• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Celebrating SNW Production Design

I think SNW’s production design is fantastic. I also thought DSC’s production design was fantastic. Heck, I even thought ENT’s production design was fantastic.

Do I think any of those shows are adequate prequels to TOS, despite that? That’s another story.
 
mQLltIP.jpg

I have to wonder if the wall in the rear is a nod to the "drapery walls" seen in TOS?
 
While looking at a photo of the Strange New Worlds corridor set I just randomly noticed a cute detail they have brought over to their version. While there don’t seem to be any obvious design cues taken from the original corridor, those trapezoid shapes at the top absolutely seem to be inspired by those metallic elements from the original show. Also, the appearance of red on the ceiling!

And I wonder if the general shape of the SNW conference table is inspired by the shape of the table they had in the two TOS pilots …

9fPTc2V.jpeg
 
I have to say - production wise, SNW might be the most beautiful Trek series ever produced.

Before that my favourite was always TOS for it's imagination - even if it sometimes looked cheap even for it's time and has aged a LOT since then.

90s Trek (+ Disco/PIC + weirdly "Into Darkness" & "Beyond") always looked depressingly gray and unexciting to me. They were clearly going for "realism". TOS instead always looked so imaginative - clearly going for "futuristic" and stylish. I always preferred that.

SNW seems to get the perfect blend between TOS and ST09's more realistic re-imagination of that, a "retro-futurism" that still looks more futuristic than retro, and actually quite realistic.

It's nothing short of a miracle to be honest.
 
90s Trek (+ Disco/PIC + weirdly "Into Darkness" & "Beyond")
90s Trek and Picard but the rest? What? Depressing is hard to swallow, especially since I would happily serve on the Kelvin Enterprise, or Yorktown base. Discovery less so but only because the ship is ugly on the outside.
 
There's corridor concept art showing a TOS Style wall comm panel, but I don't think we ever see one in the series

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Xg46KD
1rcMo8p.png


This is the closest we got, only spotted it on the Peregrine in season 1.
VM6uQXS.png



While there don’t seem to be any obvious design cues taken from the original corridor, those trapezoid shapes at the top absolutely seem to be inspired by those metallic elements from the original show. Also, the appearance of red on the ceiling!
One piece of concept art above even has them directly lifted.
M4GElx3.png
 
Last edited:
There's corridor concept art showing a TOS Style wall comm panel, but I don't think we ever see one in the series

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Xg46KD
1rcMo8p.png


This is the closest we got, only spotted it on the Peregrine in season 1.
VM6uQXS.png




One piece of concept art above even has them directly lifted.
M4GElx3.png
Those are some excellent finds, thank you! Had seen some of Dening’s concept art before here and there, but never compiled like that.

It’s interesting that they decided to go without the comm panels, because I think they look pretty fitting in these renderings and would tie it to the original even more.

I wonder if those red framed touchscreen panels they have in the turbolift are what the comm panels morphed into …

slzpZd3.jpeg


It’s cool how close these rendering already are to the finished sets. How surreal it must feel for Ryan Dening to see his concepts realized with such accuracy and attention to detail.

Another interesting detail are those circular hatches with shutter lock on the corridor ceiling. As far as I’m aware we’ve not seen them opened on the show yet, but the concept art indicates that a ladder could be lowered from them. I guess this would be their version of those red ladders in circular alcoves we saw on the original series.

DQzDhzc.jpeg


A concept rendering of the conference room has me wondering about this elaborate wall console, which doesn’t seem to be a nod to TOS, but very much reminds me of the Logic Memory Center from 2001: A Space Odyssey …

Yg5IZTn.jpeg


By the way, on Ex Astris Scientia they have collected all the various set and prop photos that have been made publicly available. I think it’s fascinating how even in these plain shots without proper lighting the sets look just so good.
 
While not SNW, Discovery Season 1 did have a couple locations when Lorca is showing off what the spore drive can do that look like recreations, or at least inspired by TOS Matte paintings.

UOMr45G.png

DgZoxP4.png
I thought that bit from Discovery was brilliant, I hope we get to see these places on SNW at some point.
 
Hope I’m not annoying anyone with these, haha. But I’m still noticing details about the set design that fascinate me and I’d like to draw attention to.

Earlier I noted the red grid pattern that they have adapted from the original show (AFAIK there were two distinct grid patterns they used), but I had no idea how widespread it was on the ship: It’s not only used in the wall and console panels in engineering, but also on the bridge (in a slightly broken up form), airlock doors, shuttle backdoors, room dividers, the rec room bar, and even the sonic shower. Once you start to notice this, you kinda see it everywhere. :lol:

uXouW2y.jpeg


Interestingly, behind the various corridor wall panels you can also find the regular, unaltered grid pattern from the original series …

ick9Ngf.jpeg


And then on this Italian Trek site I found a bunch of photos from a set visit. They show the two configurations of the beds in sickbay, which I don’t think they’ve ever clearly demonstrated on the show proper yet …

4fOHLhH.gif
 
By the way, does anyone know if the repeating 3D pattern on the wall is referencing something or is that completely original? I feel like I've seen that somewhere before.
Well, the sideways irregular hexagons remind me of the Vulcan gong and the three elements found in the Romulan symbol in TOS The Enterprise Incident:
https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/screencaps/season2/205-amok-time/amok-time-br-320.jpg
https://tos.trekcore.com/gallery/al...prise-incident/enterprise-incident-br-374.jpg
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top