Michael Westmore, Make-up Designer and Supervisor: "I gave him an extended skull. Instead of a large skull typical of the aliens people think landed at Roswell, I kept it with skull-like proportions. If you look at him straight on, he looks like a bald man. Only his profile looks alien. The prosthetic skull extension is thick foam rubber that's been vulcanized in an oven. If you push it in, it will bounce right out again." The prosthetic head was not made exclusively for Ray Wise. Michael Westmore cast it, "from the same plaster head that we used to make the Vorgons (from [TNG: Captain's Holiday] screenshot) All we had to do was get a cast of Ray's face and make some sidepieces to work as blenders over the edges of the piece. I actually designed this makeup last year for a different show - not for Star Trek. But those producers didn't use it. Now it's worked out great."

Ray Wise

Ray Wise as Arturis

7.46 a.m. Using a cotton pad and alcohol, make-up artist Brad Look cleanses actor Ray Wise's skin. The skin must be totally free of moisturizers, emollients or anything of that nature to ensure that the prosthetics will adhere properly.   After "seating" the main forehead/head appliance on Wise's head, Look begins gluing it down using medical-grade adhesive. Meanwhile make-up artist Scott Wheeler double-checks the cheek appliances to make sure that their edges are good.   Look applies the right cheek appliance while Wheeler applies the left. The cheek pieces, as well as a forehead piece and two neck pieces, are made from a life cast of Wise's face.     Look powders Wise's eyebrows, reducing the stickiness of the adhesive so that when they apply a secondary T-shaped forehead appliance it will not immediately adhere. Next they will attack a neck appliance that fills the area between the two cheek appliances. After applying a thickened edge filler to prevent the appliances' edges from catching the light and the camera's attention, the artists use foam sponges and Q-tips to apply acrylic colors to the areas of Wise's skin adjacent to the appliances. Then powder is applied to Wise's lips and cheeks and to the prosthetic appliances. After using a small detail brush to paint age spots, Wheeler begins to airbrush color onto Wise, using a Paache-H Style single-action airbrush to meld the colors from the main appliance into the forehead appliance and the cheek appliances. He "speckles" the face with a pastel green, starting with the "veins".   Wheeler changes to broad strokes and a maroon paint. He will switch colors again, to a greenish brown, just to break things up a bit.   9.23 a.m. As Wheeler is completing the last step, applying rubber-mask greasepaint around the eyes and blending it with the adjacent acrylic paint, Michael Westmore steps into the trailer to see the results. He smiles. The only step in Wise's transformation is a pair of contact lenses.

Screenshot from the tv show.
The phaser burn is visible on Arturis' shirt, caused when Voyager fires and a control console explodes.

Picture by/copyright: Scott Gibson

Property Master Alan Sims demonstrates the way to hold the weapon. "I planned for it to be held horizontally as opposed to 20th century weapons."

Alan Sims cast the weapon out of polyurethane resin, using a mould of a generic alien weapon first made for [TNG]. Then he cast a second barrel and connected the pieces with the original grip and an additional brace.

The weapons fire, deliberately not a Starfleet colour, is a visual effect added in post-production.

Credits:

• Thanks to Eos Development for the page background from the set "Lapis".
• Thanks to Dynamic Drive for the floating menu JavaScript code. Customised by me. For the complete code, all files and instructions go to Dynamic Drive.

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