Wow it’s already Friday!! Technically speaking, since we are off tomorrow for the 4th of July. WOOOOO HOOOOO!!! Hope everyone else has the day off, too, even if you’re in another country! So with that, here is another crazy ship from Enterprise, a second season episode entitled The Crossing. The story here is that the NX gets overcome and swallowed by a rather organic looking space vessel, and they have to figure a way out!!! If only they had matches and wood on board they could follow Geppetto and Pinocchio’s example. AHHHH!!! Well, there you go, and I guess you would need some air to really make that work as well!!! HAAA! So anyway, the ship went through a few changes, and the first version has the Jem’Hadar cruiser’s lines as the understudy and some heavy organicasizeing on top, I took the borgifying approach for the first pass. Rejected brutally. Ship two followed with a tendrilled beetle bug look…also rejected heavily. Which lead to version three which is a modified fish/doomsday machine combo!!! Again the big axe fell, and version #4 came to be… they sorta liked the underlying shape, and had me do a pass minus the tendrils and up the scale with the addition of more patterned detail, as opposed to total organic randomness. Thus the final drawing came to be, and they even drew a happy face with a little star on the corner of the page!!! Ok then, here is this one to enjoy, and I’ll try and get more Osiris up as the day goes on!
the Jem look,,, noooo!
top view
key frame view of ship 2
fishy-doomsday???---stinking no way!
inspired by one of Greg Jeins ships from Buckaroo Banzai
and the final dog scratcher, big flea version
Eavesdropping with Johnny 
Interesting progression. These are all amazing designs and I really liked that episode. To what extent, if any, does the potential complexity in modeling (I know CG) does the approval process play? The final design seems like it would be the easier to build out but the third and fourth designs are more amazing.
I sadly have not seen this episode,,, It was fun to work on but I seriously need to sit down and watch all of the episodes I missed.
I’ve actually not seen this episode either, there are still a handful of season 1 and 2 episodes I keep missing.
From the screen captures at TrekCore the interior of the ship seems to owe a bit of its style to the interior of V’gr. Which is pretty cool actually 🙂
I still found that the dark, fairly monochrome color palette and structure could have been done much better, inside and out…neither are seen very much, but that is all you see except for the interior of Enterprise. It needed the Eaves touch to punch those scenes up a little!
That a great looking ship. The tendrilled beetle bug look version reminds me a bit of a Facehugger from Alien.
I love that second version.
You know that means that the NX got “Eaten” three times. Once by this ship and twice by the water Xdini Spices.
thanks and in regards to the poor cg guys there was no concern!!! they were incredibly talented folks and there was nothing they could not do!!!
Hi John – those are some really “interesting” looking ships. I really like how you combined the organic with the technical. That key frame view is down right creepy. Hope Carlene had a good time at Disneyland and that you and the family have a great 4th!
there were some fun ideas going around for this one, and thanks for the note,, Carlene and the fam didn’t get home till 1:30 last night/this morning and I haven’t heard from the yet today ZZZZZZZZZZZZ Thanks
Sounds like everyone had a great time – glad to hear it. We’ll keep Carlene in our thoughts and prayers. Have a good holiday weekend.
I always save cool concepts that I think will inspire me (ie: that I can steal from) on future projects. Needless to say, my “Eaves” folder is overflowing and great stuff like this is why. The approved version is great, but I really prefer the previous iteration. Very organic and very alien. In short, non-typical Star Trek.
Yeah, that’s a fun episode, you should watch it. Plot-wise, it’s not super imaginative, they’ve done several of these “bodies taken over by aliens” things on Star Trek alone, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable. Of course, having the Enterprise swallowed up by a giant starship is always a nice touch. In the later Treks, there’s not too much that seemed to be larger than the current Enterprise. That’s one thing that was more fun about this series; we were lower on the food chain. 😉
The ship designs are awesome. Keeping with my usual trend, I really love your first concept, though they’re all awesome. The “big flea” wouldn’t have been my final choice, probably the first one or one of the more fishy ones would have, but it wasn’t my choice. And it still looks great in the episode, thanks to your sweet design and the awesome CG artists. 😀
Oh God why does the least original and crazy designs were chosen for the ships in Enterprise !? If I was in charge I would probably take either one of the “brownies” – they are really awesome … well, just like most of the stuff that you can do on your own without any influences from the “higher-ranked” staff, John.
On a funny side note I also draw inspiration from your images and one day I wanted to do some organic ships – one of them looked totally like the one from second pic !
Oh and I wondered why do those creatures need a ship if they only have spiritual form … well, I guess I know the answer now – so that we can have more of your designs !
Ditto on the sentiment that the producers keep taking the less interesting versions… why!!?? oh well it’s already happened some 4+ years ago.
Hey Matt,, Thanks for the additions yesterday I your ship is in space dock being retro-fitted as we speak.
I guess because if your a Ghost your made of gas and perhaps you would dissipate at warp speed,,,HMMMMMM
Ya, that is (kinda) answered in the show, so sit your rear down soon and take a look! 🙂
Ah ok then I think I didn’t watch the whole episode anyway 😀
Oh and it’s sci-fi, just like Doug said in his latest post – not everything has to be crystal clear in order to make one enjoy the show !
I don’t mean to indicate that John’s guess is the truth, mind you….
I’m liking the tendrilled versions the best. The ship was the only thing to look at, so I think they would have benefited with one of your more deliciously intricate designs.
These aliens and what they were up to were a mystery for most of the episode, but that was really the most interesting part of the show. It was a pretty tame episode without anything going on, visually. I did enjoy it because it’s always fun to see the crew get to stretch their acting muscles a bit and change up their characters. 🙂
WOW good review,,, I’ll be needing to put this one on the watch list. I am glad you had a fun Birthday here and especially with your armed forces comments, Well done Field Executive Commander, First Class.
ahem…Flight Deck Officer…cough.
Dea you should change your screen name to Flight Deck Officer Deanne, then no one would forget it 🙂
Not a bad idea, Matt, I’ll be thinking about that one! However, John seems to like to annoy me that way, anyways. I just got called a mishmash of ranks again on the phone this morning. 🙂
Very impressive designs; all of them look quite alien and aggressive.
The first design remembers me a little bit to much of the Jem’Hadar configuration, too.
The second approach is cool!
Actually, “The Crossing” is one of my favorite Enterprise episode. I’m very fond of non corporal aliens.
It must have been quite a challenge to develop an adequate concept for them!
Ah! I remembered this episode, but I couldn’t remember what the name of it was! This was a pretty neat episode. I think all the designs would have made for an interesting ship!
It’s been awhile since I’ve seen this one. I’m going to have to go back and watch it again now!
I like number four the best too. Kind of upside down manta ray-ish.
Picture #3 looks a bit like the worms in Dune. They’re all cool sketches, but I like the ones with the tendrils the most. They look the most organic, which better fits a ship that “eats” others. But like Deanne said, in the episode the ship looked quite metallic, which made it look more like an ordinary spacecraft.
All way-cool, but I like fishy-doomsday best, eh. 🙂
Esp. given the Jonah and the Whale theme.
LLP,
deg