The first visualization of a saucer separation was conceptualized by
Ralph McQuarrie, as he worked on the pre-production of the abandoned 1976-1977
Star Trek: Planet of the Titans project. He stated, "
I had devised a concept for the end of the film... Some alien form has designed a way to use the power of a black hole's gravity to form a spherical shroud around the black hole. If you have a dense enough material, gravity cannot penetrate it. There are two openings in the shroud that they would use to pull ships in. The saucer of the Enterprise
(which was detachable) ends up in the shroud. They meet the aliens and had a dramatic finale. These two images are of the Enterprise
saucer in the shroud [....] The disc of the Enterprise
would separate from the rest of the ship to land on the surface of planets."
[2] The sketches McQuarrie referred to, of the independently operating saucer section, were published in
The Art of Ralph McQuarrie (pp. 124-129).
A year later, a saucer separation involving the refit
Constitution-class
Enterprise (NCC-1701) was storyboarded by
Andrew Probert for a possible scene at the end of
Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Features such as a separation line were intentionally designed into the filming model by Probert, and were good indications that the ship can separate just like its earlier form. (
Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D Blueprints)