Trekyards EP152 - Designing the Romulan Warbird with Andrew Probert (Part 1)

[@evangreen3080]

I love this ship! I never think of the roundy bits as eyes. When I am looking for a face (they're scarier when they're more abstract IMHO), I see the eyes and bridge maybe as that thin black strip in the front, giving it a mean squinted visor/helmet look. The round bits I focus less on as maybe ears or horns or Frankenstein bolts. I think of Romulus having nastier eagle and raptor-like birds than seagulls I think. Can't wait for part II!

[@anditrek5561]

The Romulan Warbird has always been one of my favourite alien vessels. Besides from its obvious birdish look I think that the beak-section (or primary hull) looks a bit like a futuristic version of a Roman Centurion Helmet. I don't know if I am way off on this, but the Romulans (and Remans) are based on Ancient Rome and I always thought that the beak of the Warbird would represent a Roman looking helmet.

[@DIEGhostfish]

I do have to say that when the Navigational deflector is firing beams I feel like it fits the Romulan ideal to have a dual purpose deflector-disruptor, and it's mounted so far forward that it's not going to damage the crew section as badly as the Federation ones set behind the saucer.

[@USSEnterpriseA1701]

I have to admit that the Romulan look that Mr. Probert created is one of my favorite non-federation looks in Star Trek. I do have to say though that in my mind, I imagine the Federation giving these the name "Big Bird" for three reasons. First, it's funny when you consider what that name can also refer to. Second, it would make sense that the Federation would have it's own names for alien equipment, much like NATO had for all of the Soviet ships, subs, planes, helicopters, etc.. Third, the thing is dog gone huge (for a Star Trek ship) and it looks like a bird, it just makes sense.

[@floma4320]

After all these years, still my favorite ship in all of Trek.

[@emperorsean1]

same

[@masere]

TNG gave us some awesome ship designs didn't it? The Romulan Warbird, the Borg Cube, the Ferengi Marauder, that huge green Klingon ship (exact name eludes me), and of course the Galaxy Class. Never cared much for the Cardassian Galor Class though.

[@HarperStl]

The D'Deridex may be my absolute favorite "Alien" ship in all of Trek. It's such a neat departure from the standard-looking designs. Probert, you outdid yourself with this one. It is absolutely gorgeous.

[@thribs]

Would have been funny if the first Romulan ship the TNG crew saw was the Scimitar. :)

[@Alan1701b]

I've always thought this ship was an amazing design right from the very first moment I saw it in that TNG S1 finale episode! I completely agree with Mr. Probert on the weapon placements - the CGI guys just seemed to be slapping its weapons banks in the most ridiculous places! If only they had came to him and asked.

[@evangreen3080]

I don't know how I feel about the different weapons placement ideas. Although I love the idea of most/all ships having proper navigational deflectors, the warbird's isn't lit up like ones in later Trek leaving it open to interpretation. Maybe put the deflector above where the torpedoes are supposed to fire from? It seems in keeping with the avian esthetic to have the main weapons fire from the beak rather than the eyes. Again, I also think of the eyes as that black visor strip in the front as it is -- giving it a more inscrutable Roman helmet expression (and working for the enigmatic Romulans) than a giant seagull's head. It might be cool in a mythical way to have death spew from its eyes, or, depending on the CG, it could look really cross-eyed and cheesy.

[@shawn2780]

Just watching this now... Early thoughts- the texturing on the Enterprise D model at 8:18 is awesome. One of the problems of the D on -screen, even the HD remaster, is that the aztec paint scheme never 'popped' the way it was intended to. It looks great

[@gerardduffy4004]

I always thought the scale to large but I understand the thinking behind it.. I like the original model colour over the green effect.. always great to get these insights in to Andrews ideas and approach

[@Mister_Mag00]

I love how salty he is about the f/x guy

[@ballroomscott]

The D'deridex is the most alien looking ship design to me. It's so strange that it's got a huge hole in the middle. Over all I like it., but Probert's concept design that you show in this is quite a bit better looking in my opinion.

[@evangreen3080]

I'm also intrigued by his idea of it being a generational battleship? Does it just go out to the edge of Romulan space and begin opening up a path behind it of conquered and subjugated peoples? It returns a decade later after a new arm of Imperial territory has been secured like Caesar returning from Gaul.

[@erltyriss6820]

My favorite ship out of all the Next Generation Era. Only the Tholian and Connie hold more appeal to me. Glad you got to this one.

[@Cyberwolfman]

Got a shirt idea for the store. A picture of the Future Enterprise D from All Good Things... and underneath it the words: "What the F%@# is THAT?" - Andrew Probert

[@besaidknight]

I love this ship, and really enjoyed the ep. Love the work you guys do. with that said, though the war bird sprawls itself out, I don't think it's as large as I first thought. Really, the "head" of the ship is the majority of the vessel, with engineering being in the thin little stem in the rear. The top spine is tactical, and the bottom junction being storage/launch bays... if this ship were squished together, it would still be larger than the "D", but it couldn't be THAT much larger, could it? o.o; Is there a way to compare their tonnage? if anyone knows, thanks in advance!

[@MrRandomcommentguy]

Looking at photos from the Christies auction, the studio model appears to have a grey-green base coat with very light pale green airbrushing to bring out the details. So the overall impression is a green ship, though clearly they really punched up the saturation in post.

[@markomarko7846]

Happy Birthday Captain Foley :)

[@cadsux]

I don't think you can fully fault the special effects guys for using the navigational deflector as a weapons port. In STTMP, the Klingon K'tinga class cruiser has a huge torpedo port where the deflector would be on the earlier D-7 cruiser. I guess when the D-7 was refitted/replaced, they moved the torpedo launcher there, similar to the Enterprise refit. So where did the deflector go?

[@donaldhill3823]

Paint color of a ship does not denote a culture. Navies all around the world have changed their paint colors throughout history for various reasons.

[@thschnick]

It was my favorite ship design when I was little. I still love the design but I have exposed myself to so much more Trek lore that it has unfortunately been bumped back.

[@foxpianocovers]

Love the size comparisons with the CG animations... This ship makes the Sovvie look small!

[@enterprise-h312]

6:25 So the Garidian ships are actually the correct colour? As for the disruptor and photon-err plasma torpedo placements, if DS9 ever gets a new coat of paint in the form of a Blueray release then they could fix those. Alternatively, they're firing deflector pulses.

[@shawn2780]

+10 for A Final Unity reference. I love that game so much

[@Dreadtothink]

Nice animation work here.

[@todabrilla]

I hope Probert talks about the location of the impulse engines.

[@axelhopfinger533]

To me the original design of the D'Deridex Warbird sounds like it was built as a force projection platform similar to current aircraft carriers. A fearful symbol of the might of the Romulan empire. So it makes sense for it to have a lot more and bigger hangar facilities. A ship of this size should be able to both construct and destroy whole colonies and form the core of a strike fleet.

[@MzRtS12]

so this is possible to split into 3 parts??? mind = BLOWN! 😮

[@Pulprat]

The Romulians have green blood, so painting their ships green would make sense for a warship.

[@shaundis2117]

given the content im suprised this dosnt have more views

[@morkofork]

They must have outfitted that TOS BoP at 3:51 with a phase cloak of some type.

[@exocompunit5126]

Someone needs to make a CG Simulation on how it would fight with its original weapon location now been verified. I'm curious if the eyes on the side could actually fire straight or just on the sides.

[@90lancaster]

They did tend to show them getting blown up a lot - but I can seeing doing very well against a Kazon city ship and likely beat a Xindi Aquatic Cruiser - But I expect it would last like 5 seconds against the Voth. It's reasonably even with a Chancellor Class Varient of a biggest Klingon ships or the Dominion's biggest ship. Two or three of them might even be able to chew up a Borg cube I suppose. I wonder if the Borg are scared of the Voth as they seemed to have left them alone - or like the Hirogen maybe they just had not got around to them yet. ? Maybe they simply didn't bother with them as they were busy with Species 8472.

[@evangreen3080]

The Voth have been space-faring for millions of years. They can take care of themselves. The Borg will eventually get around to everyone in time regardless how preferable. The warbirds blew up a lot because that was the story; it detracts nothing from their rank regardless, and they probably did immense damage going down. Voyager survived a tactical cube for heaven's sake so all arguments must be taken with a grain of salt. Even with all the Federation's advances from BoBW to FC, a regular Borg cube would have assimilated Earth if not for Picard's insider information.

[@TheCastellan]

Captain Foley....what's a 'Warbord'? :D

[@mbmajor01]

I always thought this ship was unnecessarily large, that big empty space, also what's the differences between the type A and B variations

[@shawn2780]

The grey model shown in this episode was actually the second model built. The first one was green and didn't have nearly as many lit windows (which in my opinion looked better). The nacelles were a bit different too, I think. The grey one was color matched to the first on screen, mostly. Unfortunately the editors were ignorant of the differences so some episodes actually have both models representing the same ship in the same episode (a la TOS)

[@ErokCherokee]

Well in defense of the CGI techs the navigational deflector on the D'Deridex is over 20 decks tall so there could be space in and around the deflector for weapons stations like disruptors and plasma torpedoes.

[@power543]

True!

[@JAGtheTrekkieGEMINI1701]

Just noticed this.. The forward section/bridge!? looks almost like a Cylon Centurion head... oO

[@shawn2780]

Considering that Probert also designed the Centurion head, that makes sense.... Even if it was done subconsiously.

[@mrichar9]

Cool episode

[@Durmomo0]

I just thought what a PITA it would be to get around in that ship with the big hole in the middle

[@Durmomo0]

prettiest ship ever

[@kelleystarling7473]

reminds me of the USSR we built the Ohio class subs they built the Typhoon

[@tainoking3361]

I think the Ree'man war bird Simitar in nemesis was way better

[@A88mph]

Never really liked the D'deredix design, it seems too hollowed out to be an effective ship to me. Just shoot the engines and the bit on the back, and the whole thing should split clean in half.

[@90lancaster]

The attachment points are bigger than most whole ships are though. P.s Here is a thought in Star Trek : Nemesis we see a Copper coloured Romulan ship and the effects model is grey and the CGI green so why not a copper one too ? That would be fun.

[@shawn2780]

I think part of the intelligence of the design is that the ship is actually modular. If the ship did split in half, as Probert suggested, the top part is still a functional battleship. Which makes me wonder... Where is the quantum singularity housed?

[@A88mph]

Shawn McDonald Actually, that is a good question. Also, where are the Impulse engines?