Michael Okuda Michael " Mike " Hideo Okuda ( on occasion affectionately called Mikey O by his close co - workers ) , hailing from Tokyo , Japan but raised in Honolulu , Hawaii , is known for his work on the scenic art of , , , , , , , , , and . The fourth " Star Trek " film was actually Okuda ' s very first recorded motion picture industry credit , where he followed in the footsteps of Lee Cole , who as graphics designer had performed the same duties for the first two " Star Trek " films . As the art supervisor , heading " Star Trek " s Scenic Art Department during the entire run of the franchise from onward , he has been responsible for such things as the look of alien languages , computer screens , graphic detailing and perhaps even the look of the exotic artifacts Jean - Luc Picard has collected . Okuda was honored by SkyBox International with an individual card entry , no . 04 , in their 1993 specialty " " trading card set . Together with Rick Sternbach , he served as a technical consultant to the script staff , maintaining technical and chronological continuity and inventing scientific terms and technobabble , resulting in a number of internal " technical manuals " . He is a co - author of the " " , which resulted from the internal documents , the , and the . Though never having taken a class in calculus in his life ( being a graduate of the University of Hawaii - Manoa notwithstanding ) , Okuda is responsible for designing the logarithmic warp scale used in . All his computer graphics and designs are done on a Macintosh . Aside from being an avid " Original Series " fan , Okuda was also a big fan of " M * A * S * H " , " Gilligan ' s Island " and the 1984 cult science fiction movie " The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension " , and has often placed references to these productions in his designs . His most recognizable achievement is the creation of okudagram s , the futuristic glass - covered control panels first seen in " The Voyage Home " . He was a graphic designer at that time . In the " Star Trek " franchise , it was customary from the very beginning ( starting with ) , when more than one production was in development at any given time , to avoid cross - over work being done by staffers on different productions , though there , " " ( . . . ) was no good reason for this that we could perceive " " , a slightly chagrined Doug Drexler – aside from having been a co - worker , also close collaborator on the " Chronology " / " Encyclopedia " and family friend – once noted . To this end studio staffers , excepting the very highest management echelons , when assigned to , " and " contracted for one production , were legally forbidden to work on any of the others . This legal prerequisite however , did not extend to Mike Okuda ' s Scenic Art Department , which was exempt from the proviso for the obvious reason to maintain visual consistency within the franchise . However , the exemption was originally only extended to the senior staff ( meaning Okuda himself ) , resulting in the somewhat cumbersome , and ultimately untenable , situation in 1994 of him heading a department whose staffers were officially only allowed to work on either one " Star Trek " production ( " Deep Space Nine " ) , or the other ( " Voyager " ) . Married to fellow " Star Trek " scenic artist Denise Okuda , with whom he co - authored " The Encyclopedia " and the " Chronology " , Mike Okuda and his wife have created the text commentaries on the " Star Trek " DVD s . " Inside DS9 with Michael Okuda " is a special feature on the DS9 Season 5 DVD . The Okuda couple was assigned in 2006 to serve as consultants to auction house Christie ' s , supporting them with the sale of the contents of Paramount ' s " Star Trek " warehouses . They helped cataloging the production assets and picking the choice items that were ultimately auctioned off in the highly publicized about " " auction of October that year . Mike Okuda also wrote the item background annotations for the accompanying two - tome auction catalog . Both Okudas were prominently featured in the documentary that was made of the occasion . Together , they were the visual effects producers , as part of the CBS Digital team , for the 2006 remastered " Original series " , both appearing as a Starfleet officers on a new matte painting in the remastered version of , he as a science officer . Due to the extensive research he had performed for his reference book writings , Okuda is , at least in the " Star Trek " community , considered one of the foremost authorities on " Star Trek " lore , and from 2012 onward the couple served as consultants on the 2012 follow - up " The Next Generation " remastering project . Mike Okuda has the distinction of becoming one of the very few " Star Trek " staffers in any function ( the exclusive assembly encompassing among others Rick Berman , Peter Lauritson , Ronald B . Moore and David Takemura ) , to have officially served uninterrupted for the full eighteen years on the entire production run in the " Berman - era " of the modern television franchise , having worked on all series at one time or another . Adding to this his official involvement with all prime universe " Star Trek " movies produced in this era ( a record he as officially credited studio production staffer held until 2015 , when he became tied / surpassed by friend and former co - worker John Eaves ) , as well as his official participation in the remastered projects , has made his tenure on the franchise all the more remarkable . Outside the live - action franchise , Mike Okuda was part of the development staff for the ultimately unrealized " Star Trek " Online game variant by Perpetual Entertainment , in addition to his work supervising the remastering of the Original Series , while having also designed the new title logo for the " " series . Okuda also worked as graphics artist on James Cawley ' s fan - made internet series " Star Trek : New Voyages " , episode " World Enough and Time " ( 2007 ) and received special thanks in the end credits . This episode features fellow " Star Trek " alumni George Takei , Grace Lee Whitney , Majel Barrett Roddenberry , John Carrigan , Jeffery Quinn , writer and director Marc Scott Zicree , writer Michael Reaves , Doug Drexler , Iain McCaig , James Van Over , Dan Curry , Daren Dochterman , Pierre Drolet , Sam Mendoza , Ronald B . Moore , Lee Stringer , Gregory Jein , Philip Kim , Leslie Hoffman , and Tom Morga . In November 2014 Okuda again returned to the " Star Trek " franchise when he was invited to become a part as consultant of a team of experts – including a host of former " Star Trek " alumni , including his wife – to oversee a new restoration of the original eleven - foot " Enterprise " studio model , residing at the Smithsonian ' s ( NASM ) , for its 50th anniversary . Having accepted the prestigious assignment , Okuda was flown in in May 2015 for the team ' s first work meeting on 13 May . 2016 , the 50th Anniversary of " Star Trek " , turned out to be another fruitful " Star Trek " year for the Okuda couple as it not only saw the release of the " " three - disc Blu - ray Disc production , on which the couple had served as co - producers , but also the vastly updated fourth print edition of their " Encyclopedia " , the commissioning of which by the franchise having been as much as a surprise to them as it had been to fans . ( introduction ) Career outside " Star Trek " . After his tenure on the " Star Trek " franchise , Mike Okuda has worked in pretty much in the same capacity for , ultimately awarded by that organization with an " Exceptional Public Service Medal " for his emblem designs in 2009 . In 2007 , Michael and Denise Okuda were hired as scenic designer and video supervisor , respectively , for a planned zombie series co - created by Judith and Garfield Reeves - Stevens entitled " Alive " . John Billingsley and Gary Graham were set to star in the series , which would ' ve debuted in the summer or fall of 2008 . However , the series was never made . His steady employment at firstly the " Star Trek " franchise and subsequently NASA notwithstanding , has not deterred Okuda occasionally lending his talents to other motion picture productions as well . Mostly credited as graphic designer , he has contributed such imagery to movie productions like , " Flight of the Intruder " ( 1991 albeit uncredited ) , " The Informant ! " ( 2009 ) and " The Bourne Legacy " ( 2012 albeit again uncredited ) . Television series credits , Okuda has to his name included , " The Flash " ( 1990 , pilot episode ) , " Maggie " ( 1998 one episode ) , " Threshold " ( 2005 one episode ) and " Lie to Me " ( 2012 one episode ) Emmy Award nominations . Okuda received the following Emmy Award nominations for his work on " Star Trek " in the category Outstanding Achievement in Special Visual Effects :