It’s flash back Thursday, so lets journey back to 1996 and the early days of First Contact. At the time that these drawings were being laid out on paper, the film was untitled and ST Resurrection was a loose working title for the 8th film in the Star Trek film series. The film called for a lot of designs from every aspect of production and one of the more fun and obscure requests were for a new style of upgraded photon torpedo. The E was advancing in it’s on board weaponry and the newly established Quantum torpedo was the in thing. We had broken for lunch one afternoon and were venturing off the lot to one of the two choices of restaurants and on the walk a car drove by with this cool thing strapped to the hood. What was that!!!, I wondered and back at the desk a few hours later that shape kept coming to mind and I wanted to go stand on the corner to see if another one would go by so I could learn more about what it was. it was a few weeks before I saw another one and thankfully the odd shaped box was stopped at a traffic light and I was able to catch the brand name off of the side. back at the office I was describing the box to Mike Okuda and he ventured onto his computer and found out that the box’s were a new kind of storage unit for travelers. With all of this new info it was off to the drawing board and a combination of the Mark V torpedo and the Yakima box made for the first and final pass of what the new torpedo was going to look like. At that time the torpedoes had a much larger section in the script and were to be built for many of the scenes that called for them to be physically handled. as time went on the scenes were cut and all that was left were the concept drawings. So after years of sitting in the flat files these drawing are seeing the light of day once more, so without further delay here is the torpedo sketch and some of the inspiration that went into the Quantum’s final look.
yakama 1
Yakima 2
#3
The Thule box
and the Quantum
Eavesdropping with Johnny 
I love seeing how concept artists get inspiration. A lot of times it’s an interesting story. I have a funny picture in my head of you: Everywhere you go, you’re just looking left and right, wide eyed, waiting for one of these things to pass by. 😉
That’s seriously cool. I can definitely see the torpedo in those containers and vice versa. Too bad these never made it into the movie, especially with the time you put into just trying to find your inspiration again.
HAAAA It’s so true,,, I do look at things beyond what they really are.. Never did till I started working in the model shop and that is when the new outlook on things began!!!
John, that’s interesting. We did design exercises in art school where an instructor would bring in a bag of objects just ordinary stuff.. a pop can, a shoe, a fork a small desk lamp, then the assignment would be to design a logo or mark using one of the objects a source of inspiration. I didn’t get it at the time (some 20 plus years ago) but now if get what they were teaching us.
That is too funny. True story!
I just got back from a road trip out in the mid west. Somewhere on HWY 94, near Chicago, my wife saw the Yakima travel box atop a Volvo wagon and asked me what was that. I told her it was a photon torpedo! After I got the – you are such a smart a&& – look I told her what it really was. She was unimpressed with both answers.
HAAAAA thats so funny, My wife is like that too,,, makes for very humorous discussions with very little satisfaction from her lack of comments to my reasoning and incredible finds on road trips
Put some wings and an engine package on those shapes and you would have a cool shuttle or other craft.
yeah,, wait till the next installment comes out comes out!!!
I recall seeing the quantum torpedoes on Deep Space Nine, unless I’m mistaken.
I believe so,,, DS9 and First Contact shared the same place in time so the cross over of technologies from feature to TV happened often.
Yes, although DS9 used the coffin prop from “The Wrath of Khan” (see the episode “Valiant”, for example). I don’t think a Yakima-based prop was ever built, but the design was made official in the DS9 tech manual.
Great story John. Its funny where inspiration comes from.
I got a small VAX hand hover (Dust Buster) That I can see a cool ship in it. I just never got round to modelling it into a ship in Blender. Mayber one day.
you are so right those little vacuums have been used to great extent in a lot of movie models
That’s awesome. I love seeing how inspiration like that makes it’s way into movies. Also like the little things such as the Borg lights blinking out Morse code. Personal touches and stories hidden amongst the detail 🙂
Wish I could see inspiration around me as easily as you do John.
Too bad Yakima missed out on the chance to make a “torpedo” model!
there is inspiration everywhere, just depends on what your looking for at the time.
I so wish I could find that original Yakima box from the 90’s,, very different from the examples I put up on this post.
Either one looks like it would make a big mess if you dropped it~
I remember one time I tried concepting the Tri-Cobalt torpedoes on ST: Armada a long long time ago, though I can’t find the sketchbook it was in anymore.
Great work as always 🙂
I’m trying to remember which book that was in,,, Im at a loss too.
I would always seem them andI would think…That would make a cool torpedo and look. Its cool to see other artist find inspiration in the real world!! Thanks for the post!
yeah you see the world differently too!!! lots of fun,, Hey do you work in Rhino????
John, you never cease to amaze! I think it’s great that you can find the future in everyday objects! 🙂
I’ve long looked at those carriers and thought they would make a great design for a model starship. Since they open, my plan was to determine a decent scale then build an complete interior where each deck could be lifted out to see the next deck down. Everything would be included, from propulsion to crew accommodations and everything in between. I haven’t actually done it yet, and figuring out some issues (such as interior lighting) would probably bring me close to madness; but the idea is still in my head, whispering quietly “someday … someday…”