Wisp ship The wisp ship was a starship inhabited by non - corporeal beings who were described as " wisp s " by the crew of . Although the wisps who inhabited the ship were said to live in subspace , they relied on the ship so as to not be exposed to normal space , which they could not normally inhabit . Design . The ship had a forward , ovoid hatch that split into several pocketed sections ; the surrounding hull formed a pronounced ventral " sill " with two projecting spines . This ship was capable of traveling at speeds of up to at least warp 6 , yet emitted no warp signature that " Enterprise " could detect . During " Enterprise " s encounter with the vessel , the crew of the former craft were unable to identify the composition of the wisp ship ' s hull , nor locate a transceiver . The ship was at least 500 meters wide , and had the ability to neutralize " Enterprise " s phase cannon s and spatial torpedo es , and warp and impulse engine s after it had taken the ship into its bay . Once inside , " Enterprise " s sensor s were unable to penetrate the hull to determine whether or not they were still at warp . The interior bay of the ship was blue in color , basically rectangular . The initial atmosphere was mostly helium and trace amounts of xenon . History . The wisp ship was encountered by " Enterprise " in 2152 , approximately 150 light year s from Earth . After several of " Enterprise " s crew were forcibly inhabited by the wisps , it was eventually determined that their ship was deteriorating , and they had no way to repair it . Since they couldn ' t survive in space , to save themselves , eighty - two of the hundreds aboard decided to make the " crossing , " and take over the bodies of each of the crewmen on " Enterprise " , while the rest would try to find another vessel of corporeal beings . Unfortunately for them , their plan failed , and " Enterprise " was able to release the possessed crew members before firing two spatial torpedo es into the opening of the wisps ' ship . Consequently , the wisp vessel was destroyed , allowing " Enterprise " to escape . ( ) Appendices . Appearances . < div class = " appear " > Background information . In the final draft script of , the " giant " wisp ship was described thus ; " " The vessel is otherworldly , with a shape unlike any vessel we ' ve seen . " " The opening in the craft was described as " a large , maw - like portal [ . . . ] on the forward hull . " The inside of the craft , which was commonly referred to simply as " alien vessel " , was described as a " dark , Giger - like interior , " referencing artist , and as a " vast , strange landscape . " There were also intended to be " tiny nodules embedded in the ceiling " and a subsequent scene description commented , " " The floor is neither level nor flat [ . . . ] [ with ] various structures [ built into the floor ] . " " For this particular ship , the producers asked both John Eaves and Doug Drexler , unbeknownst to each other at the time , to come up with a design . Drexler on his design : " The joke with this one is that all my files are labelled ' NBS ' . That would be for the producers ' request for something ' Never Before Seen ' . I had to laugh right up front because I knew that that ' s really not what they wanted . Anything too different ran the risk of ' confusing the audience ' . Since they asked , I ' d start out at the far end of the weirdness scale . In the script , " Enterprise " is described as ' caught ' by a very alien looking spacecraft . I visualized the " Enterprise " being attacked by an insect . I had once watched a spider jump on its prey and devour it , so that ' s what I was thinking . I had a CG parachute that I had modeled a while back . I applied distortion maps to it until I found a form that was sufficiently ' creepifying ' and pleasing . There was no way that design would ever happen . I was asked to make more of a ship , and with a distinct maw . . . but . . . um . . . different . I kept it organic , but gave it a distinct metallic feel . Up front the ship extended enormous petals , like a sea anemone , to pull in its catch of the day . Well . . . they couldn ' t tell which direction this was meant to go , so it was no good either . I thought that usually the audience could tell what direction the ship went by the direction the ship was going ? Maybe it was feared that you would think it was flying backwards . Hey ! If you want something different , you have to buck the conventions . Either way , Thursday came every week , and I was having the best time ! [ The next one ] was more of a ship with direction , but [ . . . ] word came down that the maw was getting lost ( what about its paw ? ) . Nothing gets thrown away , and I recycled this later as the Xindi Reptilian ship . Everything stripped away but the maw . These were sent to Eden . They may have gone with additional sketches by John , but I can ' t remember . " John Eaves took another approach to the design : " So anyway , the ship went through a few changes , and the first version has the Jem ' Hadar cruiser ' s lines as the understudy and some heavy organicasizeing on top . I took the borg ifying approach for the first pass . Rejected brutally . Ship two followed with a tendrilled beetle bug look . . . also rejected heavily . Which lead to version three which is a modified fish / doomsday machine combo ! ! ! Again the big axe fell , and version # 4 came to be . . . they sorta liked the underlying shape , and had me do a pass minus the tendrils and up the scale with the addition of more patterned detail , as opposed to total organic randomness . Thus the final drawing came to be , and they even drew a happy face with a little star on the corner of the page ! ! " The producers chose the design John Eaves tendered in . At Eden FX , Dan Curry worked with modeler Pierre Drolet to finetune the design where it was converted into a CGI model . The interior of the wisp ship was modeled after a design of Drexler .