Skin must bag for a moment, so pardon: His idea for the Phase II Enterprise sucked balls. It was basically just a Star Destroyer with some Jeffries elements tacked on. That said, if McQuarrie had not been a genius talent in his own right, Skin wouldn't have bothered to bag on him a little for that. All told, though: Mr. McQuarrie, wherever you are now, may you find peace, happiness, and space stations with no Skywalker-exploitable exhaust ports.
It's fair to say that his art and vision have been a significant influence on my life and times. RIP, Mr. McQ. You have most certainly earned it. I'll bet God has him working on some concept art for future 'verse's.
It just occurred to me that when I was starting my version of the prequels, I specifically said I intended for it to have a more "McQuarrie" style to it.
Godspeed sir! It's a shame McQuarrie passed on the PT. The next generation of so-called artists did a piss-poor job on those movies. There wasn't a single cool or inspired design in the entire PT. In the OT we got X-Wings, Y-Wings, land speeders, Imperial Walkers, Star Destroyers, Imperial Shuttles, and the Death Star (both exteriors and interiors). In the PT we got.........umm.......hmm.........let me think.......nada.
Would love to see the alternate reality where Planet of the Titans was actually made and Star Trek took a very different course from the one we know today.
He also did artwork for Battlestar Galactica. http://www.sci-fi-o-rama.com/2008/10/16/ralph-mcquarrie-battlestar-galactica/
