Rick Sternbach Farewell Note

On Monday the 9th of April, 'Star Trek: Voyager' completed its final day of filming, and was therefore also the final workday for the show's Senior Illustrator, Rick Sternbach. In his personal newsgroup, he just posted a farewell note to the fans.

"Yesterday, Monday, April 9, 2001, was my last workday on Star Trek Voyager," he posted in the startrek.expertforum.ricksternbach newsgroup. ". I have left my recollections on [Paramount Digital Entertainment's] startrek.com website, and will now pursue other projects. I have not been picked up by Series V and don't expect to be asked over, though I will certainly listen to offers for either the series or feature, depending on the outcome of the strike situation and my availability. There have been no creative differences, no pat on the back, no animosity, no real contact of any kind. Series V is staffed. I'm crossing my fingers that they'll be able to finish the pilot on time."

He continued, "I will drop into the forum on occasion, but I can't promise to be able to take part in the ongoing discussions; I have been busy wrapping up on Voyager and haven't had the time lately in any case. If PDE decides to shut down the group, all I can say is that it was intelligent fun, and the best of luck to all of you. I will continue to carry my personal concept of Star Trek with me, even if I am no longer part of the production team."

Sternbach invited fans to visit his personal web site (soon to be located at RickSternbach.com), which should have some Trek modeling data up before too long. "Thanks for the interaction, and bye for now," he finished.

Sternbach first joined the Star Trek franchise in the late 70s, working on 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'. He worked as illustrator on 'The Next Generation' and as both Senior Illustrator and Technical Advisor on 'Deep Space Nine' and 'Voyager'. He co-wrote both the TNG Technical Manual and the DS9 Technical Manual, as well as the now out-of-print Enterprise-D Blueprints. Over the past few weeks, he spoke about the end of Voyager both on the official site and here at TrekToday.

Sternbach is not the only Voyager crew member for who April 9 was the final working day on the show. The official Star Trek site reported that all principal photography had been completed, and final Second Unit production work would be finished today. Postproduction on the remaining handful of episodes will be finished with a few weeks.

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