Star Trek Art Book Maps Evolution of J.J. Abrams’ Reboot

How do you update the U.S.S. Enterprise? Very, very carefully.

Star Trek: The Art of the Film, an information-packed art book that hits shelves Nov. 17, makes it clear that J.J. Abrams and his team dug deep to craft a truly compelling retro-futuristic spaceship for their blockbuster movie.

Star Trek: The Art of the Film tracks the visual evolution of J.J. Abrams' blockbuster.
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Star Trek: The Art of the Film comes out Nov. 17.

The hard work paid off: The filmmakers ended up with a worthy vessel for young Kirk, Spock and the rest of the original series’ familiar characters.

“We wanted the Enterprise to look as gorgeous and finely detailed as a luxury car or a private plane,” production designer Scott Chambliss tells author Mark Cotta Vaz in the lushly illustrated 160-page book.

“We obsessed on the seam lines, creating impressions of aerodynamics in space, making this a really sexy looking ship,” Chambliss said. “We wanted to convey functionality, but the Enterprise also makes a storytelling impression. Its look is sleek, seductive, powerful and even hopeful.”

A similar level of detail-oriented obsession went into crafting Star Trek’s other spaceships, as well as its aliens, weapons, exotic planets and other visually compelling components.

Ultimately, Abrams and crew crafted a sleek and spectacular film that paid homage to classic Trek while launching the franchise firmly into the future. Star Trek: The Art of the Film offers an in-depth look at the successful decision-making process — part cutting-edge cinema, part heart-felt homage, all Hollywood magic — that brought the movie to the screen.

See more Star Trek concept art, and enter to win a copy of Star Trek: The Art of the Film, below.

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Hand-drawn notes reveal the evolution of Abrams’ updated Enterprise.

Klingon and Federation vessels face off in a Starfleet training test known as Kobayashi Maru.
Images courtesy Titan Books

Looking at models and marked-up drawings (pictured above) used by Abrams and crew, it’s easy to see how the team tweaked the design of the Enterprise, coming up with a spaceship that is instantly recognizable and yet updated for modern sci-fi fans.

Romulans’ facial tattoos, Starfleet uniforms and Star Trek’s alien creatures got a similarly loving treatment.

When Abrams requested a monstrous, red-skinned behemoth with a “disgusting mouth,” creature creator Neville Page took inspiration from a medical condition known as “rectal prolapse” and came up with his version of the Hengrauggi. The beast, aka Big Red, menaced Kirk (played by Chris Pine) on Delta Vega.

“The inside of the mouth was a whole new level of obscene,” said Page, just one of the many artists, designers and actors interviewed for Star Trek: The Art of the Film.

With sections on the various planets, spaceships and aliens seen in the movie — and a foreword by Abrams himself — the $30 book serves up back-story and movie-making tricks that prove fascinating.

It even includes details on the creation of some scenes, like a giant set piece on the Klingon prison planet of Rura Penthe, that never made it into the theatrical version of Star Trek.

Enter to win

For a chance to win a copy of Star Trek: The Art of the Film, leave a comment below relating the most memorable aspect of Abrams’ Star Trek movie. Wired.com will pick five winners at random to receive copies of the book, courtesy of Titan Books.

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