Star Trek Designing Starships Volume 1: The Enterprises and Beyond

by Ben Robinson, Marcus Reily

Explore the design process behind the creation of more than 30 of the most iconic ships in Star Trek‘s history!

This is the story of how some of the most talented designers in Hollywood created STAR TREK‘s starships, from the first sketches to the finished models that appeared on screen.

Covering the genesis of more than 30 ships including all seven Enterprises, this book is packed with original concept art, showing fascinating directions that were explored and abandoned, and revealing the thinking behind the finished designs. The design history of every variation of the USS Enterprise is covered within this volume, including three that were never seen on screen. Hundreds of physical and CGI model development photos including concept art, blueprints, sketches, and schematics, provided by the original designers and the vast archives of CBS and Paramount Studios.

Delve deep into the design process that led to the iconic Star Trek ships featured on television and film. Includes concept art and interviews with the ship designers and screen model builders, this first-time ever explored subject will appeal to all Star Trek fans.

Genres: Star Trek, Art, Nonfiction

160 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2018

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are really into these niche behind the scenes stuff, then this might be worth picking up. The book does a good job at giving you a look at the whole design process, both for some known ships and some lesser known ones as well. In many cases, the designer is interviewed and in some cases drawings were provided for what was the first time. Based on the renderings, for example, you cannot blame Doug Drexler for the controversial NX design-he provided a number of much better looking concept renderings (in my opinion, anyway) that didn’t make the final cut. I also learned a few things: We got the design of the Galileo shuttle because of a tie-in deal with a model kit company. My primary complaint is about how the book is organized, and formatted. It is very obvious that these were taken from mini-magazines EagleMoss sold with their starship models. These glossy little booklets are well done, but the transfer to book form is bit awkward, partially because of what is excised (some profiles fail to provide a picture of the final design). Still, despite this, I don’t really regret the slightly expensive purchase price.

[Richard Balmer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a little disappointing after the Deep Space Nine volume, which I read first. Nothing in this book gets the detail that the USS Defiant or the Klingon D7 received in that volume. The Enterprise NCC-1701 and the Enterprise D probably deserved more. It's also clear these books are only loosely themed, and I suspect the ships in them were mostly picked according to the release schedule of the Eaglemoss die-cast ship line. This does result in some odd choices for a starting volume - the Malon present but not the Klingons, while almost every Borg ship in the franchise gets a write-up except the original Cube.

Still, there are some real delights in this book. The main appeal of this volume is the design art and models for Starfleet's own vessels from TOS to TNG, which collectively encompass about half the book. The Shatner-Nimoy films, through some combination of a high production budget and experienced model makers, generated the most beautiful designs in science fiction history, and it's a pleasure to see the design sketches. Both the USS Reliant and the USS Excelsior - for me, the most aesthetically pleasing ships in the franchise - are present in glorious technicolour. There's also some really interesting material about the USS Enterprise B and USS Enterprise C, neither of which I've ever had much chance to properly look at in the past. The USS Akira gets a lot of time, while DS9's briefly glimpsed USS Centaur turns out to have an unexpectedly odd story. Some of the TNG-era shuttle concepts really deserve to be revisited now that the production techniques exist to realise them on the screen.

Elsewhere, the book is a grab-bag of ships from all over the place. This includes the Nausicaan fighter from ENT, the Species 8472 attack ship from VOY and a rather menacing concept Borg Obelisk from First Contact. I loved discovering the little hidden attack ship slung beneath the earwig inspired forward section of the Ferengi Marauder. A few TOS classics like the SS Botany Bay and the iconic Tholian ship are present, although (like the NCC-1701?) they suffer from a lack of material to work with. The absolute highlight for me is the coverage of the Vulcan starship designs in Enterprise. One of my many complaints about the CGI era of Trek ships is that they lost the design language that made the franchise so iconic, with most Enterprise designs looking like they could just as easily have been in Farscape or Stargate. The Vulcan vessels are a real exception to this, and the concept artwork for the Suurok class almost justifies purchasing the book alone.

The Bajoran lightship from DS9 gets a nice little write-up and some lovely concept art, although I would have liked some information about how the external design of the ship ended up relating to the detailed interior design we see in Explorers. A more coherently organised series would have put the lightship in the DS9 volume. I think this sums up my problem with these books so far - a lot of very interesting individual segments, thrown together with an editorial incoherence that makes it all seem a bit rushed.

[Kai · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice Christmas present I received. For a Star Trek fan like myself it was interesting to learn some more about how the icon ships were designed. I didn't realize just how many major ships Matt Jefferies actually designed. It was interesting to hear where some of the designs were inspired from (Japanese designs, a football, a sailing ship, insects, etc.). Seeing the transition from physical models to CGI was cool too, and the benefits of CGI like having parts of the model move, and having an "undo" button.

Some ships explained in this book were random less known ships, but that omitted some major ships that would have been interesting to hear about instead. The book also had an amateur feel to it, how it was just thrown together, and even had a few typos. Still good overall for a ST fan.

[Galen Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this book better than the execution. It has plenty of pictures but strangely lacks a few finished versions for some. It also stops just short of getting into the design philosophy. There are moments when they talk about the TOS Enterprise needing to be modified for the big screen because it wouldn't look right, so they added some lights, but they don't explain WHY this was necessary. For another, they talk about how the ship was influenced by Japanese art, but not what styles or traditions (a picture of the influential styles in question would have been helpful).

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

The key selling point is the inclusion of some of the original sketches. The text for most entries is pretty light so anyone looking for a detailed discussion on how the artists and effects teams developed the designs from idea to screen will be disappointed.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a huge Trekkie, I like this book. But notice the like and not "love"? Great info, detail, and lore is included, but are thier any Klingon Ships? Are the any Cardassian? No and No. Also not many Romulan.

[Peter Szabo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is an amazing read for anyone with an interest in the behind the scenes aspects of the design of some of the most iconic ships seen in Star Trek.

[Alexander Fontana · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of a displayed of concept art and it's justifications. " extraordinary detail" is a bit of a stretch. Better detail in enterprise engineering manual from the 1970s. one word - disappointed.