budget. At least it leaves a little room for interpretation
You’re right, Tobias! When you are making weekly television, there is no time to fuss. Truth be told, that is one of the exciting things about working in television. It’s like an athletic performance. You go out there and play the game as best you can in the time you have… then you move on to the next emergency.
Hi, long time reader, first time poster…I think. Hiya Doug! I wish you would have been given more time to flesh out this design. I haven’t really seen too many episodes of Enterprise including the one this ship was in, but I have run into it a lot online. It just feels a bit of a regression in design, 2 miles long or not. It is very similar to Enterprise NX which is already a rehash, or inspired by, version of the Akira. But, of course that is only my opinion. I think you do great work, Doug and I really enjoy browsing your website and admire all the work you have done. Cheers!
From a purely outside-the-universe storytelling standpoint, an Enterprise has to look like an Enterprise, which means it must (or should) harken back to the Jefferies original, so I imagine the tension is always between making it different while making it recognizable.
Mark, It was important that there be some visual connection to our hero Enterprise. That is what drove the design. Thanks for watching and reading and commenting!
MSD!
I think this is a very interesting design! I wish it had seen a little more screen time and I have to agree with Tobias – for a model worked up in a few hours, it’s not bad at all! Still love the flyby video you shared with us awhile back. Wish we could see more!
You know, Mark. In that time frame I did three variations, not just that one. You have to always give the bosses choices.It’s go! Go! GO!
For some time now, I have been thinking about something. Designing a starship, that is all interior holodeck. And no, not for entertainment purposes, but for flexibility of operations…
By 26th century, this should be as easy as pie to do. The living quarters would be along the outer hull – why? Because in case of the power failing, one should be able to live!
What I would like to see now, if possibe, is exactly what is going on with how those support pylons connect into the warp nacelles – all the pictures so far are too dark to get a real look.
John, If I had my way, I wouldn’t have had support pylons at all! Pylons! How quaint!
Sketches! KOOL!!! Now we’re talkin. hehehe
Doug, ya wet our apetites!
More!
MOre!!
MORe!!!
MORE!!!!………..
hehehe just kiddin…
Vahmp… they are cute little sketches! I find after almost ten years that I can appreciate their energy.
Doesn’t the J incorporate some sort of aien technology which enables it to have a larger interior than an exterior ?
& – my only quibble with the Enterprise J design is that it looks rather….. anorexic. Frail. It must be a ship for pure exploration & research. If it had to go into battle against superior forces w / heavy weaponry, it would be like pitting a kite against a gun – ship, or a Pomeranian against a Pit – Bull / Rottweiler hybrid.
Unless its hull is composed of neutronium and cast rodinium.
it seems like if it encountered a Borg cube ( if they still exist when the Enterprise – J is in service ) that it would have to send out a distres call to a bigger ship packing more cans of whoop – ass. It may well have neutronium for sensitive areas with essential equipment.
It looks like the ” Noisy Cricket ” ( MiB reference ) of starships.
nitpick, nitpick, nitpick…..
Noisy Cricket!
Don’t you love the googie architecture in MIB? They even have murals of the ’64 NY World’s Fair on the wall!
Love the design in MIB. Really feels like the organization was born in that era.
It’s just like Mr. Jefferies’ reasoning for the TOS nacelle pylons, which I believe Doug has mentioned he wanted to incorporate in the NX-01. The thinness could be seen as being advanced. Stronger materials, SIF, etc.
That said, I do like the ‘J but I also would think the use of outboard warp nacelles would be a bit dated by that time. I like the saucer though. Too bad Galaxy-class has been used, ’cause it kinda looks like the Milky Way.
Right on the money, Ashley!
I agree with your reasoning on the nacelles, but they are an iconic part of the design.
With deflector shields?
And structual intigrety field?
You guys worry?
Remember that this is two centuries more advanced. I don’t think they would have a problem with a Borg cube…
Many Borg cubes – that might be another matter entirely.
But it does look like a starship version of MiB’s ” Noisy Cricket ” weapon – & you may remember what happened when Wil Smith fired that tiny thing off !!
Propelled him through a windshield…..
So maybe looks are deceptive.
Damn ! I like my analogy !!
Doug -
The J looks kind of frail & perhaps not built for heavy combat situations, but that could be a case of appearances being deceiving. That was my point with the Noisy Cricket analogy. Starfleet wouldn’t send a ship – even one perhaps designed fore pure research – that couldn’t stand up to an hostile alien, anymore than NASA, the ESA, or any space organization would send a manned spaceship out without radiation shielding & safeguards.
When I see that, it makes me feel that they are in command of technology waaaaay beyond.
Look, The original E had some pretty frail pylons! I LOVED that! Although I love the later ships, the big, fat, pylons dumb the technology down.
But surely by then the Borg would be a member of the Federation
“The Enterprise J was a throw-away, but in spite of only being seen briefly on a monitor, it has developed it’s own cult following.”
So the Enterprise-J is the Boba Fett of Star Trek. Always cool to see more of the mighty J Doug. I would hope that if it makes a future appearance you’d lighten its hull color a bit more. Looks alittle too dark if you ask me.
It’s all about the light, Razorgeist!
I’ll remember that. I do love the concept of the acre sized windows.
Boba Fett was from that Star Wars show, right?
Yeah you know that other space show. It had the guy with the helmet.
Loved the design since I first saw it…. Two miles long, didn’t know that, thanks for the insight!
For some reason I always imagine the saucer section rotating, I don’t know why.
I think what we need to see is the Enterprise J in scale with the other Enterprises. Archer’s ship could probably land in the J’s hanger bay.
An interesting idea!
I’m curious, Doug. When you guys were throwing out the ideas in planning about the Enterprise J, were you thinking about a deeper history behind the ship? Like how the Federation would evolve the ships over 200 years?
A few months ago, I designed a ship that had that in mind where in the next generation, we would start to see similarities. Much like how the Federation has evolved from the NX to the Consitution, and all the way to the Sovereign.
http://starwolfx.deviantart.com/art/Vega-Class-Battle-Carrier-140869324?q=1&qo=1
Sure, Scott! We always do! It’s part of the fun!
Here is how I see the 26th Century.
Soliton wave riders, transport most of the people around – at least for interstellar travel. Because of this they cross space with the need for very little power. The Time Travel Pod, is one such example… Impulse power is all that is required, for most propulsion duties. Something goes wrong, and you need only wait.
The Time Travel pod is classiifed, as to its capabilities, but is a typical design for that era.
Very few ships are built with full warp drives, and even fewer with the capabilites of the Enterprise-J. No need, or at least no apparent need.
It’s amazing how you can see a design linage in future Enterprise done by different artists. Looking at what might have been for Andrew Probert’s 2005 Enterprise design and the “Hammer Head” Enterprise G from the proposed animated series http://zeroroom.squarespace.com/gallery/ships/2268882. The Saucer is slowly evolving outwards from the main hull.
Doug,
Thanks so much for these sketches. The “J” is one of my all-time favorite Trek ships, and learning more about the design process is fascinating. It is indeed too bad that you didn’t have more time to finalize the model. I do have a couple questions for you, though:
1. Was there ever a full render made of the ship (like the other multi-view renders you show us of other ENT ships), and was it supposed to be fully shown in the episode it was featured in? (like in these sketches where it’s warping out next to the NX-01)
2. And on that note, when we saw the underside of the saucer out the window that Archer & Daniels viewed, the saucer underside looked a bit different than the underside view of the calendar shot of the J. Was there yet another CGi render used for that particular shot? (If you need screencaps I can post links).
Hi Mark!
1) Elevation renders have never been done. We were hoping that would do a shot as an exterior, but it never happened. Budget probably. I think it was sorely lacking.Didn’t you feel cheated, never going outside?
2)I’m certain that VFX had their own set of approval problems when they planned what would be seen outside the window of the ship. No doubt they built a wild section of the ship, and didn’t worry too much if it made sense or not… after all, we were never going to see much of it (just on a viewer). So who is gonna’ know?
So when you have a couple of spare microseconds, do the five view…
Nice work here as well
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?75876-26th-Century-Designs
That was fun to look at. I’m going to have to dig deep, and find that model… render some elevations. The saucer from the side comes to what looks like a razor edge, and not flat. It only looks like it comes to a thin edge because of the distance you have be to get those full figure shots.
Thanks for looking at a design of mine Doug. It is a real honor and only one photo of your design was the sole inspiration for it.
Cheers!
Something else I forgot to add–I think the design I linked to above might look nice combined with the Congo class. I wonder if you might do a fusion?
http://suricatasblog.wordpress.com/2010/04/11/enterprise-j-case-study/
Thanks for posting these Doug, I’ll add them to my case study (which Jeff linked to above). i’m still eagerly hoping you’ll find a side render of the model one day
Suricata! I promise over the long weekend that I will look for the model and render some views.
Cheers Doug, you’re a star!
I have to say this, but when I watch a movie, I don’t look at who starred in it anymore, I look at who worked behind the scenes! The Visual effects guys deserve far more recognition in public circles than they get!
I do too! Even at 13 years old I did that!
You said “looking at it years later, it creates a cascade of new ideas about how to finish the model.” And that “it would have finalized differently.” Will you take the time to show us what your revised vision of it is? Quick sketches will be fine…. we all know you want to.
Considering that part of the Temporal Cold War was that the timelines were in flux, the “real” Enterprise-J probably would end up looking different, depending on what happened between Nemesis and the 28th century. In fact, considering there’s at least three different official (more or less) post-Nemesis timelines (the Shatnerverse, Pocket Book’s regular universe, and the Star Trek Online universe) currently running, it’s almost guaranteed there could be at least three versions of the Enterprise-J flying around. Is any of them the proper timeline or is a “proper” timeline what we call a preferable timeline?
The Enterprise-J also looks like a humongous, space-faring manta ray.
Thanks Doug for commenting on my designs.
Thank you for discussing my design at: http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?75876-26th-Century-Designs
Ryan Boulanger
http://www.Ryanboulanger.com
“When I see that, it makes me feel that they are in command of technology waaaaay beyond.”
Thats one thing I like about the J. To sort of paraphrase Frank Miller there’s been this movement to bring a sort of superficial realism to starships these days and its inherently stupid in some respects. I love the J because it as you pointed out it represents super advanced (Clark’s magic?) technology. Yeah it does look a little impossible but it should. I’d be willing to bet money a Jem’Hedar Dreadnought could kamikaze one of the pylons and it wouldn’t even scratch.
Trying not to harp on the hull color but maybe it has an early version of the Relativity’s color changing hull. Maybe it changes color based on its status.
That first sentence of yours Razorgeist, is right on.
There has been a remarkable tendency to under estimate what would be going on in a couple of centuries. This shows up in the TNG tEchnical manual, with regards to life support capbility. In particular, recycling the rate isn’t high enough by far. The Enterpise-D should have been able to stay out for its space frame lifetime. That is, one hundred years, with minimal resupply. The reason for resupply would be to replentish raw materials lost when some one beamed off the ship.
In other words all ships past a certain point should be nearly completely closed cyclical. Beaming out, and the launching of small ships, should be the only weakness.
It looks like it can do a saucer separation by slipping it out to the side. Like a Viewmaster disc. I’m imagining the sound effect would be something like ‘ching!’
Maybe there are differently configured saucers for different mission types? Combat, carrier, explorer, colonization, diplomatic cruiser?
Maybe a Vertical Take Off ( & Landing ) ? Gliding like a Frisbee ?
I propose an Enterprise-J calendar for 2012, where each month would feature a small piece of the ship’s MSD, drawn by Doug Drexler himself for old times’ sake.
Sorry Doug I didnt realise she was 2 miles long!!! I really loved her look and transparent walls? Nice!
Always though the J is very elegant, as if the spaceframe design and material science is so far ahead that it doesn’t look mechanical at all. Lovely.
Doug,
Any chance you might be able to give us the orthos in very high resolution like Tobias did with his new movie Enterprise? Thanks and love the blog.
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?56513-USS-Enterprise-Star-Trek-2009/page100
I would also like to see more.
Wow, very nice. thank you!
Ent-J profile from site I linked to before
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=84132&d=1281403784
Nice fighter here O/T
http://www.scifi-meshes.com/forums/showthread.php?76395-Serenity-by-name-only
Hi Doug, sorry to dig up an ageing thread but the J is matter of the future, not the past. With that in mind, I do wonder if the distant future of the J blows our minds a bit in that we can’t imagine the problems we are accustomed to being mitigated or overcome?
Regarding a 2 mile long starship, many people seem to have a problem envisiging a ship of that mass being viable. What if only the the Altair class inspired deflector/spine/pylon/nacelle section was real? If the entire saucer was something like the isomorphic projection used in Voyager’s Think Tank episode? That way the ship could be fully functional, completely configurable at a whim and of huge volume but with zero mass.
Some would say why have the core of the ship real at all? I think that retains a human aspect to the design in that there must be something tangible and therefore a link to us in our luddite century – hey, even the 29th century guys seem to need lumps of metal to make their timeships!
I’m sure that people would be worried about damamge to the J’s spine causing the saucer to disappear. Well if Voyager got away with 99% of their medical requirements being taken care of by a primitive hologram (and Tom Paris with a box of band aids) then I’m sure things can improve enough to warrant a bit of faith in a coupe more centuries!
I loved the Enterprise J design when I saw it for the first time. Wish they had included it in the U.S.S. Enterprise Owner’s Workshop Manual. Also is there any way you could a size comparison chart for all the Enterprise’s fron XCV-330, NX-01, NCC-1701(series), NCC-1701-A thru E & J and maybe the unrealized Bismarck-class Enterprise from the defunct animated Star Trek Frontier series. Hope I got the series name right.