DS9 Tech Manual – 03 – Weaponry

(Above) The intriguing DS9 defense sails. Magazine, conveyors, massive rotary gatling phasers, and torp launchers. Note the fire control center.

If I told you that I did not have a good time doing these diagrams I would be a big fat liar. I think you can pretty much tell by looking at them. One of my favorites is the cutaway of the DS9 defense sail. So much of the station was left unexplained, and I pretty much had a field day filling it out. The idea was that starfleet fully refitted the station’s defensive capabilities, which had been stripped by the Cardassian’s when they abandoned it. This should not have come as any surprise to the Cardassians, but to say that they were unprepared by the newly acquired fire power was an understatement.

(Below) The rotary, gatling style phaser emplacement was something we hadn’t seen before, it was as big a surprise to viewers as it was to the Cardassians. The nifty pop up phaser bar.

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(Above) The Quantum Torpedo. A Ds9 bit of ordinance often utilized but never seen. I had great fun streamlining the erstwhile Pho-Torp that had been around for decades. Sort of the sport coup of photon torpedos.

(Below) The standard photon torpedo, basically unchanged since “The Wrath of Khan”. We all have a lot of nostalgia for this one, as it was used as Spock’s casket. I detailed a few of these during my time as a scenic artist, and I’m here to tell you that they would have had to chop our favorite science officers legs off to make him fit.

Bajoran Assault Vessel

Gouda nuff – Basically a space going wedge, the Bajoran assault vessel recalls an almost “star destroyer” design ethic.

Drex Files follows up last weeks Bajoran Transport ship with this freighter from that spiritual race. Nothing graceful about it, it is the antithesis of last weeks elegant gull-like design. Judging by it’s straight forward basic shapes, it appears as if it’s design was driven by ease of construction for the modeler, a very real consideration in the days of physical photography, but not much of a concern in the unshackled CG era.

The Jörg report -

The physical model of the Bajoran ship first appeared in “Past prologue” as the Bajoran scout ship Tahna Los is on. The model then appeared in many episodes as a Bajoran transport ship. I have included some screenshots of the physical model from “Sons of Mogh” and “Prodigal daughter”. For the scene in “Shadows and symbols” where Kira is facing off the Romulans with a small fleet of Bajoran impulse ships, the Bajoran aussault vessel was turned into a CG ship too, like all the other Bajoran physical models. As far as I can tell, the CG model was only seen in this episode and never appeared in any other shot again.

Top view

DS9 Tech Manual – 02 – Runabout

(Above) TNG borrowed the runabout, establishing the layout of the aft compartment of the vessel, seen in this cutaway. Note the warp core situated in the spine of the ship, and the deuterium and anti-matter pods in the aft part of the assembly.

Wow! The DS9 Tech Manual Illustrations were a real hit with everyone, so we’ll keep them coming!

Until the Defiant came along, the Danube class runabout was the only real piece of starfleet hardware we had on Deep Space Nine. It was designed by Rick Sternbach before he turned his attention back to TNG. Jim Martin’s main contribution to this design was suggesting the idea that the runabout carry detachable cargo pods under wing, like the Space: 1999 Eagle Transporter.

(Below) I put my own spin on the idea by suggesting that these containers could also be special duty modules coming in a variety of flavors… science, medical, cargo, or even crew cabins.

(Below) “Visible V-8″ style, the Runabout’s total warp propulsion system pared down to it’s basic components.

Bajoran Interceptor\Transport

(Above) The gull-like Bajoran interceptor. This CG model was only seen in one episode, “Shadows and symbols”. As far as I know, the CG model was never seen again or modified to appear as a different vessel.

One of the more graceful designs for a Star Trek spaceship, came from my old buddy Jim Martin during his tenure on DS9. I think I had mentioned that Jimmy was our first art department production assistant, and he was determined to become an illustrator. He couldn’t have been in a better place. Being a number of years younger than the rest of us, Jim was highly influenced by Star Wars, and often that would show in his work. Nothing gave me more excess stomach acid than that, so I would carry an eleven foot G-95 cattle prod and used it in case the “Force” clouded his vision. This is one of my favorite Jim Martin spaceships. It captures the spiritual essence of the Bajoran people.

(Below) The far superior physical model of the interceptor at Image G. Read more about it here -  http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/02/15/bajoran-transport/

DS9 Tech Manual

The Defiant bridge is one of my favorite starship bridges: it’s lean, mean, and to the point. I was in my glory on this one, as Mike let me lay out all of the ship’s interfaces. I sweated every single panel, and every button on every station pertains to that station’s function. It was no fooling around.

I flip through the pages of the DS9 Technical manual shaking my head, “When the hell did I do all of this?”

Digging through my files the other day, I came across all of the original Illustrator documents which I had prepared for Margaret Clark at Pocket Books. Originally the book was meant to be strictly about the gothic Cardassian space station, but I’m a Starfleet kind of guy, and there was no way we were going to do this book without a section dedicated to the USS Defiant and her various gear. Going through this stuff reminds me one thing in particular:  just how much freaking fun I had in the Star Trek art department. To the best of my knowledge, none of these illustration have appeared anywhere in their original digital form. Click on ‘em and see them as never before, in a nice and big oversized format. If you guys enjoy this, I’ll make it a point to post more.

(Below) I originally prepared this illustration for good Sir Gary Hutzel, and the DS9 episode “The Sound of her Voice”. I was in my glory yet again! Design a Starfleet shuttle and pocket hangar bay? Let me at it! For more on this design –

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/chaffee-shuttle/

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/01/04/defiant-shuttle-bay/

(Below) The never seen internal arrangement of the artillery sized pulse phaser sported by the Defiant. Note the two white spheres at the back which tip their hat at the the laser cannon seen in “The Cage”, and another hat tip on the back wall to the TOS G-95 systems.

Xantoran Patrol Ship

The Vantoran Patrol ship did not start life that way, it was merely a link in a chain that spanned the Galaxy. No matter where you go… there it is.

The ship is based on the Bajoran sub-impulse raider from “The siege”. The physical model of this ship was slightly modified (different cockpit windows) for an appearance as a Maquis ship in “Preemptive strike”. For “Shadows and symbols”, most of the Bajoran starship designs were turned into CG models for the scene where Kira is facing off the Romulans with a fleet of the Bajoran impulse ships (http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/03/08/bajoran-fighter-pictorial/). The sub-impulse raider was also turned into a CG model, explaining, why the ship exists in that form. The CG model (unmodified) was also seen in “Drive” as one of the ships taking part in the race. (can you find it on the screenshot? ) For “The Breach”, the CG model was modified (nacelles added to the wing tips, downward-bending tips of the wings removed) and appeared as the Xantoran patrol ship. This modified model was used twice more, both as background ships in a huge fleet. The ship first re-appeared in “Twilight” as part of the human survivor fleet approaching Ceti Alpha V (bottom on both screenshots) and again in “Storm front II” as part of the welcoming fleet in orbit of Earth.

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Jörg’s LA Away Mission – Part 4

(Above) Bronson caves… hard to believe that this remote looking cave\canyon combo is just a few minutes from the Paramount main gate.  (Above) Bev and Picard egress the Trek side of the cave.

LA trip – day four

My last day in LA. My plane would leave at 2.30 PM so I had until noon to visit one more shooting location. Originally, I had planned to visit the MTA building and the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Monday morning, but as I had squeezed that in on Sunday, I had some spare time for yet another location. But where to go? In comes Larry Nemecek to save the day. He offered to take me to Bronson Canyon to see more than just Batcave. I had always thought Bronson was too far away and that I wouldn’t have enough time to go there, so I never took any screenshots with me. I would have to do this one without any research – this made the experience much more memorable, though.

(Below) This location has literally appeared in hundreds of movies and TV shows.

Jörg’s LA Away Mission – Part 3

The Chronowerx building from “Future’s End.

LA trip – day three

I had a hard time sleeping the second night in LA, I guess I was still suffering from jetlag and a little nervous because of the upcoming day, so I got up really early and changed my plans for the day a little (I’m glad I did in retrospect!). I had originally planned to visit the MTA building (Henry Starling’s Chronowerx building in “Future’s end I+II”) and the square in front of Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (again Future’s end II, the Doctor meets Paris, Tuvok and Rain Robinson here) early Monday morning, before I had to get on the plane at 2.30 PM. I decided to go Sunday morning instead, which left me half a day on Monday to visit another location.

So, I set off at 6.30 AM to visit two locations from “Future’s end” on my own.

Whereas LA had been intimidatingly crowded Friday night at the Walk of Fame, downtown was eerily quiet and deserted Sunday morning shortly after sunrise. I got to see a completely different side of the city that morning. I took the empty Red line subway to Union Station and got off to see my first downtown shooting location: the MTA building. It was funny seeing the building without the Chronowerx signs added in post production but visiting this place before the morning rush was really something. There was nobody except for me on the long plaza, so I took countless photos from all angles. I had forgotten my sheet with screenshots of the building, so I tried to remember the few camera angles that were used. Funny how I expected the Aeon to smash through some upper windows any second! After getting my shots, I went down to Union Station again to cross over (under?) to the other site of the highway. I could have taken the subway to Civic Center to quickly get to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, but I wanted to take the scenic route, past the famous LA City Hall. I had used google Earth to memorize the trip from Union Station past the City Hall to Dorothy Chandler Pavilion so it was easy finding my way around. I passed some interesting sights, especially The Times building seemed really spooky and Hollywood-like.

(Below) The MTA building which doubled as the “Future’s End” landmark.

Arriving at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, I realized that not much had changed since Future’s end was shot in 1996. I was able to recreate many of the shots from my screenshot worksheet and it took several attempts until the fountain on the square was sputtering water in the same formation as it had on my screenshot of the Doctor in front of the fountain (it annoyed me that I had forgotten the screenshots of the MTA building so I had to do this as accurately as possible )

(Below) The good Doctor at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion from “Future’s End”.

(Above) The Chandler pavilion as it appears today, in downtown LA.

After that, I took the still deserted subway back to my hotel and waited for Jeff to pick me up to see the two biggest shooting locations: the Tillman water reclamation plant (actually the Japanese Garden in front of it) and Vasquez Rocks.

Jörg’s LA Away Mission – Part 2

(Above) Otherworldly and wonderfully atmospheric, the “Shangri La-like Vulcan of “The Search For Spock”.

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Jörg, who on “some sort of Star Trek”, knocks one out of the Quadrant with part 2 of his LA Away Mission…

LA trip – day two

On my second Star Trek shooting location day in LA, a Saturday, the real fun began. To prepare myself, I had rewatched the relevant episodes to get a good grasp of the locations and the various camera angles used and compiled dozens of sheets with 9 screenshots each of the various locations I wanted to visit.

Originally, I had thought I could do this trip all on my own, using LA public transportation to get from a to b. In retrospect, I can say I would never have seen as many locations as I ended up seeing that way, and would probably have died of dehydration on that hot and dry weekend if it weren’t for Jeff Zucker who graciously offered to be my companion on this trip and take me from place to place. I had met Jeff through the Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Board, a place for collectors of authentic Star Trek costumes and props to talk about their collections, help identify rarely seen items, have a good time and much more. Reading about my plans for the LA weekend, Jeff offered his help and I couldn’t have done most of it without him (and also wouldn’t have all those pics of a grinning me at those shooting locations gracing this article )

I will only briefly report about the current appearance of the shooting locations today in this sequence of articles, as I plan some larger articles with comparison screenshots of the various locations for Ex Astris Scientia.

Jeff picked me up Saturday morning and we headed to our first location: the Lucille Y. Gilman Memorial Fountain at Occidental College, Eagle Rock.

The fountain was originally not on my list, but buddy Ian aka Therin of Andor suggested this location and as it lay conveniently between Huntington Gardens and Griffith Park, we decided to check it out, too.

Jeff parked his car next to a sports field and we slowly approached the Vulcan fountain near the Bird-of-prey landing spot from Star Trek III. Not much had changed since 1983/4. As can be seen, only the first three flights of chairs are actually really there, the rest was added in post production. After taking a number of photos, trying to match the camera angles from Star Trek III as well as possible, we headed off to our next location: Huntington Library and Gardens.

(Below) Jörg at the planet Vulcan location, the Lucille Y. Gilman Memorial Fountain in Eagle Rock.

Cardassian War Room Set Extension

When you need a fourth wall in a three wall set, and you have no money, who ya’ gonna’ call?

The yard long  fourth wall miniature  stands by to take it’s turn in front of the camera.

The story called for a Cardassian war room, and the plan as to redress the DS9 cargo bay. Gary Hutzel approached us about building a miniature fourth wall with an enormous view screen to display tactical information. We had been working hand in hand with VFX for so long, and it had been such a fruitful relationship, that it prompted Jim Vanover to post a sign in the graphics room that read: “…making life easier for visual effects.” Whenever Gary, Dan, Ron, or Dave came to us with a problem and asked if we could help, we would simply point to the sign. I remember another sign that quoted Gary,  prompted while I was building a CG model for him. I warned him that the poly count was getting on the heavy side to which he responded, “…polygons don’t frighten me!” Laughing,  Jimmy V quick made a sign out of that one, certain Gary would rue the day.

I’m here to tell you that after five years of working CG with Gary on some mighty huge TV, that polygons still don’t frighten him. Not one bit.

Screen caps courtesy Matt Boardman.

Joltin’ Joe Longo

One of my favorite characters on Star Trek was not a cast member, but the prop master, Joe Longo. Here is Joe holding a bust of Kahless I sculpted for use in Worf’s quarters.

Joe told me an amusing anecdote about his first job at Universal where he started out with craft services in the 60’s. Not sure what to do with the the young Longo on his first day at work, his boss handed him a broom and told to clean up the soundstage. Joe was determined to make a good impression, and cleaned that danged stage from top to bottom. It was very dusty, and literally filled with cobwebs, but Joe made it sparkle. Unfortunately it was the Munster house, and was supposed to be dusty and full of cob webs! 40 years later and we are still laughing about it! Here’s to Joe, one of the most fun guys I got to work with!

More Joe -

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/tales-of-suspense-the-approval-process/

Jem Hadar Battlecruiser

This Jem Hadar behemoth rattled teacups on Federation starships across the AQ.

Welcome back to another Sunday at the files! You can count on me to be at the keyboard every seventh day at 5:30am, and after a long stimulating week at work I find that delving into past adventures renews me for the campaign ahead. By the way, our pal Jörg is presently in L.A. and doing the Trek tour. His man on the move schedule  has him checking out the Tillman Water Reclamation facility (Starfleet), the amazing rocks of Vasquez (“Arena”), possibly Chateau Drex, and last but not least, the Art Directors Guild showing of TMP, complete with panel of past Trek art directors. That event will be moderated by keeper of the flame Daren Dochterman. I’m hoping that when Jörg gets back home he’ll put together an Away Team report for us, right here on the drex files.

The  drex files continues in it’s quest to close the starship intel gap with the CG version of the mighty Jem Hadar Battlecruiser. A goliath of a starship. It started life on DS9 as a physical model,and  made a welcome transition to CG. An entry displayed a few shots Mike and I took when we visited the Image G stages. It appeared hastily built, and was  unwieldy to photograph.

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/jem-battlewagon/