Redesign Star Wars

[joncarrfarrelly]

Reading Clarke's "The Lost Worlds of 2001", the Discovery would have had wings as radiators for the reactor coolants.  But someone questioned the reason for a spacecraft to have wings and the idea got dropped. The dumbbell shape was one he'd used for the Earth-Mars liner in "The Sands of Mars".

Star Wars.  Apparently, the rebel blockade runner at the start WAS the original model for the Millenium Falcon, but Lucas felt it looked a bit wrong for what he wanted.

The original Millennium Falcon model and set was the blockade runner with the final Falcon's 'B-29' cockpit on the front end. The problem wasn't that Lucas fell out of love with it, the problem was that Space 1999 happened. The Falcon as designed was FAR too close in look and style to the Space 1999 Eagle and as soon as Lucas saw the latter, he ordered the Millennium Falcon design changed. Quite where the modified flying saucer shape came from is still a bit of a mystery: it was all done in a great hurry because the hangar bay set had already been built with the wrong ship in it, so nobody was keeping records for posterity and in any case, it mostly happened in conversations rather than memos. There's the apocryphal story that Lucas took a bite out of a hamburger, stuck an olive in the side on a cocktail stick, and told the designers that was the shape he wanted, but it's probably not true. There's also the somewhat more credible suggestion that it was based on the hero ship from the French Valerian comic strip which it's obvious Lucas plundered for all sorts of other elements. The name of the ship may well be a subtle dig at Space 1999: the 'millennium' is the year after 1999 and 'Falcon' is another bird of prey like 'Eagle'...

The original Millennium Falcon model was re-used as the blockade runner by replacing it's cockpit with a new bridge made, IIRC, out of two large paint cups glued together.

"The Complete Conceptual History of the Millennium Falcon" link I posted previously addresses the Valerian issue"
and pretty much every other aspect of the Falcon's design history, from original concepts to the final design.

The overall Valerian vis. Star Wars is discussed in a longer essay on the Kitbashed site:
https://kitbashed.com/blog/valerian-and-laureline

[zenrat]

Years ago I once spent a fascinating couple of days at work reading through a very long text heavy website about the interior design of the Falcon. 
It seems that there hadn't been much correspondence between the interior set designers and the exterior model designers and AFAICR no real drawings showing how the various compartments, gun positions, corridors and engine spaces fitted into the hull.

Obviously any links I may have saved have long gone so I have no idea where to find all this again.  All I can remember was that it was on a site which looked at the designs and specifications of all the ships seen in ANH, TESB & ROTJ.

[joncarrfarrelly]

Interiors and exteriors rarely align, one of the best examples being the APC from Aliens, it's
almost a freakin' TARDIS.

 

[Weaver]

Interiors and exteriors rarely align, one of the best examples being the APC from Aliens, it's
almost a freakin' TARDIS.

 

One honorable exception was the Serenity from Firefly. That was mainly because it was designed by a very small team with the director closely involved, so the whole thing was based around what they needed dramatically with a 'skin' wrapped around the outside of that.

[zenrat]

Interiors and exteriors rarely align, one of the best examples being the APC from Aliens, it's
almost a freakin' TARDIS.

 

Also railway carriages and airliners in movies and on TV.  They get to be very wide.

[Weaver]

Scrolling through my pics file I found this, which I'd started but never finished for this thread, so I finished it.

It's a concept for the Rebel Strike Fighter requirement, i.e. the role filled in the movie by the Y-Wing. Inspiration came from the Avery-Frost Orion and Alphan Manta artwork that I posted earlier in the thread. It has a roughly saucer-shaped hull with a two-seat side-by-side cockpit that's good for drama and character interaction. The hyperdrive is on the back of the saucer, and the defensive guns sit on a 'tailplane' that's actually two cylinders on four 'fins'. The six defense-shield generators are on the octagonal ring that surround the saucer but stands off from it. The pods are supposed to evoke automatic pistols held sideways (gangsta-style!  ) without being too obvious. There are twin engines at the back of each pod, while the front has a 'torpedo' launcher and a fixed laser-cannon that's a later addition.

star wars strike fighter 1 FIN JPEG by Harold Smith, on Flickr

[Scotaidh]

Interiors and exteriors rarely align, one of the best examples being the APC from Aliens, it's
almost a freakin' TARDIS.

 

Also railway carriages and airliners in movies and on TV.  They get to be very wide.

Also ships - especially Submarines.

[Mossie]

I was hoping the Hermes in The Martian film wouldn't be a flying-cathedral as the novel stuck close to real life engineering,  Never mind.....

[Weaver]

I was hoping the Hermes in The Martian film wouldn't be a flying-cathedral as the novel stuck close to real life engineering,  Never mind.....

Hmmm - okay it wasn't much like the ship in the book, but the only real criticism I've seen of it from a practical point of view is the solar panels: who needs 'em when you've got a nuclear plant? I suppose 'backup' is the answer to that one...

[tigercat]

for the Y  Wing  equivalent - Indiana Jones flying wing  s pacified .  So  engines  swapped out  for  something Sci fi  with  a few more turrets  and  a droid.

[Weaver]

for the Y  Wing  equivalent - Indiana Jones flying wing  s pacified .  So  engines  swapped out  for  something Sci fi  with  a few more turrets  and  a droid.

Interesting - it could be, in effect, like a re-arranged B-Wing, with the cockpit in the middle and the engines split to either side of it.

[zenrat]

Interiors and exteriors rarely align, one of the best examples being the APC from Aliens, it's
almost a freakin' TARDIS.

 

Also railway carriages and airliners in movies and on TV.  They get to be very wide.

Also ships - especially Submarines.

I've watched a lot of Submarine movies and when I went through The Pearl Harbour Avenger (USS Bowfin) at Pearl I couldn't believe how they had lied to me.  It was so small inside!

[Weaver]

Here's a blog with video links that has more pics and info about Colin Cantwell's contributions to Star Wars:

http://www.originalprop.com/blog/2014/11/13/colin-cantwell-video-interviews-star-wars-prototype-models-nasa/

[NARSES2]

I've watched a lot of Submarine movies and when I went through The Pearl Harbour Avenger (USS Bowfin) at Pearl I couldn't believe how they had lied to me.  It was so small inside!

I've been on her as well  What struck me was that when I showed an ex RN submariner the interior shots on returning home he commented on "how much room the crew had had" 

[Weaver]

I've watched a lot of Submarine movies and when I went through The Pearl Harbour Avenger (USS Bowfin) at Pearl I couldn't believe how they had lied to me.  It was so small inside!

I've been on her as well  What struck me was that when I showed an ex RN submariner the interior shots on returning home he commented on "how much room the crew had had" 

I went on-board HMS Onyx a couple of times while she was a museum ship at Birkenhead (Oberon class so post-war diesel-electric, but similar to wartime conditions). Yep - scary as **** for this mild claustrophobe. NOTHING could persuade me to go to war in something like that....