Dochterman From Voyager To New Voyages

It was a natural step from drawing pictures of the Enterprise as a child to working on Star Trek: Voyager for Daren Dochterman.

As reported by Star Trek: Phase II, Dochterman's interest in Trek began in 1970 or 1970 at the age of three or four, when he saw the original series in syndication at his grandfather's house. Several years later, he saw an ad for the animated series. "I saw the 'sneak preview' special one Friday night of the shows that were premiering the next Saturday morning," he explained, "and it included 'Star Trek' the animated show. This was exciting. I began to watch it every Saturday morning, and I was hooked."

Expressing himself through art, Dochterman drew pictures, including one of the Enterprise done when he was seven, a precursor to his interest in visual arts and digital graphics. "From an early age, I had been drawing," he explained. "I loved movies as I got older, so naturally I wanted to get into the movie business." Dochterman went out to Los Angeles where he attended the University of Southern California Film School.

Through friends from the film school, Dochterman began to get jobs. He was hired as a production assistant for the art department on The Abyss. He interviewed for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine but didn't work on Star Trek until Star Trek: Voyager. "I worked alongside Rich [Sternbach] as an illustrator for production designer Richard James on the pilot episode," said Dochterman. "I got to know all the Trek folks quite well by that time, and I began to also work on one of my first 3D models, one of the Voyager itself."

When Star Trek: New Voyages began, Dochterman heard about it through his friend Doug Drexler. "I saw the first test episode, and it looked like people having a great time," said Dochterman. "I always felt that the spirit and the intent was very pure and good." He was surprised to hear from James Cawley asking him to help Phase II (the new name for New Voyages get more of the original series feel and to help make it look like a fourth season would have looked, had it aired.

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