My Latest Pocket Covers – An Homage To Frank McCarthy

(Above) Movie posters of the great Frank McCarthy. (Top L-R) The Dirty Dozen, PT-109, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. (Above L-R) The Blue Max, Around The World Under The Sea.

When I was growing up, movie posters were usually incredibly electrifying paintings that were larger than life. They distilled in one mind blowing image all the excitement that one motion picture could possibly contain. Frank McCarthy was one of the all time greats, and his movie work is seared into my brain. When I get the occasional cover assignment from Pocket Books, and loads of action is called for, I always think of McCarthy.

The way I approach one of these novel covers is not at all the way I approach a shot for a television show. On a show, we go for as real as possible. On a novel I go larger than life, and painterly. Here are two new action covers, one for one for the big Vanguard finale, Storming Heaven, and one for Enterprise: The Romulan Wars.

(Above) Vanguard: Storming Heaven. (Below) Enterprise: The Romulan Wars.

Shuttlepod One – Go For Throttle Up!

A few months back I ran a bunch of images of Mike Okuda and I going to visit the stripped, full sized, shuttle pod one. Steve Kirk was involved in the restoration of the prop, and enlisted Mike to reconstruct the ships control surfaces. Well it’s finished, and it’s a honey. Watch the vid!

Original article -

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/shuttlepod-found/

Restored Enterprise Shuttlepod In The News

http://www.ktla.com/videobeta/a5a716f1-50fb-4967-a09b-b3b183f32992/News/KTLA-Star-Trek-Shuttle-Pod-for-Sale-7AM

And Before -

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2010/02/28/shuttlepod-found/

NX Refit – Plans

I’ve gotten so many requests from modelers out there for orthographic views and details of the NX-01 refit, that I’ve put together this pictorial. I hope this will  instigate a rash of NX-01.5 modeling! Have fun!

SOTL Flashback – Stetson\Kuramura

Mike Stetson\Koji Kuramura – All Ashore!

Carbon Creek Chili – From The Captain’s Table

While Southern California, with our sunny skies and warm clime, is currently the envy of the nation, fear not… help is coming from outer space via North Hollywood! Enterprise food stylist Dorothy Duder delivers fresh made, non-reconstituted, non-replicated Carbon Creek Chilli that’ll warm your dilithium. It is the actual recipe served in the episode. Whip up a heapin’ helpin’ and watch T’pol invent velcro, while demonstrating Vulcan’s really are a soft touch.

Carbon Creek Tavern Chili

In the second episode of season two, T’pol tells Archer and Trip about her great-great grandmother’s trip to Earth in 1957. Grandmother’s ship crash landed in Carbon Creek, Pennsylvania, where she and her shipmates visit the local tavern in search of nourishment. The special of the day is chili, made extra special by set decorator Jimmy Mees’ selection of vintage dinner ware.

Olive oil

1 ½ pounds ground beef

1 28 ounce can diced, peeled tomatoes

1 20 ounce can kidney beans

4 stalks celery, diced

1 large onion, diced

6 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon chili powder

several shakes cayenne pepper

several shakes Tabasco sauce

chopped onion for garnish

grated cheese for garnish

In a large soup pot over medium heat, heat a small amount of olive oil. Add celery, onion and garlic. Saute and stir for about 3 minutes. Add beef and continue to stir. When meat has browned, add seasonings and stir well. Add tomatoes and kidney beans and stir well. Turn heat down and simmer chili for 1 ½ to 2 hours. Ladle into bowls and garnish with onion and cheese.

Makes 4-6 main course servings.

(Left) Dorth in her NX-01 Galley on board Enterprise. We like to call her “Kitchen Goddess”. Malachi Throne shortened that to “Kitchikoo”.

Mixed Berry Cobbler

Poor Trip, fending off ladies of all species who find him simply irresistible! In “Stigma,” it’s one of Dr. Phlox’s wives, Feezal. Trip desperately tries to keep Hoshi at the mess hall table when he sees Feezal approaching him, urging her to “try the cobbler – Chef outdid himself!” When Connor came to me wanting to taste the cobbler before we shot the scene, he took a bite, then said “Better get LOTS of that ready, ‘cause I’ll be diggin’ in!” Yes sir, Commander! (…and get some ready for Ensign Sato, too – Linda was right behind Connor, asking for her own bowl of cobbler!)

4 2/3 cups Bisquick

1 cup milk

¼ cup sugar

6 tablespoons butter, melted

1 bag frozen strawberries, at room temperature

1 bag frozen blackberries, at room temperature

1 bag frozen blueberries, at room temperature

½ cup sugar

¼ cup orange juice

½ teaspoon nutmeg

whipped cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, combine Bisquick, milk, sugar and butter. Stir to combine. Set aside. Spray a 13x9x2 pan with nonstick spray. In another large mixing bowl, combine berries, sugar, orange juice and nutmeg. Toss until all fruit is coated. Turn fruit into prepared 13x9x2 pan, top with Bisquick mixture. Smooth dough out with spatula. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until topping is golden brown. Serve warm with whipped cream. Makes 6-8 servings.

NX-01 1/1000 Refit Kit Catches Fire!

http://www.modelermagic.com/?p=26713

Doing Pennants

For all you kids warping out of orbit with the NX refit, Here are Mike Okuda’s official graphics.

That Thing Wants To Be Us

Ships of the Line -”Thing From Another World” – John Teska

Transitions – Show Some Enterprise

NX_Wall_Trasition

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One day I’m sitting at my desk in the Trek art department, and my ICQ pops up with the cryptic notation “DGR!” It’s VFX Ron Moore. Just a few weeks ago we made a Trek field trip to the LA Museum to see the beef jerky people. You know the show… pickled people. It looks like people made of bacon. Actual dead peeps, preserved on on display like Pugsly Adams’s action figures. Ever since then I started getting notes from Ron emblazoned “DGR” -  “Dead Guys Rule”. It took me awhile. Doug, my friend, Ron continues… we have a shot where the NX drives right into the camera. I need a transition. I want to have us pass thru the wall straight into the bridge. Can you make me some interior bulkheads, honey?

Do wood chucks chuck wood? Does an ex-marine drill sergeant make a terrible analyst? Did the little pig cry whee whee whee all the way home? Can do, Captain! Pfffht! What is it? 3 seconds of animation? Check me at the end of the day!

Never let a blurry transition go to waste.

It’s years later. Gary sez… hey Doug. The Caprica title sequence where we pass thru the wall of Graystone Industries to Daniel Graystone? We need a transition there! Can do? Can do, Captain!

Go back and look on the attached link (Youtube doesn’t allowing posting this particular video). Thatsa’ right, boss! You guess it! There is a little bit of the NX-01 in the walls of Graystone Industries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BYxWWQKFs8

A couple of weeks ago Jimmy, Luna, Dorth and I go to the El Portal Theater in North Hollywood  to see Debbie Reynolds perform for the Hollywood Thalians charity. Sitting right behind me is Richard Herd from the original “V”. Luna introduces me to him and he says, Hey! I have a note here from a friend of yours, he said you’d understand! He hands me a folded up slip of paper. I open it… it reads: “DGR!”.

The Beat Goes On

An unused work in progress view of the NX-01.5 for the 2011 SOTL calendar.

More Refit

Among the very first test renders of the NX refit.

Back and Packin’ Conversion Kit!

With Starship Models conversion kit, the NX continues its evolution, heading to a dovetail with Matt’s original masterpiece.

Well brush my teeth and call me smiley! Leon Cosilio at Starship Models has come out with a refit conversion kit for the 1/1000 scale Enterprise NX. See it here – http://www.starship-models.com/en/22193/starfleet/NX-01%20REFIT.html

SHOCKWAVE!

(Above) All you need is Burgess Meredeth and stacks of books. The armageddon set for “Shockwave”.

Stage is constantly shifting realities. Like flipping TV channels.

A while back you may recall my story of  having to build a CG version of a set that was prematurely torn down  (http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/oh-by-the-way/). I just came across the reference shots I used to construct the digital model.

(Below) Stage 9 is an enormous, cavernous space.  A lot of historic Trek stuff stuff stood here. It housed Enterprise engineering, corridors, shuttle bay and sickbay starting with ST:TMP, all the way through til Voyager’s wrap.

(Above) “Where’s Library?” You can see the book shelves that were used for Archer and Future Guys conversation about the shape of things to come.

This is also the stage where the TOS bridge recreation stood for the ENT “Mirror” episode. In fact, every guest starfleet starship bridge was erected here. Certainly a fascinating project would be to research the history of a Paramount soundstage over the years.

I was always able to feel the ghosts that roamed these stages, and I sensed that every reality ever contained herein still existed… if you could but flip the channel.

drex-TV 01

Full HD! Blow it up full screen!

Finally!

The plan is to make this a monthly thing. Hope you dig! Below is the article that accompanies this V-blog on the relaunched, refitted startrek.com -

Drex Files Video Addendum!
We’ve only explored 2% of the Galaxy!

I was a fan from the first glimmer of black and white cathode ray over forty years ago, and am still hip deep. I’m in the enviable position of having worked on Star Trek for nearly two decades and have probably worked in more capacities than anyone in the history of the show… makeup artist, scenic artist, illustrator, and visual effects artist, and you now what? I’ve never been able to get enough!

Many of you know me from my blog, “The Drex Files”. Man, I poured a lot of stuff into that site. When Ian Spellin of suggested my putting together a column for startrek.com, I was dubious. Would a year and a half on Drex Files leave me anything to explore? Watch this!

Andygram!
We look at one of Trek’s sleekest and sexiest unrealized designs, The sphinx shuttle.

Whenever I think of Andy Probert I think of that scene in “The Right Stuff” where a reporter asks Gordo Cooper who’s the best pilot he’s ever seen. I’m one of Andy Probert’s biggest fans, and for me he is the best look for Star Trek. His sense of logic and aesthetics has never been equaled. One of my favorite Probert designs is the unrealized “Sphinx” shuttle, a cousin of the classic workbee. We’ve rustled you up a heapin’ helpin’ of the man himself, and Douglas “Deg” Graves brings it to life with his newly minted 3D version of the fabled conveyance. A classic Trek design. Why would anyone make Star Trek without Probert attached?

They’re the Juggernaut, bitch!
Ode to the Mararthon Mill Construction  crew.

One of the most thrilling things about working on Star Trek was watching the construction gang in the Marathon Mill take our sketches and blueprints and make them real… and like magic, sets would seemingly coalesce from thin air.

When Mike Westmore piped me aboard the Enterprise D as a a makeup artist, I got my first closeup look at those classiest of starship sets. Buddy, I was like a kid in a candy store, free to wander the 23rd century and marvel at the magnificent designs and incredible craftsmanship that went into even the smallest detail.

There is a saying in the makeup department… first to get there, last to leave. But there were days when I would finish up at 2am, pack my kit, head across the Paramount lot to the parking structure, and be blown away that the construction guys would still be at it full tilt. Later, when I made the jump from the makeup department to art department, I would learn who this amazing powerhouse of a gang was. Not only would I be privy to their world and particular brand of magic, but I would now be working with them hand in hand. I would not only be wowed by their incredible talent and skill, but by the unique characters and personalities that drove the Trek construction juggernaut. Heady days, my friend.

A rough and tumble world of pneumatic nail guns, saber saws and testosterone. The “Marathon Mill” was a wild and woolly pirate ship that demanded a thick skin and a sense of humor to successfully navigate.  Working with construction was one of the funnest, coolest and most satisfying experiences of my widely varied life in Hollywood. Our Star Trek machine was well oiled, and in it’s veins flowed trust, affection, and admiration. I don’t believe that I have ever worked on another show where cooperation between departments was so powerful.

During construction of the NX sets I kept a video record, and this stuff’ll knock your socks off. The first installment makes maximum montage of the construction of the NX warp core and engineering department. Hey you know it, and I know it: A cool engineering department is central to a starship, and we were especially proud of this one. It’s a remarkable document of a very ambitious Star Trek set, and baby you are there!

Le Voyage dans la lune!

When I was thirteen years old, four of the sexiest women on Earth were Raquel Welch, Brigette Bardot, Ursula Andress, and BarBara Luna. When I saw Luna as the Captain’s woman in the classic Trek episode “Mirror, Mirror” she was IT. She still has more of IT than any two women have a right to have of IT. How does she do it? A few weeks back, me, Dorth, Jimmy, and Luna went to see “CHIPs: The Musical” (no, I’m not kidding!) at Gary Marshall’s Eagle Theater in Tolucca Lake (It was hysterical, but that’s another story). I brought my video camera and captured some classic Luna. She’s silly and zany and adorable. Scamp, vixen, brat, comedian, artist, and legend. It’s silly for me to go on and on trying to impart the fun of BarBara Luna. Watch the video already!

Ship’s Of The Line: Active Duty!
This wild idea more than anything else gave me the impetus to create this vid\mag\column for startrek.com

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary… what could I do to make this column special? Then it hit me like a ton of neutronium! Oh you beautiful Galaxy! There were a hundred shots already set up for Ship’s of the Line that were dying to be animated! So I grabbed a bunch of my own pages, talked to Tobias, called Mark, shot up a flare to Rob… and in less than a week we had something special! Check your inertial dampers, fasten your seat belts, and be sure you’ve got your extra heavy reinforced Depends on because this is gold, Jerry! See the launch of the refit NX and Matt Jefferies iconic ringship taking flight! “SOTL: Active Duty” is the kick in the PTC you have been yearning for!

Hey, that was fun! I hope you got a kick out of the Drex Files Video Addendum! Fire a green flare if you’d like to see more, and in the meantime I’ll be fighting killer robots!

In fact I’m working tomorrow, but I’ll be off on Sunday and will be posting! Dugout!

Let The Countdown Begin! 2011 SOTL – Sneak Peek 03- Drexler\Drolet

“Enterprise NX-01 – Back and Packin’” – Drexler\Drolet

2011 Ships of The Line Calendar from Pocket Books – On Sale August!

NX-01.5 Quick Sketch

Sketches I provided to our mad modeler, the internationally handsome Pierre Drolet, to finish off the NX-01. Pierre built the original final hero model for the series at Foundation Imaging. For the last five years we’ve had the fun of working together on BSG\Caprica.

Enterprise J Sketchbook

(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/

Kriosian Battlecruiser

(Above) Looking very much like the tip of a nasty barbed spear, the Kriosian warship from “Enterprise”

Welcome back for another full day of posts! Plenty of interesting stuff ahead, including  BSG\Caprica, the full reveal of the NX-01.5, newly discovered Enterprise J concept sketches, and more. For the kickoff: the Kriosian Battlecruiser from “Precious Cargo”. It is another re-use of the Akritirian ship from “The Chute” and even still features the Akritirian logo on its hull. The hull color was changed this time and blue hull markings were added. I can let you have it for 60,000 solar credits.

Retellian/Tarkalean/Tellarite freighter

This Retellian/Tarkalean/Tellarite freighter is a space-going tractor trailer. It’s six cargo modules can be off loaded in place, or disengaged from the tractor and dropped off at their destination.

Let’s kick things off with a workhorse freighter seen regularly on “Enterprise”. This no-nonsense design is an Alpha Quadrant-wide favorite, and is used by numerous races to transport goods and equipment.  Let’s join Jörg with the low down…

The Jörg Report -

The ship first appeared as a Retellian freighter in “Precious cargo”. It was then slightly modified and appeared as a partially borgified Tarkalean freighter in “Regeneration”. Some of the parts of the Retellian freighter that were removed when the model was turned into the Tarkalean freighter are part of the final stage of the borgified Arctic transport, so it’s likely, that the transport got those hull parts from the Tarkalean freighter.

In “Bounty”, two freighters of the Retellian/Tellarite type are seen orbiting a Tellarite station, so it’s entirely possible this is the first appearance of the Tellarite freighter before it was seen two years later in Season 4.

Thus, the original configuration appeared again in Season 4 as a holographic Tellarite freighter in “The Aenar”.

Standby to Receive Signal!

A concept sketch of that set that I did for Enterprise that was never realized. A script called for us to visit the bridge of a Xindi insectoid starship. I especially like the multiple insect eyes on the overhead, and the hive-like feeling of the MVS

We’re back! It’s been a tumultuous month working with Gary Hutzel and the rest of the talented VFX gang on season 1.2 of Caprica. Things begin to pick up steam in the second half of the season, and the series finale resets the entire playing field with the kind of action you’ve come to expect from our dept. We’ve also been pumping up other fun stuff at work, including our capacity to create pretty amazing 3D VFX. There’s that upper right corner of the envelope again… and there’s Gary livin’ in it! Can you imagine one of those rip roaring BSG battle scenes in three dimensions? That’s GOOD soup!

Today at the drex files we’ll be doling out a heaping helping of nutritious vitamin packed goodness. Propworx has completed their latest and most snazzy catalog for their upcoming Star Trek prop auction, including most of my collection that you guys have come to know, cool stuff from rousing Rick Sternbach, and a selection of exotic Okudian offerings from the outer edges of the Galaxy! I’ll be posting my interview from the catalog later, including a link where you can go and down the  auction book!

We’ll also get another sneek peak at the 2011 SOTL calendar, and another post featuring one of our ever popular BSG VFX Emmy presentation books!

So in the immortal word of Elwood Blues…  Our lady of blessed acceleration, don’t fail us now!

NX-01 Refit Diagram

Diagram I prepared for Pierre Drolet to build the secondary hull of the NX-01 refit.

Look for it in the 2011 SOTL Calendar.

Devore Warship (and a host of others)

(Above) Looking rather like a contemporary stealth fighter, with it’s matte black finish and mesh-like pattern, the Devore warship was what we referred to as a “Get Well” design: a recycled ship of the week that helped extend our budget.

We’re back! It’s March 28th, a date near and dear to my heart… my birthday… and I’m gonna to spend it with my compadres! You! Kick the tires and light the fires! Drex Files is on the air!

The Jörg report:

This ship first appeared in the Voyager season 5 episode “Counterpoint”, where it was seen as the Devore warship. The ship has appeared several times after that, usually in the background or as part of a larger fleet shot. In “Counterpoint” it was supposed to be a really big ship (as can be seen in the screenshots from the episode). In later appearances, it was drastically scaled down. It first reappeared in “Alice” as part of Abbadon’s depository of lost treasures. It was then seen again in “Drive” as a vessel taking part in the Antarian Transstellar Rally. In this episode, it was flying backwards and was just a little bigger than the Delta Flyer. The model then reappeared in “The Void” as a stranded alien ship. Finally, it appeared in an episode of Enterprise, as a Sphere builder vessel in “Azati Prime”. It was part of the  Sphere builder-Federation battle seen by Archer through a window of the Enterprise-J.

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Shuttlepod Found

(Above) Steve Kirk of  The Hollywood Collection reintroduces Mike and Doug to their old ward. Mike Okuda and Drex in action together again.

There are many props from all of the various Star Trek productions out there, and as cool as they are, nothing pulls at the heart strings like the idea of the little lost shuttlecraft. Is it because it is symbolic humankind’s inexplicable need to get out there out there, thataway? To see what’s over the horizon, and beyond the next mountain? The legend of the lost shuttle prop is a long one that goes back 40 years, beginning with the Galileo shuttle from the original Star Trek. That iconic prop has drifted perilously across the eddies and backwashes of time, and has even turned up on Google Earth from orbit on high. Mike always said that the purpose of a shuttlecraft on Star Trek  was to get lost, and like  a good plot device, contact was finally lost with the Galileo about seven years ago, fate unknown.

A couple of weeks ago I received an E-mail from a gent named Steve Kirk who identified himself as the curator at  The Hollywood Studio Collection, a rental and sales company that contains around 500,000 pieces of wardrobe, props and set decoration from a large number of films and television series dating back to the 1930′s. Especially impressive is their complete collections of historically accurate samurai and Imperial Army uniforms from the Tom Cruise film, “The Last Samurai” as well as armor, weapons and shields from “Troy,” Alexander,” “300″ and “King Arthur” (which we will cover in an article next month). Their rentals are available to television and movie productions as well as live theatre. Of the two complete shuttlepods we created for Star Trek: Enterprise, one went to a collector in Germany and the other washed up on the benevelent shores of The Hollywood Studio Collection. Steve is a huge Trek fan, which means he’s one of us. He explained that shuttlepod one had been stripped of it’s interior by the studio, and that THC was hoping to restore it.

(Below) What a great shot of Neezee surveying the pod interior for the first time in years. Dig the look on her face…  a certain wistful nostalgic pleasure perfectly delineated. (Below-below) The original Galileo shuttle about 30 years ago in the parking of a Southern California industrial park.

Alien Transport

The aquatic lines of the unidentified alien transport ship in “The Breach”, was a reoccurring design theme that worked every time.

This ship was only seen once, in “The Breach” and was never re-used or modified after its only appearance. When the xenophobic Xantorans expel all aliens from their planet, this is one of the transport ships that transports the aliens off Xantoras. The ship sent a distress signal after a reactor accident and Captain Archer and the Enterprise offered their assistance. Several different aliens (amongst them one Antaran) were seen aboard the ship, but we never learned the affiliation of its crew.  – Jörg

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