this is the first rough of the suit
with a little refinement
the pressure suit without the extra elements
the world famous Jim Martin's detail pass
and more from the legendary Jim Martin
more preliminary designs
Bob Blackman Was the incredible talent behind all those awesome costumes that graced the screen for most of the Television shows and for many of the films. He never ran out of ideas nor creativity. He would use fabric and scissors like Rembrandt would use a brush!!! It was always a treat to wonder over to the costume department and see what he and his crew were up to. For the space suit Bob asked for some ideas on the overall look and the hardware that would accompany the underlying pressure suit. At the same time the ever talented Jim Martin who started his Hollywood career on DS9 came back to lend his talents on the beginnings of Enterprise. Sadly he was pushed into the world of props and the show didn’t get the opportunity to grace one of Martins beautiful space craft designs such as what we saw on DS9 with his awesome Defiant, and the Jem Hadar battle ships, to mention a few. Jim has a great sense for whipping up not only spectacular designs but beautiful renderings as well. Enterprise was really the first show that we worked on together, and in the same room. Looking over Jim’s shoulder is where I picked up the use of the blue pencil and he also showed me how to do a color sweep with ink and make up pads. It was great to work with the mighty Martin Finally. As far as the suit goes it turned into a collaboration mainly because of our different work loads. If memory serves, BoB asked Herman Zimmerman if he could have Jim do some work on his suit for him I believe this was on a Wednesday and Jim’s schedule with a prop assignment wouldn’t let him breakaway. Herman gave me the the first couple of days to work out some quickies, that went thru the rough approval stages OK. We had worked out the overall look and what would make up the elements. The roles reversed and Jim took the roughs and started to add the details and work out some great designs for the pack and Helmet. These to were getting green lights all the way. A few days later the roles reversed again and I was back on for some final roughs. Bob Came in and was happy with everything and took it all back and added the signature Blackman touches and added all the beautiful details and colors. This was a great project mostly because of the camaraderie with friends.
Eavesdropping with Johnny 
John, I just dig these environmental suits from Enterprise. And fantastics drawings and design.
Very reminisant of the space suits from 2001.
Actually, acouple of years back (in 2006) while in Melbourne I took my two daughters (partners-in-crime) along to a Stanley Kubrick exhibition of props, models etc from his films.
It was a hoot, and very exciting to see one of the Discovery 1 environmental suits up close….oh that shiny red suit…
Funny, my kids prefer the real Cosmonaut suit on display in our local museum…one worn by Andy Thomas on a mission with the Russian Space Agency several years back….kids do know the real deal when thety see it.
Cheers
Mark
great tale,,, Greg Jein had one hidden in the back room of his shop and it was something to see in person.
Wow, Greg Jein had one himself…ever catch him wearing it!
I agree, the helmet has a definite 2001 influence. Overall, the design is amazing with some real serious thought into it. Nice to see the various progressions.
Thanks Thomas!
A number of helmets in the world of science fiction seem to be 2001-ish for one very good reason. That basic design gives the actor’s face the maximum exposure on both sides and the front, while still appearing to be a protective shell. Great sketches.
It is a homage to 2001, and it is also a practical design because it gets the glass away from the actors mouth and steam ups tend to be less!
My understanding is it also angles the glass in such a way that it’s less likely to pick up reflections from bluescreens or other surrounds in the production environment.
Wow these are so cool. I watch Fight or Flight last night. I think except for the FC Spacesuit, these are the best space suit to appear in Trek. (Okay there only been four of them but still. 😉 )
Fun to see the progression of the collaboration. Of course, the steam buildup and visibility of the actor’s face is necessary for you to consider, but I like to think that it’s just a great helmet design for good visibility when doing a mission. 🙂
This is one of those details of the show that I love. Sure, the ships and props are awesome, they’re futuristic. However, you’ve gotta figure that, aside from some changes in materials, EV suit technology isn’t going to change much in the future. So, you guys had to create something futuristic but also very practical. It had to look like a real EV suit, because there are fans who would know better if it didn’t look realistic.
You guys did an awesome job. I’ve gotta go into fanboy mode here and say I’d love to have been a fly on that wall when you and Jim Martin were working together. (a big fly that could have swiped some of the drawings you guys weren’t going to use. ;))
How funny that I should pull out the Art Asylum Dr. Flox figure in the EV suit. I found myself giving it a good look over. It really is my favorite of all the EV suits that we saw in Trek. I love the details that we got to see in it. This suit really looked functional!
Meant to say that I had pulled it out for my son to play with the other day…LOL! Guess that would help make my first sentence make more sense.
I have that same figure, I wonder if John has one? If anything I designed ended up as a toy I’d definitely pick one up!
Hi all i was luckey enough to win one of these EV suites in the IAW auction they are awsom.The only thing that did not come come with it was the boots i am in the proses of making new ones to finish the suit so i can display it.
I suppose actually wearing it would be a no-no, even if you thought it might fit?