STAR TREK: PICARD THE ART AND MAKING OF THE SERIES
Making it so
RELEASED 27 FEBRUARY 207 pages | Hardback
Author Joe Fordham
Publisher Titan Books
Ten months on from the Enterprise-d crew’s victory over a Borg-ified fleet, this coffee table book feels a tad belated. Still, it’s an accessible, well-organised affair, which quizzes all the key creatives – not just production designers Todd Cherniawsky and Dave Blass, but producers, directors, effects boffins and more.
Tracing the project from a proposed Short Treks titled “Mysterious Entanglements”, it reveals paths not taken: an early pitch imagined Picard working with a theatre troupe, while ideas regarding Jean-luc’s son included old flame Vash being his mother. Other trivia nuggets include the fact that Blass conceived the Borg
Singularity by imagining that they’d assimilated the planet-killer from “The Doomsday Machine”.
The imagery’s the main draw. An array of concept designs and behind-the-scenes snaps include some real treats: Stargazer schematics and a stunning “Jurati Borg” concept are two of our faves. It’s always fascinating to see a range of options too – be it a dozen riffs on the Ryton Nebula “space baby”, or six Worf hairstyles.
The section which impresses the most details art director Liz Kloczkowski’s obsessive quest to craft a “museum quality replica” of the Enterprise-d bridge, which included spending $1,000 on samples to source the right red carpet, and matching a wood knot on Worf’s station. You can understand why Marina Sirtis was moved to tears… Ian Berriman
Artifacts in Picard’s library include a shipin-a-bottle Promellian battle cruiser, a nod to a line in TNG’S “Booby Trap”.