Dec 4, 2019
Rick Sternbach on designing Star Trek’s future.
As senior illustrator on The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and
Voyager, Rick Sternbach shaped the look of Star Trek’s 24th
century. He contributed to the design of the titular Cardassian
space station, was responsible for the USS Voyager’s smooth
cetacean styling, and worked on alien vessels such as the Borg
Cube. With his iconic design for the PADD, he helped inspire
real-world devices such as Apple’s iPad, which owes a lot to the
futuristic tablets shown on screen throughout the 1990s. And in his
work with Michael Okuda—including on the Star Trek: The Next
Generation Technical Manual, published in 1991—he laid the
groundwork for much of the science of Starfleet ships, developing
concepts such as inertial dampeners and structural integrity
fields, as well as that fan-favorite department that was, sadly,
never glimpsed on screen: Cetacean Ops.
In this episode of Primitive Culture, recorded at the Destination Star Trek convention in Birmingham, England, host Duncan Barrett speaks to Sternbach as part of a roundtable press panel. They discuss what influenced him as a designer and how he started as a Hollywood illustrator, his work on Star Trek, and his thoughts on the future look of the franchise. He also answers a question that has been lingering for almost a quarter century: What happened to the whales when the Enterprise-D saucer crashed?
Chapters
Intro (00:00:00)
First Steps (00:04:05)
Artistic Influences (00:09:25)
Designing the Future (00:14:25)
Cetacean Ops (00:20:15)
Worlds Elsewhere (00:25:05)
Host
Duncan Barrett
Guest
Rick Sternbach
Production
Duncan Barrett (Editor and Producer) C Bryan Jones (Executive
Producer) Matthew Rushing (Executive Producer) Ken Tripp (Executive
Producer) Tony Black (Associate Producer) Clara Cook (Associate
Producer) Norman C. Lao (Associate Producer) Amy Nelson (Associate
Producer) Richard Marquez (Production Manager)