U.S.S. Voyager

USS Voyager (NCC-74656)

the USS Voyager, NCC-74656
First appearance	"Caretaker"
Launched	2371
General characteristics
Class	Intrepid
Registry	NCC-74656
Maximum speed	Warp 9.975
Armaments	Tricobalt Device Photon torpedoes Phasers
Defenses	Shields
Propulsion	Warp drive and Impulse engines RCS Thrusters
Length	343 meters
Width	116 meters

The fictional Intrepid-class starship USS Voyager is the primary setting of the science fiction television series Star Trek: Voyager. It is commanded by Captain Kathryn Janeway. Voyager was designed by Star Trek: Voyager production designer Richard D. James and illustrator Rick Sternbach. Most of the ship's on-screen appearances are computer-generated imagery (CGI), although models were also sometimes used. The ship's motto, as engraved on its dedication plaque, is a quote from the poem Locksley Hall by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: "For I dipt in to the future, far as human eye could see; Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be."

The Voyager made its television debut in January 1995 in Caretaker, the most expensive pilot in television history, reportedly costing $23 million. In addition to its namesake television show, the spacecraft also appeared in the computer game Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force (2000). The spacecraft design was also used for Star Trek: The Experience, a theme park in Las Vegas from 1998 to 2008, and as album art.

Rick Sternbach (who designed the Borg cube for The Next Generation) and Richard James collaborated over several months to design the 'USS Voyager. Sternbach started work on the new design in the fall of 1993 when the new series was announced. By spring of 1994 the design had started to mature, and was smaller then The Next Generation's Enterprise-D with features like the ability to land on a planet's surface. The interior design focused on the bridge, which set the tone for the rest of ship. Throughout the design process, the main goal was to make it new and appealing while still holding in part to the same familiar design.

Voyager special effect shots were done with both miniatures and CGI. The miniature shots of the Voyager model were used as a benchmark to improve the CGI shots. Two different computer models were developed from the physical model by two different companies that scanned it, Amblin Imaging and Foundation Imaging. Amblin won an Emmy for Voyager's opening CGI title visuals featuring USS Voyager passing through space, but the weekly episode exteriors were captured with hand-built miniatures of Voyager. By late 1996 (midway through season three), certain exterior shots were fully CGI. Another challenge of the design was coordinating the interior set design with exterior shots, in particular the location of key rooms and the design of windows. These are important for example in shots that cross-over from outside the spacecraft to inside the spacecraft in one filming shot.