Today’s sketch is of the final design of the Enterprise B, The B came to be because of budgets reasons on the production and there was just not enough cash available to make a new ship and shooting miniature for Generations so the USS Excelsior model from previous films was called for to be recruited as the B. Story line called for some hull changes so that the Nexus ribbon could whip off a chunk of the ship without destroying the whole ship. This was my first art assignment on Trek and what a fun one to say the least.. I was one huge fan of Bill George’s Excelsior and despite all the changes we were asked to do it was important to maintain the overall design as much as possible. To seek out inspiration the PBY Catalina came to mind with it’s built in boat like belly detail which made for the perfect reference to re translate into the Starship’s new hull lines. As for the big wing top props the same is seen on the top of the saucer with twin impulse engines located on the back of the dish. After Herman Zimmerman and the producers were happy with the design the sketch and some rough plans went to ILM and the reboot was underway headed by famed model maker John Goodson. The end result looked beautiful on film and the folks up in Marin County again made movie magic. Stay tuned for more on the B and lots of art n pics to come.
PBY 1
PBY 2
PBY 3
PBY 4
the uss enterprise b
plans for the bridge graphic by Mike Okuda
an old pin up pby
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