FIRST LOOK: Next Wave of Ships in Official Starships Collection

Star Trek The Official Starships Collection has provided StarTrek.com with the first in-depth look at the models that are shipping during November and December. This month, subscribers in the U.K. will receive the Klingon K’Tinga-class battlecruiser as it appeared in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the U.S.S. Excelsior NCC-2000 from Star Trek VI. Then, in December, subscribers will get the U.S.S. Defiant and their first Borg ship – the Star Trek: Voyager version of the Borg Sphere. U.S. subscribers will receive their ships a little less than a month later.

The model of the Klingon battlecruiser is based on the TMP version. Like the Enterprise, the Klingon ship got a major upgrade for its appearance in the first Star Trek movie, with new design work done by Richard Taylor and Andy Probert. This version has much more surface detail than its original series predecessor, but has a simpler, gunmetal paint scheme than the CG version that appeared in Deep Space Nine over 20 years later. The accompanying magazine provides an inside look at the design process, with some rare photographs of the studio model and a profile of the ship.

The next model, the Excelsior, made its debut in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and was always intended to be an advanced vessel that made the Enterprise look old. The ship underwent some changes when it reappeared in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country under Captain Sulu’s command and this is the version that the model replicates. As well as the usual profile, the magazine takes a look at the rejected study models that ILM’s Bill George built as part of the design process.

The following month, subscribers will receive another of the most popular ships in Star Trek’s history – Starfleet’s first true warship, the U.S.S. Defiant. The model in the collection is based on a combination of the VFX team’s CG model and the original studio model. The magazine provides a rundown of the ship’s history and takes a look at Jim Martin’s original concept drawings for a ship that started life as a Maquis raider.

Then this batch of ships wraps up with the version of the Borg Sphere that appeared in Star Trek: Voyager. The complicated surface detailing provided a real change for the modelmakers and resulted in one of the most intricate models in the collection. The magazine takes an inside look at how the Borg assimilate their victims and the design process behind both the Borg Sphere and its mistress, the Borg Queen.

The Official Starships Collection is available in selected retailers and by subscription. For more information visit www.startrek-starships.com. And keep an eye on StarTrek.com for additional information about upcoming releases and for detailed looks at each ship as it is released.