Posted in: Documentary, Interview, Movies, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: Doug Drexler, star trek

Star Trek Designer Talks SNW, VFX Evolution, AI, Favorite Eps & More

Star Trek legend designer Doug Drexler (Trek Star: Doug Drexler Documentary) discussed the evolution of makeup & VFX, AI, "SNW," and more.

Doug Drexler has accomplished a great deal over the course of his 40+ years in Hollywood, starting with his work in horror, which includes classics such as The Hunger (1983), Amityville 3-D (1983), Manhunter (1986), Fatal Attraction (1987), and Poltergeist (1988). He would achieve his dream, joining Star Trek with The Next Generation, and become a pillar of the franchise, with runs on Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, and the TNG films. He would also expand into the Paramount+ era with Picard and Seth MacFarlane's Trek-inspired series, The Orville, for Fox/Hulu. While promoting his documentary Trek Star: The Doug Drexler Documentary that he's collaborating with Jason E. Smith on Kickstarter, Drexler spoke with Bleeding Cool about on the nuances of the evolution of makeup, VFX on ship design, CG, the dangers of AI, Vince Gilligan, his most memorable challenges achieved in Star Trek, and why he doesn't care too much on the design on Strange New Worlds.

Star Trek: Designer Doug Drexler on Makeup and VFX Evolution, AI, Strange New Worlds, and Favorite Creations

Are you envious of how much they streamlined the process? I recall reading about how some, like Michael Dorn, would dread sitting in the chair for hours during the makeup process. When he did Picard, it would take much less time instead of like the three or whatever hours it took to put in all the Klingon prosthetics. How do you feel about the changes to the process?

I think there's some exaggeration happening there. Makeup applications haven't changed that much. It's gotten finer. They'll use silicones that light can diffuse through, but as far as the application, I was in the makeup department. I didn't put his makeup on; it was Jerry Quist. I don't think it took more than an hour and a half, but no one likes it. It's no fun. First thing in the morning, icy cold glue. First, you get washed with alcohol, then icy cold glue. It feels like a squirrel is licking you [laughs]. It's not; I don't believe there's any magic way you carefully apply an appliance and glue it down. That hasn't changed. Materials have changed.

As for the ship designs, the CG work has streamlined many aspects of them. Do you think something has been lost in the creativity? Back then, they filmed with miniatures, and they shot it on a green screen, versus the way it is rendered now.

Absolutely. There is something lost, just like we're going to lose a lot of things to AI when it really comes forward, but we haven't seen anything yet. People don't care who it comes from, whether it comes from a machine or they just want to be entertained. I went into CG because there was no stopping that evolution, so I did the best thing that I could, and that is to figure out how to take advantage of it. I tell my friends who are conceptual people that if I were to say, "Jump into the AI." I know it's not as fun. Writing prompts aren't really creative.

Vince Gilligan from Breaking Bad said it's the biggest, most expensive plagiarism machine ever created. When we were doing CG on Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica, the computer was handling mathematical decisions on light and stuff like that, but it was still being guided by a human being. To describe the scene, it's a shame. Look, the one thing we have that makes us human, aside from a sense of humor, although my parrot has a sense of humor…You can't say only humans have a sense of humor… It's art. AI is a catastrophe for our art. There's no way it's going to be contained, and that's the way it is. I saw Vince at the end credits of his TV series Pluribus says, "This show was made by humans." It's going to be interesting to see what happens, but wow, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go dark there.

With the evolution of visual effects creation over the years, it is notable how Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country reverse-engineered the sets from TNG for the Enterprise-D into the Enterprise-A for the film, while also sharing sets between the two. Before I get to Battlestar Galactica, I was just wondering about the shows that you've worked on. Were there any elements, either specific alien design, ship design, or plot, that stood out to you as more challenging to execute than the rest?

In the makeup department, it probably was Lal (played by Hallie Todd in the TNG season three episode "The Offspring"), and then doing makeup twice on Patrick Stewart, both designed by Mike Westmore, just put them on where he plays one of the Kingsmen on Holodeck (in the season three episode "The Defector"). The other one was (season five's) "The Inner Light," where he lives an entire lifetime (in another life). Those were really memorable to me.

In the art department, (it's Deep Space Nine's season five episode) "Trials and Tribble-ations," doing all those (The Original Series) sets over, that was like a dream come true. We couldn't even believe it. We were so damn lucky, and of course, we got to do it again on Enterprise, where we built the sets out much more detailed and larger. It's some great stuff, as some of The Original Series sets that we invented, where the colors and things that are used are just perfect for TOS. They feel like TOS, you could sleek up TOS with some careful choices. You don't have to redesign the whole set. For instance, in Strange New Worlds, I love the bridge; it's not Pike's (Anson Mount) bridge. Sorry, I can't get past that. What I would love to have seen it's Pike's bridge done with what we know and have now, upgrade it a little bit, sleek it up a little more, cool-looking materials. It can be done!

For more on Drexler, you can check out the Kickstarter page for the documentary and information on how to contribute.

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