Eyecandy 26

Flagship

Click for a better look.

1701- TMP Director’s Cut

The CG TMP ship built for the Directors Cut at Foundation Imaging.

Our friend Daren Dochterman was the muscle behind getting the Director’s Cut of TMP made. Who better? Additional visual effects were created at Foundation Imaging. Daren arranged to have the actual model of the ship delivered to Foundation for reference. It’s an awe inspiring model, and it is probably the most beautiful spaceship model ever created. It is so delicate in it’s details, and subtle in it’s paint job that this is one of those times where CG is hard pressed to equal it.

The Directors Cut called for several new shots of the Enterprise, and a CG model was built that was sufficient to the task. In the finished product, the average person cannot see where the physical model ends, and the CG model picks up. If memory serves, the main forces behind modeling this avatar were Sir Lee Stringer, Rob Bonchune, Jose Perez, Koji Kuramura, and Daren himself.

(Below) Final CG model with beauty lighting.

Eyecandy 19

“Reliant… Our Sector!” – Max Rem\Alain Rivard

Click for a better look

What’s Up Dock?

That TMP documentary made me think of these shots I knew I had tucked away somewhere. The Enterprise B from “Generations” in drydock. ILM built a custom dock for this sequence.  I remember vividly when Herman had crates from TMP trucked from storage to the Circle P. A third of a soundstage was filled with big crates. It was like a scene from “Raiders”. I remember peering into one of the huge crates and seeing the skeletal form of the drydock. How many decades had it patiently waited? Pieces were falling off of it, as the glue that held them had long since fallen to dust. In another box I was amazed to see “The Space Lips” from Spock’s spacewalk through V’GR. The next crate held the TMP helm, and another the hangar deck miniature from Trek V. I could never get over the fact that I was breathing this air.

The Making of STTMP Pt 1 & 2

 

Have not seen these in forever! Wow! Thanks to Mike for sending them along!

 

+

2010 SOTL Closeup – Robert Wilde– “We Come In Peace For All Mankind”

 

I remember leafing through  Scifi-Meshes and coming across Mr. Wilde. I think it was a piece called “Vertical Combat”. I put a check next to that name… this guys got something…

  

Almost a year ago, when Doug contacted me by leaving a private message at Scifi-Meshes.com, my very first thought was “You gotta be kidding me.” I have been doing a lot of Star Trek images just for fun for several years now, and the Ships of the Lines Calendar has always been one of the many sources of inspiration. There was always this little spark of hope that some day, somehow, one of my images would get printed in that calendar. But I would have never expected that to happen. But as it turned out, sometimes, somehow, dreams DO come true.

I had a look at the previous calendars to get a feel of what had been done before, what had been hinted at and what had never been done. I had already been working on a model of the giant mushroom shaped Spacedock from Star Trek III, one of my favorite structures in Star Trek. It gives the Star Trek universe such a grand scale and it shows what mankind is capable of in the 23rd century. So I wondered how I could take something that famous and majestic and combine it with something that had never been done before and that went beyond a simple beauty shot.

(Above and below) The two rough sketches I submitted to Doug for this piece. 

With the addition of the Enterprise it became clear what timeframe this image was set in. We didn’t see the Spacedock in The Motion Picture or The Wrath of Khan, yet it was suddenly there in The Search for Spock. So I figured it would be cool to see the construction taking place roughly at the same time as the Enterprise’s refit in drydock. Thanks go to Alain Rivard for giving me permission to use his vast collection of models, from the Enterprise and Drydock to the Reliant and various shuttles.

After Doug gave me the green light, I immediately started working on the “damaged” Spacedock model.

The Ford Pavilion

Another futuristic 1964 NY World’s Fair building that has been used numerous times to populate Starfleet facilities. It’s seen in the opening of the Directors cut of ST: TMP.

TMP Hazard Suit

Easily one of Robert Fletcher’s most intriguing designs for Star Trek: TMP, was the hazard suit worn by Enterprise engineering personnel. It said in no uncertain terms that you were messing with some very nasty stuff. These suits were fabricated in various sizes, right down to children’s, in order to work with the forced perspective engineering set.

Andy Probert’s B Movie

Master illustrator Andrew Probert takes us behind the scenes of designing the sweetest little ride in starfleet, the work bee.

Sentimental Journey

This is an amazing shot of Trumbull’s boys lighting the 1701 refit in it’s drydock berth. Look at that rig the guy in the foreground is fussing with. It’s festooned with dental mirrors which he is adjusting to look like spotlights on the Enterprise. What an ingenious idea.

I really meant to post something today much earlier than this. I started looking through the files, and kept stopping at pictures from the original “reboot”, Star Trek The Motion Picture. I remember being afraid of this new movie, and what could go wrong. Star Trek is such a delicate souffle.  Science fiction is easy, Star Trek is hard. What made Trek different was that a visionary kind of guy, infused it with his very appealing ideas about the future of humankind. Even at it’s worst, the various incarnations of Trek have basically preserved that. The idea that human beings have grown up, and that people have evolved made Star Trek visionary, and not just science fiction. Humans don’t delight in kicking ass. We grew out of that.

 

TMP Dock – Probert A\V Presentation!

(Above) Early dock concept – TMP.

For ten long years I looked at this early Andy Probert dock concept hanging on the wall of the Paramount sign shop. For ten long years, and nearly every day, I begged for them for them to let me have it. Awwwww… what’re you gonna do with that? You don’t really care about that sketch, it’s just there. C’mon, let me have it!

It took ten long years, and I finally wore them down. Now it’s mine all mine.

Hoping to learn more about this design, I dropped Andy a line asking if he would jot down some comments about it. Andy Probert, never one to do things half way, recorded an audio visual commentary for us to enjoy.  WOW!

Click on the link below to view it, and when you are done, I have posted the images in the A\V presentaion on the next page for your collection.

TMP DryDock Concepts

+

TMP Travel Pod Pictorial

Undoubtedly some of the best images of the sexy TMP travel pod I have ever seen. I love this design because of it’s direct, non-indulgent simplicity. So often science fiction designs spin out into fanciful. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that approach for alien technolgy is grand, but I prefer a very grounded extrapolation of human spaceflight. I think that is Star Trek at it’s best, and the TMP travel pod foots the bill. The 2001 influence is obvious, and welcome. Wow! It looks smashing in black and white!