Rick Sternbach

Richard "Rick" Michael Sternbach was the senior illustrator/ designer for, Star Trek: The Next Generation, the first two seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager. He was also the scenic artist for, providing designs for everything from the Argo shuttle to a Romulan sculpture.

He created the designs for several new studio models, including:
 * Starships
 * Academy flight trainer
 * Ares IV
 * Cardassian ATR-4107
 * Class 2 shuttle
 * Deep Space 9 (with Herman Zimmerman)
 * Delta Flyer
 * the Egg
 * Friendship 1
 * Intrepid-type escape pod
 * Jupiter Station
 * MIDAS array
 * Millennium Gate
 * Negh'var warship
 * Romulan scout ship
 * Talarian observation craft
 * Talarian warship
 * Yridian starship
 * Romulan scout ship
 * Talarian observation craft
 * Talarian warship
 * Yridian starship
 * Talarian warship
 * Yridian starship
 * Yridian starship

He also was responsible for creating hundreds of props and set pieces, including the mural painting of the Enterprise-D in Picard's ready room. He also developed weaponry, PADDs, tricorders and communicators for Starfleet, Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian, Bajoran, Kazon, Ferengi, and other races. As a big fan of Japanese animation, anime references are often secretly placed in his designs, notably "the Egg", a design borrowed from the Dirty Pair.

Together with Michael Okuda, he served as a technical consultant to the script staff, maintaining technical and chronological continuity and inventing scientific terms and technobabble, resulting in internal documents as Star Trek: The Next Generation Writers' Technical Manual and Star Trek: Voyager Technical Manual. In 1980 he created several illustrations for the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology by Stanley and Fred Goldstein. He has also co-written the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual, Star Trek: The Next Generation USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D Blueprints as well as the "Starfleet Technical Database" articles in Star Trek: The Magazine.

Sternbach started out making his designs the traditional way, that is in paper and pencil, but acquired skills in CGI modeling as well, turning in design concepts at a later stage both in paper and pencil and rudimentary CGI models. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 3, Issue 12, pp. 94-97)

He has been critical of the Production Design of the 2009 film, specifically that of the design of the USS Enterprise (alternate reality). He criticized the apparent lack of line of sight for the nacelles to open space, proportions of various sections, and an overall lack of knowledge of how Star Trek technology works. "Perhaps the designers didn't know exactly how the different hardware bits worked". 

While no longer working on Star Trek, Sternbach continues to create futuristic designs for sci-fi productions. He also actively maintained contact with the Star Trek fan-base through Internet blogs like "Trekbbs" and more recently the "" by answering questions and explaining his thought processes on his work for Star Trek. Sternbach is also operating a webshop, "intrep74656", through eBay, selling commercialized editions of his work.

Star Trek credits

 * Star Trek films
 * - Illustrator (uncredited)
 * - Illustrator
 * - Scenic Artist
 * Season 1 - Illustrator
 * Season 2 - Senior Illustrator
 * Season 3 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant (credited only Senior Illustrator until )
 * Season 4 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 5 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 6 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 7 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 1 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 2 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 1 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 2 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 3 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 4 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 5 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 6 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 7 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 5 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 6 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant
 * Season 7 - Senior Illustrator/Technical Consultant

Star Trek interviews

 * TNG Season 1 DVD special feature "The Making of a Legend" ("Artistic Design")
 * TNG Season 3 DVD special feature "Departmental Briefing Year Three" ("Greg Jein: Modelmaker"), interviewed on
 * TNG Season 4 DVD special feature "Select Historical Data" ("A New Ship Debuts"), interviewed on 27 November 2001
 * TNG Season 6 DVD special feature "Mission Overview Year Six" ("Resolving the Cliffhanger"), interviewed on 27 November 2001
 * DS9 Season 1 DVD special feature "Deep Space Nine: A Bold Beginning" (interview from )
 * DS9 Season 1 DVD special feature "Deep Space Nine Sketchbook" (interview from 7 October 2002)
 * DS9 Season 2 DVD special feature "Deep Space Nine Sketchbook: Season Two" (interview from 7 October 2002)
 * DS9 Season 2 DVD special feature "New Station, New Ships" (interview from 7 October 2002)
 * VOY Season 2 DVD special feature "Designing the USS Voyager" (interview from, only on limited bonus-disc for region 1 DVD, standard for region 2)
 * VOY Season 5 DVD special feature "Ships of the Delta Quadrant" (interview from )
 * TNG Season 1 Blu-ray special feature, "Stardate Revisited, Part 3: The Continuing Mission" (2012)
 * "Designing the Enterprise", The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine issue 4, April 1988, pp. 29-37, interviewed by Dennis Fischer
 * "Rick Sternbach: Senior Illustrator", The Official Star Trek: The Next Generation Magazine, issue 15, June 1991, pp. 14-19, interviewed by Bill Warren
 * "Rick Sternbach: Designing the Future", The official STAR TREK prop and costume auction catalog'', 2010, pp. 28-29, interviewed by Alec Peters