Inspiration: Starbase Ontar II
I remember being a six-year-old and staring at a wall. That’s how I came up with the inspiration for one location in Day of the Devourer. If you’ve read the book, it should come as no surprise that there are a number of things in the story inspired by science fiction movies of the 1980s. I was born in 1973, so age 6 to 16 of my life was spent in the that decade. 80s sci-fi was what I grew up on.
In the story, Rej and his crew spend most of their time on alien planets. It’s not until a Galactic Fleet battleship takes them to Starbase Ontar II that they finally visit a human settlement. When I tried to imagine what sort of place they might visit to recharge after a battle, I couldn’t get one image out of my mind.
A poster from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) hung on the wall of my room when I was 6. It probably stayed on that wall for the rest of that decade. I don’t remember liking that movie much. I was much more of a Star Wars fanatic at the time. It showed the Enterprise, of course, but it also had a number of inset photos of Kirk and the crew with their giant shiny black belt buckles (notice they abandoned those costumes by the next movie) and that weird bald lady that gave me nightmares.
There was one inset photo that really stuck with me. It was a bit like this:
Later, I understand the filmmakers used the exact same model in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. They just flipped it:
I liked Wrath of Khan way better. I mean anything with the dude from Fantasy Island sticking slugs in people’s ears has got to be good, right?
The space station I needed for Starbase Ontar II would be much larger. I imagined it like a major metropolitan city floating in space. It would have a dock for Fleet ships. It would have several levels of restaurants, bars, and shopping malls. It would have schools and blocks of living quarters. It would be a bit more like Spacedock from Star Trek III, The Search for Spock:
Yes. I did a bit of a Steal Like An Artist on this piece of inspiration, but, ultimately, Day of the Devourer is a love letter to 80s sci-fi and a tribute to the all the things that inspired the six-year-old kid, kneeling on the top of a bunk bed, staring at a poster on the wall.
