Scifi Diner Podcast 340 – Our Interview with Michael and Denise Okuda (Star Trek)

Tonight’s Menu: On this show, we share our Shore Leave 40 interview with Micheal and Denise Okuda from the Star Trek Franchise.   We also discuss upcoming fall shows, in particular, the Manifest, the Captain Marvel Trailer, the Bumblebee trailer, the new Star Trek Discovery shorts, and introduce the newest member of the SciFi Diner Crew, Chrissy. We end with Mile ranking the first six Star Trek movies.

Scifi Diner Podcast 340 – Our Interview with Michael and Denise Okuda (Star Trek) – A Shore Leave 40 Interview

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Michael and Denise Okuda

Michael Okuda is an American graphic designer best known for his work on Star Trek.

In the mid-1980s, he designed the look of animated computer displays for the USS Enterprise-A bridge in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. This led to a staff position on Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987 as a scenic artist, adding detail to set designs and props. To The Next Generation, he contributed the GUI of the fictional LCARS computer system used throughout the USS Enterprise-D and other Starfleet starships. In homage to its creator, this visual style has come to be known among fans as “okudagrams”.

Okuda also served as a technical consultant on the various TNG-era Star Trek series along with Rick Sternbach, advising the script-writers on the technology used throughout the Star Trek universe such as the transporters and the warp drive. This work resulted in a technical manual which was distributed to prospective script-writers along with the series bible. The manual was later published in revised and updated form as the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual by Pocket Books. Okuda then went on to write a number of Star Trek books with his wife, Denise. He continued working at Paramount Studios on the Star Trek series that followed The Next Generation, and worked as an art supervisor on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and through to the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005. He also worked on the Star Trek movies that were produced while the various television series were in production. He also served as one of the producers when CBS digitally remastered and updated special visual effects for the original series.

Okuda created the Heisenberg compensator as a way to explain how Star Trek’s fictional transporter might work, despite the limitation of the uncertainty principle. Okuda famously answered the question “How does the Heisenberg compensator work?” with “It works very well, thank you.”

As of 2011, Okuda remains involved creatively with the Star Trek franchise. He and Denise Okuda are serving as consultants on the project to upgrade Star Trek: The Next Generation to high definition. They also created the text commentaries in the ten Star Trek Special Edition DVD movies, as well as special text commentaries for the Star Trek Fan Collection sets. In 2005, Okuda contributed as a consultant for Perpetual Entertainment in their development of the MMORPG Star Trek Online. He also helped with the cataloging of items for the auction of Star Trek memorabilia by Christie’s auction house. The event, and the preparation for it, is included in the History Channel documentary film Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier.

In a 2016 interview with Geek Speak Magazine, Okuda said that his “favorite” Star Trek series is: “The Original Series. No question.”