The Voyage Home storyboards

PropStore currently have a whole load of original storyboard artwork from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home up for sale. The artwork, by Nilo Rodis-Jamero and Ralph McQuarrie, includes many scenes featuring the Klingon Bird of Prey, the time warp sequence, the probe, and of course the whales! Continue below to check them out; there's some really beautiful imagery among them.

The sequences I found most striking are those showing the probe coming and going from Earth. The stark geometric shape of the probe, coupled with the directional instructions of the storyboards give them a really beautiful simplicity.

Many of the lots feature scenes with the Klingon Bird of Prey, which was of course also designed Nilo Rodis-Jamero for the previous film in the series, The Search For Spock. Picking up from the end of the film, these storyboards show the ship leaving Vulcan.

Another set of drawings shows the Bird of Prey taking it's slingshot manoeuvre. I particularly enjoy how Rodis-Jamero drew the memorable shot panning across the surface of the sun, which wasn't quite fully realised in the final film; cutting part way across:

Here we have some views out of the viewscreen, I think showing the sequences when our heroes arrive at Earth, and then after taking off to go and find the whales:

And before we know it we're headed back to the 23rd century. The indications of motion again give a really striking edge to this vision of the Bird of Prey moving through the clouds on the way back to space:

Back in the clouds, there are two lots which feature art of the Bird of Prey's final crash back to earth, plus other shots of the Golden Gate Bridge:

And there's also several sheets of the scenes after the crash when the whales are let free again. Giving us lots of lovely whale art!

Another lot includes twenty pages worth of art from the time warp hallucination sequence, a much more abstract collection than the rest!

Another set of lots (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) features the same sequence, as illustrated by Ralph McQuarrie. This sequence shows many of the same ideas as the above version, but somehow they seem even stranger when rendered in colour. There's some really unusual stuff here with distorted figures that proposed a different look to some part of the final sequence in the film:

If you'd like to own any of the original artwork, checkout the listings on PropStore.

For lots more behind the scenes coverage from all of Trek, check out my behind the scenes tag.