It's a tall task to overstate the contributions of Michael Okuda to the world of "Star Trek," as the acclaimed VFX artist and graphic designer’s distinctive fingerprints are all over the 60-year-old space fantasy franchise nearly wherever you look.
Okuda and his wife Denise have been officially anointed as "Star Trek" royalty, having been involved in many iterations of the property since "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" and through "Enterprise." Their production design artistry is praised for its creativity and careful attention to detail. In addition to their "Star Trek" TV series and feature film projects, the Okudas have written several behind-the-scenes "Trek" books, including "The Star Trek Encyclopedia" and "The Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual," as well as having participating in the HD remastering process of "Star Trek: The Original Series" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation."
Space's Editor-In-Chief Tariq Malik and "This Week In Space" podcast co-host Rod Pyle recently visited with the legendary Mike Okuda in an interview discussing his early influences, designing starship control panels, crafting "Star Trek's" visual identity, favorite episodes, easter eggs, and preserving screen-used sets and props.
Here's a sample of our conversation with Okuda where he recalls fond moments helping to build upon the look and the lore of "Star Trek" as it continued to evolve.
"I think the biggest contribution was as graphic artist for 'Star Trek,'" Okuda shared regarding his impressive list of career credits. "Simply because 'Star Trek' had such an impact. And 'Star Trek' was one of the first shows that understood that graphics really helped define the universe."
Okuda's first "Trek" gig came for 1986's "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," one of the best of the initial six "Star Trek" films that began with "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."
"After 'Star Trek II,' the Enterprise bridge used to have these cool round screens. But the graphics on them, the information, was rectangular in format," he added. "And I'm going, that's kind of inappropriate. So I thought, if you have round screens, why would you have round screens? Well, obviously because you have a display style that's circular, that's radial.
"I thought, what might that look like? That's kind of interesting and fun and futuristic. So I did a bunch of sketches and just for laughs, I sent it in to Paramount. And I got a call from Ralph Winter. This is just before they did 'Star Trek III', saying, ‘we're already staffed up on 'Star Trek III,' but if we ever do a 'Star Trek IV,' I'll give you a call.’ So 'Star Trek IV' comes up, he calls, and I was living in Hawaii at the time, I flew back and forth from Hawaii to work on 'IV.'
"After that I figured, okay, that was fun, that was my big foray into Hollywood. Just before 'IV' came out Paramount announced they're doing 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' so I sent all that material to Roddenberry's office. I ran into him at the cast and crew screening and told him I was gonna go visit ILM. He said, 'well, before you accept anything there, I hope you'll give us a shot.'"
On the occasion of "Trek's" big 60th birthday that just landed this month on Sept. 8, 2026, Okuda was asked about some of his most special "Star Trek" memories while being involved in its graphic design creating all the fantastic readouts and displays.
"For me, the Enterprise in 'Voyage Home,' that was the first movie I worked on, the first Enterprise I worked on,” he shared. "I'm very proud of that bridge. Same thing with 'The Next Generation' bridge, that was the first bridge for which the interfaces were really mine. As far as working on things, for both Denise and I, the 'DS9' episode 'Trials and Tribulations,' where we revisited the original 'Star Trek' series, was very near and dear to our hearts. That was probably the most fun we had working on 'Star Trek' for that period of time."
Cruising down the calendar to current times, Okuda is still dipping his creative toes in the "Star Trek" waters as a respected franchise guru and canonical resource.
"A couple of years ago we continued to work on 'Star Trek'-related projects including the Roddenberry Archive. Dave Blass, who was production designer on 'Star Trek: Picard,' called and said he wants to get the band back together. And I don't know if you saw the third season of 'Star Trek: Picard,' but we recreated, rebuilt from scratch, the Enterprise-D bridge. And you know, they say you can't go home again, but just for a moment you could. Oh, it was so wonderful."
Speaking of the future, Okuda chimed in with his musing on the lasting effects of "Star Trek" with words from the visionary creator of what began as an idea for an ambitious "Wagon Train To The Stars" TV series.
"Roddenberry used to say it's not necessarily a straight line from today to 'Star Trek,'" he noted. "That you go three steps forward, two steps back, go to the side a little bit. You look at his series concept for 'Genesis 2.' It's what happened after the nuclear apocalypse. And yet even there, it was a hopeful, optimistic show that these good people are working to make tomorrow better.
"And the original 'Star Trek' was made in the '60s when we were terrified of nuclear apocalypse. We were terrified of environmental catastrophe. We were shattered by racial strife and international conflict and famine around the world. And 'Star Trek' said at the time, we can do better. We can make good choices and that it won't necessarily all be over. I think that's the thing that I try not to lose sight of."
For more BTS "Star Trek" tales and the entire Michael Okuda interview with Tariq and Rod please check out "This Week In Space" #227 on YouTube.
