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Introduction
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Q'apla! My name is Christian Ruehl, and this is my website, the Star Trek Dimension. According to its name, the site includes all aspects of Star Trek, all series, feature films, background material and and is directed to both the "Star Trek beginners" and "hardcore trekkers". Of course, such a huge project, which is also supposed to be a forerunner concerning web design and Star Trek art, requires much time, talent for organization and finally also much patience in view of writing texts around the nice pictures and diagrams and provide some substance beside an exciting design.
On July 31st, 1999, the first files were uploaded to the server with the virtual domain stdimension.de, and on August 2nd, the website was officially opened, not too much time ago. Nonetheless - the whole project Star Trek Dimension is much older. For two years, the LCARS database, the "heart", was put up, and the idea of a hyperlinked, thematically structured multimedia database with extensive information on Star Trek, that I have realized in numerous predecessor projects, dates back even more years. |
| However, since the Star Trek Dimension is online, the project grows exponentially. The former 25 MB LCARS database, which was uploaded in early August 1999 with a frontpage and a few "frame files", have turned to 95 MB database, Star Trek Cartography, Sound Dimension, episode guides, Media Library and many other projects - within one year. The amount of data which has been created during this time - screen shots, scans, internet pictures, sound and video files, but also self-created diagrams, photos and 3D models, is incredible. and exceeds the amount that is actually avaible on the webserver by factor one hundred. These files illustrate the hundreds of hours I invested again in the website since its online launch, and to a large extent, they shall speak for themselves in the following Making Of. Join the voyage in pictures through the time before and after the online launch of the Star Trek Dimension, and its projects. |
Ein kreativer Arbeitsplatz?!
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The predecessor projects
The computer encyclopedias
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My first attempt to create a digital encyclopedia, as of 1994, with not more than 2 entries.
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The version of 1995 has a considerably better-looking interface and more than a hundred entries.
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1996: the last version of the computer encyclopedia, which was superseded by my web project shortly afterwards.
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The web project Star Trek Dimension may be only one / three years old, however, already since 1994 - since I'm a "real" Star Trek fan - I have tried to apply my computer abilities profitably, i.e. I have done what many fans have done before and attempted to create an encyclopedia for my own purpose, that should be more extensive than the sole Star Trek book avaible in German at that time - the "Trek Encyclopedia" by Thomas Maxwell. Amazingly, I never tried this in the traditional way (perhaps because I belong to the generation @), but I have written own programs which my encyclopedia was based on. Naturally, at that timeI didn't have the abilities I have today, neither concerning programming nor design,
but the extension and design of my "products" improved in the course of time.
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Facts about Star Trek IV as of 1995 with "professional" drawings
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Although basically, I elaborate everything with and for the computer, the basics remained on a conventional media: information on the various episodes, warp calculations, ideas and thoughts were written on hundreds of (pieces of) paper of any size and colour.
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Episode facts about [VOY] Phage as of 1996
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A note about Cestus III that was decisive for the position of the planet on the "Map of Local Space".
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Although since 1998, I electronically capture even episode facts, I still have bits of paper everythere ...
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Extensive stardate calculations for "The journey of the USS Voyager".
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TrekWorld - the predecessor of the Star Trek Dimension
| Two years before I started to program in HTML, in early 1995, I had developed the conventional encyclopeia to a parallel, more ambitious project: I wanted to put up a thematically structured, hyperlinked multimedia database, and for this purpose, I had even written a suitable program that I improved until September 1997. In fact, this project "TrekWorld", which had a similiar structure to the later LCARS database, was the immediate precursor, and some of the texts were directly reused in the LCARS files (mainly the ship database). |
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The first version as of 1995, which was exclusively based on pictures from CDs and grayscale-scans. |
Sadly, the projects remained experimental, and although nearly one thousand picture collages, similiar to those depicted above, had been created, the project was abandoned in favour of the known HTML project in late 1997.
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The last created, more sophisticated picture collages from 1997. |
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The origins of the Star Trek Dimension
My first web project
... was not the Star Trek Dimension, which was a synonym for the LCARS database, the sole project at the that time, but a Star Trek episode guide for all three (new) series, which was ironically put online only a few months after my second HTML project, the actual LCARS database, in October 1999.
When I started to program in HTML in early 1997 (first without Frontpage), this was not my intention anyway. Many people think that HTML is a pure web format. However, for me, it was an ideal layout utility, which provided much more flexibility and multimedia features than my own creations (which were restricted to the rigid conventions of an encyclopedia and did not allow an individual page design). Therefore, I could realize my goal now, that I had the possibilities. But even before I abandoned the "TrekWorld" project, I wanted to combine the three episode guides, which I had created as encyclopedias between 1996 and 1997, to a web project: the "TrekGuide", which I extended to over 200 episode files. In August 1997, I developed the known LCARS interface style in order to simplify the access and to make it more realistic, i.e. more Star Trek-like. Because the HTML design proved very versatile and (with the aid of a website WYSIWYG editor) easy-to-use, one month later I decided to reuse the LCARS interface for a real LCARS database, which should be basically structured like the "TrekWorld" project and should pursue the same goal of a realistic 24th century information source. |
Three episode guides for TNG, DS9, VOY as enyclopedias as of 1996 ...
... which reappeared in 1997 as the "Trek Guide" with HTML design.
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The first LCARS files
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Also in September 1997, I had discovered a new "toy", which was virtually predestined for the new web project: a rendering program, with which I could create three-dimensional models of the Star Trek planets, which haven't been seen like this before. Consequently, another goal of the Dimension was set: to offer new things concerning Star Trek and not to be only a rehash of former projects. Only some months later, the first files were created "around" the planet pictures, and the known page structure was created, which, as well as the LCARS interface, remained nearly unchanged until today, although I now include much more pictures and full text passages. Finally, the major work for the planetary database started in February 1998. However, one month earlier, I created the first class specifications and ship files according to my passion for the starships of Star Trek. Consequently, gradually a great number of categories and more and more files were created, which dealt with the cultures, equipment, materials, events, holodeck programs, persons etc. of Star Trek and also paid attention to new information, e.g. the files about Star Trek: Insurrection, which were added to the database already in early 1999. |
| Finally, in May 1999, the 250th file was added to the database; a jubilee that passed silently, since the Star Trek Dimension was still offline. |
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| An overview about the updates done offline, from January 1st to August 2nd, 1999, which were part of the news file only for a short time, gives the Star Trek Dimension News of September 1999 (in German!). |
The leap to the global information highway
In Summer 1999, again nothing seemed to change concerning the "offline existence" of the Star Trek Dimension (and the LCARS database, respectively). Already, the site was much too large (about 20 MB) for one of the free webspace providers, and the cryptic URL would have prevented a quick accessibility. And the professional webspace providers still were much too expensive; a domain with only a few dozen megabytes space would have costed vast sums per month.
But - thanks to the drop-off of prices - the situation was about to change. In July 1999, I took the offer of a large German discount provider for 50 MB web space and 2 domains for a amazing price - and on July 31st, the first files were uploaded, after the LCARS database and the already existing, so-called "frame program", i.e. the frontpage, the LCARS history, the FAQ and the quiz, had been made "web-worthy". After some days of intense upload, the official opening date of the Dimension was August 2nd, 1999. The according (translated) message on the news page was:
Star Trek Dimension finally online - with own domain stdimension.de!
After 2 years of silent "offline existence", the Star Trek Dimension is online. 2 years ago, this project started with a few pages about Star Trek, and the goal to put up the ultimate LCARS database, and now, in contrast to many other just started sites, a whole dimension of 281 LCARS pages with hundreds of photos, diagrams and sounds is already avaiable to you.
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The creation of the title, the frontpage and the logo
The title "Star Trek Dimension" for the LCARS database and the "frame program" together, was already chosen in June - only, because the title of the predecessor project, "Trek World", was already taken by the fanzine of a European Star Trek fan club.
Also in this month, a frontpage was created for the dimension, which "survived" the online launch with only few corrections and almost remained unchanged until the end of the year. Because at that time, the LCARS database was the sole project, the frontpage had an accordingly simple structure and provided access to all parts of the web project. |
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| Have a look at the reconstructed and translated first frontpage as of August 7th, 1999. |
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The Making Of is far from over!
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| In then second part of the behind the scenes report, that will be put up on August 4th, 2000 |
| - the creation of the logo |
| - the creation of the other projects |
- an exlusive look behind the scenes: projects which never became reality, never shown pictures and
more! |
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