Legendary concept designer and illustrator John Eaves designed all the starships and and created all the planets for our website. John is responsible for designing many of the ships and props for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: ENTERPRISE, as well as working on the Star Trek: The Next Generation feature films, including designing the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E, and Zefram Cochrane's Phoenix along the way.
Eaves cut his teeth in Hollywood as a practical model builder on such films as "Top Gun" (1986), "Spaceballs" (1987), "The Hunt for Red October" (1990), and "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991). After working as a storyboard artist on the TV series "SeaQuest DSV" (1993), Eaves was hired by production designer Herman Zimmerman to work on "Star Trek: Generations," where he was responsible for designing the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-B on which James T. Kirk would meet his (first) demise.
Eaves then joined the art department staff on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine then in its fourth season. Since most of the ships on that show were in place before he arrived, Eaves was primarily involved in designing "gadgets" for the series, such as ceremonial knives and swords used by Bajorans and Klingons, as well as auxiliary space vessels such as a Cardassian freighter, and the Breen warships. He served as Illustrator and then senior Illustrator on DS9 until the end of the series. In addition, during that stint he worked double-duty on two subsequent TNG films. Since the Enterprise-D bit the dust (literally) in "Star Trek: Generations," it was time to move up the alphabet, so Eaves and Zimmerman together designed the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E for "Star Trek: First Contact." Eaves was also responsible for designing Earth's first warp-drive vessel, the Phoenix, based on the real-life Titan missile, with the challenge of bridging the 21st century with the Star Trek future. He also designed the Vulcan ship that landed on Earth at the end of the film, and helped conceptualize the look of the Borg Queen.
The process of designing the ships, sets, and other visuals for "Generations" and "First Contact" are described in Eaves' book, "Star Trek, the Next Generation Sketchbook: The Movies, Generations & First Contact," which he co-authored with Jeanne M. Dillard. Eaves went on to play a major part in "Star Trek: Insurrection." For that film he designed the captain's yacht Cousteau, Data's scout ship, a Federation shuttle and holoship, the boomerang-shaped Son'a battleship, and Ru'afo's flagship, among others. In February 2001, Eaves was brought back into the Star Trek art department fold as production illustrator on the fifth Star Trek TV series, ENTERPRISE, again working for Zimmerman.
After Star Trek: ENTERPRISE, Eaves has since gone on to work as concept illustrator and designer on such feature films as "Sky High" (2005), "X-Men: The Last Stand" (2006), "Evan Almighty" (2007), "Tropic Thunder" (2008), "Valkyrie" (2008), "Star Trek" (2009), and "Ironman 2" (2010).
Anteros Governor John Eaves has had a major impact on the look of the Star Trek universe, creating many of the props and ships, including the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E and Zefram Cochrane's Phoenix. Visit the Governor's profile here.