Doug Drexler recently shared memories of discovering Star Trek and of working on several of the Star Trek series.

As reported in the recent New Voyages eMagazine, Drexler is still involved with the world of Star Trek. He is currently working on Star Trek: New Voyages, where he was recently interviewed and shared some of his experiences in the world of Star Trek

His first memory of Star Trek was the print advertisements which NBC ran to promote the 1966 fall season. "I used one as the basis for the Come What May poster," he explained. "Love that art. That was my first memory of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek." But what really got Drexler hooked was reading Steven E. Whitfield's The Making of Star Trek. "Getting it was like having my first ice cream sundae," he said. "I saw production reports, budgets, schedules, memos, script notes. It was a portal for looking into an amazing, exciting and creative world. Steven's book lit a fuse in me, and that was that."

Drexler had always been good at art and drawing. He became interested in character make-up after reading an article written in 1975 about foam latex prosthetics. "It was like a bomb went off," he said. "I devoured everything I could get my hands on about FX makeup. I made molds off of anything that stood still. Lamps, a can of soup, my friends. I knew I could draw. I found out I could sculpt."

Once he had proved himself working on Star Trek doing makeup, he was able to move into other areas of interest. "The art department was like a big candy cane," he said. "Being on set for three years doing makeup gave me the opportunity to see the great art direction up close." When the opportunity arose to join the art department for Deep Space Nine, he didn't hesitate. Later, he moved to Voyager where he joined the visual effects department.

Drexler has many good memories of the work he has done, and finds it difficult to single out just one specific incident as a favorite memory. "You have to remember that I've been involved for forty years, seventeen of which I spent at Paramount," he said. "I've stood on the Klingon homeworld, on the planet Vulcan, and Romulus. Made up Leonard Nimoy, Mark Lenard, DeForest Kelley, Patrick Stewart and most of the TNG gang...Had Gene Roddenberry call me to the bridge in order to shake my hand. I have so many amazing stories. I don't know where to begin."

For more of the interview, head to Star Trek: New Voyages, where the eMagazine can be downloaded and read.

Discuss this news item at Trek BBS!
 Add TrekToday RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fan? Then visit CSIFiles.com!