Drex Files: NX Engineering Department

In this edition of the Drex Files in Exile, Doug Drexler takes us behind the scenes of the Enterprise NX-01's magnificent engineering room. This time Doug has not just pictures from the set, but a video of it being created too, enjoy:



Here's Doug's commentary on the video:

One of the most thrilling things about working on Star Trek was watching the construction gang in the Marathon Mill take our sketches and blueprints and make them real… and like magic, sets would seemingly coalesce from thin air.

When Mike Westmore piped me aboard the Enterprise D as a a makeup artist, I got my first closeup look at those classiest of starship sets. Buddy, I was like a kid in a candy store, free to wander the 23rd century and marvel at the magnificent designs and incredible craftsmanship that went into even the smallest detail.

There is a saying in the makeup department… first to get there, last to leave. But there were days when I would finish up at 2am, pack my kit, head across the Paramount lot to the parking structure, and be blown away that the construction guys would still be at it full tilt. Later, when I made the jump from the makeup department to art department, I would learn who this amazing powerhouse of a gang was. Not only would I be privy to their world and particular brand of magic, but I would now be working with them hand in hand. I would not only be wowed by their incredible talent and skill, but by the unique characters and personalities that drove the Trek construction juggernaut. Heady days, my friend.

A rough and tumble world of pneumatic nail guns, saber saws and testosterone. The “Marathon Mill” was a wild and woolly pirate ship that demanded a thick skin and a sense of humor to successfully navigate. Working with construction was one of the funnest, coolest and most satisfying experiences of my widely varied life in Hollywood. Our Star Trek machine was well oiled, and in it’s veins flowed trust, affection, and admiration. I don’t believe that I have ever worked on another show where cooperation between departments was so powerful.

During construction of the NX sets I kept a video record, and this stuff’ll knock your socks off. The first installment makes maximum montage of the construction of the NX warp core and engineering department. Hey you know it, and I know it: A cool engineering department is central to a starship, and we were especially proud of this one. It’s a remarkable document of a very ambitious Star Trek set, and baby you are there!

Continue after the jump as Doug takes us a tour of the set.

Drex Files: Vulcan D’Vahl type fighter

A few days ago we had a look at Doug Drexler's concept for a 20th century Vulcan ship for the episode Carbon Creek. Alas that design wasn't used in the final episode, so I thought it would be a good time for the Drex Files in Exile to look at the design that did make it to Earth to collect T'Pol's second foremother. Here's what Doug had to say about this suitably retro looking space-age ship:

The D’Vahl exhibited a rotund penquiny quality fused with the Vulcan lander from “First Contact”, and Chesley Bonnestell’s moonship from Destination Moon. Most notably seen in “Carbon Creek”. The model was later re-used in “Storm front II” where it appeared as one of the welcoming ships in orbit of Earth and in “Kir’shara” and “Awakening”.

Continue after the jump for more views of the ship, and a look at it in action in Enterprise episodes:

Drex Files: Vulcan Speedboat

Ready for another dose of Drex Files in Exiles? This short and sweet entry looks at Doug Drexler's cool design for a Vulcan ship that didn't quite make it into the Enterprise episode Carbon Creek. As Doug explains:

I turned in a concept sketch of a Vulcan scout ship for the Enterprise episode, "Carbon Creek". That show was a favorite of mine. I found it really touching. So outside the box.

The rescue ship was described as built to go fast. I wanted it to look like it was moving, even when standing still. A sports car. It didn't get used, but I like it anyway!

Drex Files: New York World's Fair in the Trekverse

This year, this month in fact, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the 1964 New York World's Fair, a showcase of innovation and futuristic architecture, themed on the Star-Trekian ideals of "Peace Through Understanding" and showcasing "Man's Achievement on a Shrinking Globe in an Expanding Universe". Why do I mention this half century old exhibition here? Well the gleaming world presented at the Fair quickly found itself brought to life in the Star Trek future, with the futuristic designs making their way to distant worlds, starships, and other parts of future Earth. In this Drex Files in Exile, Doug Drexler guides us through the Fair's influence on him, and his predecessors, in Star Trek.

Doug Drexler, then and now.

Doug's life long love for the Fair began in his childhood, when he regularly visited:

Twice a week and for two summers, impressionable eleven year old Doug Drexler was dropped off by his Dad at the front gate of the world of tomorrow. It did not neccessitate a slingshot around the sun, nor did it call for call for Mr. Atoz and his Atavachron. The lad’s awe inspiring and futuristic destination was not some far flung decade, but then and there in 1964. It rose from the most unlikely of places… a landfill in Flushing Meadow. It was the New York World’s Fair, and it was the proverbial world of tomorrow. It would impress him to the core.

As Spock observed, time could be perceived as a river, with eddies and backwashes. Someone else was washed up onto that shore, and our paths undoubtedly crossed at the jetting waters of the iconic Unisphere, or trekked side by side along the undulating Kodak Moon Deck, or stood in line at Ford’s Magic Skyway. My fellow time traveler was Walter “Matt” Jefferies… aviator, illustrator, art director, and he would become one of the most important artistic influences in my life.

The 1964-65 New York World’s Fair was the largest international exhibition ever buit in the United States, and it was all about THE FUTURE. Never before, and never again would there be such an amazing conglomeration of optimistic, sci-fi, wet dream, futurism in one place. Matt Jefferies absorbed it all with intense fascination. And so the New York World’s Fair was the birthplace of the Star Trek design ethic. I would never be the same because of it…

Albert Whitlock Jr.'s Starbase 11 matte painting

The real world Starbase 11 at the World's Fair

Perhaps the most iconic influence of the Fair in Star Trek can be seen in the form of Starbase 11, as seen in the TOS episode Court Martial. The Starbase, depicted in Albert Whitlock Jr.'s iconic matte painting, includes the New York State Pavillion and the nearby Astro-View Towers, almost exactly duplicated on a distant alien world. Some of the few remaining structures at the original site, these have recently been declared a "National Treasure” by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, paving the way for their ongoing preservation and restoration. Doug explains how these structures found there way into the Trekverse:

Long before there was Internet, there were World’s Fair’s. That’s how new ideas were introduced, and affluent American corporations opened their dream labs to the wide-eyed public. The NYWF was nicknamed “The Billion-Dollar Fair” and it’s official theme was Peace through Understanding. Robert Moses, the Fair’s chairman proclaimed that it “had something for everyone.” American industry was booming, and corporations had money to burn. Forty years later, Matt would tell Mike Okuda and I what an impression it had made on him. When he returned home to southern California, there was a message “… from a guy named Roddenberry.” The Fair’s impact on Star Trek would be considerable.

Continue after the jump to see where else in the Trekverse the Fair has found itself:

Drex Files: NX-01, Enterprise class

Enterprise NX-01, rendered by Rob Bonchune.

For the second instalment of the Drex Files in Exile I thought it fitting to have a good look at what is perhaps Doug Drexler's most significant contribution to the world of Star Trek, his great starship design, the NX-01. This file gives us a good look at the final NX-01 model, built by Pierre Drolet, with Doug guiding us through some of the details via orthographic views produced by Eden FX. So here's Doug on the NX-01:

I had a field day detailing out the NX, and every nook and cranny is accounted for. Pierre Drolet did an incredible job implementing them in this high rez build.
I added details that I hoped would allow for cool ideas later on, if and when the opportunities presented themselves. But I had to be cautious about obvious details to the ship that were not approved, because they could get me into trouble. Yes, The chain of command was heavy on Enterprise. Herman Zimmerman, our stalwart production designer was once balled out because I labeled a nacelle as a nacelle on a framed blueprint in the drydock observation room. He was told that it wasn’t a nacelle until the front office said it was. So I tucked gear behind doors and hatches, and then wrote up notes “suggesting” the vessels potential.

The dedication plaque refers to the class as NX (This was a request from on high), but according to naval tradition, the first ship of a new contract is what the class is named, so Enterprise class. My main mission was to inject as much of the original Enterprise into this ship as I possibly could, and I made sure that the basic dynamic between the saucer and the nacelles was the same. To a person with a sharp eye, the NX-01 is loaded with TOS Easter eggs

This is an unusual render of the Enterprise in that there is a lot of ambient light. It really shows off the panel detailing. Like Andy’s “D”, every panel was designed and fitted painstakingly to the function and form of the ship. All sections have their own distinct personality and are not simply cloned and repeated. It was designed by someone who full well knows how close you guys like to look, because I’m one of you. Something you probably never heard before, is that the nacelle struts were originally much finer, like the TOS ship. Dan Curry thought that they didn’t look like they could support the nacelles, and that it looked silly. All due respect to Dan, but that is one of the things I loved about the TOS ship. It suggested a technology beyond our own. On the original show, the nacelles defied gravity. I was sorry when the TMP shp heavied them up. Don’t get me wrong, it still looks great. Just not what I wanted for the NX. Ok… look at the struts, notice that there  is a tapered fairing on the leading edge. Those were the original struts, well…  a  little heavier than that. A third more. But everything behind that was add on. I emphasized that front fairing so that in some light conditions it would be all you would see, and feel more like my beloved TOS Enterprise.

Continue after the jump for many more views of the NX-01, and more of Doug's notes on the design:

Drex Files: Art Department Fleet Yard

Once upon a time there was a wonderful website called Drex Files, where Star Trek visual effects wizard, art department pro, make-up artist, all round mega-fan, and friend of trekkies everywhere, Doug Drexler, treated the world to regular looks behind the scenes at years of his work on Star Trek, from TV production and beyond. Alas the Drex Files are no more, but Doug carries on the good work on his Facebook profile instead.

Missing the blog format of Drex Files, I reached out to Doug, and am delighted that has endorsed a cunning plan to open the files once more. So welcome to the first post of "Drex Files in Exile", where I'll be bringing back some of the old Drex Files articles, and re-presenting what Doug has posted on Facebook. You'll be able to find Drex Files posts on The Trek Collective under a dedicated tag, and I'll be maintaining an index page, which you'll find a link to in the bar at the top of the site, to make it nice and easy to find exactly the Drex File you're looking for.

Doug has posted so many amazing things over the years, so it's hard to know where to start. But I felt this first post should definitely show Doug in action, and one of the things I especially love about what Doug posts, ships! So we'll be kicking things off with Doug's look at the "Art Department Fleet Yard". Here's what Doug had to say about this collection of photos:

Occasionally if a miniature needed graphic retouching, VFX would arrange to have the teamsters pick the model up and bring it to the art department. That was always a big event, because the ships were our idea of celebrities. More than anything, they seemed to embody what the show was all about… symbolic of human aspiration and ingenuity.

We start this look behind the scenes with work on the Nebula class USS Prometheus. There's more of this ship, and some others, after the jump:

Oh please, Mr. Okuda! Don’t make me touch up the starships again! Anything but that!

I always thought the Nebula class ship was a brilliant variant, with it’s distinctive AWAC like sensor pod. It gave a much needed boot to filling out the fleet.

At one point, Dan Curry called Mike indicating that we may need an AWAC pod variant. We obliged by kludging one together. We ultimately did not use it.