Denis Russell

Denis Russell was a visual effects (VFX) artist who is known to have worked as such on several third season episodes. An even earlier contribution concerned his 1966 involvement as scenic artist on the first pilot episode . Russell recalled on this involvement in 2005, "A stranger stepped up and said, 'What do you think of all this?' I said, 'Chrome-plated rocks, red clay, and a green sky?? I don't know who the damn fool is who came up with this one, but I think this is gonna be the biggest bomb to ever hit Hollywood.' He puts his hand out and he says, 'Shake hands with the damn fool.' That was Gene Roddenberry. That's how I met him. I think I left an impression on him."
Other known contributions by Russell as third season VFX artist include his work with the Stratos cloud city maquette featured in the episode , as well as his work with the creation of the web-spinning effects in the episode . For the latter he is considered a de facto co-nominee of the 1969 "Special Classification Achievements" Emmy Award, albeit lumped under Vanderveer Photo Effects, the VFX company where he and colleague Mike Minor had created the effects. Vanderveer had been contracted by the producers to serve as support for Star Treks regular effects vendor, Howard Anderson Company.
Russell has never received an official individual credit, making it impossible to ascertain the exact extent of his involvement with Star Trek – or any other (contemporary) motion picture production. Only his single Star Trek convention appearance as guest speaker on 11 August at the 2005 Vegas Con has shed some light on his work for the Original Series. 
==Career==
Very little else is known about Russell's life and career beyond what he had cared to divulge during his sole appearance in the 2005 Vegas Con, due to the fact that he had never been officially credited for his work, as was commonplace for individual effects staffers prior to the mid-1970s, also explaining the lack of his own individual listing.
It appeared that he left the motion picture industry shortly after his work on the Original Series as only a single mention was three decades later made of him in the 1998 book, Best Tales of Texas Ghosts (, p. 342 where his Star Trek background is referenced), in which it was mentioned that he had in the intervening decades become the co-founding owner of the Fort Worth, Texas-based advertising company Marketing Relations, Inc.
Category:Special and Visual effects staff