The Official Star Trek The Next Generation : Build the USS Enterprise NCC - 1701 - D The Official Star Trek The Next Generation : Build the U . S . S . Enterprise NCC - 1701 - D was a partwork magazine conceived by the Japanese branch of De Agostini . Planned to run for 100 issues to develop a cutaway model of the and an updated set of deck - by - deck blueprints for the starship , the initial test run of the magazine in Japan in June 2011 failed to develop sufficient demand , in light of the affecting the country at the time . Only seven test issues were published before the title was canceled . Conception and development . Conceived after the conclusion of the Japanese versions of the " Star Trek Fact Files " and the DVD / magazine version of " " , called " " " " , Japanese editors wanted to continue with the publication of a " Star Trek " partworks . As chief editor Tim Leng recalled on his blog of 3 July 2011 , " " About 18 months ago the Japanese team who I worked closely with to produce the Japanese " Fact Files " and " Best Episode Collection " came to me with an idea they ' d had for a new " Star Trek " part - works . The project was called Build the " Enterprise " , and as you might guess , the idea was that you would get to build a model of the " Enterprise " ( the TNG version ) week by week . Bearing in mind I ' d been working on these sorts of things for a decade by this point , I was surprised to find that my fanboy side completely and utterly pushed to the fore ; I thought the idea was amazing , and I was very keen to get going on it . " " The format eventually decided upon was that of a part - work that consisted of magazines , a model kit of the and a set of revised " Enterprise " - D blueprints , to be collected over the span of an 100 - issue run . As Leng stated , " " What I should say here is that the Japanese team don ' t do things by halves . They literally threw everything bar the kitchen sink at this project . " " Both Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda were invited to revisit and update their original writings on the technical aspects of the " Enterprise " - D , which they did in detail . Sternbach revisited his " " and updated them , whereas Okuda revisited the texts he wrote for " " and updated those . As with its original source material , additional technical aspects were included that were not necessarily seen or referenced to in canon . A prime example was the dissertation of the life boat , featured in issue two , that was never seen or referenced to in canon , but discussed in detail in that issue , based upon detailed annotations by Sternbach . Although intended as a newsstand release , the opportunity was offered to subscribe to the publication . Subscribers were to receive as a gift an in - scale ( completed ) model of a Klingon Bird - of - Prey . Leng was convinced DeAgostini had hit upon a winning formula , and the company had a TV commercial produced to promote the product for the Japanese public . Unfortunately , as it turned out , fate conspired against the product . According to Leng , " " And then we tested it in May and . . . well , it failed . Didn ' t . Expect . That . . . What ' s really upsetting about this is that there ' s little - nothing , really - wrong with the product ; what was mainly responsible for the product failing was that we launched it in the wake of the terrible earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan back in March . After experiencing something like that , people understandably just weren ' t in the mood to start buying into a collectible magazine / model series . We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time . " " At the time of cancellation , seven ( test ) issues were released and the editorial work on issues eight through eleven was completed . In recognition for his efforts , Sternbach was sent a complete model by the publisher . Contents . Once decided upon on how the product should be marketed , it was released eventually in the vein of a true DeAgostini product and as such consisted , packaged in a marketable box , of a : This essentially was to be the main proponent of the whole package . The model had an unprecedented scale of 1 : 900 . But what was more , the model was to be built up deck - by - deck with sheets of transparent Plexiglas into which the blueprints , based upon Sternbach ' s upgraded blueprints , were laser etched , resulting in perceived 3D imagery . The whole intent was all decks being represented by their corresponding slates of laser - etched Plexiglas sheets , to be eventually assembled with internal LED lighting for viewing from different angles . The innards of the " Enterprise " - D model were to be covered up with pre - painted hull covers that were , as per request of the Japanese producers , as accurate as possible , especially where the " Aztec - pattern " was concerned . The model could be displayed as an one - piece ship , or separately in saucer separated mode . A magazine was also included in the package , it concentrating on all the aspects of the USS " Enterprise " NCC - 1701 - D . As Tim Leng was retained as the chief - editor , it came as no surprise that the contents of the magazine were organized much like the " Star Trek Fact Files " , i . e . contents organized according to six main categories , pages of which dispersed throughout the run of the publication , easily detached from its original publication to be collected afterwards into its corresponding category . The eventual intent was that the whole be collected in four binders , consisting of 1 , 200 pages in total as projected . " De facto " this was Rick Sternbach revisiting his work he had done on the " Star Trek : The Next Generation USS Enterprise NCC - 1701 - D Blueprints " . He did this with much gusto and got to address issues he had never had the opportunity to do so before . It eventually resulted in a much enhanced version of the " Blueprints " that also served as the master for the cross - section parts of the specialty model of the DeAgostini publication . According to chief - editor Leng it was so detailed that , " " if you zoom in at the leading edge of deck ten , you could actually see Guinan standing behind the bar at Ten Forward . " " In the end , with the help of Tim Earls , Sternbach produced a large series of revised blueprint sheets of the USS " Enterprise " - D for the Japanese production . One hundred sheets , just shy of A1 format when unfolded , were projected to be collected in a custom made case , that was to be delivered to subscribers with issue 5 . In order to make it stand out from the originals , it was decided to have a darker blue background applied to these sets of blueprints . Magazine contents . As stated , the 24 - page ( including covers and publisher boost , and stub - pages ) magazine was organized along the lines of the " Star Trek Fact Files " . Gabriel Koerner and former Foundation Imaging employee Robert Bonchune ( from issue three onward ) were the artists responsible for all the new computer generated imagery ( CGI ) on the magazine covers . The new imagery was reproduced on the inside back - cover without text imprints for optional framing purposes . All texts were originally submitted in English and edited at the editorial offices of GE Fabbri – the mother publisher of the " Fact Files " and " Best Episode Collection " – and were subsequently forwarded for translation into Japanese to the Japanese editorial bureau of DeAgostini for publication . To ensure smooth coordination , Leng , just as he had been for the prior " Star Trek " Japanese language projects , was for the duration of the project stationed in Tokyo as liaison . The recurrent sections were : Apart from the former " Star Trek " staffers , the writing staff , responsible for much of the article texts , further consisted of Tim Leng himself , Chris Dows , Peter Griffiths ( like Leng , former " Fact Files " writers ) , as well as new comers like Rebecca Levine and James Goss . " ( " )