Ron Thornton British - born cinematographer Ronald " Ron " T . Thornton ( born - died ; age 59 ) was a key member and the co - founder of the digital Foundation Imaging . He , as head of his company , worked on a number of " Star Trek " live - action productions in the period 1996 - 2002 . He received an Emmy Award nomination for the fifth season episode . Ron Thornton was instrumental in the changeover of Foundation Imaging from " Babylon 5 " to " Star Trek " . He recalled , " " It was only " after Babylon 5 " decided not to renew us that I turned around to them [ meaning " Star Trek : Voyager " s producers ] and basically begged for work . We were in such dire straits ; I had to lay " everybody " off – and I never thought " that " was going to happen – but " Voyager " was really wonderful and started coming in with stuff . " " Thornton also said , " " When " Babylon 5 " decided they were going to do it on their own , it was absolutely devastating , but it ended up being the " best " thing that ever happened to me . " " Thornton was so eager to work on " Star Trek " that he would have liked Foundation Imaging to be given more work on than they ultimately were . " " I would love to do more work on the show , " " Thornton said , during the sixth season of the series , " " but it ' s very much up to the supervisor . " " ( ) Career outside " Star Trek " . Much of Ron Thornton ' s early visual effects career was spent working with miniatures and technology , on British television series such as " Doctor Who " , " Blake ' s 7 " , and " The Tripods " , prior to his move to America , where he initially worked on Warner Bros . Television ' s " Babylon 5 " , adopting CGI techniques that he later brought to " Star Trek " . He remembered , " " The reason I got into CGI work in the first place is purely because the limitations of motion control suddenly disappeared . " " Thornton went on to say that he specifically meant the limitations of shooting models . Thornton was also attracted to animating such CG creations as Species 8472 for " Star Trek : Voyager " . Regarding the task of giving a performance to such a being , he noted , " " That ' s something I love to do . " " ( ) After Thornton moved to the United States in 1984 , but prior to founding Foundation Imaging in 1992 , he worked as free - lancer for a multitude of companies , including Apogee , Inc . , Quick Silver FX Studio , VCE , All Effects , and Todd Rundgren ' s Nutopia , as visual effects staffer , usually as a prop and model maker . Productions he worked on in that period include " Critters " ( 1986 ) , " Spaceballs " ( 1987 ) , " Robot Jox " ( 1989 ) , " After Midnight " ( 1989 ) , as well as science fiction series " Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future " ( 1987 - 1988 ) , wherein some early CGI was employed , which introduced Thornton to the new technique ( as well as to the precursor of the software package , the package of choice at Foundation Imaging ) . An uncredited contribution as model maker for David Stipes Productions proved , in hindsight , to be Thornton ' s earliest contribution to the " Star Trek " franchise ; he had built a studio model of an alien ship , designed by Steve Burg , for 1986 movie , which was reused as the " Cleponji " in third season episode . After his experiences with CGI on " Captain Power " , Thornton started to entertain , in 1990 , notions of creating a digital effects facility utilizing the latest advances in desktop computer technologies , together with his friend Paul Beigle - Bryant , with whom he had worked in the United Kingdom in 1983 . This led , in 1992 , to the founding of Foundation Imaging , with Thornton selling off all his own camera equipment and motion control systems in order to raise capital for the new computer systems . Rock musician and multimedia artist Todd Rundgren , with whom Thornton had worked on a short computer - animated film , was the one who suggested using computers for all the visual effects on " Babylon 5 " , the company ' s first project . Thornton and Beigle - Bryant created a one - minute video of proposed visual effects for the series , which was instrumental in selling the show in July 1992 . The pilot episode of the series won the duo an Emmy Award in 1993 , complemented by an International Monitor Award the next year , for the pilot episode of television series " Viper " . Thornton died on 21 November 2016 , at the age of fifty - nine , after a short illness . He was comatose during his last days . Emmy Award . Thornton received the following Emmy Award nomination in the category Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series :