The British SFX Magazine managed to obtain new details about the look of the principal starship in the next Star Trek series, suggesting that space travel will be much rougher for Captain Jackson Archer than it was for any of the other Trek captains.

According to an article in the new edition of magazine, the new ship will "look a lot chunkier and blockier - many of the components held within later ship's streamline silhouettes will be bolted onto the hull."

Previously it has been rumoured that the Series V Enterprise would lack the distinctive warp nacelles that have characterised most Federation ships, while yesterday's pilot script review also suggested the ship would be "beaten around a fair bit."

Of course, Paramount will be working to make the series look as least as advanced as Star Trek: Voyager, featuring Trek's usual high standards in production design. According to SFX, the pilot has been budgeted at $10-$15 million, though this number, if even correct, likely doesn't include the costs for the permanent Enterprise sets. Voyager's 'Caretaker' pilot was reported to have cost $23 million, including the standing sets, so the SFX number is likely only referring to the extra budget for the pilot episode itself.

According to SFX, the series has already received a major, seven-year commitment, but it seems rather unlikely that a formal commitment on this has already been made.

The magazine's source also reported a few bits of info on the Voyager season finale, 'Endgame,' saying that one scene has an aged Janeway visiting the grave of Chakotay. As previously reported, at least part of the finale will be set 23 years in the future, so Chakotay could have been killed at any point during that time - the magazine had no further information on this.

Finally, SFX said that the finale had something to do with the Klingons, though it was unable to elaborate further on this. The casting sheet for the Voyager finale did indeed call for "a tall and intimidating Klingon male in his 30s" to appear, though he was only listed for one scene, and no further info is known about how the way in which the Klingons are involved in the finale.

Thanks go out to the Great Link for this information! As usual, please do keep in mind that Paramount has not made an official announcement yet on either the next series or the content of the Voyager finale, and until then any such news should be treated as you would any rumour.

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