Battlestar Friday SUPER HAPPY MCQUARRIE CONCEPT ART ISSUE ~ 10.14.05

Today I have a conceptual art retrospective for you! Star Wars fans surely know the name, Ralph McQuarrie. He’s the conceptual artist behind Star Wars Episodes IV, V and VI. A painting of his will be on the roof of my MINI Cooper, Red 5 by tomorrow afternoon. It’s my favorite Star Wars painting, although in a 15% modified form for copyright reasons. The graphics guy told me that he could not apply the art unless it was altered by 15%. For the purposes of a Battlestar Friday entry that is neither here nor there, and yes, I will get past all the Star Wars talk (I hear Larry saying, “thank the gods”) and move onto the BSG talk. The reason I bring up Ralph McQuarrie is that apart from doing the conceptual artwork for George Lucas’ Star Wars he also did the conceptual art for Glenn Larson’s original 1978 Battlestar Galactica. One of his designs will even be recycled completely "as is" for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. That design does appear in this retrospective. When you think about it, it's not surprising really. He's the top conceptual artist of the time. So we have the same artist, working in the same genre for producers with the same initials, and the projects McQuarrie worked on were one on top of the other. There are some interesting similarities in the design concepts between these films/TV shows and a lot of designs were recycled, but keep in mind that all of this is after Star Wars: A New Hope, but well before The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and those other three Star Wars films (wink).

Lets look at a few examples.

Is this the Cloud City of Bespin from the Empire Strikes Back? No, not when originally drawn almost three years before ESB. It’s one of the early concepts for the Cylon battleship/carrier known as a Basestar. The final realized Basestar looked a bit different. Take a copy of what you see above, turn it upside down and attach to bottom and BAM! Instant Basestar! This design however would be recycled for use in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.

Let's continue on, shall we?

This concept for the bridge of the Galactica looks a lot like the bridge of the Death Star with its view screen displaying targeting information for either the planet Aldaraan or the fourth moon of Yavin.

And how about this Galactica interior concept? It bears a striking resemblance to the interior of Princess Leia’s blockade runner, Tantive IV as seen in A New Hope and Revenge of the Sith.

I have an issue of Starlog Magazine at home (actually I have almost two-hundred issues) that has an article comparing BSG to Star Wars: A New Hope. A lot was made over the similarities between the X-Wings and Colonial Vipers, but even more so between the Cylon Raiders and the Millenium Falcon. Here we see an early concept drawing for the Cylon Raider. The shape and some minor details are similar between the Millenium Falcon and the Raider in this early drawing. The Raider is a heavy fighter/bomber manned by a crew of three. By the way, when watching the original BSG did anyone else think it was weird that it took three machines to fly another machine? Just curious.

This creature is an early design for the insect-like aliens called Ovions from BSG. I think that it is important to note that there are no aliens in the new BSG. I hope it stays that way too. The above design looks a lot like the bounty hunter droid, 4-Lom from The Empire Strikes Back.

This is an early Colonial Viper that also looks a lot like a Rebel Snow Speeder from The Empire Strikes Back. Even Vipers get recycled into other uses for the Star Wars universe.

Is this the Colonial City of Caprica, or is it the Opera House on Courascant in Star Wars Episode III? It is indeed Caprica City, but twenty-seven years later it appears to be recycled for Episode III and recycling, as we know, is a good thing.

Here’s another early Galactica concept that looks like it could have been recycled for Star Wars Episode II or III. Here we see two Cylon Centurions and Baltar in the cockpit of a Raider, but it could easily be two Republic Clone Troopers and a Jedi Knight... oh say Obi Wan Kenobi.

This ship is that eventually made it to the big and small screens as the Earth Defense Force fighter in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. Originally this was an early concept for the Colonial Viper!

I hope that you have enjoyed this brief retrospective of how one fantastic artist and SciFi visionary influenced the designs of starships, futuristic cities and characters in galaxies far, far away and right around the corner. I really enjoyed putting it together for you.

So say we all!

All artwork in this entry is Copyright Ralph McQuarrie.