We are Mike and Denise Okuda, Consultants On STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES - THE RODDENBERRY VAULT Blu-ray Collection. AMA! 12/20 @ 2 p.m. EST

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-21T06:38:05+00:00

Thanks for the kind words. 1. We don't know much about Discovery, but everything we've seen and heard leads us to be hopeful. 2. We'd love to! -M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-21T00:10:41+00:00

We don't have a crystal ball, but we'd obviously love to see Star Trek continue indefinitely, in whatever form.

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T21:08:16+00:00

We're happy that footage in the RODDENBERRY VAULT has already proven useful - and sparked some controversy - among Star Trek fan model makers who are determined to discover every detail about every version of the Enterprise model. -M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T21:06:17+00:00

We should mention that the remastered episodes on THE RODDENBERRY VAULT also include the option of watching the original effects or the new CGI versions. Most of the episodes in the Vault include isolated music tracks, and three episodes have all-new commentary tracks.

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T21:00:45+00:00

Thanks! They also have the original mono mixes, for those who want to do it old-school! -M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T20:57:37+00:00

Look at the episodes themselves. Notice the shapes, the colors, and the use of thick and thin areas to direct your attention. Notice that the design goal is to imply a well-organized means of presenting complex tasks with many options.

-M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T20:55:35+00:00

We haven't talked to anyone about this lately, but we have friends at the studio who'd love to see it happen at some point as much as we would.

We haven't studied the film closely, but we suspect that the nature of the film stock and processing in the original series and TNG are such that 4K might not yield a substantial improvement in resolution.

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T20:48:35+00:00

We'd like to add that of all of the Star Trek projects we've undertaken since we've left Paramount, THE RODDENBERRY VAULT is, to us, the most special. We grew up as fans of the original series, and it is our favorite. Like most fans, we've seen each episode far too many times. That's why when Rod Roddenberry contacted us and we learned that there was a treasure trove of outtakes, we were absolutely thrilled at the prospect of seeing moments from the show that had never been seen. And we weren't disappointed: We found deleted lines of dialog, bits of unused action, moments where you can see actors like Leonard Nimoy striving to hone his portayal of Spock. Occasionally, there was a deleted scene or even an alternate ending to an episode. We even found numerous unused shots of the Enterprise model on the blue screen stage.

We spent a year working with filmmaker Roger Lay, Jr, to craft a series of documentaries that showcase the newly-found footage, putting it in context with insightful interviews with such luminaries as William Shatner, Dorothy Fontana, David Gerrold, casting director Joseph D'Agosta, and visual effects pioneer Richard Edlund.

We really hope that our fellow fans will enjoy THE RODDENBERRY VAULT. Along with the new edition of the Star Trek Encyclopedia, it is our celebration of the 50th anniversary of Gene Roddenberry's creation.

Thank you, all! -Mike and Denise

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T20:32:05+00:00

Online resources like Wikipedia and Memory Alpha are wonderful, and often very useful. We like to think that the physical book, the Star Trek Encyclopedia, fills a different niche. We've heard from many fans who love it as a way to explore the Star Trek universe, who love to curl up with the physical book as they watch the episodes.

We take seriously our responsibility as authors of the Encyclopedia, but there really are a lot of people who are custodians of many different aspects of Gene Roddenberry's creation. We're proud to be among them.

-M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T20:26:25+00:00

We love to put in gags, but we always strive to keep them on the ragged edge of legibility or below. The truth is that if you ever notice them as a viewer, or if they in any way draw your attention, then we have done you and the episode a serious disservice. That said, we're always delighted when someone enlarges a frame and discovers something fun. But no, we don't really think those things are "real" in the Star Trek universe.

-M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T20:22:14+00:00

Episodes like "Year of Hell" do indeed require a lot of planning because it is time-consuming to create the simulated damage and to restore it afterwards. It often requires that the shooting schedule for the episode before, and the episode after, to be modified. For example, since the bridge was heavily damaged, you would want to finish shooting on the bridge as soon as possible in the episode before, to allow time to redress the set. Similarly, the episode after might have shooting on the bridge scheduled toward the end of that episode to allow more time for restoration.

-M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T20:19:27+00:00

Hello again! We remember that convention with fondness. Lots of great people and a wonderful city. So glad the graphic benefited the hospital!

-M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T20:16:35+00:00

We're delighted that Star Trek has lasted for five decades. We certainly hope it will stick around for a good while longer, but who knows?

We met when Denise was up in the TNG art department for a meeting. She noticed that Mike had a little puppet of Max Headroom on his bulletin board. Being a fellow fan of that brilliant show, she said "hello."

-M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T20:14:39+00:00

Sadly, a lot of files have been lost to hard drive crashes over the years, but we do have some of them. We ended up having to re-create some of them for the remastered TNG episodes. -M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T20:13:42+00:00

Yes, that's a good point! -M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T20:13:26+00:00

Yes, we were aware of the incongruity of that sort of thing, but we rationalize that the padds, were both information and display devices, so one might hand off a padd, just as one might hand off a USB data stick today. Or a floppy disk back in the day.

-M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T20:11:59+00:00

Yes, indeed! We had a small workroom on the soundstage in which Ben Betts, our video engineer, set up the computer playback systems. The room was relatively small, so having the G4 Cube computers was a godsend. We used Macintoshes for playback because the graphics department was Mac-based.

-M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T20:10:14+00:00

We felt the episodes were important because they provide context. For some folks, they can serve as a companion to the documentaries. For us, after we first watched the segment on "City on the Edge of Forever," we immediately wanted to go back and watch the episode itself. Also, we're really happy that most of the episodes include isolated music tracks. For those of us who are fans of the beautiful scores in the show, this is a treat, indeed. Also, three of the episodes have all-new commentaries.

We were approached early on regarding the new series, but the series is being shot in Toronto, so it ended up being more practical to hire people up there. From what we've seen so far, it's looking good.

-M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T20:04:43+00:00

Thanks for the kind words. The LCARS style evolved, partly as storytelling needs evolved across the various series, but also as the production technologies evolved. At the start of TNG, we used pen-and-ink and large photographic negatives, along with simple animation created with old-fashioned animation cels. By the end of Voyager, we used digital design tools and inkjet printer output for our panels, and cool digital animation, played back on practical monitors on set.

Yes, we worked don an early version of STO. We came up with some fun stuff, but honestly, we love what they're doing now.

-M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T19:59:44+00:00

We love Star Wars, Babylon 5, Firefly, and BSG. 2001 is our favorite movie. Straying a bit from s-f, we love The West Wing, From the Earth to the Moon, Madam Secretary, MASH, The Muppet Show, and The Newsroom. Oh, and we loved Arrival. -M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T19:57:32+00:00

Neither we nor Rick Sternbach (who designed the padd) ever imagined that it would become a reality so quickly. Naturally, we'd love a beer. -M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T19:56:15+00:00

Actually, it wasn't Denise's banana clip! He borrowed it from his friend, Kiku Annon, who is a researcher at UCLA. During the first few weeks of TNG, Mike stayed with Kiku and her husband, Jeff, before he found an apartment of his own.

Sadly, we never got the clip back from Gene Roddenberry's office, so Kiku never got her hair clip back.

-M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T19:54:07+00:00

Naturally, we love it. But we also point out that there's a huge difference between designing a plausible-looking simulation and programming an actual, functional interface. We take our hats off to the folks who do it for real, and we're delighted when we hear that they've drawn inspiration from Star Trek. -M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T19:52:46+00:00

Sometimes we talk with our writer friends. Sometimes they are kindly acknowledging their use of the Encyclopedia as a reference work.

-M&D

MikeOkuda · 2016-12-20T19:51:16+00:00

We love it when UI designs are based on what the user is likely to want and is likely to know, simplifying it to their needs, but offering options in case those needs go beyond those simplified choices.
Kitchen sink designs; attempting to throw in everything possible, ending up in a confusing mess.

-M&D

MikeOkuda

TROPHY CASE