Dan Curry Talks 'Enterprise' Effects

When visual effects producer Dan Curry started work on Enterprise he was faced with a challenge: how to make the show look like it was set before the Original Series without sacrificing the quality production values viewers have come to expect from Star Trek.

"That was the whole trick of balancing," Curry told StarTrek.com. "It's supposed to be set prior to the Original Series — but we had to make it look like, or give it the feel that it took place prior to the time of the Original Series, yet use all our tools effectively and make our visual effects more sophisticated than was technically possible when the Original Series was done."

In the end, Curry and his team threw caution to the wind. "We ultimately just decided to do the best we can and not worry about making it look as, what has come to be perceived as, the more naïve look of the Original Series."

A prime example of this compromise was the new transporter effect. "We had to do a variation on the transporter that looked more primitive than what we were doing on Voyager and Deep Space Nine, yet took advantage of the increased technology we now have available that was not available when we did TNG."

The visual effects team had their work cut out for them when pre-production on Enterprise overlapped with the Voyager finale. "How we decided to approach it was, the visual effects supervisor and everybody else began the Voyager finale together," Curry said. "Then, as Enterprise was gearing up, Mitch Suskin segued into doing the finish on Voyager while Ron [B. Moore] and myself jumped into prepping and getting going on the pilot episode for Enterprise."

Curry said he is especially proud of the Enterprise pilot 'Broken Bow,' and indeed how the whole series has turned out. "I think everybody on the crew will attest to the fact that this has been a joy to work on. A lot of that comes from the nature of the stories, the premise and that it's a little bit more rough and ready. A lot of it has to do with the overall mood on the set and the influence of Scott Bakula. His professionalism, attitude and eminent enthusiasm and cooperation and respect for the crew have really made the atmosphere on the set a joy."

The full interview with Curry, in which he also talked about his official responsibilites and work on the feature films, can be found here at StarTrek.com.

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