![]() "Doing it purely as a graphic was considerably less expensive than buying electronic components. "The initial motivation for that was in fact cost," Okuda explained. The style was first employed in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home for the Enterprise-A, and came to be referred to as " okudagrams." The graphics could be created on transparent colored sheets very cheaply, though as ST:TNG progressed, control panels increasingly used video panels or added post-production animations. What could be simpler to make than a flat surface with no knobs, buttons, switches, or other details? Okuda designed a user interface dominated large type and sweeping, curved rectangles. "So, for example, I looked at the production process of making a control panel, and I said, 'How can I make this as inexpensive as possible?' Having made those decisions, 'now what can I do to make it as futuristic as possible?'" AdvertisementĮxample control panels designed by Michael Okuda. "We had a much lower budget than the feature films did," Okuda told Ars. Similar budget constraints meant creative solutions were required for ST:TNG as well. "Because he did such a brilliant job visualizing it, I think the original Star Trek still holds up today reasonably well," Okuda said. If he had had the money to buy those things, the Enterprise would have looked a lot like that."īecause Jefferies was forced by budget restraints to be creative, however, the original Enterprise bridge was relatively sparse and simplistic. "The spacecraft of the day, such as the Gemini capsules, were jammed full of toggle switches and gauges. "He had to invent an inexpensive, but believable solution," he told Ars. However, the original Star Trek series from the 1960s didn't have the resources to fill starships with buttons, knobs, and video displays.Īccording to Michael Okuda, original Star Trek art director Matt Jefferies had practically no budget. The Star Trek films, beginning with 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, had sizable budgets for set design, props, and special effects. We also discussed their impressions of the iPad and how eerily similar it is to their vision of 24th century technology, how science fiction often influences technology, and what they believe is the future of human-machine interaction. All three were involved in various aspects of production art for Star Trek properties, including graphic design, set design, prop design, visual effects, art direction, and more. To understand the thinking that led to the design of the Star Trek PADD, we spoke to some of the people involved in production of ST:TNG (as well as other Star Trek TV series and films), including Michael Okuda, Denise Okuda, and Doug Drexler. These mobile computing terminals bear a striking resemblance to Apple's iPad-a mobile computing device largely defined by its smooth, flat touchscreen interface. This touch interface was also used for numerous portable devices known as PADDs, or Personal Access Display Devices. One interesting characteristic of Star Trek: The Next Generation-one that separated it from the original series and most of the early films-was its widespread use of smooth, flat, touch-based control panels throughout the Enterprise-D.
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