ejecting the warp core from the Enterprise-E

ejecting the warp core from the Enterprise-E:

the big belly view

the mighty core itself, or a big silly straw!!!

exploding outer hatch

launch door sequencea view of the big belly

One of the big story points in ST Insurrection was the ejection of the Enterprise Warp Core. It was a huge scene full of action and suspence, dramatic dialog and awesome acting opportunities for Frakes and Burton. Well if you saw the film it didn’t exactly turn out that way. This production was an odd one on a bunch of levels, mostly frustrating levels,,,,,There were a lot of “what the heck’s”, and “why didn’t that make it’s” and “wholly cow you’ve got to be kidding’s” and “your a bunch of giant dog scratcher’s” and an awful lot of GOOGER-FLUEGGENS!!!! Anyways the task was to draw up the ejection system for the “E’s” warp core. Being a HUGE fan of Ron Cobb (who I payed Homage to in these drawings) always drew the greatest escape hatches and heavy space doors for example his work in, Alien, Aliens, and The Abyss. For the “E” we first designated a spot on the under belly of the ship approximately where it was drawn in the cutaway poster from First Contact. Next there were to be a series of exploding hatches and 4 point retractable port doors followed by a big scene of warning lights and venting plasma. VFX wise the core would be ejected with traces of glitter and metal fragments. when we were at the screening of the film not of this had been shot and was only mentioned in anticlimactic dialog. I want to say it was budget but I know there was more behind it than that!!! HAAAAAAAAAAA! I wish I could accent this dialog,, ( here’s a quick safety notice) I am not gripping if it comes across that way,, as I am writing I am jokingly laughing so read it in a funny not cranky way!!! OK so from there the core itself had to be drawn and it was a quick sketch with very little feedback and was passed thru on the first pass. The fun drawing was of the exterior of the ship where I had a little extra time to do a color rendering,,, Doug Drexler liked this one so I gave him the original marker sketch. For point of interest, In most if not all movies and shows the design process is usually what establishes the budget, story advancement, and the pacing, many, many drawings and scenes are created and shot only to be discarded in the end. Thanks to the extras on DVD’s, the internet and blogs all of this stuff has a chance to come out of the closet. So with that I wanted to wish everyone a great weekend and again extend my thanks to everyone for stopping by and sharing your thoughts and comments, all the cool links, and especially for the good wishes and prayers for my daughter. I have really enjoyed starting up the blog a few weeks back and it’s been a real hoot to go thru the drawers and dig out old forgotten things. Next week is Jerry Goldsmith week, and also I’ll try to find all the orthos requested from previous posts. Thanks again and have a good one.

John