In another clear sign that Series V is rapidly approaching production, today it was revealed that work has already begun on designing the principal starship in the next Star Trek show.

The designer of the new starship is none other than John Eaves, who together with Herman Zimmerman designed the Sovereign-class Enterprise-E. He recently finished working on the Special Edition DVD of 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'. "He is currently working on the new Star Trek series that's in development and he is designing the new starship for that show," revealed Dan Madsen, the president of the Official Star Trek Fan Club, in an interview with Radio Free Decipher.

Several rumours have suggested that Series V will have a 'Birth of the Federation', pre-TOS premise, and that the starship in the show will actually also bear the name 'Enterprise'. However, this has never been officially confirmed by Paramount, and could well turn out to be nothing but a rumour.

Eaves' Star Trek portfolio is rather impressive. He was worked on all three TNG films as well as 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine', and besides the Enterprise-E designed such ships as the Cardassian Freighter on DS9, the Starship Phoenix on 'First Contact' and the Captain's Yacht and Ru'afo's flagship on on 'Insurrection'. Together with J.M. Dillar, he wrote the Star Trek the Next Generation Movie Sketchbook, which unfortunately is now out of print.

Eaves worked on 'Deep Space Nine' through the end of that show's run, also designing props for episodes such as 'Take Me Out To The Holosuite' and 'Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang'. After leaving the Star Trek shows, he still kept involved with the franchise, and in fact created a lithograph for the official Star Trek Fan Club showing a variety of Starfleet vessels. In June, he will be appearing at the WonderFest convention in Louisville, KY, where he will presumably also be talking about his work on the next show.

In an interview that was published around the end of DS9's final season in the Star Trek Monthly Magazine (and which is still available at the Great Link), Eaves expressed regret about the then-upcoming end of DS9 and a desire to work on Series V: "We keep hoping for a new Star Trek series, but we're pretty much realising day by day that it's just not going to happen right now, at least not while we're all still here. So, everybody is a little melancholy about what to do next. I mean, do you go on to something else? Do we starve? Nobody knows for sure. So, we're all kind of biting our nails. It's kind of sad. I've been here for four years and the family aspect of it is what I've enjoyed the most. The show itself has been fun, too, but I've rarely seen Deep Space Nine on the screen. We see episodes or parts of episodes eight or nine times in rough cut before you see them on television, and they always look pretty good. But, really, I'll miss the guys the most. It's kind of like the breaking up of a family."

"I'd love to come back and do more Star Trek," he continued in that interview. "I usually work pretty much for Her- man Zimmerman [Star Trek's veteran production designer, who hired Eaves], and if he comes back for Star Trek X, hopefully he'll bring me along, too. I don't know about another series. Herman is thinking about whether it's time to retire, so who knows what the future holds with all of that. I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

It appears that now, two years down the road, Eaves' wish has been granted. Hopefully he will again be able to deliver work of the same quality as he did for the movies and DS9, and create another starship that will capture the fans' imagination.

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