Build the Enterprise, issue by issue

Welcome to part four of my exploration of the cancelled Japanese part-work Build the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D. After the first hint, a tease, and then all the details of the project, what more could we have to learn? Well the editor of the series (and the Star Trek Fact Files and Collector's Edition before), Tim Leng, has been in touch, and has given me lots of pages from the magazines to share with you. These are all the English language versions too, and include a couple of pages from issues that weren't even published in the Japanese test run!

Tim also explained the premise for the series:

The idea for the project as a whole was that if you'd just graduated from Starfleet Academy and been assigned to the Enterprise this is what you'd be given to help familiarise yourself with the ship and its systems (although in the 24th century it would all be on a PADD, of course). The Tour of Deck pages and the blueprint sheets in particular go hand in hand very closely - the idea being that you could have the massive sheet laid out in front of you and then use the equivalent Tour of Deck card to 'walk around' the deck.

It's not just the Tour of Deck pages that reference the blueprints, if you look in the top right of most pages you'll see a reference to how and where the subject is marked on the blueprints - A pretty nifty way to learn your way around I think.

Below is an issue by issue breakdown of the series, continue reading after the jump to see what was covered all the way up to issue 11!

Issue 1

• Blueprint - dorsal exterior view
• Tour of Deck - Deck 1
• Critical Systems - Conn
• Apparatus - Photon Torpedo
• Mission Logs - Encounter at Farpoint
• Star Trek Memories - Jonathan Frakes interview Part 1

 

 

Issue 2

• Blueprint - Deck 2
• Tour of Deck - Deck 2
• Critical Systems - Captain's chair
• Apparatus - Lifeboat
• Mission Logs - The Naked Now/Code of Honor
• Star Trek Memories - Peter Lauritson interview

 

 

Issue 3

• Blueprint - Deck 4
• Tour of Deck - Deck 4
• Critical Systems - Command Division
• Apparatus - Jefferies Tube
• Mission Logs - Haven/Where No One Has Gone Before
• Star Trek Memories - Michael Westmore interview Part 1

Issue 4

• Blueprint - Deck 3
• Tour of Deck - Deck 8
• Critical Systems - Master Systems Display (pool table)
• Apparatus - Medical Tricorder
• Mission Logs - The Last Outpost/Lonely Among Us
• Star Trek Memories - Enterprise designs

 

Issue 5

• Blueprint - Deck 5
• Tour of Deck - Dorsal view
• Critical Systems - Tactical console
• Apparatus - Antimatter generator
• Mission Logs - Justice/The Battle
• Star Trek Memories - Michael Piller (never before seen archive interview) Part 1

 

The mission log pages were ordered by stardate, so some of the earlier episodes of TNG were reordered from the broadcast order. Tim also explained how the mission logs expanded the story beyond what we saw on screen:

We were going to have two episodes per issue except for big shows like Best of Both Worlds that would've been double length. We also had a few issues worth of Galaxy-class development stuff (basically expanded out from what's in the tech manual), plus some new info that would've slotted in between episodes - detailing the upgrades made to the ship between All Good Things… and Generations, for example, to explain why the bridge looked different. There would also have been couple of cards post Generations to explain what happened to the wreckage of the ship. This section was actually all planned out to fill the entire 100 issue run!

Issue 6

• Blueprint - Port and Starboard views
• Tour of Deck - Deck 11
• Critical Systems - Operations division
• Apparatus - Bussard Collector
• Mission Logs - Hide and Q/To Short a Season
• Star Trek Memories - Herman Zimmerman interview Part 1

If you were wondering, the question marks on the deck plan labels are apparently where Japanese text would have gone originally; they would have been removed for final publication if it had made it to Britain.

 

 

Issue 7

• Blueprint - Deck 1
• Tour of Deck - Deck 9
• Critical Systems - Bridge science stations
• Apparatus - EPS step-down node
• Mission Logs - The Big Goodbye/Datalore
• Star Trek Memories - Jonathan Frakes interview Part 2

Issue 8

• Blueprint - Deck 8
• Tour of Deck - Port and Starboard views
• Critical Systems - Medical devision
• Apparatus - Reaction control thrusters
• Mission Logs - Angel One/11001001
• Star Trek Memories - Michael Westmore interview Part 2

Issue 9

• Blueprint - Fore and Aft exterior view
• Tour of Deck - Deck 36
• Critical Systems - Transporter console
• Apparatus - Internal sensor/sensor data preprocessor
• Mission Logs - Home Soil/When the Bough Breaks
• Star Trek Memories - Bridge designs

Issue 10

• Blueprint - Deck 9
• Tour of Deck - Deck 14
• Critical Systems - Engineering division
• Apparatus - Emergency beacon
• Mission Logs - Heart of Glory/Coming of Age
• Star Trek Memories - Michael Dorn interview Part 1

 

Issue 11

• Blueprint - Deck 7
• Tour of Deck - Deck 3
• Critical Systems
• Apparatus - Communicators 2364/2371
• Mission Logs
• Star Trek Memories - Rick Berman interview Part 1

Thanks to Tim Leng for sharing all this incredible lost treasure!

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