Naked truth Pt II – Enterprise C

In Naked Truth Pt I, reader Mark Delgado commented on the creative process, and it’s impact on the Enterprise C filming miniature.

 Mike Okuda shares his memories of those challenges…

The Banzai-Trek Connection

One of our readers, L.M. Oliver asked:

Was somebody in casting also a “Blue Blaze Irregular”?  I ask because at least two actors from Banzai appeared in The Next Generation’s first season (Robert Ito and Vincent Schiavelli).

We’ve enlisted Denise Okuda, our resident Banzai expert to comment on this musing.

The Naked Truth – Best Laid Plans Dept

You know how sometimes you scratch your head after an episode of your favorite TV show and say… “WTF?”  Witness this classic, and well travelled piece of backlot wisdom.

The Kings of Kludge

A nice example of a model built from dumpster leavings.

 

When visual effects was out of dough, they knew they could count on us to kludge something together out of found objects and dumpster leavings. Dan Curry approached Mike Okuda about us bashing together a quickie model of a section of Utopia Planitia for the Voyager episode “Lifesigns”. “It’s gonna be tiny, and on the horizon,” explained Dan, “so don’t stress over it too much.” Is he kidding?  Anthony and I put this together in two days, and had a lot of fun along the way.

Dougie? Have You Seen My Bread Machine?

 “… honey, I can explain everything!” -me

Dorth learned to make bread by hand after that.

Space Madness Dept!

Doug after hearing he would be designing the NX. The fetal position was a favorite, often coupled with squeezing into seemingly safe places to hide.  

 

 

 

 

 Let’s face it! At any high stress, deadline driven, creative job, you are going to find new ways of blowing off steam. Especially in a high spirited organization like the Trek art department, where the motto was, “Anything for a Laugh.”  So with your permission, I’m going to post irrefutable evidence of the extreme zaniness which posessed these otherwise ordinary human beings. How could it happen? Why did it happen? … We may never know, Number One… We may never know…

The Last of the Red Hot Starships – Tribble-ations Retrospect

Who was that masked man?

A photo of the original masked marvel, Greg Jein with the Enterprise-A backing him up.

This picture was pinned to the bulletin board in the Star Trek art department for many years, and If I had to bet, I’d say John Eaves, or Fritz Zimmerman drew the superhero mask onto Greg. Either way, it effectively portrays how we all feel about the amazing Mr. Jein. If you are new around here, Greg is one of Hollywood’s all time great model makers. Plus he’s one of us! Gooble Gobble!

For the DS9 high watermark, Trials and Tribble-ations, Greg had to build a fully lit five and a half  footer of the original series Enterprise, the K-7 space station, and Klingon Battlecruiser… all in ten days. As Don Adams might have said… “AND loving it!”

Enjoy a few happy snaps Mike Okuda and I took over at Image G, of the filming of the Trials and Tribble-ations Enterprise.

 

A Christmas Story – Cag n’ Drex Style

It was about 4 weeks out from Christmas, almost 25 years ago, when my partner at the time, makeup artist extraordinaire John Caglione said to me, “Doug, I want to be Santa Claus for my kids this year. I mean the whole nine yards. I’ll sculpt appliances, we’ll get hair from Kelly’s, and I’ll rent a costume!” This was well before anyone had used the word “awesome” to death, so it still meant something when I said to John that it would indeed be just that. 

Romulan Shuttle

Pawing through the Drex Files last night, and hokey smokes! I come across images of the only once seen Romulan shuttle used on DS9. I designed it for Gary Hutzel, it was built by Meinenger. An exquisite job by his Brazil Fabrications.

The Tooth Fairy

                                                                                                                                                                                                

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       Tom Noonan, as Francis Dollarhyde, in the Michael Mann cult classic “Manhunter.” How I lived through the “sort of” pilot for CSI, and learned to love a disturbed serial killer. 

Assimilate This!

Who would have guessed that this ugly duckling of a starship would have garnered such die hard affection from the fans? Here she is, moments after Mike Okuda and I finished pinstriping, and graffiking her at Brazil Fabrication in the San Fernando Valley. Now go forth, and kick some rightious Borg booty!

Life imitates Okuda

Mike Okuda, the man who is the heart and soul behind all the clean and cool graphics we have come to love and respect on Star Trek, has been enlisted by NASA to design program and mission logos. The concept that Okudagrams really are going out into the depths of space is somewhat mindboggling, and gives me a thrill.
 
Pictured above are Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong and Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan, who toured one of the Altair mock-ups at NASA’s Johnson Space Center on Dec. 9, 2008. The Altair lunar lander will take human beings to the surface of the moon for the first time since Apollo and is part of NASA’s Constellation Program. In the background is Wayne Ottinger, who worked on the Apollo lunar lander training vehicle, and Jack Schmitt, Apollo 17 lunar module pilot. The veteran astronauts visited Johnson and talked with the Altair lunar lander team about design concepts. These legends are wearing pins emblazoned with Mike’s Altair logo.