Star Trek: 10 Design Secrets Behind Iconic Ships

As The Next Generation was drawing to a close, Trek producers had already begun planning a new series set aboard a smaller ship. Veteran designer Rick Sternbach was given the task.

With the Starfleet aesthetic having been established by the Enterprise, Sternbach already had a foundation. The trick lay in retaining the familiar form while simultaneously creating something completely different.

His initial effort was radical, sporting a dart-like primary hull, a flattened, elongated engineering hull and swept-back, runabout-style pylons with short warp nacelles. But as development continued the dart-like hull was smoothed out, the engineering and command hulls unified and the nacelles notably lengthened, producing a design similar to the later USS Prometheus.

This version would have been the finished article, if not for an eleventh-hour producer request to make the design curvier. With that instruction, combined with the decision to remove saucer separation, the command and engineering hulls were smoothly integrated, the pylons reworked into their familiar wing-like shape, and Voyager’s smooth, clean lines emerged.

As for Voyager’s signature variable-pitch nacelles, surprisingly these were an even more last-minute addition, requiring a massive retrofit of the mostly completed model. Why this feature was chosen proved an illusive question to answer, but it’s good that it was, as Voyager would not been the iconic ship it is without them.