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Designing the Orbital Office Complex by Kurt Keller This was the first piece of hardware I was asked to work on... I don't remember why. -Andrew Probert The Orbital Office first made it's appearance in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, the model was redressed for Regula I in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and for various installations through out the different series. It was to be a large orbiting Starfleet facility that had the capability of assembling spaceships from prefabricated elements 'beamed' to it's location - Andrew Probert. To Andrew Probert it seemed logical for the facility to be able to fabricate parts needed to repair and refurbish various ships of different types. It was suppose to made up of a ton of offices and a few ports for small engineer's inspection craft known as "Travel Pods". Originally Gene Roddenberry wanted the pods to look exactly the same as the office pods in order for them to be a sort of "flying office", Gene wanted this to be a story device, he wanted it to be a shock when the office pod suddenly detaches from it's cluster when Scotty takes Kirk to inspect the refitted Enterprise. With these requirements Probert started these series of sketches on March 30, 1978.
The original design for the observation pod had a fixed airlock in the front.
An overall view of the station, he was trying to envision what the station would look like servicing multiple dry docks.
A sketch of a possible configuration, Note: in the drydock there is a "Starfleet Destroyer" a ship with one warp nacelle, this as Probert explains, was before Gene declared that warp required two nacelles.
A sketch developing where the living quarters, power plants, and offices would be.
Yet another configuration, it follows Probert's Motto "Form Follows Function"
A refinement of the Travel Pod, it now had a hinged docking port. The pod also has escape hatches, top & bottom, and seats along the interior sides.
(The Art of Star Trek) The Final model created by Magicam.
(The Art of Star Trek) How the Orbital Office Complex, as it appears in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Credits This article is mostly based on what Probert himself said about the design on his site, Probert Designs2, also some of the info comes from The Art of Star Trek, a book containing designs from "The Cage" to "Star Trek: Generations", written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, where the final two images are from. |
