For the opening of Enterprise, two new ships had to be designed to bridge history with the future. Starting with a sailing ship called Enterprise, the opening credit sequence takes you through a journey of historical milestones that will eventually take you into  space and lay witness to the world of the Enterprise and Star Trek.Â
From the shot of the International Space Station, a ship was called for to bridge the gap to the Phoenix warp ship. After the PHX, another more advanced ship was needed to carry us one step further before the big reveal of the star of the show, Doug Drexler’s Mighty NX-01.  All the images presented on this post were the concepts that took us near and far to where we finally wound up.  OK then, and with that I am going home now, so enjoy these drawings tomorrow.
this was a poster I did for my friend Dan Madsen over at the Star Trek Communicator. He turned it into a poster, and when I started on Enterprise, I gave one to both Brannon Braga and Mr. Berman, Mr. Berman said, "Hey, this might be a good idea for the opening of the show."
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this was the first pass at a ship that would connect our current route of technology with that of the Star Trek architecture
this ship became such a big push as the warp II ship from First Flight that I forgot it's origins began as an opening title concept, When I opened the file, there it was,,, HAAA! What an Old MAN
here is a beasty little idea!
the first half saucer design
Holy Cow what was I thinking!!! I must have missed Breakfast that day
the closest ship ideas to our present & future of Space flight
This was the chosen vessel from the middle of the last page
this was the ship that preceeds the NX-01, The detail on the bottom of the ship is designed to match the layout roughly of the top of Doug's final NX-01 Starship
once approved, the engines had to go through a series of alterations, #3 down was the one that won the lottery.
Eavesdropping with Johnny 
wow, the four nacelled Design. But it looks faar too new.
good work!
it does!!!! this one was never seen again after it went to warp,,, they are still trying to bring it to a stop so they can turn around and come home
Some great concepts there. I really like the style of mixing current day spacecraft with Star Treks style, its nice to see the gap been bridged. Its a shame the ship from the opening credits of Enterprise recieved so little screentime, since its obvious a huge ammount of effort was put into refining her.
most things turn out that way in the movie world but it’s still always fun.
Looking at the “missed breakfast” ship makes my brain hurt. I really like the twin-hull fightery First Flight concept.
HAAAA! mine still hurts
mr Eaves, what you call “beasty little idea!” reminds me most vividly of old FASA ships actually. Two of those did make it onscreen in TNG, were you inspired by those?
Also, the rocketship, the last two ppics, has always been a favourite, nice to see it like this.
I only have seen 3 episodes of TNG sorry to say, so no on the influence question,,, I’ll have to go and see these ones that your talking of though. thanks
Wow! That first poster is my new desktop wallpaper. Wouldn’t that be cool as an actual poster on the wall, though *drools a bit* And it has the Russian stuff too!
So do you reckon that the NX-01 was one of the first ship types with a full saucer for a hull? I think I like that idea.
I am going to update and repaint this one,,, it sure needs it.
Truly awesome work !!!
Thank you Andrew!!!!
OMG! Thanks!!!!!
These ships are spectacular is there any chance you could publish your own book with your work or does it conflict with copyrights? Awesome stuff!!
New wallpaper thanks!
These draft designs are amazing and I agree, you could do a book – Boldly go, ships of the Star Trek Universe!
At some point I have to modeled one of these bad boys!
Beyond cool, dude! The veritable beyond the outer edge of coolness! And YOU, the very origin of the sequence! And put to that wonderous Faith of the Heart ballad/theme (I play it every day as my own personal theme), just a perfect sequence, dude! Bravo for being the inspiration for it! Bravo! 🙂
Man, you gots MAD SKILLZ!!!!!!!!! 🙂
LLP,
deg
You’ve had your breakfast today, right? Too bad ya don’t have a Rock Springs Cafe down the street!
Those are a couple of “interesting” ideas. Kinda fun to think of the 4 nacelle one being an early design and they just weren’t sure how much power they’d need…”Oops, okay find out where she ended up, get her home, and let’s try this again…”
The final rear configuration on the later “link” ship is just perfect IMO. As mentioned on Doug’s blog, the powerful engines would be enough to get ’em back home, should something happen to the warp engines, which are a VERY new thing. I just love the powerful look of it, too, practicality be hanged!
Both of the final choices (pre and post Phoenix) were a lot of fun to see. I loved that opening sequence since the first time Broken Bow was aired. The whole bridging of history from sailing ships through to the first Starship is a great showcase of the human spirit, and seeing the evolution of the space station and these new designs was just fun to think, maybe soon!
(On the side, when the shuttle rolled out of her bay doors onscreen, I felt like I did the first time I laid eyes on her in 1977 – wow, these are actually gonna take people into space and come back again and again, WOW. Thanks to a writing campaign of Star Trek fans, she was changed from Constitution to Enterprise…I love that story!)
So isn’t the S.S. Emmette that everyone has been dying to know where the name came from? Sorry, meant to ask in the first post, but I got carried away…love the opening sequence!!
John these are great, the Warp 2 and beasty ships. I feel would have fitted better as the NX, as they look like something we would build 100 to 150 years form now.
That not to say that I don’t like the NX, it has gerw on me with time. but these ships have an Earth built feel to them and look nothing like you would expect form the United Federation of Planets. but they do have hint that would lead to what we come to know of Federation Starfleet ships.
But I guess that the PTB wanted a desgin that everyone would instanlly reconise as Star Trek.
John, I think it was either Mike Okuda or Doug Drexler who made the claim that you have 3D graphics software in your head, and this sequence proves it. I love the pictures that include the blue pencil marks under the ink as they give a hint to your process, but I’d like to ask for a huge favor on behalf of all of us who enjoy your work …
Could you please show off your technique with either a series of stills from the same work showing how it progresses, or a time-lapse movie? The latter would be preferable, since we’d have a better idea how your hand moves as you work, what areas you pay attention to first, etc., but even a blog entry that has a series of sketches as a sort of “Eaves’ Techniques” tutorial would be beautiful
I’ve always loved that painting from the magazine. Takes me back.
John,
I’m really enjoying seeing more of your work…it’s a great source of inspiration.
Looks like I might have to get soem foan and palstic and try modeling some of these.
Man, this is some great stuff. I’m downloading the big version of that poster so that I can resize and desktop it. 🙂 I’m loving all these unused concepts you’ve been posting lately. My “references” folder with my 3D stuff is getting fat with all the great images you and Doug Drexler have been posting in your blogs. I’m working on some of my own wacky Star Trek stuff right now but I’m definitely going to have to pull out some of your great drawings really soon and start modeling some of those concepts. I really like that catamaran-style Warp 2 prototype and some of your unused designs from “The Expanse.” Heck, I even kinda like that “missed breakfast” ship. It could make a cool mesh, I think. 🙂
A real gold mine here John – Thank You!
If I was inserting smilies in here, there would be a couple a’ dozen of those happy little drooly ones.
I think the four nacelled “Wholly Cow what was I thinking!!!” ship is actually really good. The four nacelles make it look more balanced than two usually do, which makes it feel more like a rocket ship. I could almost imagine it taking off vertically like a rocket would.
Oh, btw, I’ve actually seen the last sketch in person! Or at least, I presume it was the real thing and not a print. It was at a touring Star Trek exhibition during Enterprise’s run. They had the Klingon BoP sketch you posted a few days back and also some concepts for the NX-01 that I haven’t seen turn up here yet.
That four-nacelle one is cuckoo, but wow, a really cool alien ship could be made from it.
Where is the big version of the 1st pic available? I´d really want it as desktop
Great work btw
Thanks John, this is an awesome post! The beautiful belly 3/4 view of the early warp ship is a neat piece of information, as the CG render does not show that many details. What kind of bridge were you envisioning for that ship, a top central dome like on the NX-01 or more of a space shuttle-like forward cabin?
John, as always, seriously sweet work! I really love the advanced space shuttle because you can really see the progression. It’s too bad we didn’t get to see some of the other designs throughout the course of the series!
John, thank you very much for posting these. Some beauties here.
I was actually in a Hostel in Hiroshima when I was looking at these photos last week and a guy walking by saw what I was looking at and came over asking me where they were from.
I said, “you know Star Trek? This guy designs Starships!” I said smiling.
When Trek fans indicate a preference for an NX-01 different from the model that was chosen, they are sometimes told that they are projecting their own desires onto the series and should just accept the NX-01 design. However, the “gap-bridging” designs you have presented here are very close to what I would have envisioned as the NX-01 prequel ship. You really captured, I think, what fans would have expected from a prequel series here (especially the arrowhead or half-saucer design.) I always figured that an early Starfleet starship might resemble the “arrowhead” logo that adorns the 1701.
You know how USB keys often have a plastic tip that is rounded like a semi-arrowhead? I think that (with attached, folding nacelles!) would be an excellent design for the prequel-era!
cool poster!
I was at Edwards AFB a few weeks back when on holidays in the US and they had similiar posters or drawings (sadly also not for sale) with all their flight types in a nice timeframe over the dry lake bed and the base in the background.
nice work
John,
Is it possible for you to post more pics of the Orbital Star on your website? I am interested in building a model rocket of it and need to see some more views of it to make sure it is accurate.
Jack
Any chance you know where a copy of this poster could be found?
FYI – I just edited this post, since I hadn’t done that when it was originally posted, and made all of the images clickable. The poster is now available up to 3000 x 1858 pixels fully enlarged when clicked on.
I don’t know how to get it as a poster though, sorry.
Thanks, dea!
Seems one could just print it out on a nice printer to me, if so inclined, eh.
peace | deg
I was thinking the same thing, even sending it to Staples or some such place for a professional, large size printout. But then I was hoping John would actually repaint it, since it needs it so badly, but I doubt he’ll take the time to do that anytime soon.
Thanks for posting the large version! Would be great though to have as a new reprint for sale at the Smithsonian, NASA Centers, and science center gift shops.
– Dave
Thanks for finally talking about >the opening credits of enterprise « Eavesdropping with
Johnny <Loved it!
I am truly impressed with your concept art. I really like the bridging choice of details for the pre-nx ship–but the four necelle ship crossed my eyes! Good job! Thanks for sharing these 🙂
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