Type 11 shuttlecraft model Until the re - invented " Star Trek " film of 2009 , , tied with , and , has been , after , which holds the record with nine introductions , the " Star Trek " live - action production that introduced the most new space faring designs at once , eight each , the Type 11 shuttlecraft being one of them . Design . Though the script for " Insurrection " did not call specifically for a new shuttle design , a new one , carried aboard the , was designed , as it was so instrumental for the scene where it battled the Federation mission scoutship . John Eaves , credited as Illustrator for the feature , and the actual designer of the vessel , noted , " " For the shuttle , I just tried to follow the " Enterprise " lines , so it ' s got a real sleek , aerodynamic look . The aerodynamics don ' t really matter to the space part of it , but when it is in atmospheric flight , you get a real nice dimension – a kind of corvettey , kind of streamlined look – that echoed the " Enterprise " . That ' s where that shape came through . ( . . . ) At one point we were thinking about kind of making a unifold out of the shuttle , so the traditional nacelle s were folded within the shape of the ship . It didn ' t look as good . It had a nice look to it , but it didn ' t say ' shuttlecraft ' like having the nacelles separate does , so we went with a more traditional yet real streamlined look to it . We also went with the standard colors that had been used on TV and in the last film , so it has that kind of beige - tan color . " " ( ) Eaves has added , " " The previous shuttles were a bit more stocky , sort of designed to match the " Enterprise " - D , with that really rounding kind of organic flow to it . But this one has more of an aerodynamic design , like the E . It ' s much more streamlined , kind of speed - car design to match the new " Enterprise " ' s sleekness . " " ( " " , p . 190 ) and , " " I repeated certain shapes throughout the Federation designs , so the ships all seemed to extend from a single technological base . " " ( " Cinefex " , issue 77 , p . 72 ) Eaves has also been on record as having stated , " " We also had a new shuttle we got to design . We kind of based them roughly on an aerodynamic shape , but with the traditional small struts and the nacelle s on it , like the older shuttles . When you carry over that architecture a little bit , then it ' s still old , though still gets a new sense into it , with the streamline into it of the " Enterprise " - E , we wanted to be very specific that they were " Enterprise " - E shuttles . " " ( " " DVD - Special feature " Production : " The Art of Insurrection " " ) A subtle variation was performed by Eaves on his designs , in order to establish a continuity between the new Federation vessels , " " What we started doing on this movie was putting the hatch on the very back of all the ships " [ remark : as opposed to also having side hatches on previous shown smaller craft ] " - the shuttle , the yacht , Data ' s scout ship ; they all have the hatch on the back . " " ( ) Eaves , according to the annotations on his design sketches , has worked on the design from January through March 1998 . Eaves re - visited his design as he has included four shuttles of this type in the shuttlebay of the " Enterprise " - E in the December spread of the calendar . One of these shuttles is named the " Galileo " , and it was there he coined the type designation . CGI model . For " Insurrection " , the producers decided to complete the transition into the digital realm and that this feature would be the first movie completely without the time honored . However , in this stage of the technique , that meant that the CGI - workload had to be divided between two VFX - houses , Santa Barbara Studios ( SBS ) for the outer space shots , and Blue Sky / VIFX for the planet bound effects . As the Type - 11 shuttlecraft first appeared in outer space , the model and effects of it were executed for this film by Santa Barbara Studios in the CGI software . ( " Sci - Fi & Fantasy Models " , issue 34 , p . 29 ) A relatively early outing at the time into the realm of CGI , solicited the following remark of Eaves , " " The CGI guys needed every possible line drawing . They wanted all the details in advance – which differed from the way I usually work with traditional modelmakers , leaving areas open for them to contribute . But Santa Barbara did not want to have to go through an approval process on every aspect of these ships – which made sense , because there wasn ' t time to make that happen while still getting the ships modeled and animated and rendered out . It was a learning experience for me to provide these detailed technical drawings . " " ( " Cinefex " , issue 77 , p . 72 ) Detailed scale comparison charts , originating from this desire has made Eaves set the in - universe dimensions of the Type - 11 shuttlecraft at 54×29 feet . No physical counterpart is known to exist . The docking clamp scene . In of " Insurrection " , a situation was described where the shuttle and Data ' s scout ship are literally locked together in a fight . In the early stages of the script development , it was not clear on which side the shuttle would dock , so Eaves in his designs took into account of putting docking equipment on both the dorsal as well as the ventral side of the shuttle . ( ) As Eaves said , " " We have a scene where the shuttle has a magnetic lock and has to dock onto the ship , so they do this maneuver . Throughout , they had to have these really heavy locks to lock the two ships together , while they have access to ports , and so on both ships we had designed the same types of emergency hatches , that are based on circle hatches like manhole covers , so we had them on the bottom of the shuttle , as well as on Data ' s scoutship . So , no matter how they wanted to put it visually together , they could dock on top , dock on bottom , depending on where they wanted to do the visual , what would be more exiting in the film . That is kind of how we based the placement of the hatches . " " ( " " DVD - Special feature " Production : " The Art of Insurrection " " ) Eventually , it was decided to have the shuttle dock from below , much to the delight of Co - producer Peter Lauritson , who commented , " " There is is one shot in particular that I really liked where we are looking down and we ' re seeing Data in the cockpit of his ship and we tilt down of him , and we see Picard and Worf , sneaking up below him from the other cockpit . " " Once decided upon , the scene was storyboarded by Ray Harvie ( " " , p . 193 ) , and eventually executed as mostly CGI , entirely by SBS , even though some of the sequences were planet - bound . Lauritson further elaborated on the scene , " " One of the things we wanted to do with the sequence , was have these ships doing a lot of intricate maneuvers and swoops and spins , and things like that . And that was something that would be extremely difficult with , so it was another advantage we had by creating the ships CGI . Normally we ' re up in space with these ships and we can create whatever background we want . In this case we ' re coming down into the atmosphere , so we hired a jet , you know , with a camera rig and went up on a semi - stormy day , and photographed these clouds backgrounds , and had to guesstimate the kinds of moves and things that we would want to see in the background of these ships , so that it would help sell the CG ships in a real atmosphere . " " Continuing to the final sequences , Lauritson added , " " When the ships go into a spin , going down toward the surface , imagery was , some of it was CGI , but it was all created by referencing the real landscape we were at , and that was a ranch outside of Santa Barbara . For that final shot , where the ships swoop down and come very close to earth and the grass is kicked up into the netherlands . We had a helicopter do a swoop pass , as if it were these ships . We did not came as close as them , of course , but it did make the grasses move the right way , and then for that final kick of grass into the lands , that was CG . " " ( " " DVD - Special feature " Creating the Illusion : " Shuttle Chase " " ) " " We used real flame for the reentry heat texture map , then warped that over some cone geometry and rerendered to get the reentry heat look . We would multiplane the edges to keep from getting that crispy CG look , then cycle the textures through quickly , sometimes enhancing them with backlit nitrogen streams or particle animation work . " " , SBS ' s Animator Mark Wendell proudly recalled . Lauritson had with him in the Lear jet , cinematographers Clay Lacey , and in the helicopter Kevin LaRosa for the live footage . SBS nevertheless had to perform a number of color corrections in order to match up the elements shot , with the Ba ' ku planet ' s greener - than - green appearance . Still , the more dynamic , plunging towards the earth plate - shots , could not be achieved with the aerial footage , needing another approach . Editor James Strauss combined cloud elements with Richard Kreigler ' s digital matte paintings to create a multiplane environment in the SoftImage software through which the camera could travel . However , taking it up a notch , as Wendell explained , " " To take it one more step , we took advantage of Nothing Real ' s Shake software , which let us comp the ships by dilating the matte to take the edge off . Shake let us play with blur and opacity factors and really marry these two craft into the background , even to the point that the TD could add grain himself " " ( " Cinefex " , issue 77 , p . 80 )