I haven't seen these for sale since the the 70's, in the back of comics! http://www.cafepress.com/roddenberry/1664269 I came across them while doing a search for Matt Jefferies concept art, but the signitures on the artwork itself seems to read "F. Bachelin for Roddenberry"? Can anyone confirm or refute this? Anywho, cool stuff here!
Hm, I've never seen those before. But they sure look interesting. The question is, though, are those actually by Jefferies? Some of them look a lot like submarines, don't they? This one, however, looks very ... erh ... female.
Yeah, as I said in my OP, the signiture seems to read "F. Bachelin for Roddenberry" He was the art director after Pato Guzman and before Matt Jefferies got to be head hanhco for the rest of the series. Some of these would make great early fed ships, others look very alien though, like something you'd expect to see floating around the Delta Triangle? P.S. I think that last one was the basis for the animated overlay used in "Mudd's Women" (unremastered)? P.P.S. Thanks for posting those pics, NCC-1701.
It looks like the signature says "Eugene W. Roddenberry" next to or underneath what I assume is the actual artist's scrawl. These were a series of twelve "Enterprise Evolution" posters offered by Lincoln Enterprises. I don't think they're actual production art, but were created after the fact as merchandise based on the original black-and-white design sketches. So I doubt the signature next to Roddenberry's is Bachelin's. Here's the text describing them from the one remaining Lincoln Enterprises catalog I have (probably from 1983, since it only has merchandise up to TWOK): The set of twelve posters was offered for $4.95. There are only eleven shown here. The reproductions in the catalog are tiny and crude, but it looks like the twelfth one was a variant or simply another angle of the one with four nacelles, a sphere, and a disk (the seventh one from the top in NCC-1701's post). So the catalog text claiming twelve very different Enterprises is inaccurate (and I'm sure some of these weren't called Enterprise, since the ship was called the Yorktown for much of the development process). EDIT: Oh, wait -- read the text more closely on that CafePress page: So the signature is "Rod" Roddenberry's, added very much after the fact. Apparently Roddenberry.com, the successor to Lincoln Enterprises, is putting these back into print -- and stating an outright falsehood when it says they're "made available to you for the first time." And they're charging a grand total of $549.89 for 11/12 of a set you could get for less than five bucks in the '80s.
I love star trek. Always something new for me to see after being a fan since 1978! I really want to flesh out the 2nd one with the USA designation on it. And I can see the inspiration for the Defiant in that one! Excellent post!
Thanks, that USA one looks very much like one that John Eaves did, I'll see if I can locate a pic of it if anybody's interested? Edit: What the hey, it's the first one at the top here... www.starshipdatalink.net/art/insurrection.html
Ah yes- I see it there! Very nice... Though I'm really into these ships here. I can see these as ships for the TOS universe. Civilian, Starfleet, other paramilitary type vessels. These deserve to be 3D'd!
^^ Oh absolutely, I couldn't agree more! Looking forward to anything you have to offer in that regard?
The notation "**** for ****" normally denotes that the second has made the approval, but for whatever reason (usually they called it in or were just busy) they couldn't sign themselves, and authorized the first name to sign for them. Well, the first name carries no weight, and they'll probably recognize the handwriting doesn't match the actual person's, so the authorized person signs that way. Bureaucratese, but it does speed up the process at critical points.
I did the simple all grey Jefferies one that looks similar to the Enterprise (buried away on page 2 or 3 in fan art)... But I haven't had time to complete it. But I am definately doing the USA ship above soon. I love that one. I hope others will do the same here.
Great to hear! I loved your interpretation of the pre-E, and I second your suggestion that others might try their hand at fleshing these designs out. I once actually thought about posting a thread to rally members to take some of the more well known concept art to its logical conclusions. But since I lack any computer art skills myself to offer, I thought it would be a hard sell, so I shelved the idea. But if anyone is interested please have at it!
Hope you find the time to finish it, Patrickivan...still looking forward to seeing it fleshed out ...but, would love to see your take on these designs too.
Now the ship that is fourth from the bottom with a saucer on one end, and the sphere on the other--that needs to be a static warp field outpost--a stationary outpost mock-up designed to compare warp field effects on saucer hulls vs Daedalus designs. Very nice ships indeed. Some other links http://www.starshipdatalink.net/links.html http://startrekonline.com/ships/excalibur http://www.starshipdatalink.net/enterprise.html http://www.starshipdatalink.net/art/voyager1.html http://www.starshipdatalink.net/art/images/re-3.gif http://www.starshipdatalink.net/art/1701refit.html
I'm going to stick my neck out here and say it... I dont see what you're all getting excited about. I think a couple of the designs have some merit and could be developed further to see where they might go, but for the most part it does look very 30's and 40's sci-fi comic ideas to me. At first glance they pretty much all look ugly, and on second glance some have some merit that might warrant a look. I dont know how long I'd have to look at them to get as excited by them as many of you appear to be. I just dont see it.
They're historical curiosities, of course. Yet I do see potential in a couple of them. I certainly don't see anything that could pass as a finished design, but I do see something there as a conceptual starting point. My biggest beef with the Deadalus-class ship we've seen is that they essentially took MJ's sketches as pretty much the final design rather than properly fleshing it out. As is I think it looks childish and ungainly with no real integrity as a design. I think it isn't a bad starting point, but not as a final design. That's how I feel about these drawings. They're basic conceptual starting points.
You pretty much summed it all up Warp9, my sentiments exactly. Of the bunch, the one second from the top upthread is the best to work with I think. As for the Daedalus, I think the Pasteur is more the direction to go?