John Berkey Poster Sketches for Star Trek II (1982)

John Berkey is one of my favorite artists, and I wish I could feature him more here. Unfortunately, this early poster for Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the poster sketches below for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan are the only publicly-seen work he did for Star Trek that I know of. (If you know of any others, please leave a comment!)

The Winter 2012 issue of Illustration magazine reports that Berkey "did paintings and preliminary sketches for several of the Star Trek movies, but the studio turned all but one of those paintings over to other artists to redo, and their versions were printed as the movie posters." This tribute piece, written by a friend of Berkey's shortly after his passing in 2008, goes into further detail regarding the same claims:

"He was actually commissioned to paint all six movie posters for the Star Trek original series films. But, for some reason Paramount had another artist duplicate (almost exactly) each one of Berkey's paintings in a softer, more airbrushed style. By the time Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country came out… Berkey realized that Paramount had… again had [his work] duplicated by the same airbrush artist. Berkey told me something to the effect of, 'If Star Trek ever calls again, I probably won't return the call.'"

It would be nice to see some evidence of this! I have no doubt there are many comps for Star Trek movies among the hundreds of John Berkey paintings and sketches that have never been seen by the public, but of the concepts we have, none seem to have been re-created by anyone (I suspect the unnamed "airbrush artist" must be Bob Peak). Lastly, the SF Encyclopedia entry for John Berkey states that he painted posters or ancillary material for Star Trek IV in addition to TMP and Star Trek II, but provides no evidence of such material.

Star Trek II - Sketch #1

This sketch appeared on eBay in 2013, described as an original Berkey painting for a proposed movie poster for Star Trek II. It depicts Khan in his face mask looming over the Enterprise and her crew. Painting measures 11.25" x 16.25" on 15" x 20" illustration board. Unfortunately, these are the largest images available.

Star Trek II - Sketch #2 and #3

This pair of similar sketches shows a different take on the "looming Khan" concept. The first is gouache on illustration board and measures 20" x 14"; it shows the Enterprise heading away from the viewer and toward its confrontation with the USS Reliant. HA describes this sketch as a poster study. Be sure to click the images below for hi-resolution versions!

The second, below, is acrylic and casein on illustration board and measures 20.5" x 14"; it shows the Enterprise heading toward the viewer and away from the pursuing USS Reliant.

Curiously, HA describes this sketch as a "Wrath of Kahn [sic] paperback cover preliminary," whereas its twin is described as a poster study. Clearly these are related pieces, the only major differences between them being the heading of the Enterprise and the level of detail on the Reliant. Berkey was known for his wonderful sci-fi book covers in addition to movie poster work; it's possible the composition was submitted for both purposes, with slightly different executions, or that a mistake was made in determining the provenance of the image(s).