LIVE CHAT - Michael & Denise Okuda
(Graphic Designers on Star Trek Television Series)

Chat transcript from 11-20-99 (Content edited for readability)

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Hi, did anybody see the LEONIDS?

sand asks: I didn't.

enigma asks: Thursday night was clear overhead but cloudy for me to the south and west...I'm near Boston.

Carlton asks: I did not either.

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: We got up a couple of morning in a row, only saw 1, but it was a bright as Venus.

enigma asks: cool!!!! At least you know it wasn't Venus or a UFO!

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: .…. as far as we know… or at least as far as we can admit.

sand asks: I did see a meteor shower this August.

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Let's start the questions!

enigma asks: Usually our sphere chats are a zoo....is it okay to ask several questions at once?

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: No, because with so many people here, I'll get too confused. LOL

enigma asks: What do you think of Voyager's artwork this season, and how would you contrast these new episodes with the first two seasons of "Star Trek: The Next Generation"?

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: I think if you look at the first two season of TNG vs. any 2 season of Voyager you'll see a tremendous amount of growth b/c we've learned so much in the intervening years. Also, technology has advanced so far and so fast!

enigma asks: Is this due to budgets or computer animation?

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: For example, when we started TNG we did scene animation (computer readouts) with conventional cell animation that we shot on film and transferred to video. Now, with our Macintosh computers we can do things we could only dream of back then and we can do them faster and cheaper.

enigma asks: Thanks! I knew there is a trade-off!

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: We do spend more on graphic and video than we did in the beginning. Because of the aforementioned advances, I think we get a lot more bang for Paramount's bucks.

enigma asks: It's very effective! I think voyager's effects are now almost state of the art. Especially, with Babylon 5 off the air and Crusade having been cancelled by TNT!

sand asks: Eek! I didn't bring any questions.

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Sand, then let us ask you a question. If they were going to do another Star Trek series, what would you want it to be?

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: (Not that this is an official request of any kind… or that we have any kind of input into Paramount's thinking.)

sand asks: Well, I like the idea of doing something slightly different. DS9 was my favorite, and that dealt with some different situations than the other series.

sand asks: Such as being on a space station, having a war...

enigma asks: Pre-KIRK ? hopefully, yet not a Babylon five rip-off.... and if its not that, I would happily watch Starfleet Academy...

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Yes, we agree that it is important to find a different "spin" so that the stories have a different "flavor".

enigma asks: if EFC is like the 20th century prequel to TREK, then it seems the time from Zephram Cocoran to KIRK is wide open, or even a TREK series set in the 29th century...

sand asks: I'll probably watch any Trek series they come up with!

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Has anyone seen "Free Enterprise"?

Carlton asks: Not yet, I hear it is very funny.

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: FREE ENTERPRISE is probably our favorite SF movie of the year. Shatner proved himself a comic genius.

sand asks: I haven't heard of Free Enterprise.

enigma asks: wait...I think I did read a review of it!

enigma asks: Free Enterprise...Shatner has a warped funny bone!

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: FREE ENTERPORISE is a romantic comedy about 2 trek/ film fans who's lives have been warped by Star Trek

sand asks: In theaters?

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: One day they meet their idol, William Shatner who turns out to be a womanizing, egomaniac who's dream is to play all the parts in a musical version of Julius Caesar.

enigma asks: (enigma tries to pretend that 99% of the trekkers and trekkies enigma has met are totally normal people)

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Regarding a new series: I would like to see more non-human major characters.

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: The Guys who wrote and Directed the Film and big Trek fans, and we were rolling in the aisles with all of the inside Jokes and movie references.

enigma asks: What do you think of EFC's special effects?

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Enigma, we are very impressed with the work. I think it is very important to judge F/X work not merely on the basis of what you see on the screen but also on the basis of how intelligently the producers and designers have used the resources and funds available to them. on that basis we take our hats off to EFC's Producers. Not to mention the fact that we think the EFC shuttle is way cool! Particularly the Holographic controls.

Tra'el asks: *nods* The shuttles are cool.

enigma asks: WHEN is there to be a DS9+VOYAGER MOVIE?

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: RE Movie, Haven't a clue. We look at the web for the latest rumors just like everyone else.

enigma asks: I heard a rumor there is to be more crossovers...for VOYAGER. The last episode established wormhole corridors.

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: There's an episode of Voyager with TROI and BARCLAY coming up. It should be fun. It was great to see marina again...

enigma asks: She's also got a EFC episode soon....THE CLOISTER!

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: We're very proud of the Mars command module that we built for "One Small Step". Bob Picardo, Directed that one. It was fun b/c he is a real life space buff...so he tried to get as many of the little nuances as correct as possible. A couple day b4 shooting, Bob asked us "Where's all the VELCRO?" We'd forgotten that real life space shuttles and space labs have lots of patches of VELCRO glue all over the cabin so that the crew can use it to hold stuff so it won't float away. Jimmy Mees (Set Decorator) found some of the actual Velcro used by NASA an put it all around the module cabin. I don't think anyone will notice, but it was a nice touch of Authenticity.

Tra'el asks: It's good he noticed!

enigma asks: Yes it is!

Tra'el asks: What do think would have happened if he hadn't noticed?

enigma asks: coffee all over the cabin!

Tra'el asks: lol :)

enigma asks: if that mistake had not been caught...it would be immortal

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Interesting Question, we probably would have gotten a couple of letters.

enigma asks: We may actually be thirty years or less away from an actual mars mission!

Porphyre I've always been a fan of Okudagrams.

enigma asks: George bush wanted 2020 but Clinton delayed the timeline....

Tra'el asks: :)

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Enigma, Dan Goldin (NASA Administrator) says we're "no less that 10 years but no more than 20" away from the 1st human footsteps on Mars. Something to look forward to.

Tra'el asks: yeah

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Porphyre, thanks!

enigma asks: {enigma thinks HDTV disques will go out to other planets with TREK episodes on them} I'm glad the Mars LAUCH is sooner! THANX!!!

Tra'el asks: I think it will be very exciting when that finally happens (first footstep on Mars).

enigma asks: thinking that if one needs a video library for space travel, there is Dr. Who, TREK and B5...especially if one needs material one can watch over and over again… or outer limits

enigma asks: scientists like sci-fi in their off hours!

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: There are a fair number of astronauts who are trek fans and a fair number of people who work on trek who are fans of the space program. Present Company included, obviously.

Tra'el asks: *sea quest comes to mind for no reason*

enigma asks: Sea Quest was short-lived and did have decent special effects...the scripts lagged a bit

enigma asks: I liked Quantum Leap more...

Tra'el asks: Quantum Leap was good

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Ben Betts, was Video Playback operator on Seasquest, now he's our playback person on Voyager. He's also worked with us on the last couple of Trek movies.

Tra'el asks: that's cool.

Porphyre I heard the problem with Sea Quest was that the writer was threatened with cancellation then struggled to cram every point he wanted to make with it then the cancellation was cancelled.

Porphyre So he was left with nothing to say.

enigma asks: its depressing when a show has potential but lacks adroit

timing....[crusade] ....[sinbad] ....[seaquest].............Any SPOILERS that we can post on the main board about VOYAGER? {that aren't elsewhere on the net?}

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Spoilers....

Tra'el asks: *smiles big*

enigma asks: spoilers! even mild ones!

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Let's just say that we like our jobs a WHOLE LOT.

enigma asks: ok!

Tra'el asks: that's reasonable

enigma asks: we get more hints from EFC's people....we are spoilt quite often...I think TRIBUNE is a looser!

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: but Paramount is everywhere!

Porphyre Did you help with the upcoming Voyager game?

enigma asks: Computer Game? cool!

enigma asks: PARAMOUNT RULES SCIFI!

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: No we did not help with the game but Rick Sternbach is designing a whole bunch of stuff for Electronic Arts.

CARLTON ASKS:I was reading a website that mentioned the new ST Encyclopedia CD-ROM. Is there a lot of new material on it?

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: CD-ROM: the New CD is basically the update text of the 1999 edition of the ST encyclopedia, which means it has material through the last season including the end of DS9.

Porphyre asks: If only Paramount had bought EFC, I'd imagine we'd still have Boone, likely.

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Regarding Boone, we were shocked too!

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: We're also very proud of the ST sticker Book, which just came out from pocket books, it's got lots of ST symbols as well as alien graphics and pictures of ships and equipment. Denise has been using it to decorate all of her correspondence.

Porphyre Have you seen EFC's shuttle lay out? What do you think of it? Did you lend a hand or anything?

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: EFC shuttle is very elegant, very alien, we had nothing to do with it but would be proud if we had.

enigma asks: cool!

enigma asks: did the recent VIACOM+CBS merger even get noticed by all the creative trek people at Paramount ??? ......talking about personnel and people...it was a big media event! [hoping that CBS does not want to makeover trek universe.....picturing Dan rather as a starship commander]

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: We're wondering about the CBS/VIACOM deal ourselves we don't really know what it means for ST.

enigma asks: I hope CBS is in the 1990s, not the 1960s when the next century dawns and unless they really have a feel for sci-fi, any creative input might mean a fiasco worse than what Ted turner did to JMS

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: We were sorry to see CRUSADE end. We had enjoyed B5 so much that we were looking forward to c what they would come up with next.

enigma asks: I hope this could translate into more state of the art movies...at the end, quality-wise, DS9 was holding its own with Babylon five and I noticed the vast improvements in voyager this season a few seasons back, the show did have doldrums

Carlton asks: Well, that's all the time we have today. Thank you everyone for coming!

Tra'el asks: good bye

enigma asks: CRUSADE looked like it was on the cusp of really showing what computer graphics could do for science fiction on television, and then its creative potential was held back.

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Regarding B5, If you ask anyone who worked on Babylon, they all know in their heart of hearts that their show was superior to DS9. However, if you ask any of us who worked on DS9, we know in our Heart of Hearts that the opposite is true.

enigma asks: AND YES! DS9 will have MOVIES! someday!

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Bottom line, people on both shows are professional enough to admire and recognize good work no matter who does it.

enigma asks: [I think Janeway+crew might have a guest role or two in them!]

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Thank you and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!...

Tra'el asks: you too

enigma asks: !!!! Thanks for the chat!!!!!

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: And don't forget to watch STS 103 Launch scheduled for December.

MICHAEL & DENISE OKUDA: Bye!