About my DESIGNING OF MY starships
First, let's go over a few things about what my thinking is:
First; STARSHIPS:
This very much annoys me; all this disinformation about what a starship is: These days almost everything is called a starship! A starship IS NOT a actual space ship. Click on my star on my second page and read what I think about it.
Second; MODELS: Does anyone in the world know the difference between a model and a replica? All this talk of "this model" and "that model", annoys me. Hey, hello, these are NOT models! A MODEL is not what people think it is. A model is not a woman, not a car, not a house, or a replica! And a replica is not a model!
Models are usually not for sale. Models are superior to replicas, and models are not mass produced. If you can buy it in a market place, that's not a model, it's a replica!
A model is FOR something, like a sketch or a drawing is FOR something. While a replica is OF something, like a drawing OF something that is already in existence. Therefore, a model by it's nature, is going to be an unfinished thing. While a replica is usually totally finished because it is a copy OF something.
Got it?
Now, I will tell you exactly what I am doing: With my designing, I am starting with The Star Trek Starship design. But which design? Basically this design below:
This is a photo of one of the ACTUAL Star Trek starships. I say "actual" because they are real starships, because this is not a replica, nor is it a model. But starships are fictional as far as being a space ship goes, but they are real things. Like Lucille Ball used to say; that her red hair color was as real as the bottle it came from.
So the "Starship Enterprise" is a real thing.
It is not a replica, because there was nothing that was already established for it to replicate, and because until it was made, there was nothing like it and it was not replicating anything except the drawings that Matt Jefferies had made.
It is not a model, because it was an end unto it's self, so they had no intention of building anything else from it.
But I think it is possible to make a replica from only a well done drawing if it has all been figured out well enough and so it's not meant to be a model for something further on. This is what I intend to do with some of my designs. But the Starship was certainly not a model.
So therefore, it is a real starship, seeing that starships are fictional anyway. Or you could call it a television prop. I call it the real Star Trek Starship. Actually there were two real Star Trek Starships.
But first, after a bunch of sketches, there was an actual model that Matt Jefferies had made in order to show it to Gene Roddenberry to see if that is what he was going to like. This this model was the first and only model made for the STAR TREK STARSHIP.
I don't know if this was that model. But if it was, it was not attached to a base.
Then came the first starship shown below:
It was a few inches under three feet long -- The "Pilot Starship".
But then it was decided that this starship was too small for filming, so they had a much larger one made. So the larger one was the "Production Starship", seen here below, and in the first photo at the top, and it was about 11 feet long:
These starships went though a number of changes. At first, they were both meant to be of a certain fictional size. Then it was decided to increase that size to twice as large, so they were both changed so that the bridge dome on top was made smaller accordingly. This photo shows the large bridge dome, which was the way it was delivered.
Also in the beginning, the deflector dish was large, and there were spikes on the front of the nacelle spheres as you can see, and not yet spheres on the nacelle rear ends, as they are not yet there in the first photo at the top. These parts were changed also.
Almost all the changes that were done while Star Trek was being made, I see as improvements. But I never warmed up to those spheres on the rear ends of the nacelles; if not done well they can make it seem like the nacelle is laying an egg. I'm not one of those people who goes with whatever they decide to do, because I can design as well as they can!
Now everything that was done after Star Trek is not canon in my view! Not in any of those other shows, and certainly not the movies! Why, is because the things that they decide to do are based on what they think will be most popular and bring in the most amount of money. This is what they base their decisions on, and I, for one, want nothing to do with that! And that's not the way I work!
And also, although Matt Jefferies designed The Star Trek Starship under Gene Roddenberry's guidance, Matt was the main designer and the one who had it all figured out. I say had it all figured out, because later on, everyone, including Matt was not staying true to what he himself had decided on.
For example, when they came up with a new starship, and it WAS a new starship, and not the Enterprise rebuilt, of which Matt had at least some involvement with, it did not have Matt's landing gear! What happened to the landing gear? They threw it out the window, like they did with a lot of things. More about the landing gear later on.
And the movie people know nothing! For example, with the Klingon Battle Cruiser, they had weapons coming out of the hole for the deflector dish! It's the deflector dish! That's what it's for, and that's what it was! Besides, they don't need a huge hole to shoot weapons out of, what were they thinking?
I'm designing from one version of one starship. That's the only way to do it. And no one has done this! They all go and do their own thing, either because they think it's best, or only because they think it's neat. That's not what I am doing, as you will see reading through my pages. Also I am striving to do starship designs at least as well designed, if not better, than what Matt Jefferies did.
Also, I can tell you things about The Star Trek Starship design that few people, if anyone in the world, knows. And those guys who have their shows on the internet who think they know all about The Star Trek Starship design don't know these things either.
Not only that, but I know things THAT NO ONE EVER KNEW, not any of the people doing the show. None of them ever knew these things! So no one in the world knows them except me. I've studied The Star Trek Starship design more than anyone else has. So if you want to learn, read on.
HOW I DESIGN MY STARSHIPS - THE RULES I USE.
When I design, I have my own set of rules that I must follow. There's more and more starships being designed these days, but they have no strict rules to be followed, or I should say they have no rules!
They do one of two things when they design; 1; they do whatever they think is neat, or 2; they do whatever they think is best.
To me, that is the wrong way to go about it, and it leads to what we see now with starships. Which is I guess, what a lot of people like. But I don't.
Because what we often see, is they take The Star Trek Starship design and flatten it down, or stretch it out, or make it pointy, or all of these three things. Or they cut parts away.
That's not the way to properly redesign the starship.
Doing these things does not make a great design, it only tends to mutilate what Matt Jefferies did.
Let’s get one thing straight, I am a true designer, and I am not an artist, and I have a strict set of rules that I must follow. As far as I know, others are not: When you hear of someone designing, this is an artist, not a designer.
An artist, is not a designer, but they do design things. But an artist who has designed a starship, does not make them a starship designer. And by the way, "The Starship Designer" is not a game to be played!
Like a plumber who does plumbing work, or a carpenter who does carpentry, or an architect who does architectural work, or a draftsman who does drafting work, or an artist who does art work. That doesn't make these people a designer. They can and do design things, anyone can design something, but that doesn't make them a designer. Some of these people are working for someone else, for hire, and so are doing what someone else wants done.
A designer is someone who can figure out how something will work, and the best way of doing it, as opposed to an artist, who comes up with an idea that might work and runs with it and doesn't look back!
Matt Jefferies worked for hire for Gene Roddenberry, to design a starship. Matt was an artist, not a starship designer. But despite this, Matt did a fantastic job designing The Star Trek Starship, and other things.
But because he was not a designer, when it came to it, Matt did not know how to properly redesign The Starship. Partly because he did things only as part of his job; he did not study starship designing. But seeing that Matt almost by himself created what we now think of as a starship, that would have been difficult for him to do to study starship designing! But even so, in my opinion, Matt with Gene's guidance and who ever else, designed the greatest fictional space ship ever (except for the Klingon Battle Cruiser and the Romulan Bird of Prey -my most favorite, partly because it is so very simple. It came from the brilliant artist Wah Ming Chang).
A true designer is something very different. You could substitute the word “decider”, instead. Because a true designer is one who answers to no one, because he or she is deciding everything. A true designer is one who makes all the decisions, and so is not doing someone else's thing. A designer can do things for hire, but that’s not what I’m talking about: A designer (decider) does not need to be told what to do, because he or she is making all the decisions.
As a Starship designer, I make all the decisions. I am the decider for everything. Therefore, a designer must have a strict set of rules.
Being an artist is very different; an artist often doesn’t need any rules. Many artists do whatever they feel like doing, WHICH IS THE NATURE OF WHAT ART IS. And many artists do what others want done—not so with a designer.
It's very different for a designer. A designer must pay attention to all sorts of requirements in order to design something. Anything from a pencil sharpener to an aircraft, there’s rules that must be followed. Although starships are fictional, so that makes it much easier, than say, designing something that must function and must work and be usable.
So there might be many artists that are designing a Starship, but that in no way makes them a Starship designer. And I don't think there's any such thing as a starship artist.
Is designing starships fun? I say no. Starship designing is very difficult work; it’s very tedious and takes a lot of brain power. It is probably fun for artists, doing it for fun or for hire. But it took me 4 years of struggle, pain, and suffering to make my first starship model, and my first “starship Package” which was the result, which contains that starship design. But I've also had a lot of trouble in my life as well, which makes nothing easy. But an artist probably wouldn’t spend 4 months on a design, much less 4 years!
So then you might thinking: If it's not fun for me, why do I do it? I do it because it's my passion, and my "job". I'm The Starship Designer; I'm the only one in the world who can do the things that I can do. As long as it's not electronics, then forget it, I'm useless, and I hate computers!
Like without Gene Roddenberry, there never would have been Star Trek, without Sydney Newman, there never would have been Doctor Who, without L. Frank Baum, there never would have been The Wizard Of Oz, without Vincent Van Gogh, there never would have been his paintings, and so on... And I hope there's going to be some pay at the end, not like what happened with Vincent!
But I enjoy figuring something out. Something that only I would do, because no one else in the world has the interest or the passion or the great mind also, to do it. So once in awhile when I can, I create a fantastic thing. Which is a great accomplishment for me. It is something only I could have, or would have, done. Without me, it would never happen. Although someone might end up doing something to some degree similar. Eventually.
So an artist doesn’t necessarily need to have any rules. But as a starship designer, I have very strict rules as to what to do, and what not to do, and so that makes my starship designs different and standing out from the rest.
So here are my rules for (“Star Trek” type) starship designing, rules 1 though 7:
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