Blish Star Trek 4 Cover Art Error

[Tango]

This may be obscure, but might be amusing and I was wondering if someone has noticed this - surely someone must have? The cover art for the paperback edition of James Blish's Star Trek 4 has "NCC-1710" on the (presumably) Enterprise's warp nacelles! This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for more than 40 years and I just noticed this! Or maybe it is not the Enterprise at all?

 

[Metryq]

I was always more irked by the hard-edged shadow making the those upper decks look square. There are various inaccuracies to the ship in most of the covers. Star Trek 6 puts a toroid or cylindrical terrace on the underside of the saucer, along with a keel-like ridge running forward.

 

[Methuselah Flint]

I was always more irked by the hard-edged shadow making the those upper decks look square. There are various inaccuracies to the ship in most of the covers. Star Trek 6 puts a toroid or cylindrical terrace on the underside of the saucer, along with a keel-like ridge running forward.

Have you a screenshot we could see?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

This may be obscure, but might be amusing and I was wondering if someone has noticed this - surely someone must have? The cover art for the paperback edition of James Blish's Star Trek 4 has "NCC-1710" on the (presumably) Enterprise's warp nacelles! This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for more than 40 years and I just noticed this! Or maybe it is not the Enterprise at all?

Well, artists are human beings. It's still an amazing painting. The bright light on the saucer indicates the image was from the mind's eye of the artist, never seen or even really hinted at on the show.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I never noticed that.

I always wondered if the cover of Star trek 10 was the inspiration for the darker hull colouring on the Enterprise in Discovery and Strange New Worlds.

 

[Warped9]

I always accepted the cover artists were only vaguely familiar with the Enterprise’s shape and filled in their own detail. That said the cover of Star Trek 5 is clearly a painting of the AMT model kit including the dreaded drooping nacelles.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The angle of the ship on the AMT model box cover is similar to the angle Lou Feck uses here. Even though there are obvious significant distinctions, I suppose it's possible he used it as a reference?

 

[Tango]

Aha, the Star Trek 4 illustration is included in the Memory Beta article on the USS Kongo.

 

[Maurice]

I never noticed that.

I always wondered if the cover of Star trek 10 was the inspiration for the darker hull colouring on the Enterprise in Discovery and Strange New Worlds.

No.

Not every image is inspired by something specific.

 

[Metryq]

Have you a screenshot we could see?

The image in the OP. The bridge and decks below (before the saucer) have a squared appearance from the sharp shadow. Since that part of the hull is curved, it should be a gradient shadow. Granted, I have run into situations in 3D rendering where a rapid transition from light to dark is desired, as with a render of the Moon. A gentle gradient does not look like the real Moon photos.

 

[Tango]

I quite like the cover art for some of the Blish paperbacks, my favourites being 4, 5, 6, and 8.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I think the cover art for Star Trek 8 is nothing short of outstanding. It's also by Lou Feck.

Here's a resource about his cover art: https://paperbackpalette.blogspot.c...n incredibly,and perhaps diversity of subject.

I'd say that Feck's Jaws 2 art (alluding to Roger Kastel's work for the original paperback, which was evidently in turn inspired by Paul Bacon's more abstract hardcover art), is Feck's his most famous work.

 

[Warped9]

The cover of ST8 is very cool. Makes Star Trek look like pulp SF.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The cover of ST8 is very cool. Makes Star Trek look like pulp SF.

That's my tablet's background pic

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I think the cover art for Star Trek 8 is nothing short of outstanding. It's also by Lou Feck.

Here's a resource about his cover art: https://paperbackpalette.blogspot.com/2018/04/lou-feck-incredibly-versatile-paperback.html#:~:text=LOU FECK was an incredibly,and perhaps diversity of subject.

I'd say that Feck's Jaws 2 art (alluding to Roger Kastel's work for the original paperback, which was evidently in turn inspired by Paul Bacon's more abstract hardcover art), is Feck's his most famous work.

Feck, yeah!

 

[shapeshifter]

Since that part of the hull is curved, it should be a gradient shadow.

If I understand your complaint correctly, the ENG hull is being lit from light reflecting up from the moon below. The moonlight is bright enough to wash out the shadow you expect to be seeing cast from the saucer,

 

[publiusr]

Feck, yeah!

Love his submarine art.

As for the AMT nacelle droop…lean the saucer back a bit on its dorsal. The secondary hull points a bit downward but you can re-establish a new centerline more easily for decals.

Lean the saucer back and the droop vanishes

 

[shapeshifter]

Amazing. Great tip.

I am currently using the base/rod supplied with the reissue kit. Experimenting, I tilted the entire assembly back and that worked too. I used a string to compare and found the apparent loss of droop is an optical illusion but it is a good one.

Now I better understand the original cradle base design. You taught an old dog a new trick. Thanks.

 

[publiusr]

Amazing. Great tip.

I am currently using the base/rod supplied with the reissue kit. Experimenting, I tilted the entire assembly back and that worked too. I used a string to compare and found the apparent loss of droop is an optical illusion but it is a good one.

Now I better understand the original cradle base design. You taught an old dog a new trick. Thanks.

Even the TOMY die cast example has some droop. The art asylum/Diamond Select almost overcompensated.

 

[Qonundrum]

This may be obscure, but might be amusing and I was wondering if someone has noticed this - surely someone must have? The cover art for the paperback edition of James Blish's Star Trek 4 has "NCC-1710" on the (presumably) Enterprise's warp nacelles! This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for more than 40 years and I just noticed this! Or maybe it is not the Enterprise at all?

A boo-boo? The label on the saucer could go either way. The squarish aspects above the saucer and a few tweaks on the main engineering hull also stand out, albeit less prominently. And they do look admittedly nice, IMHO. The engineering hull windows seem particularly different, yet lined up better than deck 3's on the saucer... But that's part of the fun. Oh, and the deflector dish seemed to have gotten something that made it really happy since it's a lot bigger now too.

Other novels have different drawings, so it's cool they didn't cut'n'paste it. While it may sometimes be fun to nitpick how close to a surface the ship is of an alien planet with a moon above passing lots of gas spewing from its massive crater, the ship being too close to an enemy ship while firing its puke-green phaser at it (but not the other way around, which would be even more exciting to get to when the chapter arrives), or other trifling bits o' fluff, but there's something about all those covers that feel more like a craft than a generic, cheap mimeograph.

Even the photo above has a greater majesty than a lot of big-budget releases. Then again, it's the imagination of a drawing that led to some becoming 3D artists and animators too...