1 00:00:00,711 --> 00:00:01,712 [Gates McFadden] Star Trek, 2 00:00:01,795 --> 00:00:05,174 science fiction's most influential franchise, 3 00:00:05,257 --> 00:00:08,677 has been around longer and traveled further than any other. 4 00:00:08,761 --> 00:00:09,595 Let's jump. 5 00:00:11,513 --> 00:00:15,726 [McFadden] And it's all thanks to a seemingly infinite armada of starships. 6 00:00:15,809 --> 00:00:18,061 Nothing is more important than my ship. 7 00:00:18,145 --> 00:00:21,815 [McFadden] From the original Enterprise to its most distant relative, 8 00:00:21,899 --> 00:00:25,861 Star Trek has been designing starships almost as long as NASA. 9 00:00:25,944 --> 00:00:26,945 [man] Liftoff. 10 00:00:27,029 --> 00:00:29,156 [McFadden] What started with plastic models 11 00:00:29,239 --> 00:00:32,409 has evolved into computer-generated wizardry. 12 00:00:32,493 --> 00:00:36,163 And throughout it all, an unmistakable design language 13 00:00:36,246 --> 00:00:38,207 has been written in the stars. 14 00:00:38,290 --> 00:00:41,502 The story of how those designs came to be, 15 00:00:41,585 --> 00:00:43,170 and came to be loved, 16 00:00:43,253 --> 00:00:46,048 literally spans time and space. 17 00:00:46,131 --> 00:00:47,132 Warp drive, Mr. Scott. 18 00:00:51,011 --> 00:00:54,014 [McFadden] So beam aboard and hold on tight 19 00:00:54,097 --> 00:00:58,727 as we boldly explore the starships of Star Trek. 20 00:00:59,937 --> 00:01:04,650 And you can see it all from here in The Center Seat. 21 00:01:08,779 --> 00:01:13,325 All I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by. 22 00:01:13,408 --> 00:01:17,037 [McFadden] If you love Star Trek , you love starships. 23 00:01:17,120 --> 00:01:20,707 You know, I love starships. Star Trek loves starships. 24 00:01:21,750 --> 00:01:25,128 [McFadden] The vessel that virtually defined the look of a spaceship 25 00:01:25,212 --> 00:01:28,674 for generations began where Star Trek began: 26 00:01:28,757 --> 00:01:30,634 with Gene Roddenberry. 27 00:01:30,717 --> 00:01:33,011 [Michael Okuda] Roddenberry knew that the ship 28 00:01:33,095 --> 00:01:34,429 was an important character. 29 00:01:34,513 --> 00:01:36,682 It had to be distinctive. It had to be believable. 30 00:01:36,765 --> 00:01:40,686 He knew if you didn't buy the ship, you weren't gonna buy the series. 31 00:01:40,769 --> 00:01:43,689 [McFadden] But the Enterprise was hardly the first starship. 32 00:01:43,772 --> 00:01:47,192 The word "starship" had been around before Star Trek in books. 33 00:01:47,276 --> 00:01:52,406 [McFadden] The first visualizations of spacecraft were mostly saucers 34 00:01:52,489 --> 00:01:55,492 or distinctly tobacco-themed. 35 00:01:55,576 --> 00:01:58,370 Outer Limits, which was a couple years before Star Trek, 36 00:01:58,453 --> 00:02:00,122 and it's a cigar-shaped rocket... 37 00:02:01,957 --> 00:02:05,794 ...against a black duvetyn with pinpricks in it for stars. 38 00:02:05,878 --> 00:02:08,422 [McFadden] Rockets for the Rocket Age. 39 00:02:08,505 --> 00:02:09,506 [man] Liftoff. 40 00:02:09,590 --> 00:02:11,884 [McFadden] But with the Space Age now dawning, 41 00:02:11,967 --> 00:02:14,928 Gene wanted something that would take the audience further. 42 00:02:15,012 --> 00:02:19,892 Gene didn't want it to look like those rocket ships that everybody knows about. 43 00:02:19,975 --> 00:02:20,976 He wanted it to be different. 44 00:02:21,059 --> 00:02:24,187 [McFadden] To let our imaginations take flight, 45 00:02:24,271 --> 00:02:28,025 Gene brought in a man who had experience of exactly that. 46 00:02:28,108 --> 00:02:31,069 Roddenberry, he brought on the art director Matt Jefferies 47 00:02:31,153 --> 00:02:33,530 very early on to start conceptualizing the ship. 48 00:02:33,614 --> 00:02:36,867 [Matt Jefferies] Roddenberry, about all he said was several don'ts. 49 00:02:36,950 --> 00:02:39,953 "No flames, no fins, no rockets. 50 00:02:40,037 --> 00:02:42,748 And one do is make it look like it's got power." 51 00:02:42,831 --> 00:02:43,874 And he walked out. 52 00:02:43,957 --> 00:02:47,711 [McFadden] Well, Gene could afford to be a little short with Matt. 53 00:02:47,794 --> 00:02:52,132 He knew he had real-world experience with magnificent flying machines. 54 00:02:52,215 --> 00:02:56,053 [Doug Drexler] Matt Jefferies was a flight engineer on a B-17. 55 00:02:56,136 --> 00:02:59,431 Gene Roddenberry was a pilot on a B-17 in the Pacific. 56 00:02:59,514 --> 00:03:03,226 He worked on a lot of war movies, drew ships, 57 00:03:03,310 --> 00:03:05,687 designed a lot of airplanes for movie productions. 58 00:03:05,771 --> 00:03:07,731 [Okuda] So he was an excellent choice. 59 00:03:07,814 --> 00:03:10,233 He knew aircraft and he kept up with space technology. 60 00:03:10,317 --> 00:03:14,529 [McFadden] Gene and Matt combined their own experience of military aircraft 61 00:03:14,613 --> 00:03:18,367 with ideas emerging from America's new national obsession: 62 00:03:18,450 --> 00:03:20,077 the Space Race. 63 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:21,954 [Dr. Heinz Hoffmann] When Man steps into his rocket ship 64 00:03:22,037 --> 00:03:23,455 and leaves the Earth behind, 65 00:03:23,538 --> 00:03:26,959 he must be well equipped to survive in the hostile realm of outer space. 66 00:03:27,042 --> 00:03:29,836 [Drexler] One of the things that Matt and Gene looked at, 67 00:03:29,920 --> 00:03:32,214 there was a series of television shows. 68 00:03:32,297 --> 00:03:36,426 Now, here is a model, my design for a four-stage orbital rocket ship. 69 00:03:36,510 --> 00:03:40,389 The top section will consist of ten crew members plus equipment. 70 00:03:40,472 --> 00:03:44,017 And Collier's magazine did a very famous series of articles 71 00:03:44,101 --> 00:03:45,310 about how we're gonna go to the moon. 72 00:03:45,394 --> 00:03:48,146 [McFadden] But Gene wanted something to take the audience 73 00:03:48,230 --> 00:03:53,318 further in their imaginations than science could hope to go in space. 74 00:03:53,402 --> 00:03:54,945 [Andre Bormanis] It needs to look powerful, 75 00:03:55,028 --> 00:03:56,613 it needs to look futuristic, 76 00:03:56,697 --> 00:04:01,034 and it needs to look functional like there is a sense behind this design. 77 00:04:01,118 --> 00:04:05,247 So he went through a painstaking iterative process. 78 00:04:05,330 --> 00:04:07,749 [Dorothy "D.C." Fontana] Old science-fiction magazines 79 00:04:07,833 --> 00:04:11,336 that had spaceships on the cover, different looks, different kinds, 80 00:04:11,420 --> 00:04:12,629 and Roddenberry would look at them and say, 81 00:04:12,713 --> 00:04:14,756 "How about we try this, but do this with it," 82 00:04:14,840 --> 00:04:16,633 and Matt would come up with something. 83 00:04:16,717 --> 00:04:20,554 It had to be instantly recognizable, which meant I was looking for shape, 84 00:04:20,637 --> 00:04:22,222 but I didn't know what the shape looked like. 85 00:04:22,305 --> 00:04:25,017 [McFadden] So Matt tried new combinations 86 00:04:25,100 --> 00:04:26,226 of familiar shapes. 87 00:04:26,309 --> 00:04:28,895 [Rick Sternbach] You know, shiny saucers with a dome, 88 00:04:28,979 --> 00:04:33,608 he started with those sorts of shapes and textures. 89 00:04:33,692 --> 00:04:36,945 [Okuda] And Roddenberry would say, "I don't like that. This looks goofy. 90 00:04:37,029 --> 00:04:38,280 I like a little bit of this." 91 00:04:38,363 --> 00:04:39,823 [McFadden] The process was hit or miss, 92 00:04:39,906 --> 00:04:43,827 but even Matt Jefferies' rejected designs were ahead of their time. 93 00:04:43,910 --> 00:04:46,246 [Drexler] Matt Jefferies' original shapes, 94 00:04:46,329 --> 00:04:49,332 actually, instead of a saucer, had a sphere out front. 95 00:04:49,416 --> 00:04:53,045 The best shape for a pressure vessel is a sphere. 96 00:04:53,128 --> 00:04:55,714 And Roddenberry looked at that and said, "Oh, yeah, you know, I like this. 97 00:04:55,797 --> 00:04:57,674 I like that. I don't think I like the sphere so much." 98 00:04:57,758 --> 00:04:59,134 That got changed to a saucer, 99 00:04:59,217 --> 00:05:02,095 but the saucer was on the bottom of the engineering hull. 100 00:05:02,179 --> 00:05:04,222 [McFadden] But the breakthrough that made the Enterprise 101 00:05:04,306 --> 00:05:06,058 was anything but technical. 102 00:05:06,141 --> 00:05:08,226 Gene, I think, took and flipped it. 103 00:05:08,310 --> 00:05:10,896 [McFadden] Even upside down or from whatever angle, 104 00:05:10,979 --> 00:05:13,482 Matt's design was majestic. 105 00:05:13,565 --> 00:05:17,277 The ship didn't look like the typical, you know, 106 00:05:17,360 --> 00:05:22,115 silver sweptback-wing kind of spaceships. 107 00:05:22,199 --> 00:05:25,494 The Enterprise was something way different. 108 00:05:25,577 --> 00:05:28,080 -[beeping] -The Enterprise is not a want or a desire. 109 00:05:28,163 --> 00:05:30,665 It is a mechanical device. 110 00:05:30,749 --> 00:05:33,543 No, it's a beautiful lady and we love her. 111 00:05:33,627 --> 00:05:35,754 [McFadden] We do indeed. 112 00:05:35,837 --> 00:05:38,381 Gene finally had what he wanted. 113 00:05:38,465 --> 00:05:42,010 The Enterprise would be a mix of the old and the new. 114 00:05:42,094 --> 00:05:45,013 [Drexler] They came up with this incredibly original design 115 00:05:45,097 --> 00:05:49,267 by combining elements of science-fiction ships 116 00:05:49,351 --> 00:05:52,437 that had become tropes and turn them into something new. 117 00:05:52,521 --> 00:05:54,397 You know, the nacelles and secondary hull 118 00:05:54,481 --> 00:05:57,609 are very much like your standard cigar-shaped rocket. 119 00:05:57,692 --> 00:05:59,111 And then they used a saucer, 120 00:05:59,194 --> 00:06:01,613 a flying saucer like we saw in Forbidden Planet. 121 00:06:01,696 --> 00:06:04,699 [McFadden] But it wasn't just a hodgepodge that happened to look good. 122 00:06:04,783 --> 00:06:07,994 Matt's design work on Star Trek was coming from somebody 123 00:06:08,078 --> 00:06:11,164 who understood aeronautics and space structures, 124 00:06:11,248 --> 00:06:12,749 so he was able to put together something 125 00:06:12,833 --> 00:06:15,961 that was more believable than, say, some other designers. 126 00:06:16,044 --> 00:06:18,213 [McFadden] So after dealing with the outside 127 00:06:18,296 --> 00:06:23,635 of this soon-to-be-iconic starship, Gene turned his attentions to the inside. 128 00:06:23,718 --> 00:06:26,763 Because they didn't have money, they couldn't go out 129 00:06:26,847 --> 00:06:30,267 and buy expensive surplus to make their switches on the consoles 130 00:06:30,350 --> 00:06:31,268 and things like that. 131 00:06:31,351 --> 00:06:35,438 They came up with the idea of taking novelty ice cube trays 132 00:06:35,522 --> 00:06:37,983 with all different shapes and coloring epoxy, 133 00:06:38,066 --> 00:06:40,777 pouring it in the trays and when it's set, popping 'em out, 134 00:06:40,861 --> 00:06:43,738 and now you had all these really unusual-looking colored buttons. 135 00:06:43,822 --> 00:06:45,949 They almost look like candy. 136 00:06:46,032 --> 00:06:50,328 But they would catch the light from overhead and they looked lit up. 137 00:06:51,496 --> 00:06:54,040 [McFadden] Well, when television viewers caught their first glimpse 138 00:06:54,124 --> 00:06:59,838 of the USS Enterprise in 1966, eyes lit up and imaginations sparked. 139 00:06:59,921 --> 00:07:03,675 There was no doubt who was the star of this show. 140 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:05,552 [John Tenuto] The number one person to get letters 141 00:07:05,635 --> 00:07:08,096 was not Leonard Nimoy or William Shatner, 142 00:07:08,180 --> 00:07:10,599 but the Enterprise received more fan letters 143 00:07:10,682 --> 00:07:13,685 from kids wanting pictures of the Enterprise 144 00:07:13,768 --> 00:07:15,437 than any of the actors. 145 00:07:15,520 --> 00:07:18,857 It changed everything as far as people's expectations 146 00:07:18,940 --> 00:07:22,027 in what spaceships, "starships" look like. 147 00:07:22,110 --> 00:07:23,820 That's... 148 00:07:23,904 --> 00:07:25,614 The Enterprise. 149 00:07:25,697 --> 00:07:29,826 [McFadden] She truly has stood the test of time. 150 00:07:29,910 --> 00:07:33,330 Something they designed in 1964 still stands 151 00:07:33,413 --> 00:07:35,624 as an icon of science-fiction design. 152 00:07:35,707 --> 00:07:38,752 Who doesn't know what the Enterprise is? That famous silhouette. 153 00:07:38,877 --> 00:07:41,504 It could be the size of a dime and you knew what it was. 154 00:07:41,588 --> 00:07:45,634 [McFadden] The starships of Enterprise, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, 155 00:07:45,717 --> 00:07:48,511 and every starship to take to the heavens since 156 00:07:48,595 --> 00:07:50,513 owes something to the mothership. 157 00:07:50,597 --> 00:07:53,308 Everything, it looks like a family. There's a lineage. 158 00:07:54,392 --> 00:07:58,063 [McFadden] Well, in 1979, the Enterprise went somewhere 159 00:07:58,146 --> 00:08:00,857 no Starfleet ship was ever designed to go, 160 00:08:01,024 --> 00:08:02,651 all the way to Hollywood, 161 00:08:02,734 --> 00:08:06,321 as Star Trek took to the silver screen for the first time. 162 00:08:06,404 --> 00:08:07,322 Steady as she goes. 163 00:08:07,405 --> 00:08:11,660 [McFadden] And for this new era, a new Enterprise. 164 00:08:11,743 --> 00:08:15,538 Production illustrator Andrew Probert was among those charged 165 00:08:15,622 --> 00:08:18,792 with improving on Star Trek' s most emblematic design. 166 00:08:18,875 --> 00:08:22,921 It was my first task on the Enterprise to supply some detailing for the ship. 167 00:08:23,004 --> 00:08:26,675 [McFadden] Collaborating with production designer Richard Taylor, 168 00:08:26,758 --> 00:08:29,844 Andrew's first instinct was to go big for the big screen. 169 00:08:29,928 --> 00:08:32,305 And I told Richard, I said, "Let's go big with this thing." 170 00:08:32,389 --> 00:08:34,432 And Richard said, "No." 171 00:08:34,516 --> 00:08:36,142 [McFadden] Richard Taylor wanted to stick 172 00:08:36,226 --> 00:08:38,770 to Matt Jefferies' original Enterprise concepts 173 00:08:38,853 --> 00:08:43,233 for a Star Trek show that would show the evolution of the Enterprise 174 00:08:43,316 --> 00:08:45,485 but never quite evolved itself. 175 00:08:45,568 --> 00:08:46,820 Phase two... 176 00:08:46,903 --> 00:08:49,614 [Drexler] You could see the original series Enterprise 177 00:08:49,698 --> 00:08:51,700 evolve into the motion picture Enterprise. 178 00:08:53,618 --> 00:08:54,953 [McFadden] The reimagined Enterprise 179 00:08:55,036 --> 00:08:56,663 would receive a new bridge, 180 00:08:56,746 --> 00:08:58,081 observation deck, 181 00:08:58,164 --> 00:09:02,419 and what any taxpayer expects to see in fancy new military hardware. 182 00:09:02,502 --> 00:09:03,420 We need more power. 183 00:09:03,503 --> 00:09:05,171 [McFadden] More firepower. 184 00:09:05,255 --> 00:09:07,424 [Andrew Probert] I was actually able to make the saucer bigger. 185 00:09:07,507 --> 00:09:10,176 Richard said, "Okay, now let's come up with a paneling." 186 00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:13,013 [McFadden] For the big screen, 187 00:09:13,096 --> 00:09:15,974 small detailing would give the ship a texture, 188 00:09:16,057 --> 00:09:19,311 making sure the Enterprise was ready for her close-up. 189 00:09:19,394 --> 00:09:22,272 [Probert] It should look like it's put together with little pieces 190 00:09:22,355 --> 00:09:24,858 just to give it some scale and help define the shape. 191 00:09:24,941 --> 00:09:28,611 And I came up with what they call an Aztec pattern for the saucer, 192 00:09:28,695 --> 00:09:32,032 which is these interlocking pieces that I thought would create 193 00:09:32,115 --> 00:09:35,035 this kind of a tensile strength, keeping this whole thing together. 194 00:09:35,118 --> 00:09:36,870 [McFadden] And propelling this whole thing 195 00:09:36,953 --> 00:09:39,039 was a redesigned powerhouse. 196 00:09:39,122 --> 00:09:42,167 [Probert] Richard Taylor actually wanted to do the engines himself. 197 00:09:42,250 --> 00:09:43,960 He said, "I know you're designing this, 198 00:09:44,044 --> 00:09:46,504 but I wanna do the engines because I have this idea." 199 00:09:46,588 --> 00:09:47,547 [McFadden] Richard's big idea 200 00:09:47,630 --> 00:09:51,343 was to reshape the Enterprise's trademarked nacelles. 201 00:09:51,426 --> 00:09:54,512 [Probert] And so Richard designed those new warp engines, 202 00:09:54,596 --> 00:09:55,472 which I think are amazing. 203 00:09:55,555 --> 00:09:57,307 [McFadden] For the first time, 204 00:09:57,390 --> 00:10:01,102 Enterprise's warp nacelles were about to be warped. 205 00:10:01,186 --> 00:10:03,396 At first, I was a little concerned that we didn't have 206 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:06,191 those glorious what we call Bussard collectors now. 207 00:10:06,274 --> 00:10:08,693 That energy happening in front of the nacelles, I love that, 208 00:10:08,777 --> 00:10:11,738 but I think that that was a result of Jesco von Puttkamer, 209 00:10:11,821 --> 00:10:14,449 who was a NASA scientist who was connected to Roddenberry 210 00:10:14,532 --> 00:10:15,992 and said it suggested combustion. 211 00:10:16,076 --> 00:10:20,080 [McFadden] So after consulting scientists, the engines were bigger, 212 00:10:20,163 --> 00:10:23,541 but the most appreciated upgrade was more subtle. 213 00:10:23,625 --> 00:10:26,836 [Probert] It also set the visual style for the rest of the ship, 214 00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:29,047 which was this kind of an art deco look. 215 00:10:29,130 --> 00:10:33,885 The motion picture Enterprise is so gorgeous, so elegant, 216 00:10:34,010 --> 00:10:38,223 still reflects that respect for engineering and believability. 217 00:10:38,306 --> 00:10:41,851 It is the most exquisite model of spaceship I've ever seen. 218 00:10:41,935 --> 00:10:44,270 [McFadden] And it was all thanks to designers 219 00:10:44,354 --> 00:10:47,816 eloquently speaking the design language of the original. 220 00:10:47,899 --> 00:10:50,860 The original, Kirk's Enterprise, had these dual red lines 221 00:10:50,944 --> 00:10:53,029 going down the spine of the engineering hull, 222 00:10:53,113 --> 00:10:54,697 and I thought, "Let's build on that 223 00:10:54,781 --> 00:10:57,283 and actually use that to enhance different details." 224 00:10:57,367 --> 00:10:59,536 So we had 'em wrapped around the phaser banks 225 00:10:59,619 --> 00:11:02,330 and we had 'em wrapped around the reaction control system, 226 00:11:02,414 --> 00:11:07,335 with all of these beautiful lines accentuating parts of the ship even more. 227 00:11:07,419 --> 00:11:09,629 [McFadden] The interior of the new Enterprise 228 00:11:09,712 --> 00:11:12,674 opened up a whole world of new possibilities. 229 00:11:12,757 --> 00:11:14,634 The carbon units use this area for recreation. 230 00:11:14,717 --> 00:11:17,512 Then the script called for a rec deck. 231 00:11:17,595 --> 00:11:19,055 [McFadden] Floor-to-ceiling windows 232 00:11:19,139 --> 00:11:23,101 that would offer a never-before-seen starfield. 233 00:11:23,184 --> 00:11:25,603 The production designer at Paramount wanted there to be 234 00:11:25,687 --> 00:11:28,356 this kind of a grandiose vision out the back of the ship, 235 00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:30,483 and he says, "I want it in the rim of the saucer." 236 00:11:30,567 --> 00:11:33,778 [McFadden] But Andrew wasn't letting grand designs proceed 237 00:11:33,862 --> 00:11:36,906 without acknowledging certain engineering realities. 238 00:11:36,990 --> 00:11:39,534 And I said, "If you put the rec deck there, 239 00:11:39,617 --> 00:11:43,496 people are gonna get really tan because that's where the impulse engine is." 240 00:11:44,372 --> 00:11:48,626 [McFadden] To avoid the new Enterprise becoming a warp speed-capable sunbed, 241 00:11:48,710 --> 00:11:51,254 the design was changed. 242 00:11:51,337 --> 00:11:53,173 Scotty would have been proud. 243 00:11:53,256 --> 00:11:55,592 I'm responsible for the safety of this ship. 244 00:11:55,675 --> 00:11:57,802 [McFadden] Speaking of health and safety... 245 00:11:57,886 --> 00:12:00,054 [Drexler] If you look at the engine room, 246 00:12:00,138 --> 00:12:03,808 they had people in anti-radiation suits near the warp core. 247 00:12:03,892 --> 00:12:07,479 That's a forced perspective and they put children in uniforms 248 00:12:07,562 --> 00:12:10,607 down towards the end of it so that it looked like it was a long distance. 249 00:12:10,690 --> 00:12:14,527 [McFadden] The Star Trek motion pictures not only gave us a deeper look 250 00:12:14,611 --> 00:12:19,324 into previously unseen corners of the Enterprise, such as... 251 00:12:19,407 --> 00:12:22,744 The Enterprise has a docking port at the back of the bridge 252 00:12:22,827 --> 00:12:25,205 so that people can directly access that, 253 00:12:25,288 --> 00:12:29,626 and that's what, of course, Spock used when he came aboard the Enterprise. 254 00:12:29,709 --> 00:12:33,213 [McFadden] They also ushered in a plethora of new starships. 255 00:12:40,053 --> 00:12:42,305 [McFadden] The Star Trek films filled our screens 256 00:12:42,388 --> 00:12:45,558 with a range of new 23rd-century starships, 257 00:12:45,642 --> 00:12:49,812 expanding Starfleet in ways we had never seen before. 258 00:12:49,896 --> 00:12:52,357 The Reliant NCC-1864. 259 00:12:54,400 --> 00:12:56,277 [McFadden] The unassuming Reliant 260 00:12:56,361 --> 00:12:57,570 was strangely familiar 261 00:12:57,654 --> 00:12:59,739 and yet radically different. 262 00:12:59,822 --> 00:13:01,991 [Tenuto] We really had never seen a starship 263 00:13:02,075 --> 00:13:06,454 that wasn't the configuration of a Constitution-class starship before. 264 00:13:06,538 --> 00:13:08,456 [Okuda] Coming up with a new Star Trek starship 265 00:13:08,540 --> 00:13:09,707 is always a challenge. 266 00:13:09,791 --> 00:13:12,293 It needs to fit into something that feels 267 00:13:12,377 --> 00:13:14,504 like it's part of the family of Enterprise, 268 00:13:14,587 --> 00:13:17,423 but it also needs to have a distinct identity. 269 00:13:17,507 --> 00:13:21,844 It retains the idea of the Enterprise, the two warp nacelles. 270 00:13:21,928 --> 00:13:23,096 [McFadden] But this humble ship 271 00:13:23,179 --> 00:13:26,766 was about to turn the world of Star Trek vessels on its head. 272 00:13:26,849 --> 00:13:30,311 What's neat about it is it's actually upside down in the movie, 273 00:13:30,395 --> 00:13:32,230 based on its original design. 274 00:13:32,313 --> 00:13:35,525 It was supposed to be where the nacelles were above it. 275 00:13:35,608 --> 00:13:39,070 [McFadden] Which was all every Trekker had ever known about a starship. 276 00:13:39,153 --> 00:13:42,198 Until that is, as you might remember, 277 00:13:42,282 --> 00:13:44,492 producer Robert Sallin had his way with it. 278 00:13:44,576 --> 00:13:46,786 Yeah, I just flipped the Enterprise upside down. 279 00:13:46,869 --> 00:13:48,913 And so instead of having the nacelles up here, 280 00:13:48,997 --> 00:13:50,123 nacelles are down here. 281 00:13:50,206 --> 00:13:52,417 [McFadden] Which wasn't just a flippant decision, so to speak. 282 00:13:52,500 --> 00:13:54,085 We had a good guy and a bad guy. 283 00:13:54,168 --> 00:13:56,004 I said, "I want it to be an obvious difference." 284 00:13:57,547 --> 00:14:00,758 [McFadden] With the unprecedented success of the motion pictures, 285 00:14:00,842 --> 00:14:05,138 it seemed the bigger the movies got, the bigger the starships became. 286 00:14:05,221 --> 00:14:07,140 Would you look at that. 287 00:14:07,223 --> 00:14:08,766 [McFadden] And none was bigger than... 288 00:14:08,850 --> 00:14:09,767 The Excelsior. 289 00:14:09,851 --> 00:14:14,606 In the third movie, The Search for Spock , we introduced this ship, the Excelsior. 290 00:14:17,108 --> 00:14:20,320 The Excelsior, which is supposed to be the flagship of the Federation. 291 00:14:20,403 --> 00:14:22,363 My God, that's a big ship. 292 00:14:22,447 --> 00:14:24,324 Which is a big monster of a ship. 293 00:14:24,407 --> 00:14:26,451 [McFadden] The final design of this monster 294 00:14:26,534 --> 00:14:29,329 was literally put in the hands of director Leonard Nimoy. 295 00:14:29,412 --> 00:14:33,791 The Excelsior, there was versions of it, and we were making changes on the model. 296 00:14:33,875 --> 00:14:36,336 Leonard, he would say, "Let's try this, this, and this on this." 297 00:14:36,419 --> 00:14:38,796 They'd take it away, break it apart, bring it back in, 298 00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:39,922 make another few changes, 299 00:14:40,006 --> 00:14:43,009 and finally we had an absolute final model. 300 00:14:43,092 --> 00:14:45,762 [McFadden] The Excelsior needed serious power under the hood, 301 00:14:45,845 --> 00:14:47,805 which was easily achieved in the script 302 00:14:47,889 --> 00:14:50,892 by adding a single word to "warp drive." 303 00:14:50,975 --> 00:14:53,061 She's supposed to have transwarp drive. 304 00:14:53,144 --> 00:14:54,562 Aye. 305 00:14:54,646 --> 00:14:57,815 And if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon. 306 00:14:57,899 --> 00:15:00,276 Prepare for warp speed, standby transwarp drive. 307 00:15:00,360 --> 00:15:02,445 [McFadden] Scotty was right to be skeptical. 308 00:15:03,613 --> 00:15:06,282 I guess it means faster than warp drive. [laughs] 309 00:15:06,366 --> 00:15:08,159 What can be faster than warp drive? 310 00:15:08,242 --> 00:15:12,372 [McFadden] We wouldn't learn about the details of transwarp power until later, 311 00:15:12,455 --> 00:15:16,876 but we did learn that not all Starfleet vessels are built for speed. 312 00:15:16,959 --> 00:15:19,212 Federation science vessel Grissom arriving. 313 00:15:22,256 --> 00:15:23,925 The Oberth class is a fun little ship. 314 00:15:24,008 --> 00:15:26,469 [Drexler] You had the saucer and you had the nacelles 315 00:15:26,552 --> 00:15:29,055 and you had that unusual secondary hull 316 00:15:29,138 --> 00:15:32,725 that was like a boat hull and it was dramatically different, 317 00:15:32,809 --> 00:15:34,519 but you still went along with it. 318 00:15:34,602 --> 00:15:36,854 [McFadden] Everyone barring the Klingons, 319 00:15:36,938 --> 00:15:39,399 who sadly took exception to the Oberth class. 320 00:15:43,611 --> 00:15:45,238 [speaking Klingon] 321 00:15:45,321 --> 00:15:48,116 [McFadden] Of course, when it comes to starships exploding, 322 00:15:48,199 --> 00:15:49,826 there's one in particular 323 00:15:49,909 --> 00:15:52,578 that even Gene Roddenberry didn't approve of. 324 00:15:52,662 --> 00:15:55,373 Computer. Destruct sequence one. 325 00:15:55,456 --> 00:15:57,208 [McFadden] In the film The Search for Spock, 326 00:15:57,291 --> 00:15:59,752 Kirk destroys the Enterprise to save his crew. 327 00:16:02,004 --> 00:16:04,132 And if you think that was tough for Kirk, 328 00:16:04,215 --> 00:16:07,593 spare a thought for every hardcore Trekkie out there. 329 00:16:07,677 --> 00:16:13,057 When I saw the Enterprise destroyed in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, 330 00:16:13,141 --> 00:16:15,935 that was worse than seeing Spock die. 331 00:16:16,018 --> 00:16:20,064 That was like a gut punch. I mean, I felt that physically. 332 00:16:20,148 --> 00:16:24,986 I know that Harve Bennett wanted there to be spectacle and action in the picture, 333 00:16:25,069 --> 00:16:28,030 but the part that hurt the most was the destruction of the Enterprise. 334 00:16:28,114 --> 00:16:33,745 And I never really recovered from seeing the Enterprise destroyed 335 00:16:33,828 --> 00:16:36,164 because to me the Enterprise is Star Trek. 336 00:16:36,247 --> 00:16:37,790 What have I done? 337 00:16:37,874 --> 00:16:39,292 [McFadden] No, that's not the question. 338 00:16:39,375 --> 00:16:41,252 What do you think of the Enterprise-D? 339 00:16:41,335 --> 00:16:42,295 [McFadden] That's the one. 340 00:16:42,378 --> 00:16:45,840 With the return of Star Trek to television in 1987, 341 00:16:45,923 --> 00:16:50,386 the Enterprise was once again reborn for a new age and a new audience. 342 00:16:52,054 --> 00:16:55,391 The first live-action TV series since the original, 343 00:16:55,475 --> 00:16:58,019 Next Generation was set much later 344 00:16:58,102 --> 00:17:01,355 and introduced us to Picard's Enterprise-D. 345 00:17:01,439 --> 00:17:03,149 My Enterprise is far superior. 346 00:17:03,232 --> 00:17:07,528 [McFadden] The Enterprise almost didn't make it to The Next Generation 347 00:17:07,612 --> 00:17:09,530 for the unlikeliest of reasons. 348 00:17:09,614 --> 00:17:10,531 [David Gerrold] One day, Gene said, 349 00:17:10,615 --> 00:17:14,035 "What if we don't have a starship but just use long-distance transporters?" 350 00:17:14,118 --> 00:17:17,830 I said, "Oh, hell no. The star of the show is the Enterprise. 351 00:17:17,914 --> 00:17:19,415 You gotta have that starship." 352 00:17:19,499 --> 00:17:22,919 I was absolutely adamant, so Gene dropped the idea. 353 00:17:23,002 --> 00:17:28,090 [McFadden] Nope, the Enterprise wasn't going anywhere except out there. 354 00:17:28,174 --> 00:17:29,175 Engage. 355 00:17:31,260 --> 00:17:36,599 [McFadden] This new Enterprise presented its own unique design challenges. 356 00:17:36,682 --> 00:17:40,478 How do you redesign the Enterprise for a new TV series for Next Generation ? 357 00:17:40,561 --> 00:17:41,437 How do you do that? 358 00:17:41,521 --> 00:17:44,774 [McFadden] The Next Generation 's starships were conceived 359 00:17:44,857 --> 00:17:48,736 more than 20 years after the original series Enterprise. 360 00:17:48,820 --> 00:17:53,366 But in the Star Trek timeline, they arrived almost a century later, 361 00:17:53,449 --> 00:17:56,118 which created a problem for designers. 362 00:17:56,202 --> 00:17:57,787 [Mark A. Altman] Because the Enterprise, again, 363 00:17:57,870 --> 00:18:00,790 is so recognizable and so beloved, 364 00:18:00,873 --> 00:18:02,250 you know, what kind of changes are you gonna make? 365 00:18:02,333 --> 00:18:05,378 [McFadden] Before he was even hired on The Next Generation, 366 00:18:05,461 --> 00:18:09,882 senior illustrator Andrew Probert was already working on that problem. 367 00:18:09,966 --> 00:18:12,260 [Gerrold] Andy came to me and said, "I've done some sketches 368 00:18:12,343 --> 00:18:15,137 on what the Enterprise could look like in Next Gen, 369 00:18:15,221 --> 00:18:16,639 but I'm afraid Gene won't like 'em." 370 00:18:16,722 --> 00:18:20,852 I grabbed him and I dragged Andy and the sketches into Gene's office. 371 00:18:20,935 --> 00:18:22,228 "Here's your new Enterprise." 372 00:18:22,311 --> 00:18:24,605 Gene looks at it and says, "Oh, that's good." 373 00:18:26,148 --> 00:18:27,441 Well, it's a new ship. 374 00:18:27,525 --> 00:18:28,818 [McFadden] For The Next Generation... 375 00:18:28,901 --> 00:18:30,194 But she's got the right name. 376 00:18:30,278 --> 00:18:31,779 [McFadden] ...it wouldn't just be a new look, 377 00:18:31,863 --> 00:18:34,574 but also a new form for Enterprise. 378 00:18:34,657 --> 00:18:37,952 I made it organic because I feel that an organic shape 379 00:18:38,035 --> 00:18:42,832 is structurally more sound than geometrics that are stuck together. 380 00:18:42,915 --> 00:18:46,252 In my head, it's made up of plastics and ceramics. 381 00:18:46,335 --> 00:18:48,796 It's not steel, you know. 382 00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:52,049 And who knows? In the future, they're gonna have other materials. 383 00:18:52,133 --> 00:18:56,679 And it's not welded together, it's sonic-blended. It's not welded. 384 00:18:56,762 --> 00:18:59,640 [McFadden] The result was a sleeker-looking vessel 385 00:18:59,724 --> 00:19:02,101 to be known as Enterprise-D. 386 00:19:02,184 --> 00:19:04,979 And something else that I did was I took the engines that were high 387 00:19:05,062 --> 00:19:07,398 on the original Enterprise and I dropped them down 388 00:19:07,481 --> 00:19:09,525 to the center of mass because it would have 389 00:19:09,609 --> 00:19:12,737 a better propulsion balance than being at the top. 390 00:19:12,820 --> 00:19:17,617 From what I've seen, you've got a fine ship. A real beauty here. 391 00:19:17,700 --> 00:19:20,953 [McFadden] Andrew was letting his imagination run free, 392 00:19:21,037 --> 00:19:24,123 but what he was dreaming up didn't come for free, 393 00:19:24,206 --> 00:19:26,292 and Gene didn't want to pay. 394 00:19:26,375 --> 00:19:32,381 I designed the ship for a crew between 3,600 and 4,600 people. 395 00:19:32,465 --> 00:19:36,385 And I told that to Gene and he said, "No, we don't have enough money 396 00:19:36,469 --> 00:19:39,639 to afford the extras that would actually reflect that number of crew, 397 00:19:39,722 --> 00:19:42,350 so let's say that the crew has 1,100 people on it." 398 00:19:42,433 --> 00:19:44,268 [McFadden] Despite budget constraints, 399 00:19:44,352 --> 00:19:48,314 Andrew did have one very enterprising idea for his Enterprise. 400 00:19:48,397 --> 00:19:50,524 We'll show 'em what this baby can do, sir. 401 00:19:50,608 --> 00:19:53,819 The ship has a battle section that separates out of the hull. 402 00:19:53,903 --> 00:19:57,198 [McFadden] What if the Enterprise could make itself a smaller target 403 00:19:57,281 --> 00:19:59,408 by dividing itself into two? 404 00:19:59,492 --> 00:20:03,621 But even this radical idea wasn't exactly new. 405 00:20:03,704 --> 00:20:07,833 That's in the very first proposal for Star Trek dated 1964, 406 00:20:07,917 --> 00:20:09,919 is that the saucer could separate. 407 00:20:10,002 --> 00:20:12,713 The reason they never did it in the original is because of cost. 408 00:20:12,797 --> 00:20:16,050 [McFadden] This time, budget was not the issue. 409 00:20:16,133 --> 00:20:19,595 Six-five-four-three. 410 00:20:19,679 --> 00:20:22,765 [Probert] This battle section as part of the saucer, 411 00:20:22,848 --> 00:20:25,309 I even had a drawing showing the engineering hull 412 00:20:25,393 --> 00:20:27,269 going off to protect the saucer. 413 00:20:27,353 --> 00:20:29,313 Separation successful, sir. 414 00:20:29,397 --> 00:20:31,983 [McFadden] When it came to breaking up the Enterprise, 415 00:20:32,066 --> 00:20:34,568 producers had separation anxiety. 416 00:20:34,652 --> 00:20:38,948 And they said, "No, the engineering hull is the battle section. 417 00:20:39,031 --> 00:20:41,200 The saucer separates to protect the crew." 418 00:20:41,283 --> 00:20:42,827 [McFadden] Which sounded reasonable, 419 00:20:42,910 --> 00:20:45,454 but Andrew had a much more radical idea. 420 00:20:45,538 --> 00:20:48,249 I said, "Additionally, what you could do is just cloak the saucer 421 00:20:48,332 --> 00:20:49,500 so it could go invisible." 422 00:20:49,583 --> 00:20:50,793 And they said, "No, we can't do that." 423 00:20:50,876 --> 00:20:53,087 [McFadden] Well, if the Enterprise couldn't be invisible, 424 00:20:53,170 --> 00:20:57,258 that just meant more opportunities to admire its features, 425 00:20:57,341 --> 00:21:00,011 which included a new way to shoot the enemy. 426 00:21:00,094 --> 00:21:01,637 Fire all weapons. 427 00:21:03,472 --> 00:21:06,559 When I did the phasers for The Next Generation ship, 428 00:21:06,642 --> 00:21:08,394 I created that whole phaser strip. 429 00:21:09,603 --> 00:21:11,522 They could actually follow what they were shooting at. 430 00:21:13,274 --> 00:21:14,608 It is a most lethal weapon. 431 00:21:14,692 --> 00:21:16,277 [McFadden] There was the art of war, 432 00:21:16,360 --> 00:21:18,946 then there was the art on the wall. 433 00:21:19,030 --> 00:21:21,991 [Probert] The set decorator wanted to flesh out Picard's office. 434 00:21:22,074 --> 00:21:23,826 So we thought, "Well, let's have a painting of the ship..." 435 00:21:23,909 --> 00:21:25,953 -[bell dings] - "...like all captains usually do." 436 00:21:26,037 --> 00:21:29,623 So Rick and I came up with this. I did the ship and he did the background. 437 00:21:29,707 --> 00:21:31,459 [McFadden] Speaking of home decorating, 438 00:21:31,542 --> 00:21:34,503 there was the small matter of the new bridge. 439 00:21:34,587 --> 00:21:37,965 Gene wanted a full overhaul, telling designers... 440 00:21:38,049 --> 00:21:42,344 [Okuda] "I want this to be simple and elegant and minimalistic 441 00:21:42,428 --> 00:21:46,682 to show how advanced this is, to show how far technology has come 442 00:21:46,766 --> 00:21:48,976 since the days of Captain Kirk." 443 00:21:49,060 --> 00:21:51,520 [McFadden] And so cool mid-century minimalism 444 00:21:51,604 --> 00:21:54,648 became a little more touchy feely. 445 00:21:54,732 --> 00:21:58,819 This was the handiwork of scenic art supervisor Michael Okuda. 446 00:21:58,903 --> 00:22:00,821 [Okuda] I ended up with a plexiglass service, 447 00:22:00,905 --> 00:22:03,365 behind which I had a photographic transparency, 448 00:22:03,449 --> 00:22:05,785 and behind that I had lighting gels, 449 00:22:05,868 --> 00:22:08,287 which is certainly a lot cheaper than drilling holes 450 00:22:08,370 --> 00:22:11,165 and putting toggle switches and meters and blinky lights. 451 00:22:11,248 --> 00:22:14,251 [McFadden] This simple innovation was so well-regarded 452 00:22:14,335 --> 00:22:18,964 that panels became known as Okudagrams, after their creator. 453 00:22:19,048 --> 00:22:21,133 [Okuda] That term, Okudagrams, was invented 454 00:22:21,217 --> 00:22:22,718 first season of Star Trek: Next Generation 455 00:22:22,802 --> 00:22:25,179 by our set decorator John Dwyer, 456 00:22:25,262 --> 00:22:27,681 who had been a set decorator on the original series. 457 00:22:27,807 --> 00:22:30,101 So for him to come up with that name, 458 00:22:30,184 --> 00:22:33,479 at first I was kind of embarrassed, but then I realized I should be honored. 459 00:22:33,562 --> 00:22:36,315 [McFadden] The bridge of this Enterprise was so new, 460 00:22:36,398 --> 00:22:39,735 even Kirk might have struggled with the user interface. 461 00:22:39,819 --> 00:22:43,405 We put five workstations back behind the command chair, 462 00:22:43,489 --> 00:22:47,368 instead of all around, and those five could address 463 00:22:47,451 --> 00:22:49,829 everything that needed to be addressed on the ship. 464 00:22:49,912 --> 00:22:53,874 So technologically, we see everything that surrounded Kirk originally 465 00:22:53,958 --> 00:22:57,128 is now consolidated down into those five stations. 466 00:22:57,211 --> 00:23:01,006 I think the Enterprise-D bridge is as classic 467 00:23:01,090 --> 00:23:02,341 as the original series bridge is. 468 00:23:02,424 --> 00:23:05,094 [McFadden] With redesigned workstations, 469 00:23:05,177 --> 00:23:09,473 Andrew's bridge still retained a touch of business class for the captain. 470 00:23:09,557 --> 00:23:11,392 What have they done to my ship now? 471 00:23:11,475 --> 00:23:14,186 [Probert] Picard's command chair, originally I designed it 472 00:23:14,270 --> 00:23:17,398 so that it had little screens that would pop up out of the armrests, 473 00:23:17,481 --> 00:23:20,818 so all he had to do was tap them and then these things would pop up. 474 00:23:20,901 --> 00:23:24,947 I remember Kirk walking around in the original series with a cup of coffee. 475 00:23:25,030 --> 00:23:26,532 Forward readings, Mr. Spock? 476 00:23:26,615 --> 00:23:29,034 [McFadden] So cup holders for the center seat? 477 00:23:29,118 --> 00:23:31,537 So therefore I put two food replicators... 478 00:23:31,620 --> 00:23:32,955 -[bell dings] - ...on the bridge... 479 00:23:33,038 --> 00:23:34,623 -[bell dings] -...which they never used. 480 00:23:34,707 --> 00:23:37,793 [McFadden] Oh, and just some housekeeping before we move on. 481 00:23:37,877 --> 00:23:39,086 [Probert] There is a bathroom on the bridge. 482 00:23:39,170 --> 00:23:41,088 If you look at the bridge from the viewscreen, 483 00:23:41,172 --> 00:23:43,716 -the head is over on this side... -[bell dings] 484 00:23:43,799 --> 00:23:47,636 ...opposite the door that goes back into the conference lounge. 485 00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:48,888 [toilet flushes] 486 00:23:48,971 --> 00:23:51,640 [McFadden] Yup, Picard's Enterprise seemed to have it all. 487 00:23:51,724 --> 00:23:55,060 And just in case we forgot how starships used to roll, 488 00:23:55,144 --> 00:23:59,064 The Next Generation also introduced us to yet another Enterprise. 489 00:24:02,067 --> 00:24:04,778 The Enterprise-C that we see in "Yesterday's Enterprise," 490 00:24:04,862 --> 00:24:07,948 it has been pulled from a different time, 491 00:24:08,073 --> 00:24:12,077 but it is not a different stylistic Starfleet ship. 492 00:24:14,163 --> 00:24:16,957 Andy Probert had done some early sketches 493 00:24:17,041 --> 00:24:18,751 of what the C could look like. 494 00:24:18,834 --> 00:24:22,671 We added new graphics to the overhead panels. 495 00:24:22,755 --> 00:24:26,383 The Enterprise-C was certainly a new step 496 00:24:26,467 --> 00:24:28,344 in starship evolution. 497 00:24:28,427 --> 00:24:32,139 The Enterprise-C really has a way of bridging the gap 498 00:24:32,223 --> 00:24:37,228 design-wise between the Enterprise-B, which we see in Star Trek: Generations, 499 00:24:37,311 --> 00:24:39,730 and then of course with the Enterprise-D. 500 00:24:39,813 --> 00:24:41,106 [McFadden] Which was Picard's ship. 501 00:24:41,190 --> 00:24:45,778 And if all these designations are forcing you to relearn your ABCs, 502 00:24:45,861 --> 00:24:47,988 relax, you're in good company. 503 00:24:48,072 --> 00:24:50,407 [Scott] One-seven-O-one. 504 00:24:50,491 --> 00:24:56,247 No bloody A, B, C, or D. 505 00:24:56,914 --> 00:24:58,749 [McFadden] A, B, C, or D, 506 00:24:58,832 --> 00:25:01,585 the Enterprise has remained unmistakable. 507 00:25:01,669 --> 00:25:04,213 [Altman] Star Trek had a very good batting average 508 00:25:04,296 --> 00:25:06,590 of making the ships feel germane 509 00:25:06,674 --> 00:25:09,510 to the universe and the design consistency. 510 00:25:09,593 --> 00:25:13,889 [McFadden] It may surprise you to learn that not all starships make it to space. 511 00:25:13,973 --> 00:25:15,182 Please sit down. 512 00:25:15,266 --> 00:25:17,559 [McFadden] Some just take up space in the background... 513 00:25:17,643 --> 00:25:19,353 -[bell dings] - ...like this one, 514 00:25:19,436 --> 00:25:24,191 the Stargazer, whose travels we only see through the memories of Captain Picard. 515 00:25:24,275 --> 00:25:28,862 In the ready room, we built a model of Captain Picard's previous command. 516 00:25:28,946 --> 00:25:31,365 [McFadden] But even a fragment of the past 517 00:25:31,448 --> 00:25:34,493 needs to embody the Star Trek design tradition. 518 00:25:34,576 --> 00:25:37,037 [Probert] So we put together a model of what we thought this 519 00:25:37,121 --> 00:25:38,914 deep space science vessel might look like. 520 00:25:38,998 --> 00:25:40,582 It's the Stargazer. 521 00:25:42,626 --> 00:25:44,586 [McFadden] In a world before CGI, 522 00:25:44,670 --> 00:25:47,214 these starships were still handcrafted. 523 00:25:47,298 --> 00:25:49,967 [Altman] Literally, people taking model kits 524 00:25:50,050 --> 00:25:52,636 and throwing them together and creating new ships. 525 00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:56,557 I would give almost anything to command the Stargazer again. 526 00:25:56,640 --> 00:25:59,393 [McFadden] Which gave designers like Rick a chance to experiment. 527 00:25:59,476 --> 00:26:02,062 There were only two plastic kits out there. 528 00:26:02,146 --> 00:26:07,568 One was the original series Enterprise, which was deemed too old in design. 529 00:26:07,651 --> 00:26:12,114 So I took two copies of the refit kit, four nacelles, 530 00:26:12,197 --> 00:26:17,202 you know, added some auto parts to it, and our set decorator put it on the set. 531 00:26:17,286 --> 00:26:21,582 [McFadden] Just as the Stargazer model sits inside the Enterprise, 532 00:26:21,665 --> 00:26:26,003 all Starfleet starships stand in the shadow of the Enterprise, 533 00:26:26,086 --> 00:26:28,213 the mother of all motherships. 534 00:26:29,340 --> 00:26:32,885 As Star Trek and the Enterprise continued to evolve, 535 00:26:32,968 --> 00:26:35,220 so too did the storylines. 536 00:26:35,304 --> 00:26:38,390 During one of Starfleet's war-torn chapters, 537 00:26:38,474 --> 00:26:42,686 Federation ships came under unprecedented attack by the Borg. 538 00:26:42,770 --> 00:26:45,105 Resistance is futile. 539 00:26:45,189 --> 00:26:48,192 [McFadden] Fortunately, one Star Trek writer, 540 00:26:48,275 --> 00:26:51,028 initially for the series Deep Space Nine, 541 00:26:51,111 --> 00:26:54,156 came up with something new to bolster Starfleet's defenses. 542 00:26:54,239 --> 00:26:56,533 We can and will defend ourselves. 543 00:26:56,617 --> 00:26:57,701 The Defiant. 544 00:26:57,785 --> 00:26:59,036 Tough little ship. 545 00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:02,956 [McFadden] It could put the Borg and anyone else in their place. 546 00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:05,834 [Ronald D. Moore] I decided that it was a prototype warship 547 00:27:05,918 --> 00:27:08,629 that the Federation abandoned 'cause they don't really build warships. 548 00:27:08,712 --> 00:27:10,672 You know, it's not really what they're about, but they had built this one. 549 00:27:10,756 --> 00:27:14,218 It's overgunned and overpowered for a ship its size. 550 00:27:14,301 --> 00:27:16,428 [Moore] And it was in danger of pulling itself apart. 551 00:27:16,512 --> 00:27:17,471 And I got to name it. 552 00:27:17,554 --> 00:27:20,099 So I named it after the starship from "The Tholian Web." 553 00:27:20,182 --> 00:27:21,058 The Defiant. 554 00:27:23,519 --> 00:27:25,771 She may have flaws, but she has teeth. 555 00:27:25,854 --> 00:27:28,273 To have a ship that was a Borg-buster was exciting. 556 00:27:28,357 --> 00:27:30,359 [McFadden] Living up to its name, 557 00:27:30,442 --> 00:27:33,821 the Defiant defied Starfleet design conventions. 558 00:27:33,904 --> 00:27:37,408 It didn't have the traditional configuration of a Federation starship. 559 00:27:37,491 --> 00:27:41,328 [McFadden] Maybe because this starship was based on a Marquis fighter, 560 00:27:41,412 --> 00:27:44,581 originally designed for DS9 by Jim Martin. 561 00:27:44,665 --> 00:27:47,209 You couldn't find an airlock. You couldn't find a phaser strip. 562 00:27:47,292 --> 00:27:49,128 You couldn't find anything recognizable. 563 00:27:49,211 --> 00:27:51,630 It was up to us to turn it into a Federation starship. 564 00:27:51,713 --> 00:27:53,215 [McFadden] Doug and his colleagues 565 00:27:53,298 --> 00:27:57,302 gave the Defiant the unmistakable stamp of the Federation. 566 00:27:57,386 --> 00:28:00,472 [Drexler] We would do that by putting the name on it in a distinctive way, 567 00:28:00,556 --> 00:28:02,683 that circular manner that it is on the saucer, 568 00:28:02,766 --> 00:28:07,062 to have the red stripes with the Starfleet arrowheads on it. 569 00:28:07,146 --> 00:28:10,399 [McFadden] But the new shape had some defensive design elements 570 00:28:10,482 --> 00:28:13,068 not normally seen on Federation vessels. 571 00:28:13,152 --> 00:28:17,489 The fact that the nacelles are not mounted on pylons, 572 00:28:17,573 --> 00:28:21,785 you wanna shield those things so they aren't within enclosures. 573 00:28:21,869 --> 00:28:25,956 A more militaristic vessel than the Enterprise in the original series 574 00:28:26,039 --> 00:28:27,916 or Next Gen or Voyager. 575 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:29,918 [McFadden] The military-industrial complex 576 00:28:30,127 --> 00:28:32,921 had finally caught up with Starfleet hardware. 577 00:28:34,381 --> 00:28:37,259 Likewise, Starfleet hardware had to catch up 578 00:28:37,342 --> 00:28:40,304 with Star Trek 's increasingly war-torn storylines. 579 00:28:40,387 --> 00:28:42,931 We have engaged the Borg. 580 00:28:47,936 --> 00:28:50,481 [McFadden] For the Battle of Wolf 359, 581 00:28:50,564 --> 00:28:53,942 it was all hands on deck to build enough starship models 582 00:28:54,026 --> 00:28:56,904 for one of the franchise's biggest conflicts. 583 00:28:56,987 --> 00:29:00,991 And you start to get to these episodes with these massive space battles. 584 00:29:01,074 --> 00:29:03,076 The fight does not go well, Enterprise. 585 00:29:04,077 --> 00:29:06,205 We're attempting to withdraw and regroup. 586 00:29:06,288 --> 00:29:08,332 [McFadden] In an age before CGI, 587 00:29:08,415 --> 00:29:12,336 each starship required a physical model to be built and filmed. 588 00:29:12,419 --> 00:29:15,380 [Altman] They're still shooting miniatures, so they are literally going, 589 00:29:15,464 --> 00:29:17,925 "Let's find every spaceship we've ever built 590 00:29:18,008 --> 00:29:19,927 that we can throw into this shot." 591 00:29:20,010 --> 00:29:20,844 Fire. 592 00:29:24,223 --> 00:29:27,518 [screaming] 593 00:29:28,644 --> 00:29:32,439 [McFadden] By the time of Voyager , calm had been restored. 594 00:29:32,523 --> 00:29:37,277 And after all that chaos, it was a case of "I want my mothership." 595 00:29:38,779 --> 00:29:39,613 It's the Voyager. 596 00:29:41,323 --> 00:29:42,574 [McFadden] Believe it or not, 597 00:29:42,658 --> 00:29:45,619 this imperious Intrepid-class vessel 598 00:29:45,702 --> 00:29:48,497 began life like so many good ideas: 599 00:29:48,580 --> 00:29:49,414 as a doodle. 600 00:29:49,498 --> 00:29:53,252 [Sternbach] I started just doodling and doodling and doodling, 601 00:29:53,335 --> 00:29:56,672 and I eventually started evolving the shape 602 00:29:56,755 --> 00:29:59,049 of what we were calling the prototype. 603 00:29:59,132 --> 00:30:02,052 [Bormanis] We had to come up with a distinct look for Voyager, 604 00:30:02,135 --> 00:30:04,763 and Rick Sternbach was probably most responsible 605 00:30:04,846 --> 00:30:09,601 for changing the configuration of Voyager from what we were familiar with. 606 00:30:09,685 --> 00:30:11,937 He really came up with the distinctive look. 607 00:30:12,020 --> 00:30:17,568 Voyager really could be thought of as the Galaxy class' younger sibling. 608 00:30:17,651 --> 00:30:21,488 [McFadden] Star Trek is often its own inspiration. 609 00:30:21,572 --> 00:30:22,864 What I did on the runabout, 610 00:30:22,948 --> 00:30:27,369 I was actually borrowing bits and pieces with the pylons and the nacelles. 611 00:30:27,452 --> 00:30:32,249 [McFadden] But Voyager borrowed a little from something a long way from deep space. 612 00:30:32,332 --> 00:30:34,793 In fact, from deep water. 613 00:30:34,876 --> 00:30:36,336 I made the nacelles nice and long, 614 00:30:36,420 --> 00:30:39,923 almost like it was one of those ice boats that you see on a lake. 615 00:30:40,048 --> 00:30:41,633 Sleek, fast. 616 00:30:41,717 --> 00:30:44,303 [McFadden] But Voyager's final shape would have something to do 617 00:30:44,386 --> 00:30:47,306 with a design built not for speed but for comfort. 618 00:30:47,389 --> 00:30:52,144 Jeri Taylor pulls me aside and says, "Can you make it a little curvier? 619 00:30:52,227 --> 00:30:53,562 Kind of like a Lexus." 620 00:30:53,645 --> 00:30:54,479 [horn honks] 621 00:30:54,563 --> 00:30:56,815 [Bormanis] Jeri Taylor wanted to work some of that sensibility 622 00:30:56,898 --> 00:30:58,400 into the design of the Voyager 623 00:30:58,483 --> 00:31:01,194 in order to make it look a little more contemporary 624 00:31:01,278 --> 00:31:02,529 and a little bit ahead of its time. 625 00:31:02,613 --> 00:31:03,905 Welcome aboard. 626 00:31:03,989 --> 00:31:05,782 [McFadden] But producers wanted Voyager 627 00:31:05,866 --> 00:31:10,370 to do something no starship or Lexus had ever done before. 628 00:31:10,454 --> 00:31:15,626 One of the initial notes was that something on the ship had to articulate. 629 00:31:15,709 --> 00:31:18,420 [McFadden] And this was not about warping the design. 630 00:31:18,503 --> 00:31:20,422 It was about warp speed. 631 00:31:20,505 --> 00:31:21,840 [Paris] If we don't get more power to the warp drive, 632 00:31:21,923 --> 00:31:23,383 we're all gonna have to get out and push. 633 00:31:23,467 --> 00:31:28,055 [Bormanis] Each nacelle generates a warp field that bends space and time 634 00:31:28,138 --> 00:31:29,514 and creates this warp bubble. 635 00:31:29,598 --> 00:31:33,018 You know, the idea behind the pivoting nacelles 636 00:31:33,101 --> 00:31:36,647 was that the strength of the field is what determines how fast you go. 637 00:31:36,730 --> 00:31:42,069 And maybe there are some ways of changing the distance between the nacelles 638 00:31:42,152 --> 00:31:44,821 that will make it easier to achieve a higher speed. 639 00:31:44,905 --> 00:31:46,406 You're cleared for launch. 640 00:31:46,490 --> 00:31:49,743 Aye, Captain. See you at warp ten. 641 00:31:49,826 --> 00:31:51,787 [McFadden] Unlike this transwarp-enabled shuttle, 642 00:31:51,870 --> 00:31:54,164 Voyager couldn't quite reach warp ten. 643 00:31:54,247 --> 00:31:56,667 But it was the fastest starship in the fleet. 644 00:31:56,750 --> 00:31:59,628 Besides, in space you can go too fast. 645 00:31:59,711 --> 00:32:01,797 Traveling at infinite velocity accelerated 646 00:32:01,880 --> 00:32:05,008 the natural human evolutionary process by millions of years. 647 00:32:05,092 --> 00:32:08,720 [McFadden] That's right, there was something very fishy 648 00:32:08,804 --> 00:32:11,848 about Tom Paris dabbling with transwarp drives. 649 00:32:11,932 --> 00:32:13,809 [Chakotay] There are traces of human DNA. 650 00:32:13,892 --> 00:32:17,479 But I have to admit, I'm not sure which one is the Captain. 651 00:32:17,562 --> 00:32:20,065 [McFadden] Not only could it go faster, 652 00:32:20,148 --> 00:32:22,150 Voyager could also do something 653 00:32:22,234 --> 00:32:25,362 no previous Starfleet vessel ever really needed to. 654 00:32:25,445 --> 00:32:27,114 We could land the ship. 655 00:32:27,197 --> 00:32:28,865 Are you sure that's necessary? 656 00:32:28,949 --> 00:32:30,659 [McFadden] For the longest time, it wasn't. 657 00:32:30,742 --> 00:32:32,619 Thanks to this contraption. 658 00:32:32,703 --> 00:32:33,829 Energize. 659 00:32:36,081 --> 00:32:38,500 [McFadden] Originally conceived to save money 660 00:32:38,583 --> 00:32:40,877 by enabling quick transitions. 661 00:32:40,961 --> 00:32:45,757 The ship won't land, but we'll transport several people down. 662 00:32:45,841 --> 00:32:48,677 Well, that's a little difficult for you to understand. 663 00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:53,682 [McFadden] The beloved transporter was finally made redundant on Voyager. 664 00:32:53,765 --> 00:32:56,393 [Sternbach] Landing on a planetary surface with Voyager 665 00:32:56,476 --> 00:33:00,313 was something that came in with some of the writers' notes. 666 00:33:01,106 --> 00:33:05,026 [Bormanis] They didn't necessarily intend for it to land on a regular basis, 667 00:33:05,110 --> 00:33:08,196 but they wanted to give the captain that option if it were necessary. 668 00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:11,032 It was something that was rarely done 669 00:33:11,116 --> 00:33:14,703 and something that was only done in kind of extreme situations. 670 00:33:14,786 --> 00:33:16,163 Prepare the ship for landing. 671 00:33:16,246 --> 00:33:18,290 Captain, I think I should tell you, 672 00:33:18,373 --> 00:33:21,460 I've never actually landed a starship before. 673 00:33:21,543 --> 00:33:23,712 That's all right, Lieutenant. Neither have I. 674 00:33:23,795 --> 00:33:27,841 Now, we weren't gonna see it for a while, but I had to make sure 675 00:33:27,924 --> 00:33:33,930 that the landing gear hatches were at least, you know, in the proper place. 676 00:33:35,557 --> 00:33:36,975 We're down. 677 00:33:37,058 --> 00:33:39,478 Not bad for a beginner. 678 00:33:39,561 --> 00:33:42,898 [McFadden] As Star Trek has evolved with each new chapter, 679 00:33:42,981 --> 00:33:45,901 its writers have set out to break the rules. 680 00:33:45,984 --> 00:33:47,611 [computer] USS Prometheus. 681 00:33:47,694 --> 00:33:51,782 Experimental prototype designed for deep space tactical assignments. 682 00:33:53,492 --> 00:33:56,369 [McFadden] And in the case of the USS Prometheus, 683 00:33:56,453 --> 00:33:57,746 to break the mold. 684 00:33:57,829 --> 00:34:02,167 [Sternbach] The USS Prometheus as a super-advanced Starfleet ship, 685 00:34:02,250 --> 00:34:05,545 very secret, stolen by the Romulans. [chuckles] 686 00:34:05,629 --> 00:34:07,798 Engage the multivector assault mode. 687 00:34:07,881 --> 00:34:09,090 [Sternbach] Some of the writer notes 688 00:34:09,174 --> 00:34:11,551 talked about the ship breaking into five parts. 689 00:34:11,635 --> 00:34:14,054 [computer] Autoseparation in ten seconds. 690 00:34:14,137 --> 00:34:16,681 "Oh, you mean like Transformers?" [laughs] 691 00:34:16,765 --> 00:34:18,975 Transform and combine! 692 00:34:20,560 --> 00:34:22,103 And they knocked it back to three parts. 693 00:34:22,187 --> 00:34:26,942 [McFadden] Because breaking the mold doesn't mean you can ignore all the rules. 694 00:34:27,025 --> 00:34:30,862 A ship in three parts still has to conceivably hold together. 695 00:34:30,987 --> 00:34:34,991 [Sternbach] Quite a fun task to try to match up the hull sections 696 00:34:35,075 --> 00:34:40,330 with, you know, turbolift connectors and utilities connectors 697 00:34:40,413 --> 00:34:43,792 and, you know, matter-antimatter conduits and all that kind of thing. 698 00:34:43,875 --> 00:34:44,876 But it worked. 699 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:46,169 [McFadden] Starfleet ships may have 700 00:34:46,253 --> 00:34:48,630 their longstanding features to accommodate, 701 00:34:48,713 --> 00:34:51,383 but there's a whole other category of starships. 702 00:34:51,466 --> 00:34:53,635 The alien ship is not pursuing. 703 00:34:53,718 --> 00:34:54,678 [McFadden] For these ships, 704 00:34:54,761 --> 00:34:57,681 Star Trek designers threw out the rulebook 705 00:34:57,764 --> 00:35:01,977 because these ships belong to the ones who don't play by the rules. 706 00:35:03,728 --> 00:35:05,438 Hailing frequency's open, sir. 707 00:35:05,522 --> 00:35:09,276 [McFadden] If Star Trek would have us believe anything, 708 00:35:09,359 --> 00:35:13,196 it's that we are not the only ones out there. 709 00:35:13,280 --> 00:35:14,906 [Tim Russ] If you are established in the Star Trek world, 710 00:35:14,990 --> 00:35:17,284 you have spacefaring civilizations. 711 00:35:17,367 --> 00:35:19,119 They've traveled from one star system to another. 712 00:35:19,202 --> 00:35:20,620 Resistance is futile. 713 00:35:20,704 --> 00:35:23,790 [McFadden] And those many alien species we've met over the decades 714 00:35:23,874 --> 00:35:27,085 have their own take on what makes a good starship. 715 00:35:27,168 --> 00:35:29,713 That fine vessel was Ferengi! 716 00:35:30,797 --> 00:35:33,717 Every culture that has come up with a spaceship 717 00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:35,218 has a slightly different look. 718 00:35:35,302 --> 00:35:39,014 [McFadden] And as impressive and advanced as these designs may appear... 719 00:35:39,097 --> 00:35:40,348 [Sternbach] Klingon looks different. 720 00:35:40,432 --> 00:35:43,643 Romulan looks different. Cardassian looks different. 721 00:35:43,727 --> 00:35:45,020 [McFadden] At the end of the day, 722 00:35:45,103 --> 00:35:49,065 their starships were designed by plain old humans. 723 00:35:49,149 --> 00:35:50,108 How boring. 724 00:35:50,191 --> 00:35:54,112 [McFadden] Well, not boring humans, brilliantly inventive ones. 725 00:35:54,195 --> 00:35:59,701 Doing alien versions of things required me to kind of think differently. 726 00:35:59,784 --> 00:36:02,412 We don't want everything to look like Starfleet. 727 00:36:02,495 --> 00:36:06,041 Cardassian warships. Galor class, type three. 728 00:36:06,124 --> 00:36:08,877 Cardassians are a bit more brutal. 729 00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:12,380 Cardassians are like timber wolves, predators. 730 00:36:14,549 --> 00:36:19,220 [Sternbach] If you look at the Cardassian Galor-class cruiser, 731 00:36:19,304 --> 00:36:20,138 it's different. 732 00:36:20,221 --> 00:36:24,267 They don't have the same nacelles that Starfleet does. 733 00:36:24,351 --> 00:36:28,355 [McFadden] To find an aesthetic that was both extraterrestrial and familiar, 734 00:36:28,438 --> 00:36:31,858 Star Trek 's designers turned to nature. 735 00:36:31,942 --> 00:36:34,736 Some of these are inspired by animal shapes. 736 00:36:36,404 --> 00:36:38,031 [Probert] They needed a Ferengi ship. 737 00:36:38,114 --> 00:36:39,491 It's like, "Well, what's this gonna look like?" 738 00:36:39,574 --> 00:36:40,992 Well, they described it a little bit. 739 00:36:41,076 --> 00:36:43,745 And then the writer, Herb Wright, said, 740 00:36:43,828 --> 00:36:46,456 "Well, maybe it should look like a horseshoe crab, 741 00:36:46,539 --> 00:36:49,084 a big dome with these little legs and stuff underneath." 742 00:36:49,167 --> 00:36:55,048 So I started with that and then I gave it an extension with a forward pointy area, 743 00:36:55,131 --> 00:36:59,094 which reminded me of earwigs or pincher bugs, you know, 744 00:36:59,177 --> 00:37:00,220 which I thought were creepy. 745 00:37:00,303 --> 00:37:02,806 [McFadden] Some aliens took their inspiration 746 00:37:02,889 --> 00:37:05,392 from higher up the food chain. 747 00:37:05,475 --> 00:37:06,685 A Bird-of-Prey. 748 00:37:08,103 --> 00:37:11,022 Klingon Bird-of-Prey became one of the most significant ships 749 00:37:11,106 --> 00:37:13,066 in the history of the franchise. 750 00:37:13,149 --> 00:37:16,820 [Dax] This isn't a Federation starship. This is a Klingon Bird-of-Prey. 751 00:37:16,903 --> 00:37:18,989 We could have had an easy victory. 752 00:37:19,990 --> 00:37:22,242 The Bird-of-Prey had to look like it was a different society, 753 00:37:22,325 --> 00:37:23,201 a different everything. 754 00:37:23,284 --> 00:37:25,996 And it had to look alien but not terribly alien 755 00:37:26,079 --> 00:37:29,624 'cause it has to feel like it belongs in that world that we're creating. 756 00:37:29,708 --> 00:37:32,168 Klingon Bird-of-Prey, sir! She's arming torpedoes! 757 00:37:32,252 --> 00:37:33,294 Fire, Mr. Scott! 758 00:37:37,507 --> 00:37:38,925 [McFadden] The Klingons were not the only ones 759 00:37:39,009 --> 00:37:42,887 that imagined themselves as ruthless galactic hunters. 760 00:37:42,971 --> 00:37:44,472 What will a Romulan ship look like? 761 00:37:44,556 --> 00:37:46,016 They're painted like a giant bird of prey. 762 00:37:46,099 --> 00:37:48,476 [Probert] On the TV show, the Romulan's actually had 763 00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:51,771 a bird of prey painted on the bottom of their ship, 764 00:37:51,855 --> 00:37:54,774 so I thought, "Well, I'll just carry that into The Next Generation. " 765 00:37:54,858 --> 00:37:56,901 Romulan warbird deep cloaking directly ahead. 766 00:37:56,985 --> 00:38:00,530 [McFadden] When Star Trek returned to television in 1987, 767 00:38:00,613 --> 00:38:03,408 it brought starships that we hadn't seen fly 768 00:38:03,491 --> 00:38:05,243 since the original series, 769 00:38:05,326 --> 00:38:07,746 and times had changed. 770 00:38:09,372 --> 00:38:12,792 I thought the warbird should actually be a vertical design, 771 00:38:12,876 --> 00:38:17,547 so keeping the two warp engines visible through these supports 772 00:38:17,630 --> 00:38:21,426 that actually went around and supported them all with a bird's head. 773 00:38:21,551 --> 00:38:23,928 And I thought, "If you had an enemy that was vertical, 774 00:38:24,012 --> 00:38:27,766 there would be a visual conflict in addition to the way it looked." 775 00:38:27,849 --> 00:38:30,226 And Rick Berman, the producer, said, "No, we'll keep it horizontal, 776 00:38:30,310 --> 00:38:34,981 but make the head look more like a bird, so it's more like a seagull, or, you know, 777 00:38:35,065 --> 00:38:37,192 kind of a parrot-beak kind of face." 778 00:38:37,275 --> 00:38:40,612 With a Romulan ship, it's more of an art deco look. 779 00:38:40,695 --> 00:38:42,113 [Probert] But it is much bigger. 780 00:38:42,197 --> 00:38:43,782 It's like 4,000 feet long 781 00:38:43,865 --> 00:38:45,450 instead of the 2,000 feet that the Enterprise is, 782 00:38:46,284 --> 00:38:47,619 so it's a much larger ship. 783 00:38:47,702 --> 00:38:49,662 [McFadden] Big-screen Star Trek 784 00:38:49,746 --> 00:38:53,291 delivered starships on a scale we've never seen before. 785 00:38:53,374 --> 00:38:57,295 Designs first imagined for the original series by Matt Jefferies 786 00:38:57,378 --> 00:39:01,132 were scaled up to take advantage of the big-screen real estate. 787 00:39:01,216 --> 00:39:03,468 Shall we raise our shields, Captain? 788 00:39:04,677 --> 00:39:06,054 Never been this close. 789 00:39:06,137 --> 00:39:08,681 [McFadden] And this bigger footprint was made believable 790 00:39:08,765 --> 00:39:10,850 by the smallest of details. 791 00:39:10,934 --> 00:39:13,853 The fiber-optic lighting that was in the Klingon warship, 792 00:39:13,937 --> 00:39:16,606 all the little points of light all over the surface of the hall 793 00:39:16,689 --> 00:39:18,274 and then the areas that were supposed to be the bridge 794 00:39:18,358 --> 00:39:21,736 were single-source illuminating rods. 795 00:39:21,820 --> 00:39:23,822 It made the scale of the ship look very large. 796 00:39:23,905 --> 00:39:26,407 [McFadden] Inside the battlecruiser, 797 00:39:26,491 --> 00:39:30,745 Andrew Probert imagined how Klingons might design their defenses. 798 00:39:30,829 --> 00:39:33,706 I'd been asked to create concept designs 799 00:39:33,790 --> 00:39:36,960 for the Klingon bridge under Doug Trumbull, 800 00:39:37,043 --> 00:39:40,380 and Trumbull wanted the Klingon bridge to be all kind of dark and greasy 801 00:39:40,463 --> 00:39:44,926 and smoky and have this suspension system so like if the ship is hit really hard, 802 00:39:45,009 --> 00:39:49,097 then the suspension kind of shock-absorbs hard hits. 803 00:39:51,099 --> 00:39:54,519 So that's why you have these big piston-looking things on that bridge. 804 00:39:54,602 --> 00:39:56,521 [McFadden] Which may have been a Klingon idea, 805 00:39:56,604 --> 00:39:59,691 but due to budget constraints, it was borrowed to form 806 00:39:59,774 --> 00:40:02,777 the torpedo bay of the Enterprise in The Wrath of Khan. 807 00:40:02,861 --> 00:40:03,695 [bell dings] 808 00:40:03,778 --> 00:40:05,947 Fortunately, the Klingons seemed to be cool with it. 809 00:40:06,030 --> 00:40:08,283 -[choking] -Give me Genesis! 810 00:40:08,366 --> 00:40:12,036 [McFadden] Whatever the starship, alien or Federation, 811 00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:16,749 Star Trek has always endeavored to make the fantastic feel plausible. 812 00:40:16,833 --> 00:40:21,504 It had to feel like it could work. There had to be a sense of reality to it. 813 00:40:27,093 --> 00:40:30,972 [McFadden] Evolving bad guys' starships over the years is one thing, 814 00:40:31,055 --> 00:40:35,894 but in the early 2000s, designers had a most unusual challenge. 815 00:40:35,977 --> 00:40:39,022 The ship is not only from another universe, it's from another time. 816 00:40:39,105 --> 00:40:40,648 About a hundred years into the future. 817 00:40:40,732 --> 00:40:43,276 [McFadden] For Enterprise , the prequel series, 818 00:40:43,359 --> 00:40:46,029 the task of making a new starship believable 819 00:40:46,112 --> 00:40:48,698 was made even more difficult by the fact 820 00:40:48,781 --> 00:40:52,577 that this Enterprise predated Kirk's original. 821 00:40:52,660 --> 00:40:56,080 [Bormanis] How do you make a show look both 150 years in our future, 822 00:40:56,164 --> 00:40:59,584 but 80 or 90 years before the original series? 823 00:41:02,378 --> 00:41:06,466 [McFadden] This was the challenge faced by the designers of the NX-01. 824 00:41:06,549 --> 00:41:09,928 This is Captain Jonathan Archer of the starship Enterprise. 825 00:41:10,011 --> 00:41:11,262 We've come from Earth. 826 00:41:12,263 --> 00:41:15,808 It became my and Herman's job to make it 827 00:41:15,892 --> 00:41:18,770 as much like the original series Enterprise as we could. 828 00:41:18,853 --> 00:41:23,024 [McFadden] This new-old Enterprise would be similar to its predecessor, 829 00:41:23,107 --> 00:41:25,902 but very different in one key way. 830 00:41:26,945 --> 00:41:29,447 It never actually materialized. 831 00:41:29,530 --> 00:41:32,158 [Bormanis] We never even built a model for Enterprise. 832 00:41:32,242 --> 00:41:35,328 That was purely digital, never built a physical model of that ship. 833 00:41:35,411 --> 00:41:40,208 If we had to put the NX in a museum, the Enterprise from start, 834 00:41:40,291 --> 00:41:45,713 it would be a CD-ROM on a stand with a spotlight on it. [laughs] 835 00:41:45,797 --> 00:41:48,800 [McFadden] Of course, starships aren't designed for museums. 836 00:41:48,883 --> 00:41:53,596 This vessel, I give, she takes. 837 00:41:53,680 --> 00:41:58,851 [McFadden] Like Kirk's Enterprise, NX-01 had a military pedigree. 838 00:41:58,935 --> 00:42:00,770 Targeting scanner still can't get a lock. 839 00:42:00,853 --> 00:42:02,563 I'm gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way. 840 00:42:02,647 --> 00:42:05,650 -[man] Dive, dive. -[klaxon sounds] 841 00:42:05,733 --> 00:42:07,527 So Rick and Brannon and Herman Zimmerman 842 00:42:07,610 --> 00:42:11,990 toured a nuclear submarine prior to starting to design NX-01. 843 00:42:12,073 --> 00:42:14,575 Captain, can I have a word with you? 844 00:42:14,659 --> 00:42:18,871 [McFadden] Taking design cues from the Ohio-class submarine USS Florida 845 00:42:18,955 --> 00:42:22,417 was a nod to Gene's original vision of the Enterprise, 846 00:42:22,500 --> 00:42:24,460 which also drew on naval themes. 847 00:42:24,544 --> 00:42:25,378 [klaxon sounds] 848 00:42:25,461 --> 00:42:27,255 [Bormanis] We wanted to make this ship look less comfortable 849 00:42:27,338 --> 00:42:30,008 because that tells you it's more primitive, right? 850 00:42:30,091 --> 00:42:34,137 Touches like in Archer's ready room, he has to duck under a beam. 851 00:42:34,220 --> 00:42:36,889 We have the evidence to back it up. 852 00:42:36,973 --> 00:42:40,518 They haven't quite got that spacious Captain Picard Enterprise yet. 853 00:42:40,601 --> 00:42:44,314 This was right around the time that flat-screen TVs were becoming popular. 854 00:42:44,397 --> 00:42:48,735 And they said, "We'll put flat-screen TVs, you know, throughout the bridge." 855 00:42:48,818 --> 00:42:50,862 -Move into a stationary orbit. -Aye, sir. 856 00:42:50,945 --> 00:42:52,405 [Bormanis] "And let's take graphics 857 00:42:52,488 --> 00:42:54,741 that are sort of inspired by the original series..." 858 00:42:54,824 --> 00:42:55,867 Ah, yes. 859 00:42:55,950 --> 00:42:57,660 "...and project those on those screens, 860 00:42:57,744 --> 00:42:59,996 and that suggests both the past and the future." 861 00:43:00,872 --> 00:43:01,789 [Herman Zimmerman] I bet we had 862 00:43:01,873 --> 00:43:05,752 $4 million worth of TV equipment all over the bridge, 863 00:43:05,835 --> 00:43:07,462 and any other place that we needed 'em. 864 00:43:07,545 --> 00:43:11,382 It was a culmination in my mind of all the kinds of things 865 00:43:11,466 --> 00:43:16,012 that I'd done and been exposed to in this Star Trek universe. 866 00:43:17,138 --> 00:43:19,515 [McFadden] Drawing from real-world war machines 867 00:43:19,599 --> 00:43:22,935 has always given Star Trek 's writers a jumping-off point 868 00:43:23,019 --> 00:43:25,980 for flights of fancy about fancy flight 869 00:43:26,064 --> 00:43:27,940 and how it might one day happen. 870 00:43:28,024 --> 00:43:30,109 [Sternbach] The scientific and technical help 871 00:43:30,193 --> 00:43:32,987 that they got from the aerospace field 872 00:43:33,071 --> 00:43:36,532 gave them an actual propulsion system 873 00:43:36,616 --> 00:43:40,411 where you started to hear about things like matter and antimatter. 874 00:43:40,495 --> 00:43:45,166 Matter and antimatter have a tendency to cancel each other out violently. 875 00:43:45,249 --> 00:43:47,168 [McFadden] Ever since the original Enterprise, 876 00:43:47,251 --> 00:43:52,465 Starfleet ships of all kinds have always been powered by one very powerful idea. 877 00:43:52,548 --> 00:43:54,801 Starfleet's specialty is antimatter power. 878 00:43:54,884 --> 00:43:58,513 [Sternbach] Starfleet propulsion systems involve matter and antimatter 879 00:43:58,596 --> 00:44:02,058 reacting inside this big armored chamber, 880 00:44:02,141 --> 00:44:04,936 and the energy is then fed out to the nacelles. 881 00:44:05,019 --> 00:44:07,730 [McFadden] And while it's certainly served the Federation well, 882 00:44:07,814 --> 00:44:10,566 science tells us there's a speed limit. 883 00:44:10,650 --> 00:44:12,693 You cannot change the laws of physics, I told him. 884 00:44:12,777 --> 00:44:15,363 So according to the special theory of relativity, 885 00:44:15,446 --> 00:44:19,075 you cannot travel faster than the speed of light in the universe. 886 00:44:19,158 --> 00:44:21,994 The closer you get to that speed, the more your mass increases, 887 00:44:22,078 --> 00:44:24,205 and it would take an infinite amount of energy 888 00:44:24,288 --> 00:44:25,581 to accelerate to that point. 889 00:44:25,665 --> 00:44:28,084 So you can't do it because there's not enough energy in the universe. 890 00:44:28,167 --> 00:44:30,878 [McFadden] But that's kind of an inconvenient truth 891 00:44:30,962 --> 00:44:33,256 when you need to boldly go somewhere. 892 00:44:33,339 --> 00:44:35,800 So Star Trek needed to find a way, 893 00:44:35,883 --> 00:44:38,928 and it did, with just two simple words. 894 00:44:39,011 --> 00:44:40,346 Warp drive standing by. 895 00:44:40,430 --> 00:44:43,141 Warp drive, that was just made up, of course. 896 00:44:43,224 --> 00:44:44,642 We don't know what warp drive is. 897 00:44:44,725 --> 00:44:46,561 It may happened, but we don't know what it was. 898 00:44:46,644 --> 00:44:49,480 Humans have discovered how to travel faster than light. 899 00:44:49,564 --> 00:44:51,315 It just made it faster than light, 900 00:44:51,399 --> 00:44:55,153 which was what we needed to do to go through our galaxy, which is vast. 901 00:44:55,236 --> 00:44:57,447 Then we used to sort of cheat Einstein. 902 00:44:57,530 --> 00:44:59,157 [McFadden] Fortunately for Starfleet, 903 00:44:59,240 --> 00:45:02,285 it only required one little word to achieve that. 904 00:45:02,368 --> 00:45:03,286 [all] Engage. 905 00:45:04,745 --> 00:45:07,582 [McFadden] And while this may look like a stretch to nonbelievers, 906 00:45:07,665 --> 00:45:11,752 there is actual scientific theory about just that: 907 00:45:11,878 --> 00:45:12,753 a stretch. 908 00:45:12,837 --> 00:45:15,298 Space itself can expand or contract 909 00:45:15,381 --> 00:45:16,883 much faster than the speed of light, 910 00:45:16,966 --> 00:45:20,553 and there is a way to expand space behind you at, say, 911 00:45:20,636 --> 00:45:22,138 a hundred times the speed of light, 912 00:45:22,221 --> 00:45:24,932 contract in front of you at a hundred times the speed of light. 913 00:45:25,016 --> 00:45:28,394 [McFadden] So maybe, just maybe, 914 00:45:28,478 --> 00:45:30,897 Star Trek has been ahead of its time all along. 915 00:45:30,980 --> 00:45:34,233 Within your little bubble of space-time, you may not be moving at all. 916 00:45:34,317 --> 00:45:37,111 But the space around you is moving, so, in effect, 917 00:45:37,195 --> 00:45:41,073 you've traveled from point A to point B at a hundred times the speed of light. 918 00:45:41,157 --> 00:45:43,534 [McFadden] Well, whatever the science, 919 00:45:43,618 --> 00:45:48,956 when it comes to the starships of Star Trek , there's one simple fact. 920 00:45:50,374 --> 00:45:51,959 Wow, this is a starship. 921 00:45:52,043 --> 00:45:56,047 Oh, it's really a darn beautiful ship, isn't it? 922 00:45:56,130 --> 00:45:58,299 Most people had never seen one. 923 00:45:58,382 --> 00:46:01,135 [McFadden] Now millions of us have seen starships, 924 00:46:01,219 --> 00:46:04,138 and they have become part of the furniture, quite literally. 925 00:46:04,222 --> 00:46:07,892 [Altman] The Enterprises were displayed in the Smithsonian Institute, 926 00:46:07,975 --> 00:46:09,644 you know, the Air and Space museum. 927 00:46:09,727 --> 00:46:11,604 The Enterprise is quite a ship. 928 00:46:11,687 --> 00:46:16,651 [McFadden] It sure is, and it's a name that has long inspired 929 00:46:16,734 --> 00:46:20,279 through acts of bravery and exploration, 930 00:46:20,363 --> 00:46:22,949 protection and raw firepower. 931 00:46:23,032 --> 00:46:29,038 But it's the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 that's inspired humanity, 932 00:46:29,121 --> 00:46:32,375 including actual human starship makers. 933 00:46:32,458 --> 00:46:35,336 [Maria Jose Tenuto] On September 17th, 1976, 934 00:46:35,419 --> 00:46:38,589 they had the rollout of the Space Shuttle Enterprise, 935 00:46:38,673 --> 00:46:40,841 and in attendance was Gene Roddenberry 936 00:46:40,925 --> 00:46:44,136 and most of the cast of the original series. 937 00:46:44,220 --> 00:46:48,057 [McFadden] Be it the original or any USS Enterprise, 938 00:46:48,140 --> 00:46:51,435 in the words of the great Captain Jean-Luc Picard, 939 00:46:51,519 --> 00:46:54,355 let history never forget the name... 940 00:46:54,438 --> 00:46:56,399 Enterprise. 941 00:46:56,482 --> 00:46:58,484 [theme music playing]