Doug is the Scenic Designer on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Doug is also the co-author of the just-released "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Technical Manual" with Herman Zimmerman and Rick Sternbach. By the way, Rick Sternbach will be chatting with us in December!

Question: How long have you worked for paramount?
Ball Of Fuzz

Doug Drexler: Ten years total. Three years doing make-up and seven doing graphics.

Q: What one piece of work are you most proud of on or off Deep Space Nine?
Seer

DD: Obviously the sets from "Trials and Tribble-ations." A once in a lifetime experience.

Q: What type of computer hardware and software do you use to reproduce Star trek graphics?
Bananaman

DD: All the Star Trek Art Departments run on Macintosh. As for software...

Adobe Illustrator. Photoshop. And lately we've been playing with Lightwave 3-D. (Jim adds Macromedia Director (version 3) for the onstage video graphics) The backlit graphics are output as large inkjet printouts

(Jim is helping Doug on some of the tougher questions...)

DD: then mounted in front of flourescent lights. Only a few years ago we hand cut all the color elements and pasted them by hand. Purgatory. Spray glue. Toxic fumes. Fingers stuck together. Yuck. No...it's Macintosh to the rescue.

Q: What is the most difficult set you have had to design/build?
Jarrod

DD: I'm not a set designer per se, but the first was DS9 Ops. That was an entirely new look. It had to be distinctly non-Starfleet. And recreating the Original Series sets for "Tribble-ations." That one we felt we had no leeway. We had to be right on the nose. We took countless frame grabs from several episodes of the old show. We only had rough blueprints. The advantage of this was we got to take the best elements from throughout the life of the show and from different "parts" of the ship.

Q: What work did you do on "Dick Tracy"? Was it fun with all the interesting characters?
Pete

DD: "Dick Tracy" was a make-up artists dream come true. It is the greatest gallery of characters ever devised and we got to work with some of the greatest actors of all time. It was a make-up explosion. boom- make-up everywhere.

Q: How do you think the DS9 Tech Manual compares to the TNG Tech Manual?
The 359

DD: As far as the illustration goes, it is way beyond the TNG manual because of the advances in technology. We can do more, faster. But the TNG book is obviously a classic and that's what we aspired to. I hope we measure up.

Q: Do you plan on having any of the 6 new classes (besides the USS Centaur class and Yeager class) seen on DS9?
The 359

DD: In the Tech Manual, we tried to incorporate all the ships we saw in the episode "Sacrifice of Angels."

Q: When you do the graphics on the show, is it all drawn or done on a computer? Do the actors tell you what they want to see on the screen? Or the directors?
TechNoid

DD: Many graphics begin as hand-drawn sketches. But all are finally rendered on a computer. The backlit graphics are overseen by Michael Okuda and Herman Zimmerman. As for input from on-stage, the moving, video animations are often specifically called for by the director. They know how they want to shoot it and what they want to see. And then when we think it's all done the visual effects team comes back and says they need another 2 seconds of a particular monitor shot.

So we get to really specialize with those because we know where it's going and coming from. The same goes with animations on the PADDs. They are "burned in" in post production.

Q: Who wrote the tech specs for this book? Did you have to measure the ship models and things to get the dimensions right?
TonyMac

DD: The ships are designed to look cool and realistic. The sets are designed to look cool, but conform to the necessity of being shot day after day. Several ship models were available for photo reference, so the details are really there. A few models only exist as computer 3-D images so there was no way to actually measure them. We had to rely on the image and viewing them on screen to gauge scale, etc. The technical specs themselves were primarily written by Rick. But we debated over several of the fun elements like the origin of the Defiant. There is a conjectural, preliminary design for how the Defiant was going to be built before the decision was made to convert it to a Borg-bound warship. The armour, weapons, etc. were upgraded by Starfleet in mid-design resulting in our little Borg-Buster.

Q: Did you know the score is Yankees 6, Cleveland 0?
NRD2

DD: Doug doesn't care but Jim says Go Yankees. (thanks for asking NRD)

(Doug says he's sorry, he doesn't follow Football.)

Q: After you've finished have you ever wished that you had done it better?
Pongee

DD: Every time.

Q: Do you think "Trials and Tribble-ations" could have been done better?
Pongee

DD: Of course. But how? You do what you can in the time you've got. We're putting together half a feature film every eight days.

Q: After you won an Oscar for makeup on "Dick Tracy," why did you come over to do TV on DS9? And not even in makeup?
LASooner

DD: After "Dick Tracy," where is there to go in make-up? Besides, I love Star Trek! Wouldn't you?

Q: Hi ! I love all of your work for DS9? Do you picture it or visualize it in your mind before you see it on the screen for a particular scene ?
Lynsee

DD: I have to see it in my head before I can put it on paper. If you're sculpting a bear you cut away everything that doesn't look like a bear.

A circle. A ship. A blip. Not Blip the monkey on Space Ghost. Until it starts to look like what the script calls for. Then I go back and refine, tighten and change to make it work. Or I run out of time.

Q: What other films or series have you worked on?
Barron

DD: Star Trek is the only TV series I've worked on for any length of time. I've been a guest make-up artist on Saturday Night Live. We had to do Joe Piscopo as Ed McMahon and Ronald McDonald The change had to happen during the commercial so we put the Ronald make-up over the McMahon make-up. During the commercial, we had to clean Ronald off like archeologists uncovering Ed. As for films: Starman, Cotton Club, Manhunter, The Hunger, Three Men and Little Lady, For the Boys

I don't remember any others. It goes out of your head.

Q: What is this new book? Will it be like the TNG Tech manual?
SiskoBaz

DD: I guess we haven't answered that yet, have we? It's the first time we've actually done a tech manual covering things other than Starfleet. Obviously the Cardassian space station itself. Because of the constant stream of alien races we felt we also had to include Klingon, Bajoran, Jem'Hadar But I HAD to have the Starfleet stuff. It's like a mini tech manual in the middle - Defiant and the runabouts and shuttlecraft. I really think the Starfeelt technology is the most fascinating It's an extension of us...as humans. It's where we are going to be. It's OUR future.

Q: How did you study to become a make up artist?
Tracy

DD: Mostly self-taught. There really was no school. I was on the east coast. I read a lot. Tortured my friends. And corresponded with a lot of make-up artists. I sent samples of my stuff to Dick Smith, the greatest make-up artist ever! He asked me if I wanted to work on the Hunger. I jumped up and down and waved my arms. They were going to pay me to do what I loved. I left my job at the art supply store to do three weeks of work. I ended up staying for six months. It was the best decision I ever made. I can never repay Dick. He launched my carrer.

Q: How did you go from make-up to graphic design? How did you meet Michael Okuda and why did he take a chance with you making the move to graphics?
Fred

DD: The answer is the same to all three questions: groveling. I really wanted to do it. I was always an artist. Design and illustrating. It's what I always wanted to be. After Dick Tracy, I begged Mike Westmore to let me work on Star Trek. Being the great guy he is, he said yes. Because of my interest in design, I gravitated to the art department, where I met Mike Okuda and Rick. I had spoken to Mike about the possibility of moving to the art department. Mike's answer was "There are always possibilities." When we first spoke about this, we were sitting in the shuttlecraft, in the hangar deck, and it felt like 2001 - very surreal When DS9 started up, I called Mike right away. I'd never touched a computer before and Mike knew it was the way they were going. I had two weeks before I started. I ran out and bought a Macintosh then and there. I did nothing else for those two weeks.By the time we began, I had a basic understanding of Illustrator. Mike was stunned.

(To give you an idea, in Steven Poe's book on Voyager [A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager], Mike says about Doug "I don't know how he does what he does." I sit next to him 10 hours a day and I'm always amazed.)

Q: Is this really the last season of Deep Space Nine? If so, if they make a movie will you be participating in the making of it?
Andia

DD: As far as we know, this is the last season of DS9. Fortunately, I've been on every Star Trek movie since Generations. I can only hope that will continue.

Q: What did you do on the DS9 Tribble episode? Was it tough to re-create the old look of the show?
Harry

DD: Basically, it fell to me to pull together all the research for the Production Designer. A lot of the stuff just isn't manufactured any more. Like the orange grate that was in front of the environmental alcove. Everyone had looked for that stuff. Back-lot operations, the construction team... everyone hunted high and low and no one could find it. They had something that they felt was "close enough" but I thought it was such a distinctive trademark that it broke my heart to not have it perfect. As Mike and I walked out of the stage, they looked over where they were digging in the asphalt in the street. They had fenced off the hole with orange-coated plastic fencing. I could only point. "There it is!" We cut off a huge chunk from that roll right there. We ran it over to the construction coordinator and the rest is history.

Q: What is the most time consuming (hardest) project you have worked on?
Conqure

DD: Without a doubt, "Dick Tracy." All consuming, the heat was on. It was night and day for something we felt very passionate about.

Q: Hey Doug, my dream goal is to contribute my video and film productions skills even if it were to be one day on the set it would be worth it in my lifetime. How would you suggest I approach this goal?
Alton

DD: Read everything you can. The film trade magazines. Fan magazines. Read the credits, so you know who to approach. Correspond in a polite way with professionals. Be persistent, but polite. Keep in mind, these are very busy people. They may have only 30 seconds to answer your quesions. You will eventually build a relationship with someone and that someone will eventually need help. At least, that's what I did. Which is not to say it's only a matter of What you know. I mean, who you know. I mean, it has to be both. Once they've asked for you, you have to be able to deliver the goods.

Doug, thank you very much for joining us here tonight. And thank you all very much for participating in tonight's Special Event.

DD: Our pleasure. We are fans and we know that we only have jobs because of them. Thanks all of you!