Review: Star Trek: The Art of Glenn Hetrick’s Alchemy Studios
If you enjoy learning about the behind-the-scenes process of making Star Trek, there’s been a bit of a buffet for you recently. From The Art of Neville Page to the Art of John Eaves to The Artistry of Dan Curry and The Wrath of Khan: The Making of the Classic Film, there’s never been a better time to appreciate the countless hours spent bringing Star Trek to life.
Now, another book joins the fray: Star Trek: The Art of Glenn Hetrick’s Alchemy Studios by Joe Nazzaro, a coffee-table publication spotlighting the extraordinary imagination and skill needed to bring aliens to life on all five seasons of Star Trek: Discovery. You won’t want to miss this book if you’re a fan of that landmark Star Trek show. While the studio’s or its CEO’s name might be unknown to you, you definitely know their product.
One thing is hard to deny among even those who don’t find Discovery their cup of tea: the show features some incredible creature designs. Case in point: Hetrick’s company was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards for their work on Discovery. Some creature highlights you might remember from the show include the first season’s fresh take on Klingons; Saru, a main character brought to life by Doug Jones underneath a mountain of makeup and prosthetics; Species 10-C, the imaginative aliens causing all sorts of ruckus in season four; and season five’s new-but-familiar take on the Breen, which is the first time we saw such creatures without their armor. Considering the huge production values of modern-day science fiction, bringing these aliens convincingly to screen was no small task. In The Art of Glenn Hetrick’s Alchemy Studios, readers can truly appreciate the work needed to bring these aliens to life.
This book brings readers into the thought process behind how Glenn and his team decided how to bring certain aliens to the screen. The “how” here is the most fascinating part, as any number of professions may be needed to excise something, like, say, the Klingons, from an artist’s mind to screen. In this book, expect to see plenty of text descriptions, inserts, and narrative passages along with, perhaps most importantly of all, plenty of gorgeous photographs, some of which take a whole page. Alchemy Studio’s process is chronicled here using concept art, production shots, and on-set photography. And there’s a lot that’s part of that process: sculpting, makeup application, lifecasting, mold-making, seaming, mastering, and more.
While we appreciated every tidbit of detail this book offered, we particularly valued its intricate look into designing season one’s Klingons. That species was a staple of what was then Star Trek’s renewed presence on the world stage, and it was a big deal. As is so often the case with change, some people disliked the design, and some liked it. We fell into the latter group, thinking that the even more alienish design was a great catalyst for bringing a new kind of Star Trek to the modern screen. Seeing the immense work done to bring the Klingons, and particularly the incredibly complex and detailed torchbearer suit, to screen was enlightening.
Here are some other aspects of this book we appreciated:
- Realizing just how many creatures appeared in Discovery. Helpfully, this book divides each season into its own chapter, so it’s easy to recognize the number of major and minor creatures Alchemy Studios had to bring to life. This book gives us great looks at even marginal, non-creature designs made by the studio. (Major kudos to you if you know what the LEAL helmet is, and when it appeared in Discovery.)
- Learning how bringing creatures to life in high definition – something “classic” Star Trek didn’t have to deal with – meant Alchemy practically created a new playbook for themselves. As The Art of Glenn Hetrick’s Alchemy Studios states, Alchemy had to create creatures that held up equally well whether they were in the foreground or background. As Hetrick says, “Everything was Game of Thrones level: blockbuster feature film quality on an episodic show.” (This attention to detail among various production departments is why we’ve long criticized CBS for not releasing 4K masters of Discovery.)
- Learning just how much effort was put into the flashback scenes in season one when we learn Voq was transformed into a human. Those scenes were always brief, with quick cuts that didn’t show much about the actual transformation surgery. This book illuminates what Hetrick and his team produced, such as convincingly real organs that beat and breathed. It’s a shame much of this gruesome work wasn’t realized on screen.
It’s easy to recommend The Art of Glenn Hetrick’s Alchemy Studios. Discovery is a landmark show, and its creature design was top-notch. The fine folks at Alchemy Studios deserve a tribute to their work, and this book fits that role nicely.
You can buy The Art of Glenn Hetrick’s Alchemy Studios on Amazon.
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