Kenneth Ralston Kenneth " Ken " Ralston ( born ) was the visual effects supervisor on ( as co - supervisor with Jim Veilleux , and on which he has written an article in the magazine " American Cinematographer " ) , , and . He was also credited as being the " inventor " of the design for Ceti eel on the design patent issued for it in 1984 . It should be noted that Ralston , while involved with the production of " The Wrath of Khan " and " The Search for Spock " , had made public statements that did stir up controversy at the time in , among others , fan circles . He had repeatedly and emphatically voiced his disenchantment with the refit - " Enterprise " model with statements like , " " I hate that model . I think it ' s made out of lead . I don ' t know what ' s inside to make it so heavy ; it took eight guys to mount it for a shot and a forklift to move it around . ( . . . ) I ' ll probably get attacked about his , but I ' m just not crazy about the original design of the Enterprise . It ' s a shape that does not lend itself easily to looking good in the frame . It ' s hard to come up with angles that read like anything . There are only two good angles on it . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 12 , issue 5 / 6 , pp . 54 - 55 ) , and , " " I hate that ship . I ' ve said it a hundred times , but it ' s true . I think it ' s ugly – the most silly looking thing . The model is murder to work with , so I ' m glad it ' s gone , " " ( " American Cinematographer " , August / September 1984 , p . 61 ) . It has solicited a rather acid response from " Cinefantastique " s staff writer Allen Malmquist , who stated , " " The beauty of the Enterprise is the beauty of Star Trek . And a man who considers it " ugly " should find work some place else . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol 17 # 3 / 4 , 1987 , p . 67 ) In Ralston ' s defense , Malmquist was not the one who had to work with the heavy , cumbersome model with its off - center point of gravity . Nevertheless , it was Ken Ralston , together with Jim Veilleux , who were the ones mainly responsible for conceiving and executing the visual look of the original crew , from " The Wrath of Khan " onward , as envisioned by director Nicholas Meyer . Career outside " Star Trek " . Ralston started his career by obtaining a position at the visual effects commercial house Cascade Pictures , after submitting a 45 - minute film called " The Bounds Of Imagination " and having befriended Cascade ’ s Jon Berg on a visit to movie historian Forrest Ackerman . Ralston worked through the early 1970s in almost every conceivable capacity on the prototypical visual effects advertising campaigns , building sets , sculpted models , animated puppets , creating optical effects , performing stop motion animation and more on close to 200 spots . Having gained a thorough understanding in virtually all aspects of creating visual effects , Ralston brought his experience along , when he joined Berg at the recently formed Industrial Light & Magic ( ILM ) , where he would stay for the next twenty years . Ralston has worked on all three original " " films . He began as an assistant cameraman in the miniature and optical effects unit on " " . For the following film , " " , he was the effects cameraman , and for " " ( 1983 ) , he worked in the visual effects department . Having also worked on the visual effects for the 1981 film " Dragonslayer " , Ralston became a visual effects supervisor , beginning with " Star Trek II " . Besides the next two " Star Trek " films , he was also the visual effects supervisor on " Cocoon " ( 1985 ) , " Back to the Future " ( 1985 ) , " The Golden Child " ( 1986 ) , " Who Framed Roger Rabbit " ( 1988 ) , " Back to the Future Part II " ( 1989 ) , " Back to the Future Part III " ( 1990 ) , " The Rocketeer " ( 1991 ) , " Death Becomes Her " ( 1992 ) , " Forrest Gump " ( 1994 ) , " The Mask " ( 1994 ) , " Jumanji " ( 1995 ) , " Contact " ( 1997 ) , " Cast Away " ( 2000 ) , " Men in Black II " ( 2002 ) , and " The Polar Express " ( 2004 ) , among other films . Ralston won four Academy Awards for his visual effects work on " Cocoon " , " Roger Rabbit " , " Death Becomes Her " , and " Forrest Gump " . He has also received an additional two Academy Award nominations for his work on " Dragonslayer " and " Back to the Future Part II " , and shared a Special Achievement Award from the Academy for the visual effects in " Return of the Jedi " . In addition , he has won four Saturn Award s from the Academy of Science Fiction , Fantasy & Horror Films for " Return of the Jedi " , " Roger Rabbit " , " Back to the Future Part II " , and " Death Becomes Her " , and was nominated for four more Saturns for " Star Trek IV " , " The Rocketeer " , " Forrest Gump " , and " Contact " . His other awards include five BAFTA Film Awards and one additional nomination ( for the first " Back to the Future " ) and a Golden Satellite Award for " Contact " . In 1996 , Ralston took on a management position as senior visual effects supervisor / creative head at Sony Pictures Imageworks , a position he currently still holds .