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Published Mar 24, 2012

The Drex Files - Ships Of The Line: Active Duty!

News - Doug Drexler is back with a very special, very cool Drex Files, complete with video in which the Ships of the Line spring to action.


I had to think about it for a minute, but as incredible as it may seem, the Ships Of The Line calendar is 15 years old! We've shared some incredible vistas and marveled at some awe-inspiring starships, and somehow the excitement has not faded. It's hard to pinpoint precisely what it is that makes the erstwhile saucer\nacelle configuration so endlessly fascinating. Maybe it’s the embodiment of humankind at its best, the genetic need to explore the unknown, to push that upper-right-hand corner of the envelope, and in doing so, discover what it means to be human.

A couple of years back it struck me that we had a storehouse of incredible starship pages that were demanding to be lifted to that next level of cool. So was born Ships Of The Line: Active Duty! The SOTL gang responded enthusiastically. They shook out their files, wound up their starships and warped us out of orbit. The result was breathtaking. I began posting them on my blog, The Drex Files, and not surprisingly, they were a big hit.

About six months back, Matt Boardman assembled a number of these animations, and I posted them for the enjoyment of fans everywhere. When my friends at StarTrek.comcalled me last week about featuring Active Duty! on the site, Jack Marshall and I sat down and expanded on that compilation.

The fascination surely goes beyond the obvious fun and entertainment of Star Trek, but for now, let's just bask in that magic "I don't know what," which Matt Jefferies first conjured almost 50 years ago. Enjoy Ships Of The Line: Active Duty!

Doug DrexlerNorth Hollywood

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About Doug Drexler

A lifelong Star Trek fan, Doug Drexler made a variety of marks on the franchise as makeup artist, graphic designer, illustrator, and visual effects artist. Over his 32-year-career in Hollywood, science fiction, fantasy, and especially Star Trek, have defined Doug's career. A protege of makeup legend Dick Smith, Doug went on to become a creative mainstay on Trek for 17 years, designing such shows as TNG, DS9, Voyager and Enterprise. His Trek career culminated as the primary designer of the Enterprise NX. Drex, as everyone calls him, has written Trek books, made cameo appearances on TNG and Enterprise, and has even had a Trek character named after him: on DS9, the Klingon son of Martok and Sirella was named... Drex. Post-Trek, Doug has worked as CG supervisor on several iterations of Battlestar Galactica, including the upcoming Blood and Chrome. Click HERE to visit Drexler's office blog, Drex Files. Drex is an American and British Academy Award winner, two-time Emmy winner (seven nominations), Saturn Award winner, Peabody Award recipient, and Visual Effects Society Award winner.