Do you know the story behind the Bonaventure? Here's the one that my friend Lonnie McAfee and I made with input from the original designer Bob Kline as well as Rick Sternbach, Doug Drexler and Mike Okuda.
TAS made real....
- Thread starter Warped9
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All of those ships in "The Time Trap" are actually drawings that lead up to the 'watermelon vine ship' in Beyond the Farthest star. There were something like 100+ sketches done because the only guidance from Gene that Bob Kline got was "Make a derelict starship" he had no script to even read at that point. So he started out with old Starfleet ships, which is where the Bonaventure comes from as well as the NCC-15 a sort of space tug that's also seen in the graveyard of ships. Gene kept rejecting them and then he was told it was an ALIEN derelict ship. Another set of images (the ones that still look constructed but not Starfleet) more rejections until finally 'organic' and 'something we've never seen before' was thrown in and Gene approved what you see in the first episode. But, luckily when it came to the graveyard of ships they had over a 100 to chose from!The onscreen image is perhaps not the best view. Also, of course, the TAS ships are often not drawn consistently.
This is another view as a line drawing from the Official Guise to Star Trek The Animated Series. Seeing the ship in profile (not seen onscreen) gives us a better idea of the shape and proportions and how parts relate to each other. As such I am starting again from scratch given I have done this before with the alien pod ship and the unknown (never seen onscreen) saucer design.
If you think the pod ship from "Beyond The Farthest Star" was weird (and it is) at least I could envision something like it being constructed as a miniature. I cannot really envision this thing from "Time Trap" being made as a miniature. The "wings" on the side are more complex with compound curves than is apparent from the view seen onscreen. At best I could see perhaps something like this put together yet seen only in the background here a lack of surface detail wouldn't be apparent.
Yes. It was literally supposed to be purple. Purple, Green and Pink was the doing of Irv Kaplan and it carried through to all the Filmation shows (why Prince Adam was clad in pink in He-Man!)
That ship is from Karla 5's anti-matter universe and Bob (designer singular) made those ships asymmetrical. They were supposed to be chaotic, representing different thinking from a brain that worked differently than the positive matter humans. At this point in production there was only a handful of people cranking out a weekly cartoon. Not all the designs had time to be 100% thought out especially if they were only going to be seen from one angle. But, Bob was an illustrator in Air Force so he definitely could build out orthographic drawings given enough time.
The Martian war machine design pops up in a few places and it was definitely an homage! I think we mention it somewhere in the book (probably in the "Once Upon a Planet" chapter)^^ That profile view reminds me a bit of the Martian ships from the old War of the Worlds movie.
Either that or a weird crossover of the living ship from Farscape (Mora) and a Klingon cruiser...
Cheers,
-CM-
@GeekFilter, I appreciate you dropping in. But instead of posting five times in a row please try to use the + Quote feature you'll find in the lower right hand corner of each post to compile every post you want to respond to into a single post. Thank you! 
I like this design, actually, although I'm not exactly sure why. The top half of the saucer makes the whole thing seem ... cuddly, somehow, which normally would be absurd enough that I would have dismissed it out of hand. I definitely like it better as rendered here than I do as seen in 2D in TAS--this is a great extrapolation of the original drawing.
Like I said in Trektech, in this render it looks like a really decent little science ship.Do you know the story behind the Bonaventure? Here's the one that my friend Lonnie McAfee and I made with input from the original designer Bob Kline as well as Rick Sternbach, Doug Drexler and Mike Okuda.
I’m very familiar with the notion of asymmetrical designs. Even they, however, should match up across different views, otherwise they leave the realm of simple asymmetry and enter the realm of non-Euclidean geometry. Just seemed a bit jarring to me is all.
I think Karla Five's vessel is great. I'd love to see some 3D interpretations of it.
Yep. I’m not done with those yet. For the moment I’m taking a lunch break from laying down scalloped stones around the garden at the side of the house.I'm hoping to see more interpretations of the alien vessels
Whatever keeps you in your groove brother.
Yeah, I have to dig a groove or trench to put these stones in. So presently my groove is made of dirt.Whatever keeps you in your groove brother.
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Aww, that's a little harsh on the little one, of course it's your view on that design and you're entitled to your opinion but.. but..
Good luck with your stones, grooves and trenches and of course your own TOS/TAS 1701 3D model.
You should take that on as a challenge... I'd love to see you turn that sow's ear into a silk purse!
Yes! But with all of the subtle differences of the TAS version (e.g., the appearance of the nacelle caps, the elongated shape of the B/C deck, etc.)
^^ That would sort of defeat the purpose of trying to make TAS designs look like they belong in TOS.
Rationalizing the Bonaventure can go one of two ways. Accept that Scotty’s reference is wrong and it dates to 50 years ago rather than 150, or that it should be a thoroughly different design dating back 150 years. If we go with fifty years ago then Scotty could have meant the first ship with modern warp drive.
Then again there’s that issue of Jose Tyler saying the time barrier had been broken since the Columbia disappeared eighteen years before events of “The Cage.”
I really don’t like thinking about this given the whole Bonaventure thing bugs me as sloppy design and sloppy writing.
Rationalizing the Bonaventure can go one of two ways. Accept that Scotty’s reference is wrong and it dates to 50 years ago rather than 150, or that it should be a thoroughly different design dating back 150 years. If we go with fifty years ago then Scotty could have meant the first ship with modern warp drive.
Then again there’s that issue of Jose Tyler saying the time barrier had been broken since the Columbia disappeared eighteen years before events of “The Cage.”
I really don’t like thinking about this given the whole Bonaventure thing bugs me as sloppy design and sloppy writing.
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Apologies - I rarely find anything TAS to comment on and then I found myself replying to everything. And given the negativity in response (not you) I probably won't be back this way. I've been 'sheltering in place' for 130 days--I'm a little punchy.@GeekFilter, I appreciate you dropping in. But instead of posting five times in a row please try to use the + Quote feature you'll find in the lower right hand corner of each post to compile every post you want to respond to into a single post. Thank you!
In years past I have sketched different ideas for the Bonaventure. I would try to retain a measure of its onscreen appearance while trying to distance it as best I can from being such an Enterprise derivative.
So my answer is a firm...maybe.
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