Benthan Patrol Ship

The Benthan patrol ship from Voyager, with it’s mecha-organic twists and turns, enlivened the general straight edge approach that the show’s ships favored.

Did you miss me? I literally went through withdrawals. The routine of posting everyday, two and three times, had become a powerful habit. Work is very busy, highly stimulating, and the gang is buzzing to be doing something other than space stuff. Last night Dorth threw one of her incredible dinner parties with special guests including Luna and Jimmy, Michael Forest and Diana, and our new friends Leonard Stern and his wonderful wife Gloria Stroock. Most people know Gloria from her role on “McMillan & Wife”. Leonard is one of the biggest names in television comedy history, with credits as a writer on “The Honeymooners” with Jackie Gleason, Sgt. Bilko with Phil Silvers, The Steve Allen Show, and my all time favorite, “Get Smart”, with Don Adams. Leonard was was Executive Producer on “Get Smart”, and getting the opportunity to hear stories from the set made me giddy.

Sure nice to see you guys! Oh hey… we’ll also catch up with Steve Canyon, and Dick Tracy later… so you all come back now, y’hear?

The Nausican Begat The Xindi

Waste not, want not. The Nausican begat the Xindi, and that begat something expensive down the line when we really needed it.

Benjamin Franklin must have been watching Star Trek when he said… ” Beware of little expenses: a small leak will sink a great ship.” If we had a good design that was rarely seen, it wasn’t unusual to “repurpose”.  http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/deja-vu-all-over-again/

Todays subject is the Xindi repurpose of a Nausican design. Here now with some background is Professor Jörg - 

” The ship was seen, as a Nausicaan raider, in “Fortunate Son”. The model appeared again, completely unchanged, as a science vessel of an unnamed species that attacks Enterprise in “Bound”. The model was modified and Xindi-fied to appear as a Xindi-Insectoid patrol ship in “Stratagem” and “Azati Prime”. In the first episode, it was only part of the simulation seen through the simulation ship’s window. In “Azati Prime” it was seen for real as an underwater craft used by the Xindi-Insectoids.” – Jörg

Kago-Darr’s “Bounty”

“Kago-Darr, played by Robert O’Reilly (better known for playing Gowron), was the owner of a nifty little cargo ship seen in the ENT Season 2 episode “Bounty”. The unique starship design only appeared in this episode and was not seen again in later seasons. The ship is characterized by a unique placement of four engine pods. One is located on the dorsal side of the ship and three in a row are located on the ventral side. The hull colour is similar to that of Klingon or Orion designs from that era, we never learn the name of Kago-Darr’s species though (and he certainly doesn’t look Klingon or Orion).”

Bless you Jörg.

Dinaali Hospital Ship

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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Subspace Catapult\Tash Ship

You must be this tall to ride the Subspace Catapult!

A classic science fiction concept reminescent of the giant cannon from Jules Verne’s “The Earth To The Moon. Not a “stargate”, but in essence an enormous warp slingshot in space. Designed by Rick Sternbach for “Voyager”, it’s one of those ideas that stays with you… although you could lose your lunch riding it!

Markonian Outpost – UPDATED!

Rick’s Markonian outpost gives the  impression of a densely packed seaport. VFX chose lots of above and below centerline camera angles, stacking the outpost’s elements up dramatically.

This is one cool space port as designed by Rick Sternbach for Voyager. It dares to be different. What I love about it is that it gives the feeling of a community. The fact that it is layed out on a horizontal plane like a terrestrial dock makes it unusual, and sets it apart.

“The Markonian outpost wasn’t described in any sort of detail in the script. Most ships and stations weren’t, and we were left to develop the required visual style to make it distinct from other hardware seen in the series. As I was doodling this station on paper and on the computer, a thought struck me about places we had visited before. I posed a question to our VFX producer Peter Lauritson; since we have seen so many run-down and dirty facilities before, how about making  this one nice looking? Like the culture had some money behind it, and could afford the upkeep? So I decided to make this place into a space-going marina with a lot of slips for visiting ships. As you can see,  Peter and the other producers gave it a thumbs-up.” – Rick Sternbach

Hirogen Hunter and Venatic Dreadnought Class – UPDATED!

Rick Sternbach came up with a design ethic for Voyager’s Hirogen starships that invoked medieval weaponry and gothic cathedrals.

 Brandon MacDougall surprised me with some beautiful renders of the Hirogen Hunter, and one can see that he had a great time giving form to Rick’s fever dreams. I dig the twilight setting with the human figure below. It gives a teriffic sense of scale.

Toxic Tanker – Voyager – UPDATED!

 Brandon MacDougall rendered this shot of “Toxie”  fresh baked…  for you folks right here, right now.

“I don’t have a whole lot to say about the tanker, except that I wanted it to look massive, which the large spherical tanks seem to  accomplish. The spew nozzles are there, along with lots of supporting  hardware like the carapace/spine, brackets, tubes, and so on. I  didn’t develop a real style for the shapes and surfaces until the  later mega-tanker, which relied heavily, so to speak, on slightly  streamlined and repeating parts with a good old retro feel. Think  steam and diesel locomotives.” – Rick Sternbach

(Below) Rick’s concept sketch for “Toxie”. This is a different look for Rick, having an almost Moebius irreverence about it

Hierarchy Ship – Voyager – Updated!

It’s a bird… it’s a plane… it’s… its…

Taking a break from Klingons this morning, allow me to present what is undoubtedly the strangest and most unusual spaceship to ever appear on Star Trek. This is the Hierarchy ship from “Tinker tenor Doctor Spy”, from Voyager. As offbeat and oddball as this ship is, I applaud how different it is. I sometimes felt that the ship designs looked like they came from the same factory (which in fact they did), but when you turn out hundreds of concepts on an impossible schedule, budget, and with a finite staff,  it can’t be helped.  This ship began with a couple of design sketches from Rick, but quickly became a special project between Dan Curry and Brandon MacDougall. I happen to love this strange contrivance, but I have to admit that I’m thinking sour cream, chives, and bacon bits, how about you?

U.S.S. Dauntless

Rick Sternbach recalls designing “Dauntless” -

“The U.S.S. Dauntless, NX-01-A, was another one of those tempting bits of get-home technology that turned out to be too good to be true for the Voyager crew. Actually an alien ship disguised by the crafty Arturis (whose name is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike the name of the star Arcturus), the Dauntless was to be used against the humans as revenge for not wiping out the Borg when they had the chance, setting Arturis’ people free.

U.S.S. Relativity – UPDATED!

My old buddy from Foundation Imaging days, Brandon MacDougall,  just sent me this extremely cool rendering of the timeship, U.S.S Relativity, from Voyager. He rendered it anew, especially for you guys! Click for a better look at Brandon’s outstanding work.

(Below) And thank you Rick for sending your original plans along. Continued on the next page.

Sterno Interview

 

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1771416/interview_with_rick_sternbach_senior.html?cat=40

- Thanks to Mike