The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek (2021): Season 1, Episode 8 - Starships A-Z - full transcript

"Star Trek", science fiction's
most influential franchise

has been around longer
and traveled further

than any other.

Let's jump.

[Crashing]

And it's all thanks

to a seemingly infinite
armada of starships.

Nothing is more
important than my ship.

From the original enterprise
to its most distant relative

"Star Trek" has been
designing starships

almost as long as NASA.



Lift-off.

What started with plastic models

has evolved into computer
generated wizardry.

And throughout it all,

an unmistakable design language

has been written in the stars.

The story of how those
designs came to be

and came to be loved

literally spends time and space.

Warp drive, Mr. Scott.

[Whooshing]

[Clapper board clicks]

So, beam aboard
and hold on tight

as we boldly explore the
starships of "Star Trek".



And you can see
it all from here,

in the center seat.

All I ask is a tall ship

and a star to steer her by.

The vessel that
virtually defined

the look of a spaceship
for generations began

where "Star Trek" began
with gene roddenberry.

Roddenberry knew

that the ship was an
important character.

It had to be distinctive,
it had to be believable.

He knew if you
didn't buy the ship,

you weren't gonna
buy the series.

But the enterprise was
hardly the first starship.

The word "starship"
had been around

before "Star Trek" in books.

The first visualizations
of spacecraft

were mostly saucers, or
distinctly tobacco themed.

"Outer limits",

which was a couple
years before Star Trek,

and it's a
cigar-shaped rocket...

[Buzzing]

against a black duvetyne
with pinpricks in it for stars.

Rockets for the rocket age.

Lift-off.

But with the space
age now dawning,

gene wanted something

that would take
the audience further.

Gene didn't want it to
look like those rocket ships

that everybody knows about.

He wanted it to be different.

To let our
imaginations take flight,

gene brought in a man

who had experience
of exactly that.

Roddenbery, he brought on

the art director Matt
jeffries, very early on

to start conceptualizing
the ship.

Roddenberry, all he
said was several don'ts.

No flames, no fins, no rockets.

And one do was, "make
it look like it's got power."

And he walked out.

Well, gene could afford
to be a little short with Matt.

He knew he had
real world experience

with magnificent
flying machines.

Matt jeffries was a
flight engineer on a b-17.

Gene roddenberry was a
pilot on a b-17 in the pacific.

He worked on a lot of
war movies, drew ships,

designed a lot of airplanes
for movie productions.

So he was an excellent choice.

He knew aircraft

and he kept up with
space technology.

Gene and Matt combined

their own experience
of military aircraft

with ideas emerging

from america's new
national obsession...

The space race.

When man steps
into his rocket ship

and leaves the earth behind,

he must be well equipped

to survive in the hostile
realm of outer space.

One of the things that
Matt and gene looked at

there was a series
of television shows.

Now here's a model.

My design for a four
stage orbital rocket ship.

The top section will
consist of 10 crew members

plus equipment.

And Collier's magazine did a
very famous series of articles

about how we're
going to go to the moon.

But gene wanted something
to take the audience further

in their imaginations

than science could
hope to go in space.

It needs to look powerful,
it needs to look futuristic,

and it needs to look functional.

Like there is a sense
behind this design.

So he went through a
painstaking iterative process.

Old science fiction magazines

that had spaceships on the cover

different looks,
different kinds,

and roddenberry would
look at them and say,

"how about we try
this but do this with it?"

And Matt will come
up with something.

It had to be instantly
recognizable,

which meant I was
looking for a shape,

but I didn't know what
the shape looked like.

So Matt tried new
combinations of familiar shapes.

You know, shiny
saucers and the dome...

He started with those
sorts of shapes and textures.

And roddenberry would
say, "I don't like that.

This looks goofy. I
like a little bit of this."

That process was hit or miss.

But even Matt jeffries
rejected designs

were ahead of their time,

Matt Jeffrey's original shapes,
actually, instead of a saucer

had a sphere out front.

Uh, the best shape
for a pressure vessel

is a sphere.

And roddenberry
looked at that and said,

"oh, yeah, you know,
I like this. I like that.

I don't think I like
the sphere so much."

That guy changed it to a
saucer but the saucer was

on the bottom of
the engineering hull.

But the breakthrough
that made the enterprise

was anything but technical.

Gene, I think,
took and flipped it.

Even upside down
or from whatever angle

Matt's design was majestic.

The ship didn't
look like the typical...

You know, silver swept
back wing kind of spaceships.

The enterprise was
something way different.

[Beeping]

The enterprise is
not a want or a desire.

It is a mechanical device.

No, it's a beautiful
lady and we love her.

We do indeed.

Gene finally had what he wanted.

The enterprise would be a
mix of the old and the new.

They came up with this
incredibly original design

by combining elements
of science fiction ships,

that had become tropes,

and turn them into
something new.

You know, the nacelles
and the secondary hull,

every much like your
standard cigar-shaped rocket.

And then they used the saucer,

a flying saucer like we
saw in "forbidden planet".

But it wasn't just a hodgepodge

that happened to look good.

Matt's design
work on "Star Trek"

was coming from somebody
who understood aeronautics

and space structures.

So he was able to put together

something that
was more believable

than say some other designers.

So after dealing
with the outside

of this soon to
be iconic starship,

gene turned his
attention to the inside.

[Beeping]

Because they didn't have money

they couldn't go out and
buy expensive surplus

to make their switches
on the consoles

and things like that.

They came up with the idea
of taking novelty ice cube trays

with all different shapes
and coloring epoxy,

pouring it in the trays.

And when you sat
popping them out,

and then you had

all these really unusual
looking colored buttons.

They almost looked like candy.

But they would catch
the light from overhead

and they looked lit up.

Well, when television viewers

caught their first glimpse of
the USS enterprise in 1966,

eyes lit up and
imagination sparked.

That's...

The enterprise.

She truly has stood
the test of time.

Something they designed in 1964

still stands as an icon
of science fiction design.

Who doesn't know
what the enterprise is,

that famous silhouette?

It could be the size of a dime
and you knew what it was.

The starships of
enterprise "next generation",

"deep space nine"

and every star ship to
take to the heavens since

owe something to the mothership.

Everything, it
looks like a family.

There's a lineage.

Well, in 1979, the
enterprise went somewhere

no starfleet ship was
ever designed to go...

All the way to Hollywood,

as "Star Trek" took
to the silver screen

for the first time.

Steady as she goes.

And for this new
era, a new enterprise.

Production illustrator
Andrew probert

was among those charged

with improving on "Star
Trek's" most emblematic design.

It was my first task
on the enterprise

to supply some
detailing for the ship.

Collaborating with production
designer Richard Taylor,

Andrew's first instinct was
to go big for the big screen.

And I told Richard, I said,
"let's go big with this thing."

And Richard said, "no."

Richard Taylor wanted to stick

to Matt Jeffrey's original
enterprise concepts

for a "Star Trek" show

that would show the
evolution of the enterprise

but never quite evolved itself.

Phase two.

You could see
the original series

enterprise evolve

into the motion
picture enterprise.

[Chirring]

The reimagined enterprise
would receive a new bridge,

observation deck,

and what any
taxpayer expects to see

in fancy new military hardware.

We need more power.

More firepower.

I was actually able to
make the saucer bigger.

Richard said, "okay, now
let's come up with a paneling."

For the big screen

small detailing would
give the ship a texture

making sure the enterprise
was ready for her close-up.

She would look
like it's put together

with little pieces just
to give it some scale

and help define the shape.

And I came up with what
they call an aztec pattern

for the saucer,

which is these
interlocking pieces

that I thought would create
this kind of a tensile strength

keeping this whole
thing together.

And propelling this whole thing
was a redesigned powerhouse.

Richard Taylor actually
wanted to do the engines himself

he said, "I know
you're designing this

but I want to do the engines
because I have this idea."

Richard's big idea
was to reshape

the enterprise's
trademark nacelles.

As Richard designed
those new warp engines,

which I think are amazing...

The engines were bigger,

but the most appreciated
upgrade was more subtle.

It's also set the visual style

for the rest of the ship,

which was this kind
of an art deco look.

The motion picture enterprise
is so gorgeous, so elegant,

still reflects that respect

for engineering
and believability.

It is the most exquisite model
of spaceship I've ever seen.

With all of these
beautiful lines

accentuating parts
of the ship even more.

The interior of
the new enterprise

opened up a whole
world of new possibilities.

The carbon units. Use
this area for recreation.

Then the script
called for a "rec deck."

Floor to ceiling windows

that would offer a never
before seen starfield.

The production
designer at Paramount

wanted there to be this
kind of a grandiose vision

out the back of the ship

and he says, "I want it
in the rim of the saucer."

But Andrew wasn't letting
grand designs proceed

without acknowledging
certain engineering realities.

And, I said, "if you put
the "rec deck" there,

people are going
to get really tan

because that's where
the impulse engine is."

To avoid the new enterprise

becoming a warp
speed capable sunbed,

the design was changed.

Scotty would have been proud.

I am responsible for
the safety of this ship.

Speaking of health and safety...

If you look at the engine room,

they had people in
anti-radiation scenes

near the warp core.
That's a forced perspective.

And they put
children in uniforms

down towards the end of it

so that it looked like
it was a long distance.

The "Star Trek" motion pictures

not only gave us a deeper look

into previously unseen
corners of the enterprise,

they also ushered in a
plethora of new starships.

The "Star Trek"
films filled our screens

with a range of new
23rd century starships,

expanding starfleet

in ways we had
never seen before.

The reliant ncc 1864.

[Chirring]

The unassuming reliant

was strangely familiar,
and yet radically different.

We really had
never seen a starship

that wasn't the configuration

of a constitution
class starship before.

Coming up with a
new "Star Trek" starship

is always a challenge.

It needs to fit into something

that feels like it's part of
the family of enterprise.

But it also needs to
have a distinct identity.

It retains the idea
of the enterprise

the two warp nacelles...

But this humble
ship was about to turn

the world of "Star Trek"
vessels on its head.

What's neat about it

is it's actually upside
down in the movie,

based on its original design.

It was supposed to be

where the nacelles
were above it.

Which was all every
trekker had ever known

about a star ship.

Until that is, as you
might remember,

producer Robert salen
had his way with it.

Yeah, I just flipped the
enterprise upside down.

And so instead of having
the nacelles up here,

nacelles where down here.

Which wasn't just
a flippant decision,

so to speak.

We have a good guy and bad guy.

I said I wanted to be
an obvious difference.

With the unprecedented
success of the motion pictures,

it seems the bigger
the movies got,

the bigger the starships became.

Would you look at that.

And none was bigger than...

The excelsior.

In the third movie
"the search for Spock",

we introduced this
ship, the excelsior.

[Chirring]

The excelsior, which
is supposed to be

the flagship of the federation.

My god, that's a big ship,

which is a big
monster of a ship.

The final design of this monster

was literally put in the hands
of director Leonard nimoy.

The excelsior, there
was versions of it,

and we were making
changes on the model.

Leonard would say, "let's
try this, this, and this on this.

They take it away,
break it apart,

bring it back in, make
another few changes.

And finally, we had
an absolute final model.

The excelsior needed
serious power under the hood,

which was easily
achieved in the script

by adding a single
word to "warp drive."

She is supposed to
have transwarp drive.

Aye.

And if my grandmother had
wheels, she'd be a wagon.

Prepare for warp speed,
standby transwarp drive.

We wouldn't learn

about the details of
transwarp power until later.

But we did learn that
not starfleet vessels

are built for speed.

Federation science
vessel Grissom arriving.

[Music playing]

The augur class
is a fun little ship.

You had the saucer
and you had the nacelles

and you had that unusual...

A secondary hull that
was like a boat hull.

And it was
dramatically different

but you still
went along with it.

Everyone barring the klingons,

who sadly took exception
to the oberth class.

[Photon torpedoes whizzing]

[Exploding]

But, of course, when it
comes to starships exploding,

there's one in particular

that even gene roddenberry
didn't approve of.

Computer, destruct sequence one.

In the film, "the
search for Spock",

kirk destroys the
enterprise to save his crew...

[Ship exploding]

leaving us all with
just one question.

What have I done?

No, that's not the question.

What do you think
of the enterprise d?

That's the one.

With the return of "Star
Trek" to television in 1987,

the enterprise was
once again reborn

for a new age and
a new audience.

[Chirring]

The first live action TV
series since the original,

"next generation"
was set much later

and introduced us to
picard's enterprise d.

My enterprise is far superior.

The enterprise
almost didn't make it

to the "next generation"

for the unlikeliest of reasons.

One day, gene said,

"what if we don't
have a starship,

but just use long
distance transporters?"

I said, "oh, hell no. The star
of the show is the enterprise.

You got to have that starship."

I was absolutely adamant.
So gene dropped the idea.

Nope. The enterprise
wasn't going anywhere,

except out there.

Engage.

[Ship whizzes]

This new enterprise presented

its own unique
design challenges.

How do you redesign
the enterprise

for a new TV series,
for "next generation"?

How do you do that?

The "next
generation's" starships

were conceived
more than 20 years

after the original
series enterprise.

But in the "Star Trek" timeline,

they arrived almost
a century later,

which created a
problem for designers.

Because the enterprise
again is so recognizable

and so beloved.

You know, what kind of
changes you're going to make?

Before he was even hired
on the "next generation",

senior illustrator
Andrew probert

was already working
on that problem.

Andy came to me said,
"I've done some sketches

on what the enterprise
could look like in 'next gen',

but I'm afraid gene
won't like them."

Oh, that's a new ship.

For the "next generation"...

But she's got the right name.

It wouldn't just be a new look,

but also a new
form for enterprise.

I made it organic because I feel

that an organic shape
is structurally more sound

than geometrics that
are stuck together.

In my head it's made up
of plastics and ceramics,

it's not steel, you know.

And who knows, in the future,

they're going to have
other... Other materials.

And it's not welded together,
it's Sonic, Sonic blended,

it's not welded.

The result was a
sleeker looking vessel

to be known as enterprise d.

And something else that I
did was I took the engines

that were high on
the original enterprise,

and I dropped them
down to the center of mass,

because they would have
a better propulsion balance

than being at the top.

And from what I've seen,
you've got a fine ship,

a real beauty here.

Andrew was letting
his imagination run free.

But what he was dreaming
up didn't come for free.

And gene didn't want to pay.

I designed the ship for a crew
between 3600 and 4600 people.

And I told that to
gene and he said,

"no, we don't have enough money

to afford the extras
that would actually reflect

that number of crew."

So let's say that the crew
has 1100 people on it.

Despite budget constraints,

Andrew did have one
very enterprising idea

for his enterprise.

We'll show them with
his baby can do, sir.

The ship has a battle section
that separates out off the hull.

What if the enterprise
could make itself

a smaller target

by dividing itself into two?

Starship separation,
five, four, three...

This battle section
as part of the saucer,

I even did a drawing showing
the engineering hull going off

to protect the saucer.

Separation successful, sir.

When it came to
breaking up the enterprise,

producers had
separation anxiety.

And they said, "no.

The engineering hull
is the battle section.

The saucer separates
to protect the crew."

Which sounded reasonable,

but Andrew had a
much more radical idea.

I said, "additionally,
what you could do

is just cloak the saucer
so it could go invisible."

And they said, "no,
we can't do that."

Well, if the enterprise
couldn't be invisible,

that just meant
more opportunities

to admire its features.

Which included a new
way to shoot the enemy.

File all weapons.

[Torpedoes swishing]

When I did the phasers for
the "next generation" ship,

I created that
whole phaser strip

that could actually follow
what they were shooting at.

[Torpedoes swishing]

It is the most lethal weapon.

There was the art of war,

then there was
the art on the wall.

The set decorator wanted
to flesh out picard's office.

So we thought, well, let's
have a painting of the ship...

[Bell clings] Like all
captains usually do.

So Rick and I came up with this.

I did the ship and he
did the background.

Speaking of home decorating,

there was the small
matter of the new bridge.

Gene wanted a full
overhaul, telling designers...

"I want this to be simple
and elegant and minimalistic

to show how advanced this is,

to show how far
technology has come

since the days of captain kirk."

And so cool
mid-century, minimalism

became a little
more touchy feely.

[Whooshing]

I think that the
enterprise d bridge

is as classic as the
original series Bridges.

With redesigned workstations,

Andrew's bridge still retained
a touch of business class

for the captain.

"What have they
done to my ship now?"

Picard's command chair
originally I designed it

so that it had little screens

that would pop up
out of the armrests.

So all I had to do is tap them

and then these
things would pop up.

I remember kirk walking
around in the original series

with a cup of coffee.

Board readings Mr. Spock?

So, cupholders
for the center seat?

So therefore I put
two food replicators...

[Bell clings] On the bridge...

[Bell clings] Which
they never used.

Oh, and just some
housekeeping before we move on.

There is a bathroom
on the bridge.

If you look at the bridge
from the view screen,

the head is over on
this side... [Bell clings]

opposite the door

that goes back into
the conference lounge.

[Toilet flushing]

Yep, picard's enterprise
seem to have it all.

And just in case we forgot
how starships used to roll

"the next generation"
also introduced us

to yet another enterprise.

[Music playing]

The enterprise c that we
see in yesterday's enterprise,

it has been pulled
from a different time,

but it is not a different
stylistic starfleet ship.

Andy probert had done
some early sketches

of what the scene
could look like.

We added new graphics
to the overhead panels.

The enterprise c was
certainly a new step

in starship evolution.

The enterprise c

really has a way of
bridging the gap design-wise

between the enterprise b

which we see in "Star
Trek generations."

And then of course
with the enterprise d.

Which was picard's ship.

And if all these
designations are forcing you

to relearn your abcs...
Relax, you're in good company.

One-seven-oh-one.

No bloody a, b, c, or d.

A, b, c, or, d,

the enterprise has
remained unmistakable.

"Star Trek" had a very
good batting average

of making the ships feel
germane to the universe

and to design consistency.

It may surprise you to learn

that not all starships
make it to space.

Please, sit down.

Some just take up
space in the background.

[Bell clings] Like this
one, the stargazer,

whose travels we only see

through the memories
of captain picard.

In the ready room,

we built a model of captain
picard's previous command.

But even a fragment of the past

needs to embody

the "Star Trek"
design tradition.

So we put together a
model of what we thought

this deep space science
vessel might look like.

It's the stargazer.

[Chirring]

In a world before sgi,

these starships
were still hand crafted.

Literally people
taking model kits,

and throwing them together
and creating new ships.

I would give almost anything

to command the stargazer again.

Which gave designers like
Rick a chance to experiment.

There were only two
plastic kits out there.

One was the original
series enterprise,

which was deemed
too old in design.

So I took two copies
and the refit kit.

Four nacelles,

you know, added
some new parts to it,

and our set decorator
put it on the set.

Just as the stargazer model
sits inside the enterprise

all starfleet starships stand

in the shadow of the enterprise,

the mother of all mother ships.

As "Star Trek"
and the enterprise

continued to evolve,

so too did the storylines.

During one of starfleet's
war torn chapters,

federation ships came
under unprecedented attack

by the borg.

Resistance is futile.

Fortunately, one
"Star Trek" writer

initially for the series
"deep space nine"

came up with something new

to bolster starfleet's defenses.

We can and will
defend ourselves.

The defiant.

Tough little ship.

It could put the borg and
anyone else in their place.

I decided that it was
a prototype warship

that the federation abandoned

because they don't
really build warships.

It's not really
what they're about.

But they had built this one.

It's over gone

and overpowered
for a ship its size.

And it was in danger
of pulling itself apart.

And I got to name it

so I named it after the
starship from "the tholian web."

The defiant.

[Chirring]

She may have flaws
but she has teeth.

To have a ship that
was a board buster

was exciting.

Living up to its name

that defiant defied
starfleet design conventions.

It didn't have the
traditional configuration

of a federation starship.

Maybe because this starship
was based on a mckee fighter,

originally designed
for ds 9 by Jim Martin.

You couldn't find an airlock,

you couldn't find
a phaser strip,

you couldn't find
anything recognizable.

It was up to us to turn it
into a federation starship.

Doug and his colleagues
gave the defiant

the unmistakable
stamp of the federation.

We would do that by
putting the name on it

in a distinctive way

that circular manner
that it is on the saucer

to have the red stripes

with the starfleet
arrowheads on it.

But the new shape

had some defensive
design elements

not normally seen
on federation vessels.

The fact that the nacelles
are not mounted on pylons,

you want to shield those things.

So they are within enclosures.

A more militaristic
vessel than the enterprise

and the original series
or "next gen" or "voyager".

The military industrial complex

had finally caught up
with starfleet hardware.

Likewise, starfleet
hardware had to catch up

with "Star Trek's"
increasingly war torn storylines.

With the battle of wolf
359 it was all hands on deck

to build enough starship models

for one of the franchise's
biggest conflicts.

And you start to get
to these episodes,

with these massive
space battles...

The fight does not
go well, enterprise.

We're attempting to
withdraw and regroup.

In an age before sgi,
each starship required

a physical model to
be built and filmed.

They're still
shooting miniatures,

so they are literally going,

"let's find every
spaceship we've ever built

that we can throw
into this shot."

Fire.

[Torpedoes whizzing]

[Exploding]

[Screaming]

By the time of "voyager",
calm had been restored.

And after all that chaos,

it was a case of I
want my mothership.

It's the voyager.

[Chirring]

Believe it or not,

this imperious
intrepid class vessel

began life, like so
many good ideas,

as a doodle.

I started just doodling
and doodling and doodling.

And I eventually
started evolving

the shape of what we
were calling the prototype.

We had to come up

with a distinct
look for voyager.

And Rick sternbach was
probably most responsible

for changing the
configuration of voyager

from what we were familiar with.

He really came up
with the distinctive look.

Voyager really
could be thought of

as the galaxy classes
younger sibling,

"Star Trek" is often
its own inspiration.

What I did on the runabout,

I was actually
borrowing bits and pieces

with the pylons
and the nacelles.

But voyager borrowed a little

from something a long
way from deep space.

In fact, from deep water.

I made the nacelles
nice and long,

almost like it was
one of those ice boats

that you see on
a lake slip fast.

But voyager's final shape
would have something to do

with a design built not
for speed, but for comfort.

Jerry Taylor pulls me aside

and says, "can you
make it a little curvier,

kinda like a Lexus?"
[Car horn honking]

Jerry Taylor wanted to
work some of that sensibility

into the design of the voyager

in order to make it look a
little more contemporary

and a little bit
ahead of its time.

Welcome aboard.

But producers wanted voyager

to do something no
starship or Lexus...

[Car horn honking]
Had ever done before.

One of the initial notes

was that something on
the ship had to articulate.

And this was not about
warping the design.

It was about warp speed.

We'll get more power
to the warp drive.

We're all gonna have
to get out and push.

Each nacelle
generates a warp field

that bends space and time
and creates this warp bubble.

You know, the idea
behind the pivoting nacelles

was that the
strength of the field

is what determines
how fast you go.

And maybe there are some ways

of changing the distance
between the nacelles

that will make it easier
to achieve a higher speed.

- You're cleared for launch.
- Aye, captain.

See you at warp ten.

Unlike this trans-warp
enabled shuttle,

voyager couldn't
quite reach warp ten,

but it was the fastest
starship in the fleet.

Besides, in space
you can go too fast.

Traveling at infinite velocity

accelerated the natural
human evolutionary process

by millions of years.

That's right. There was
something very fishy

about Tom Paris dabbling
with trans-warp drives.

There are traces of human DNA.

But I have to admit,

I'm not sure which
one is the captain.

Not only could it go faster,

voyager could also do something

no previous starfleet
vessel ever really needed to.

We could land the ship.

Are you sure that's necessary?

For the longest time it wasn't,
thanks to this contraption...

Energize.

Originally conceived
to save money

by enabling quick transition.

The ship won't land,

but we'll transport
several people down.

Well, that's...
A little difficult

for you to understand.

Their beloved transporter

was finally made
redundant on voyager.

Landing on a planetary
surface with voyager

was something that came in
with some of the writers notes.

Prepare the ship for landing.

Captain, I think
I should tell you

I've never actually
landed a starship before.

That's all right,
lieutenant. Neither have I.

Now we weren't going
to see it for a while,

but I had to make sure
that the landing gear hatches

were at least in
the proper place.

[Rumbling]

We're down.

Not bad for a beginner.

As "Star Trek" has evolved
with each new chapter,

its writers have set
out to break the rules.

USS prometheus
experimental prototype

designed for deep space
tactical assignments.

[Chirring]

And in the case of
the USS prometheus

to break the mold.

The USS prometheus

as a super advanced
starfleet ship,

their secret stolen
by the romulans.

[Chuckles]

Engage the multi
vector assault mode.

Some of the writer notes

talked about the ship
breaking into five parts.

Auto separation in ten seconds.

Oh, you mean like
transformers. [Laughs]

Transformers combine.

And they knocked it
back to three parts.

Because breaking
the mold doesn't mean

you can ignore all the rules.

A ship in three parts

still has to conceivably
hold together.

Quite a fun task

to try to match up
the whole sections

with, you know,
turbolift connectors

and utilities connectors

and, you know, matter,
anti-matter and conduits

and all that kind of
thing. But it worked.

Starfleet ships

may have their long standing
features to accommodate,

but there's a whole other
category of starships.

The alien ship is not pursuing.

For these ships,

"Star Trek" designers
threw out the rulebook.

Alien frequencies open, sir.

If "Star Trek" would
have us believe anything,

it's that we are not
the only ones out there.

If you're established
in the "Star Trek" world,

you know, spacefaring
civilizations,

they've traveled from
one star system to another.

Resistance is futile.

And those many alien species
we've met over the decades

have their own take on
what makes a good starship.

That fine vessel was ferengi.

Every culture that has
come up with a spaceship

has a slightly different look.

And as impressive and advanced
as these designs may appear...

Klingon looks different,
romulan looks different,

cardassian looks different.

At the end of the day

their starships were
designed by plain old humans.

How boring.

Well, not boring humans.
Brilliantly inventive ones.

Doing alien versions of things

required me to kind
of think differently.

We don't want everything
to look like starfleet.

Cardassian worships,
galor class type III.

Cardassians are
a bit more brutal.

Cardassians are like
timberwolves, predators.

[Dramatic music playing]

[Buzzing]

If we look at the cardassian
galor class cruiser,

it's different.

They don't have

the same nacelles
that starfleet does.

To find an aesthetic

that was both
extraterrestrial and familiar,

"Star Trek's" designers
turned to nature.

Some of these are
inspired by animal shapes.

[Chirring]

They needed a ferengi ship.

It's like what's this
going to look like?

Well, he described
it a little bit

and then the, the
writer herb Wright said,

"well, maybe it should
look like a horseshoe crab.

A big dome with
these little legs

and stuff underneath."

So I started with that.

And then I gave it an extension
with a forward pointy area,

which reminded me of earwigs
or pincher bugs, you know,

which I thought were creepy.

Some aliens took
their inspiration

from higher up the food chain.

A bird of prey.

Klingon bird of prey

became one of the
most significant ships

in the history of the franchise.

This isn't a
federation starship.

This is a klingon bird of prey.

We could have
had an easy victory.

The bird of prey had to look
like it was a different society

and different everything.

And it had to look alien,
but not terribly alien,

because it has to feel

like it belongs in that
world that we're creating

klingon bird of prey, sir.
She's arming torpedoes.

Fire, Mr. Scott.

[Torpedoes whizzing]

[Crackling and buzzing]

The klingons were
not the only ones

that imagined themselves
as ruthless galactic hunters.

What will a romulan
ship look like?

They're painted like
a giant bird of prey.

On the TV show, the romulans
actually had a bird of prey

painted on the
bottom of their ship.

So I thought, "well,
I'll just carry that

into the "next generation."

Romulan warbird
decloaking, directly ahead.

When "Star Trek" returned
to television in 1987

it brought starships
that we hadn't seen fly

since the original series.

And times had changed.

[Chirring]

I thought the warbird

should actually be
a vertical design.

So keeping the two
warp engines visible

through these supports
that actually went around

and supported them
all with a bird's head.

And I thought if you had
an enemy that was vertical,

there would be a visual conflict

in addition to
the way it looked.

And Rick berman, the producer

said, "no, we'll
keep it horizontal,

but make the head
look more like a bird."

So it's more like a seagull

or, you know, kind of a
parrot beak kind of face.

With a romulan ship it's
more of an art deco look.

But it is much bigger.

It's like 4000 feet long

instead of the 2000
feet that the enterprise is,

so it's a much larger ship.

Big screen "Star Trek"
delivered starships

on a scale we've
never seen before.

Designs first imagined
for the original series

by Matt jeffries were scaled up

to take advantage of
the big screen real estate.

Shall we raise our
shields, captain?

Never been this close.

And this bigger footprint
was made believable

by the smallest of details.

The fiber optic lighting that
was in the klingon warship

all the little points of light
all over the surface of the hull

and in the areas

that were supposed
to be the bridge

were a single source,
illuminating rods.

It made the scale of
the ship look very large.

Inside the battle cruiser
Andrew probert imagined

how klingons might
design their defenses.

I've been asked to
create concept designs

for the klingon bridge
under Doug trumbull.

And trumbull wanted
the klingon bridge

to be all kind of dark
and greasy and smoky

and have this suspension system,

so like if the ship
is hit really hard,

then the suspension kind
of shock absorbs hard hits.

[Rumbling]

So that's why you have

these big piston looking
things on that bridge.

Which may have
been a klingon idea,

but due to budget
constraints, it was borrowed

to form the torpedo
bay of the enterprise

in the "wrath of Khan".

Fortunately, the klingon
seemed to be cool with it.

Give me Genesis.

Whatever the starship,
alien or federation,

"Star Trek" has
always endeavored

to make the fantastic
feel plausible.

Evolving bad guys starships
over the years is one thing,

but in the early 2000s,

designers had a most
unusual challenge.

A ship is not only
from another universe,

it's from another time.

About 100 years into the future.

For enterprise,
the prequel series,

the task of making a
new starship believable

was made even more difficult

by the fact that this enterprise

pre-dated kirk's original.

How do you make a
show look both 150 years

in our future,

but 80 or 90 years
before the original series?

[Chirring]

This was the challenge faced
by the designers of the nx-01.

This is captain Jonathan
Archer of the starship enterprise.

We've come from earth.

It became my and
Herman's job to make it

as much like the original
series enterprise as we could.

This vessel...

I give, she takes...

Kirk's enterprise nx-01
had a military pedigree.

Targeting scanner
still can't get a lock.

I mean I'll have to do
this the old fashion way.

Dive. Dive.

[Siren blaring]

So Rick and Brandon
and Herman Zimmerman

toured a nuclear submarine

prior to starting
to design nx-01.

Captain, can I have
a word with you?

Taking design cues

from the Ohio class submarine
USS Florida was a nod

to gene's original
vision of the enterprise

which also drew on naval themes.

[Siren blaring] We
wanted to make this ship

look less comfortable

because that tells you
it's more primitive, right?

Touches like in
Archer's ready room,

he has to duck under a beam.

We have the
evidence to back it up.

They haven't quite got

that spacious captain
picard enterprise yet.

This was right around the time

that flat screen tvs
were becoming popular.

And they said, we'll put
flat screen tvs, you know,

throughout the bridge...

- Move into a stationary orbit.
- All right, sir.

And let's take graphics

that are sort of inspired
by the original series...

Ah, yes.

And project those
on those screens.

And that suggests both
the past and the future.

I bet we had $4 million
worth of TV equipment

all over the bridge

and any other place
that we needed.

It was a culmination,
in my mind,

of all the kinds of
things that I've done

and been exposed to in
the "Star Trek" universe.

[Rumbling and shooting]

Drawing from real
world war machines

has always given
"Star Trek's" writers

a jumping off point for flights
of fancy about fancy flight,

and how it might one day happen.

The scientific
and technical help

that they got from
the aerospace field

gave them an actual
propulsion system,

where you started to hear

about things like
matter and anti-matter.

Matter and anti-matter
have a tendency

to cancel each
other out, violently.

Ever since the
original enterprise

starfleet ships of all kinds
have always been powered

by one very powerful idea.

Starfleet specialty
is anti-matter power.

Starfleet propulsion systems
involve matter and anti-matter

reacting inside this
big armored chamber.

And the energy is then
fed out to the nacelles.

And while it certainly
served the federation well,

science tells us
there's a speed limit.

"You cannot change the
laws of physics", I told them.

So according to the
special theory of relativity,

you cannot travel faster
than the speed of light

in the universe.

The closer you
get to that speed,

the more your mass increases,

and it will take an
infinite amount of energy

to accelerate to that
point... So you can't do it

because there's not enough
energy in the universe.

But that's kind of
an inconvenient truth,

when you need to
boldly go somewhere.

So "Star Trek"
needed to find a way.

And it did with just
two simple words.

Warp drive standing by.

Warp drive, that was
just made up, of course.

We don't know
what warp drive is.

It may happen, but we
don't know what it was.

Humans have discovered
how to travel faster than light.

It just made it
faster than light,

which was what we needed
to do to go through our galaxy,

which is vast.

And we used to
sort of cheat Einstein.

Fortunately for
starfleet, it only required

one little word to achieve that.

- Engage.
- Engage.

And while this may
look like a stretch

to non-believers,

there is actual
scientific theory

about just that - a stretch.

Space itself can
expand or contract

much faster than
the speed of light.

And there is a way to
expand space behind,

you would say 100
times the speed of light,

contract it in front of you,
100 times the speed of light.

So maybe, just maybe,

"Star Trek" has been
ahead of its time all along.

Within your little
bubble of space time,

you may not be moving at all.

But the space
around you is moving.

So in effect, you've traveled
from point a to point b

at 100 times the speed of light.

Well, whatever the science,

when it comes to the
starships of "Star Trek",

there's one simple fact.

Wow, this is a starship.

That's really [indistinct]
a beautiful ship, isn't it.

Most people had never seen one.

Now millions of us
have seen starships

and they have become
part of the furniture

quite literally.

The enterprise is displayed
in the Smithsonian institute,

in the air and space museum.

The enterprise is quite a ship.

They also continue to inspire us

to reach for the stars.

The model from "Star
Trek" motion picture

is at blue origin right
now, in their lobby.

"Star Trek", even though
it's a fictional future,

it inspired astronauts
and inspired engineers.

And judging by
their own starships,

the next explorers
of the final frontier

may finally be catching
up with "Star Trek's" vision.

We're going through
the troposphere.

Might get a little bumpy.

So their real world implications
to the spaceships in "Star Trek"

that have transcended the show

and are part of the
reality that we live in.

"Star Trek" is saying
we're all going to the stars.

This dream belongs
to every human being.

It unites humanity in a way

that no one ever
thought possible.

That's the magic of
"Star Trek's" appeal,

because it says, "we're
all in this together."

Together, floating
through deep space

on the ultimate mothership.