Rick Sternbach Fan Answers Online

Over at the official Star Trek site, they've put up the first set of answers from Voyager Senior Illustrator Rick Sternbach, to whom fans could recently submit their own questions. Here are three of his answers from the full list:

JCP9382: Will there be a Star Trek: Voyager Technical Manual?

Rick Sternbach: Tim Earls and I proposed an all-inclusive Voyager technical manual to Pocket Books some time ago, but we and the publisher have not yet come to an agreement on the project. I'm hopeful that eventually a detailed manual will come out of the seven years we've spent developing new technology and starship systems; in the meantime, we'll work up a few articles on these issues for Star Trek: The Magazine.

Shane: What are your favorite ships and/or stations?

Rick Sternbach: I think my favorite ship has to be Voyager, with the Klingon Attack Cruiser a close second. Both were a joy to work on. My current favorite non-starship is the Jupiter Station; I got to make the visual suggestion that the main body was constructed from decommissioned starship hulls, mainly Ambassador class vessel parts.

Michael C.: What were the decisions in your life that led to your career in production design?

Rick Sternbach: Just to clarify, my official job title is Senior Illustrator, which is different from that of Richard James, our fearless leader Production Designer in the Star Trek: Voyager Art Department. In any case, what got me to this point was a series of events and acquaintances too lengthy to detail here. However, the short story is this: my dad was an architect, which is where I got the drawing bug; I fell in love with the 1950s Disney Man in Space films, which Star Trek producer Bob Justman helped bring to television (small world!); my space hardware mentor was the late missile engineer G. Harry Stine, who helped found the National Association of Rocketry; countless films like "Forbidden Planet," "Destination Moon," and "2001: A Space Odyssey" fueled my passion for space and science fiction. And there was the original Star Trek, which I watched each week for the stories or daring-do and great gizmos. I never had film or television design work as a deliberate first goal, it's just something I gravitated toward as a natural step over from space and science fiction paintings for books and magazines.

Discuss this news item at Trek BBS!
 Add TrekToday RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fan? Then visit CSIFiles.com!