Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542693
5 4 P E R S P E C T I V E J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 6 hundreds of years. We figured that in the age of programmable matter, curated character-driven realities might just be possible—so a woodsy Frank Lloyd Wright in space not only made sense, but actually grounded the language of Nahla's office in the terrestrial California landscape visible from her massive picture window. In the first weeks of the design process, it was just myself, two Set Designers (Alyssia Ma and Nelson Cheng) and my steadfast Supervising Art Director, Anne Malee Van Koeverden, furiously modeling, adjusting and refining until we had something pitch-worthy. As consumed as I was by the task of designing a four-story atrium composite with classrooms, student bleachers, a mess hall and viewing balconies, there was another knot forming in my stomach, the Athena's bridge. I knew that this would be our hardest test with fans of the show. While the spirit of Gene Roddenberry looked on, I pored over designs of past Star Trek bridges, looking for themes that made each iconic yet somehow familiar. The sight-lines always bothered me—why was Uhura always facing away from us? In fact, most of the crew had their faces buried in motion graphics. What if the captain wasn't at the front, but in the middle and we stepped the set so that the captain's crow's nest was actually higher for a 360-degree view of the space? If we separated key crew from their wall-mounted consoles and added a circular walking track around the space, we could achieve long, continuous dollying shots always keeping the captain center-frame and still see the faces of those in her line of sight. In the end, Set Designer Mike Stanek and I designed a geometry of two rounded squares, set at forty-five degrees to one another— four sides, four turbo lifts, with entry from either side of frame. Ceilings have always been core to my design ethos and here we opted for chromed rings in three independent hydraulically controlled sections that stepped down toward the center, effectively inverting the language of the floor. These could be lowered to imbue a sense of claustrophobic intensity and the lighting would pulse like the ripples on a pond. Assuming the forward viewscreen would effectively absorb one of the walls, we had three walls left for huge motion graphic displays, unobstructed by consoles. The ship itself has always been a major character of any Star Trek franchise; and with the help of APPROVED A. & B. USS ATHENA BRIDGE. ILLUSTRATIONS BY MIKE STANEK CREATED IN RHINO AND BLENDER. BRIDGE CONCEPT SHOWING A TIERED RISER WITH CONSOLES, A TIERED CEILING ON CHAIN MOTORS AND A WIDE CAMERA PATH THAT ORBITS THE CENTER CONSOLE STATIONS AND CAPTAIN'S CHAIR. C. & D. USS ATHENA BRIDGE. LOOKING INTO THE BRIDGE FROM THE MAIN "VIEW SCREEN" AND IN "RED ALERT" MODE. PRODUCTION STILLS. B A C D