SOTL Flashback – 2009

8472 vs Borg – John Teska

Voyager Aerowing Shuttle

The Voyager Aerowing shuttle. Star Trek’s most famous never seen celebrity.

Hi Gang! Sorry I’m getting started here so late, but Dorth, Luna, Jimmy, Mike, Diana and I went to the El Portal Theater last night to see Jason Alexander in Niel Simon’s “The Prisoner of Second Avenue”. Jason is a huge original series Star Trek fan and went gaga over Luna and Mike. I’ll run some shots of the festivities in a little bit!

In the meantime let’s kick off with a pictorial of Voyager’s fabled “Aerowing” shuttle. Never used on the show. Clearly seen outlined on the bottom of the Voyager. A topic of much debate. Here it is in it’s full 360 glory. This model was built at Foundation Imaging as a proof of concept to promote the use of the Aerowing, in fact an animation of it undocking was created, and exists somewhere. If I turn it up, you’ll be the first to know! Hopefully this expose will kick off a modeling frenzy out there! Dig it!

(Below) Rick Sternbach’s Aerowing concept drawing, done early in 1994, as part of the Voyager design process.

DREXTV-04 Temporal Sonar

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Here is the latest and fourth D-TV, a time machine if you will, a window looking back to our old school Star Trek roots… the roots which begat new school Galactica. Working on Trek those 17 years was some of the best fun I’ve had. Picture it: A starship right downstairs… calls from Gary Hutzel at Image G to come down and see the D lit up and on the stick, or building a space station out of junk… all as if your life depended on it.

Old school, new school… in show business it pays to be both. At this very moment, a couple of old school guys and a team of CG madmen (who I will be profiling here soon) are pushing that upper right hand corner of the TV VFX envelope. Some of you know we’re working with Gary Hutzel on the upcoming Blood And Chrome, the decidedly new school spinoff of Battlestar Galactica. B&C, except for the actors, has been built in V-World. The leash is off, and if you think BSG was big before… well, let’s just say that we’ve shifted into huge. Gary and I are old school guys who are having a new school blast, and the roots to our metamorphosis are firmly embedded in the firmament of old school Star Trek.

We are in tough economic times. Even the motion picture industry is feeling the pinch. Today, shows with sprawling sets, like BSG and TNG, are a hard sell. The studio doesn’t want to invest millions of dollars in sets for a show that may or may not hit. If you know that you are going to go seven years, then you can amortize the cost over the run of the series. That kind of guarantee rarely happens. Ultimately you get less science fiction happening on television. The fantastic thing is that television science fiction is being saved by a creation that in itself is the very stuff of science fiction: computer generated environments. It is now cost effective to build virtual soundstages, in fact it’s even desirable. No upkeep or storage, infinitely malleable, and no limits.

First up is some lost handycam footage shot at Image G. It was Gary’s task to uncrate the Reliant\Saratoga and see if it still worked since the last time the teamsters tossed it on the back of a truck and bounced it along bumpy roads to the storage facility up north. Naturally, work it doesn’t. In a classic example of roll with the punches, Gary invents another class of ship. Whenever I see old footage like this, I kick myself for not shooting more.

You know that crack about having a starship right downstairs? Second up is a classic illustration of that. Mike Okuda knocked on my door, “…They’ve lit the Voyager sets one last time before they strike ‘em! Grab the cam, and meet me on the bridge!” It’s funny the quiet reverence you experience when saying goodbye to a make believe spaceship. The show over seven years becomes a family, and the starship sets are where that family lives. Sure, it’s the family you see on the screen every week, but even more so the collection of quirky, talented and lovely human beings behind the scenes that you fall in love with, too. Enjoy!

Voyager Writer’s Room Diagram

It doesn’t look like much at column size, but wait til you click on it. Find the Oscillation Overthruster!

I don’t believe that this diagram has appeared anywhere.  Mike Okuda asked me to lay this out at the request of Michael Piller. It was printed out huge, then framed, and mounted on the Writer’s Room wall. I think it’s much better than the one I did for the Voyager bridge, mostly because I was asked to keep that diagram vague.

USS Voyager CGI Pictorial

When a reader told me that I had never run any views of Rick Sternbach’s masterpiece, I was certain that they were wrong. But they weren’t! Better late than never, and fresh baked this very morning, one of the earliest CG Star Trek models ever – The U.S.S Voyager... enjoy!

Friendship One – A Present From Pierre Drolet

Screen caps courtesy Jörg.

Delta Flyer Lifeboat

I was working up at Foundation Imaging when Rick Sternbach’s Delta Flyer lifeboat design came in. I was the lucky boy who got to build it. Joy!

WARHEAD!

A tip of the hat to Project Gemini, the so called “Warhead” from Voyager in the episode “Human Error”.

It’s been a very busy week for me. Along with launching DREX-TV in my copious (Ha!) free time, I’ve been up to my neck with Gary and the gang finishing the season finale on “Caprica”. It’s a big show that  accelerates the plotline exponentially.

This month’s blog entries began on Thursday with the first ever posting of the new V-blog. The response has been through the roof and the next installment is already taking shape! In the meantime we’ll round off this month with a few more entries including closeups celebrating the release of the 2011 SOTL Calendar! CAPCOM, GUIDO, and FIDO are go! So let’s light this candle!

Tall Tales of a Time-Traveling Tribble – A Tribble Travelogue

Tall tales of a time-traveling Tribble – A Tribble Travelogue

As transcribed by Jörg Hillebrand

Whenever I’m on vacation, my owner accompanies me. He’s been to all parts of Germany, London, Rome, Australia, St. Louis and Los Angeles. When I spent some time in Los Angeles (and some other interesting places all around the Milky Way Galaxy) last month, he kindly offered to take some snapshots of me at some pretty famous locations. First, we went to Santa Monica Pier, where Janeway and her crew beamed down in 1996 to find a way back home to the 24^th Century.(01)

George Brozak – A Trek Writers Journey

(Above) George Brozak, who wrote numerous tales for Star Trek, recounts his experience as a Hollywood scribe, and how he broke into the biz.

Breaking into Hollywood always makes for a fascinating story, and George’s adventure is no exception. The odds of “making it” are so stacked up against you, that anyone who actually vaults the wall successfully is a hero to me. Meet George Brozak -

The wonders of Facebook. Though I initially resisted joining a few years ago, it has been a wonderful tool for reconnecting (and in some cases connecting) with friends and colleagues from the Star Trek offices on the Paramount lot. My friendship with Doug Drexler is just such an example. I spent many hours this past weekend pouring-over his wonderful blog, reliving my experience with the incredible production staff, producers and writers.

Understandably, I was very humbled when Doug asked me to recount my experience writing for Star Trek. As I told him, I am merely a small cog in a very large wheel – but I just couldn’t say no to his generous offer. It was another chance to relive those incredible times during Trek’s meteoric rise.

My writing career began with The Next Generation. TNG had created a triumphant presence to the Star Trek universe, taking us places we had never gone before. At the start of its third season, Michael Piller (a producer for shows like Simon and Simon, Cagney & Lacey and Miami Vice) joined the staff in charge of writing. Piller instituted a policy unheard of in episodic television by opening script submissions to un-agented writers. And though we had never met, Michael’s hiring was about to change my life.

Daelen’s Ship

(Above) Voyager and designer Rick Sternbach were to be applauded for the shows array of unusual and offbeat alien vessels which plied the depths of the Delta Quadrant. Like the oceans of Earth, the deeper you go, the stranger the creatures you discover.

Jörg Report – The model only appeared in two episodes. It was seen as Daelen’s ship in “Vis à vis” and two vessels of this type were seen as spectators during the Antarian trans-stellar rally in “Drive”. The industrial looking machinery on the lower part of the main hull is seen constantly rotating in the episode, which enhanced the alien look of the vessel even more.

Side view.

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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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Monean Starship

“Star Trek: Voyager” takes the plunge with this somewhat yellow submarine, as outer space meets liquid space. Part dolphin, part sea-skate, the Monean starship makes a splash as Trek goes on a Voyage to the bottom of an alien sea.

The  Jörg Report: Wow, the Monean starship!  This was number two on my list of ships I wanted to see in the Fact Files. This was never to happen but now we can finally take a look at it!  This is a great present for the New Year! Here is the ship’s history:

The model was first and foremost seen as the Monean ship (called a Monean research vessel in the episode) in “Thirty days”. It was seen both in space and under water. The unmodified model was re-used in “Drive” (although scaled down a lot) to appear as one of the vessels taking part in the Antarian trans-stellar rally.
Finally, the model was modified slightly (these views  finally show how far the modifications went) and recoloured and appeared as a Chokuzan vessel in Q2. After that, the model was not seen again.

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Steth’s Ship

Not only was this ship capable of jumping from one star to another, but apparently from one television show to another.

The Jörg report – This ship first appeared as Steth’s experimental coaxial drive ship in the episode “Vis a vis”. It is apparently of Benthan origin. The model was later re-used in “Drive” where one ship of this type took part in the Antarian trans-stellar rally. It was re-used later that season to appear as a Quarra orbital ship in “Workforce I+II”. The coolest re-use however, appeared in Firefly, where it was seen in the episode “War stories”, orbiting Niska’s space station together with some other ships lifted from Voyager.

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Ledosian Patrol Ship

Bits and pieces. The Ledosian vesse destined to live on as kludge fodder. Waste not want not.

The Jörg report – The Ledosian patrol ship from “Natural law” was only seen in “Natural law”, first docked at the Ledosian space station and later when it tries to scare away Voyager. What makes this ship special is the fact that it’s basically the Akritiri patrol ship from “The chute” slipped into a larger hull. It is an odd variant because the CGI of the Akritirian vessel was combined with a custom hull in a way that only the forked forward end is sticking out. The Akritirian vessel is one of the most often re-used starship in all of Star Trek. It appeared, in various modifications, 7 times on Voyager and twice on Enterprise. Here’s an article about the re-uses of the ship, that will also clarify, how the Akritirian ship was turned into the Ledosian vessel, which Bernd and I wrote some years ago: http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/akritirian.htm

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Objects in Space 02 – Think Tank

With it’s capsule-like design ethic, Think Tank came out of left field.

The “Think Tank” was a cooperative of technologically advanced alien intellectuals who literally made it their business to solve problems of other species in the Delta Quadrant… for a price.

The Think Tank vessel is a real departure for the standard Voyager “ship of the week” aesthetic. Missing the usual sense of front, back, top, bottom, and obvious direction of flight, the Think Tank is a refreshing contrivance.

Objects in Space 01 – Ba’neth\ Quarra Station

Feeling a bit like an automobile transmission in space, this design was originally used by the extremely xenophobic and reclusive Ba’neth, and ended up recycled by the Shanghai happy Quarra.

The only renders that I have of this very hardwaresy looking space station by Rick Sternbach, hasn’t any textures. But you know what? it’s rather interesting to look at anyway. So here it is… it’s naked, so be sure no children are looking at this! Be responsible!

Yo Ho! Pirated Pirate Ship – Part 2

Having appeared several times on Trek, and seen up close for the first time today, another pirated pirate ship.

This is the smaller pirate ship from the “Enterprise” episode “Horizon”. The ECS Horizon is attacked by two small vessels of this type. They attach a marker beacon to the hull so a larger accomplice ship (a re-use of the Akritirian patrol ship – http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/akritirian.htm) can later find and properly attack the cargo vessel. This modification appeared as the Ankari in “Equinox II”, and also appeared as a vessel participating in the Antarian Trans-stellar rally in “Drive”. 

Further background :

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/yo-ho-enterprises-pirated-pirate-ship/

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/05/24/ecs-horizon/

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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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The Borg Cube

(Above) Square but hip.

Since we took a squint at the Borg Tac Cube last weekend, it seems only fair that we round things off with this follow up featuring the original. I can’t look at this design without drawing a line to the Fesarius in the TOS episode “The Corbomite Maneuver”. Simple yet audacious, I’ll never forget the first time (in snowy black and white no less) I saw it dwarf the Enterprise. The Fesarious served the same purpose as the Borg… a reality check for the sometimes overly self assured Federation.

(Below) As you might expect, if you have one side you’ve got all sides of the Borg cube. I remember we once tried to sell Paramount merchandising the idea of gift wrapping paper with this pattern on it. A fleet of Borg Cubes under the tree during the holiday? That would have been rockin’!

Borg Tactical Cube – Design Phase

On the skids.

It was during my tenure at Foundation Imaging as part of the Voyager VFX team. I remember Rob Bonchune came to me with an assignment. Our producers wanted some design ideas for a new Borg Cube… a battle-cube.  “Rob! It’s a cube!” I laughed. “That’s like being asked to restyle a basketball!”  As much as we enjoy having a laugh at the expense of our masters, it does make you stop and think. I figured that I couldn’t go too wrong, you know what I mean?

Remember Spock on “Spitting Image” with the Rubik’s Cube?

What do you do with a cube? You can armor it. The Borg had just had their collective asses handed to them by Species 8472, so I’d design a flak jacket for a Borg cube. Personally I felt adding anything to the cube that gave it personality was a mistake. I happened to love the idea that the design said absolutely nothing about them, while at the same time, everything. “Doug,” said Rob..”You’re the only guy here who wields a pencil, and the bosses are looking for a few sketches, so have at it!”

Borg Tactical Cube

The Borg Tactical Cube  from Voyager. Variations on a theme.

The Tac Cube was the result of Species 8472 teaching the Borg the meaning of humility. I remember that after so many years of watching the Borg’s relentless advance across the Universe, it was shocking to see them fleeing before an unknown assailant. Who would have thought that one of Trek’s best spaceship designs would be  a cube? A stroke of genius that says it all.

“Mr. Five by Five” -  With the introduction of the Borg, TNG caught fire.

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.