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RobCaswell β Cetacean Ops
Published: 2010-11-29 02:27:01 +0000 UTC; Views: 8027; Favourites: 59; Downloads: 436
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Description
The Constitution's cetacean ops team gets to work on an unexplored ocean. A cetacean ops specialist confers with Ensign Ree-Ptttttp while Captain Dhruva monitors the conversation with the aid of a universal translator.For those who doubt dolphins' place in the Trek universe, I point you here: [link]
OK, this image is flawed. I readily admit it. I spent the latter half of Saturday working on this and I wasn't about to let it all go to waste. The f*cker just kept crashing on me before I could refine it and I'll be damned if I'm bested by a few chips of silicon. So I worked off a screen render - about four times smaller than I usually work - and I was so frustrated that I didn't really give it a full polish/refinement. But it's still sorta neat... in that flawed way.
DS 3/Photoshop. Aquashuttle by Drell-7. Uniform textures by JamesJAB.
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Comments: 42
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I was off in Google somewhere researching Bellatricians and pre-cetaceans, then I... uh, somehow ended up here. It's as if I'm supposed to communicate a dolphin to implement something that will help everybody get the Constitution fixed? Whatever your interpretation is, I like this vibe.
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Apparently I have to blow it up to see the full image. Β Pretty cool stuff.
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You are one of the few Trek fans that I have ever seen who used the dolphins as a crew member, although I do wonder if there's room for them on the Constitution Class ships. Part of the reason that Rick Sternbach put them on the Galaxy Class Starships, is they had the space to hold large enough liquid living quarters. And yes, Sternbach told me personally it was his idea. Although he is well known for his space art, and rightly so, many people don't know that one of his hobbies is photographing cetaceans, and way back when, he even designed a dolphin space suit, which was featured on the cover of "Future Life" magazine (an off-shoot from "Starlog", for a few of years back in the late 1970s-early1980s-)([link] ). And if you go to his personal web site and peruse the non-Trek related art galleries, you will find a painting of 4 dolphins in space suits, floating around the Voyager spacecraft, entitled "Voyager Found" ([link] ).
In fact, back @ 20 years ago, when I first read that section of the Next Gen Technical Manual, I tried to envision the what the quarters might look like for the cetacean crew members (don't forget that there were orcas mentioned, as well as dolphins), as well as the type of equipment they might wear; something along the lines of the special harnesses that Brin had in his books, with a star fleet delta logo in the center of the chest plate, rather than a modified uniform that you seem to favor. I even specialized, one dolphin, or one-orca, shuttlecraft, sort of like a hard space suit that conformed to their shape, but with warp engines attached. All I ever did were some crude sketches of all these ideas; no finished drawings or paintings that I would show to anyone, except for maybe Sternbach.
And before you start to wonder too much about why I went to so much trouble, you must know that I'm both an accomplished cetacean artist, as well as a life-long Star Trek fan and sometimes fan artist; back in the 1970s, I used to do illustrations for several Trek fanzines, and my art would win awards when I hung it in art shows at Texas area Trek and sci-fi conventions. If you go to my DA page, you will see examples of both types of art.
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I could tell Rick Sternbach was behind the dolphins, as he did some cool imagery of dolphins in SF settings back before he came to Next Gen. (as you note). I loved his Future Life dolphin cover! Even if we never saw them in TNG, it was cool to know that they were there, huh? Andrew Probert actually did up some design sketches for the Cetacean Ops section for ST Online. You might want to check these out, if you haven't already seen them: [link]
I'd really love to do some dolphin "Startide Rising" art sometime! Stay tuned.... maybe something will appear! I'm overdue to re-read that book, anyway
So which Trek fanzines did you illustrate for, back in the day?
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Well, as far as the cetacean area in the Cetacean Ops section is concerned, when I talked to Rick about that via email @ 12 years ago, he told me they are actually in the set of official blueprints, which is something I didn't own or had even looked at the time. I have since had the chance to do so, and they are indeed indicated on there, in the cross-section view. I did my sketches long before I talked to Rick, just based on what he said in the Tech Manual. I had even envisioned some ideas for fanzine stories based on the concept, with a dolphin main character, and worked out designs for a division badge using the Starfleet Delta, with flukes in the middle, instead of the star or globe or swirl from TOS. The environment I had for them was not like Probert's at all. Yes, it was a large tank (96 feet long and 37 feet deep), but the human/dolphin interactive area was at the top, rather than to one side, like an open diving well, similar to what they had for Darwin on the Seaquest TV series. There were computer interface modules in the floor of the tank, and screens in the front so the dolphins could see what they wanted from the sensors or computer displays; they wore the harnesses all the time as they allowed them to breathe underwater and also had built-in links to the computer interface, etc, remotely controlled by brain implants. There was even a transporter pad built into the tank. I do have all this stuff scanned into the computer, and if I had a way to send the sketches to you privately, I would be happy to do so. If you go to my main DA page there is a link from there to my personal web gallery pages, and on one of them there is a link to my email address. So send me a note through there and I'll be glad to send them to you.
I also just took a look at your main DA profile page, and we have a lot in common, including being the same generation (you can never tell here on DA, there are a lot of youngsters on here doing sci-fi and Trek art; I'll be 60 in April) . We like a lot of the same artists, such as the late Bob McCall, Ron Cobb, Michael Whelan, etc. I've had the pleasure of meeting Wayne Barlow a couple of times, and he's a really nice guy. I was so glad that his alien creature concepts finally got their due exposure in the movie "Avatar"; finally someone recognized the depth of his talent and knowledge. Back when I was in college, I wanted to do what McCall did, and go to work in the aerospace industry, or do production design and special effects for movies or TV. If you know his work really well, you can definitely see his influence in a lot of my work, such as my main profile page image of 3 humpback whales floating in space.
Also like you, I've been a Trek fan since seeing that first episode in Sept., 1966. Also an equally avid science fiction reader from before that time, so I do know Niven's work, as well as Heinlein, Asimov and all the rest. In fact, I once did a piece of art based on Niven's "Flight of the Horse" time travel stories; from the one story where the main character grabs a huge white sperm whale with a one-legged man bound to it's side 
Star Trek fanzines I worked on. Well, the main one was Ruth Berman's "T-Negative", although I also illustrated a story for "Delta Triad" that actually featured dolphins and the aqua-shuttle on a water planet. The back cover had a drawing of the Enterprise in orbit, with the aqua-shuttle launching from the shuttlecraft bay.
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Yep, we're kinda in the same age groove, though I'll be a wee 53 this August. It's interesting how the SF art community has changed through the years. The breadth of talent in the field is now fairly vast, with sites like this helping to provide wider exposure. But back in the 60's and 70's there just weren't as many SF visionaries... or at least fewer that could find channels to give their work public exposure. You're exposure was largely at the favor of established publishers. As such the SF art talent pool we were exposed to was far more selective and narrow. The web has been a great equalizer in that respect... that and Star Wars' role in making SF subject matter more mainstream (even if I don't think of Star Wars as "SF", really).
Yeah, Barlowe's been pretty successful in Hollywood and his creative stamp is often quick to ID... if only because of the quality. He was certainly a natural for Avatar. I miss Bob McCall. He was a major inspiration for me, as well. There was such glorious optimism in his imagery. It was a celebration of the possible and how technology could better our lives.
I'm betting I saw your fanzine work back in the day, but my memory's a bit fuzzy on the specifics from the time. Anything with the aquashuttle would have caught my eye, though! I was buying new Trek goodies every month from New Eye Studios, back then.
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Hey mate! That pose on the yummy Andorian girly of yumminess?
Is that available? Or one of you're on creations...cause I neeeeeed it! 
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I think it's from the first Aery Soul V4 team pose set "anthology". Not sure if it's still available.
*checking*
Hm. No quick luck. But maybe you can dig it up?
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Thank you! I've got it!
Yeah, Aery Soul have gone all strange rockstar changy name on us, and all their stuff has disappeared. Luckily I have a collection.
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Awesome scene 
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Thanks! I think it was just a bit more than my machine could handle, so I was kind of hitting my head on the ceiling.
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Does the book explain how the dolphins are treated? Were they taken from their families and put in that tank, did they volunteer for this, does the tank take away their ability to use sonar, how big is that tank? I'm sorry, but I'm against captivity so I have to know.
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The history of dolphins in sci-fi goes back a few decades. It's not as hot an idea as it was back in the 60's-80's where writers like Niven and Brin laid down some templates for this type of character. But in both those cases the dolphins were active and willing participants - partners in the mission. Brin even made his dolphin the captain of his downed starship, the Streaker. I'm sure when Rick Sternbach introduced dolphins to the Trek lore, that's what he had in mind. They are willing, sentient crew members, not "enslaved animals".
As to details of sonar use and tank size, I'm not sure I ever read any details on that in an SF novel. But rest assured the dolphins would be the one dictating the design.
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Of course, sorry I bothered you about that, it's just that I watched The Cove and I watched this documentary about Lolita the Killer Whale on youtube and both things had me a little on edge.
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I've thought the Aquashuttle was cool since the mid '70s animated series. I thought it always made sense Starfleet would have such specialized craft. Great to see it used here. Nice use of Starfleet being made up of non human races. A Dolphin type of being is very believable.
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Thanks. It seems we enjoy many of the same SF elements
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Great pic, what species is the officer in science blue?
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My own creation, made using DAZ's Creature Morphs and the texture from this: [link]
The Federation's a big place popping with life, so I'm sure we haven't yet seen all the sentients out there.
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Good point, and thanks for the info. The character reminds me a little of an Edosian, and abit of a camel's head look to it
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i also remember a book that featured a dolphin scientist. or maybe the scientist was just dolphin-like. i think it was one of the mirror universe books.
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Maybe that's the one Greywolf mentioned?
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I really like the way you've arranged the figures in this image. The eye travels in a zig-zag from the dolphin to the Andorian and on up until the pointing finger of the background figure sends you looping back through the configuration again. Nicely done!
I gotta do an aqua-shuttle picture...
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You SHOULD do an aquashuttle pic!!
Thanks for the kudos on the composition flow. I guess it worked better than I expected? I'm OK with that
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Flawed? I think not. A good image indeed. I think that's another reason I like the TOS. Modern Treks seem to forget the Andorians existed, and I love that race almost as
much as the Vulcans.
Ever read Dark Mirror by Diane Duane? There was a Delphine StarFleet Specialist in HyperString Theory in that one. Good story.
Eric
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When, when I say "flawed" I think what I really mean is that it didn't get the level of work and attention I'd usually put into such a piece.... because it kept making me crazy by crashing! All that reflection and displacement was just a little too much for DS and my CPU.
Never read Dark Mirror, but I'll look it up.Good to hear you're an Andorian fan
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I LOVE it!! This is a great slice o' life image. Everybody looks very cool--and you use the Aquashuttle brilliantly! Total cool!
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Well the whole thing really was just an excuse to use your aquashuttle 
And a dolphin.
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Looks good to me. I like the way you've used the aquashuttle in this one. The dolphin brings memories of the uplift war to mind.
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I need to re-read that and Startide, soon. It's been too long....
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Intresting. The Andorian female can probably hear frequencies in the Dolphin's lanquage that her captain can't- thus the reason he needs the translator.
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I never doubted dolphins place in the Trek universe.
Fa love Captain!
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Next time I show my shuttle at another angle, catch the name. You might be one of the few who get the connection
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Hmm, now I'm curious.
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