For [#151 Critical Care], the show's production designer Richard James and his staff were required to produce not just a large number of graphics, but ones to portray an entirely new alien society, that of the Dinaal. In addition, they had to create designs to reflect the contrast between the privileged patients on level blue (the top-most level of the Dinaal hospital ship) and the far less privileged patients on level red (the lowest level).

Dinaal hospital ship exterior. Click image to enlarge, full-size 109Kb. Source ST:M

Many graphics were inspired by the preliminary graphic of the Dinaal hospital ship by Rick Sternbach, senior illustrator. He wanted the ship to give the impression of a large, mobile structure that was very deliberately divided into levels. The most privileged patients are treated in high-rise towers, while the small buildings on the bottom level are used as triage wards.

The hospital ship in low orbit above a city.

Michael Okuda (whose name gave rise to the generic term Okudagram for a graphic special effect), scenic art supervisor:
"[Critical Care] was unusual in that we spent a larger fraction of the episode in the alien environment. Also we had two distinct major sets, the red level and the blue level, and because it was medical the level of technology was higher. As a result the number of graphics was high."

Dinaal language, inspired by crossword puzzles. Source ST:M

Scenic artist Geoffrey Mandel, who worked on [Star Trek: Insurrection]: "I showed him [Michael Okuda] an alphabet that I had come up with a while back; I thought it was a good one and I was saving it for an episode in which I knew that there would be a lot of signage. [Critical Care] was a big deal because it was an alien hospital with all new signage and an all new language that had no precedent, so I had to come up with everything from scratch." The Dinaal language was inspired by crossword puzzles and was designed to be read both horizontally and vertically. The vertical readouts were deliberately designed to look like thermometers.

The wall-mounted console whereby nurses and doctors can access the Allocator and collect medication - note the style of readout on the righthand monitor display.

Geoffrey Mandel about the graphics in general: "It was backlits, little plant-ons, a lot of vinyl transfers, some little vinyl characters to put on PADDs and binders and things."

The white capsule-shaped label seen on numerous readouts (forward, backwards, vertical and upside down) and on top of hi-tech equipment. The blue and red logo on the left is the hospital's logo. Source ST:M

Jim Van Over designs animated graphics for playback on the video monitors that are built into the sets. He designed seven for [Critical Care]. "That was the challenge: finding something that was recognisable to the audience as some sort of medical information, but in a way that an alien would do it. If I'm doing Starfleet stuff, we have a huge library of years of animations as a guide to what has come before. I rely on Geoff's designs for the look of the whole alien interface. At first he had just the written language. Then he handed over general shapes to represent the controls. For instance, there's a red grid that looks like a net laid over pictures of anatomy, and a long capsule-shaped 'thermometer'.

About the graphic seen on the rear wall of the lift when Chellick first takes the Doctor from level red up to level blue, Jim Van Over: "There was an exceptionally cool one that Geoff came up with that I created as a 3D model that I call the 'you are here' graphic." Geoffrey Mandel explained that the 'you are here' graphic was a large backlit that showed the hospital's different color-coded levels. He tried to keep the graphics for each level distinct, but the sheer number of readouts required to be seen in the show meant that some designs had to be recycled for the sake of practicality.

The 'you are here' graphic.

Screenshot of the You Are Here graphic on the rear wall of the lift

The raw graphic, source ST:M, of the You Are Here graphic