
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… Continue reading ‘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… Continue reading ‘Naked truth Pt II – Enterprise C’

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.
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.


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.

“… honey, I can explain everything!” -me
Dorth learned to make bread by hand after that.

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…
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.
Continue reading ‘The Last of the Red Hot Starships – Tribble-ations Retrospect’


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. Continue reading ‘Romulan Shuttle’

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.

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!


Anthony, maniacally delighted to find he is the namesake of a ship of the line. We loved the visual effects department, and they loved us.


Mike and I were crossing stage 10, better known as “Planet Hell,” when what befalleth my eye… and I can’t resist. “Mike! Snap it!” I do my best “Conan The King.” Okuda deftly swings the camera, and snares the shot. I’m quite pleased with myself. A grip yells across the stage… “Hey Conan! Wet paint!”

Does the man in the picture look happy? I did a lot of really cool things before I came to Star Trek, but let’s face it… like Gregory Hines says in History of the World… “Born to do it!”

Caglione, Danson, and Drexler.
You always hope that when you work with an actor, they have those qualities you love in their characters. Ted is everything you hope for and more.
When a production hires an actor, it’s a game of Russian roulette, you never know what’s in the chamber. If you end up with a madman, your life can be hell for the duration of the shoot. The only danger we faced with Ted was splitting a gut. John and I share a raucous sense of humor, add Ted Danson to that and, well… it just shouldn’t be legal to have that much fun at work. More to come…
The picture above was taken during the shooting of “Three Men and a Little Lady.” John did a brilliant job sculpting Ted’s 90 year old priest character.

“Come again, Mike?… it’s called what?” Mike grinned. “… Supersize Those Fries.” “Ha!” I said, rubbing my chin. “Buckeroo Banzai with a vengeance. I love it… need illustrations?” Mike grinned. “I thought you’d never ask!” More on the way…



Me, Al and my brother, John Caglione.
As John said… “Dick Tracy was a character makeup artists dream come true,” and a real slice of Hollywood. You know how whenever tinseltown portrays backlot, there are stars everywhere you look? That’s what Dick Tracy was like in reality. It was a Fort Knox of famous faces, and they were ours, all ours…


Shel Dorf called us while we were working on Dick Tracy, and asked if it would be alright if he brought Bob Kane by to meet us. Alright? Are you kidding? The guy who created Batman? Yes please! Bring ‘em over! What an honor! Apparently Bob was a big Dick Tracy fan, and drew on it for inspiration when creating Batman.
So there he was, big as life, in our lab, personable, fun, and clearly enjoying his notoriety. Shel invited a few kids over to meet the Batfather, and Bob ate it up, dashing off little sketches of the caped crusader for them. “Bob,” I said, “I’m sure you could draw Batman with your eyes closed!” That grabbed him. “Let’s see!” he laughed, snatched up his pencil, closed his eyes, and bat-doodled off a damned good little sketch of his masterpiece character. Everyone enjoyed that a lot, and we laughed over it a bunch. Bob went back to hob knobbing with his young fans, while we continued to bask in his presence.
When it was all done, and the lab was empty again, John and I prepared to get back to making Dick Tracy. As I headed to the plaster bench I spied something out of the corner of my eye… there, shoved in a corner and wanted by no one, was Bob Kane’s eyes wide shut sketch of The Batman. I delicately placed it in a plastic page protector, along with the pencil he doodled it with.

I was at work in the ever-lovin’ Trek art department, perched high atop the Marathon Mill, when the phone rang. “Dougie! It’s Laura! I’m under stage 18. Get down here right away! Can’t explain! Hurry!” There was a click, and she was gone. I looked up at Jim, and Denise. “Sumthin’ weird is going on under 18.”
The narrow concrete stairwell was dank and dark, and at the bottom of it stood a pool of stagnant water. I put my shoulder against the heavy metal door leading to the underground and pushed. It opened with a musty groan, reverberating with bygone Hollywood ages. All around us in the half light, were leftover artifacts from movies and television shows going back seventy five years. It was like the lobby of the Adam’s Family house. A stuffed black bear frozen in an aggressive posture, Admiral Byrd’s dog sled, the Happy Days juke box, six foot filming miniatures of WWII aircraft. “Lauuuuura!” I called. “Dougie! I’m over here! Hurry up!”
Recent Comments