Thursday, January 23, 2025

Book: Star Trek Blueprints (Joseph)



Star Trek Blueprints

Drawn by
Franz Joseph Designs

Ballantine Books
1975


***

Last September I wrote a series of pieces on the 58th anniversary of Star Trek, a television series that bewitched many of us as we warped through our youth. Actually, the age range wasn't limited: the original Trek's appeal ran right up to seniors.

Perhaps no fictional space vehicle is as beloved as the (original) Starship Enterprise.

("It's a beautiful lady and we love her.")

"I'd imagine myself walking around the ship", said a friend of mine after he and I realized that we both had the Star Trek Blueprints set in our teen years. "They were mounted on my wall."

I too mounted these detailed blueprints on my bedroom wall.

Franz Joseph, an aerospace design engineer, and whose real name was Franz Anton Joseph Schnaubelt, treated his subject as though it was a real vessel, and his draughtings reflect this... hence my buddy's imaginings. The question is, did I imagine the same? Was I a teenage geek?

Star Trek was — still is, really — a brilliant series, and one loaded with great talents: a key one being designer Walter 'Matt' Jefferies.

 
Postscript: The Star Trek Blueprints set currently in my possession was given to me by a friend of mine who had been walking down a Toronto street. He stumbled upon a box of books sitting by the curbside; inside was a certain 'book', one he imagined I might like.

1 comment:

Simon St. Laurent said...

I uncovered the above set a few weeks ago while going through my archives. The posting before this one was drawn from the same rummage.