Ralph McQuarrie

Ralph Angus McQuarrie was a conceptual artist and illustrator who has worked on two Star Trek productions, the 1977 abandoned Star Trek: Planet of the Titans project and the 1986 feature film.

After the original Star Wars film wrapped in 1977, McQuarrie was invited to England to work under Ken Adam to help develop designs for a director Philip Kaufman's planned Star Trek film Planet of the Titans, but it was canceled at the script stage. This was, as far as Star Trek was concerned, followed in 1985 when he, through ILM, worked on conceptual drawings and designs for 23rd century San Francisco, Starfleet Headquarters, shuttlecrafts, whale tanks, and storyboard concepts for the surreal time travel sequence for The Voyage Home. (The Art of Ralph McQuarrie, pp. 124-129, 148-151) In the spring of 1978 he was approached by Robert Abel of Astra Image Corporation to serve as a production illustrator on, tasked with the redesign work, most notably that of the Star Trek: Phase II Enterprise studio model. McQuarrie however, was unable to as he had already committed to the production of the second installment of the Star Wars franchise. In his stead he recommended Andrew Probert, a former protégé with whom he had worked on the original Battlestar Galactica television series. (Return to Tomorrow - The Filming of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, p. 65) Probert went on to become a noted Star Trek contributor, whereas McQuarrie was yet to be reaquainted with the franchise seven years later.

Career outside Star Trek
McQuarrie is best known to the public for his production designs for the Star Wars films. His imagination helped guide the final appearance of Darth Vader and his Stormtroopers, as well as Chewbacca and Boba Fett. He also created many of the matte paintings of planets and satellites that appeared in the film and illustrated many vehicles seen in the film.

Following the immense success of Star Wars, McQuarrie was brought in as concept and matte artist and design consultant on the sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. In addition to these films, he created conceptual artwork and illustrations for at least four iconic films directed by, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park. He also created designs for the original Battlestar Galactica 1978 television pilot, and it was on this project that McQuarrie took young Andrew Probert under his wings.

McQuarrie won an Academy Award for his work on the film Cocoon (featuring Ron's brother, Clint Howard, Herta Ware, music by James Horner and cinematography by Don Peterman). He received his Academy Award from The Motion Picture director Robert Wise.

Often described as a gentle and patient man, he has been a very influential mentor to future Star Trek production staffers such as Andrew Probert and Michael Pangrazio.

McQuarrie died on 3 March 2012. He was 82.