"Polaris"

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Over the weekend a friend and I moved about a thousand dollars worth of lumber and tools into the stage, along with a few portable set pieces already constructed. I started building the platforming for the back area of the set.

And I've already managed to draw my own blood with a 1/2 inch drill bit, so we'll consider the stage properly christened.

Hopefully in a week or so I'll have pictures to post, however preliminary.

[IcecreamLtDan]

Too bad I don't live anywhere near you Dennis, as I am now unemployed I could help out. Oh well.

[Tom]

Sounds good Dennis, will watch this with great interest.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Some early set construction pictures here:

http://www.starshippolaris.com/wordpress/

[Horizon]

I bet the roundness of the Holographic Imager was a bugger to get right.
Looks good, though!

[Robin_Hiert]

Looks like you're getting there, it looks amazing already.

[Vektor]

For those who are interested in the design development of the Starship Polaris itself, all of the concept sketches I've done to date can be found here:

www.vektorvisual.com

[Kelso]

I like the new(ish) vertical orientation of the "saucer."

[Robin_Hiert]

It reminds me a little bit of the ship Spock used in Star Trek XI.

[Barbreader]

Robin_Hiert wrote:

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It reminds me a little bit of the ship Spock used in Star Trek XI.

Yeah, I'm betting somebody who worked on that movie saw this or, more likely, the yet-to-be completed second Exeter episode.

[Vektor]

Well, the basic design of the Polaris predates the new Star Trek movie by at least a couple of years, but the vertical orientation idea is a lot more recent. I can't remember if I had already seen the Jellyfish ship at the time I came up with that but I don't recall it ever crossing my mind if I had. The main reason for turning the saucer on-edge was to introduce a "nautical element" to the design, evoking the verticality of an 18th century "tall ship." I even included shapes that were reminiscent of a ship's sails for a time, and they may reappear before all is said and done.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

It looks a little like the "Jellyfish" coming head-on, and less so IMAO from other angles.

Not speaking for the artist, I'm comfortable with whatever resemblances people see between one design and another - after forty-odd years, the Enterprise still looks to me like a flying saucer with a couple of rockets attached to it.

OTOH, if I read Barb right she's suggesting that Trek borrowed from Jason rather than the reverse. I'm cool with that, too.

[Barbreader]

Dennis wrote:

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It looks a little like the "Jellyfish" coming head-on, and less so IMAO from other angles.

Not speaking for the artist, I'm comfortable with whatever resemblances people see between one design and another - after forty-odd years, the Enterprise still looks to me like a flying saucer with a couple of rockets attached to it.

OTOH, if I read Barb right she's suggesting that Trek borrowed from Jason rather than the reverse. I'm cool with that, too.

That's EXACTLY what I'm saying. I think some of the people working with JJA stole you and you friends stuff. I think it's big of your to be cool with that. Too bad Paramount won't let the Trek Fan Film community have commercials on their web-based shows or sell the DVDs legally (I'm told by a friend he's seen copies in what are usually legitimate DVD stores next to legal Trek). They could demand a cut, and everyone would be ahead.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Barbreader wrote:

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That's EXACTLY what I'm saying. I think some of the people working with JJA stole you and you friends stuff. I think it's big of your to be cool with that.

Well, I think it's a coincidence. For one thing, although we didn't see the Jellyfish until May of this year it was designed sometime back in 2008. Vektor did his first design work on Polaris toward the end of 2008 - so neither we nor the Star Trek people really had a chance to copy one another.

I've seen this same kind of parallelism all my life in terms of writing - what looks like imitation or, sometimes, inspiration really very rarely turns out to be so. Publishing and/or production lead-times often obviate the possibility (or, at least, likelihood) of influence. The simpler explanation is usually that two writers or artists who are aiming at similar targets will define similar "envelopes" and come up with similar solutions - John August had a good (if somewhat brutal) take on one example of that particular phenomenon here.

[dayxday1000]

Dennis wrote:

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I've seen this same kind of parallelism all my life in terms of writing

Also known as Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Story Development.