Denise Okuda

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Denise Okuda

Uncredited Star Trek appearances
File:Denise Tathwell TMP.jpg		File:TOS Crewmember in window.jpg
Enterprise crewmember Star Trek: The Motion Picture	Operations division officer TOS: "The Menagerie, Part I" (remastered)	Operations division crewmember TOS: "Court Martial" (remastered)

You may be looking for Denise Okuda (Starfleet) or D. Okuda.

Denise Lynn Okuda, affectionately called "Neezee" by friends and close co-workes, living in Los Angeles, California, with her husband, Michael and their dogs, Molly and Tranya, started her official Star Trek affiliation in 1993 as scenic artist on the entire run of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Enterprise, as well as on the Star Trek films, Star Trek Generations and Star Trek Nemesis. As computer & video supervisor, she served on the entire run of Star Trek: Voyager. Nevertheless, as fan and under her maiden name Denise Tathwell, she has made an early contribution in 1979 when she made an uncredited appearance as an Enterprise crewmember in the recreation deck scenes in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. [1]

Aside from her live-action contributions, she has together with her husband, co-authored the reference books, Star Trek Chronology, Star Trek Encyclopedia, and the Star Trek Sticker Book. The Okuda couple was assigned in 2006 to serve as consultants to auction house Christies, supporting them with the sale of the contents of Paramount's Star Trek warehouses. They helped cataloging the production assets and picking the choice items that were ultimately auctioned off in the highly publicized about 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection auction of October that year. Husband Mike also wrote the item background annotations for the accompanying two-tome auction catalog. Both Okudas were prominently featured in the documentary Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier that was made of the occasion.

She has served together with her husband as producer on the remastered Original Series, which started in 2006. On that occasion, Denise Okuda again made uncredited appearances in two remastered episodes as an additional extra, brought into the newly composited digital scenes. She appeared alongside her husband as a Operations division officer in the 2006 version of "The Menagerie, Part I", and again as such in the 2008 version of "Court Martial". She, again with her husband and now in the role of consultant, is currently serving on the follow-up remastered The Next Generation series project that started in 2012.

Origins as fan

Under her maiden name, Denise Tathwell, has written a short story, "A Battle Won", where, tying in with TNG: "The Battle", Jean-Luc Picard finds something in his trunk from the USS Stargazer that he is able to share with Beverly, and Wesley Crusher. The story was published in the June 1988 issue of the fanzine NCC-1701-D. [2]

Career outside Star Trek

Originally a trained nurse by profession, Denise Tathwell, prior her marriage to Mike Okuda and her official involvement with Star Trek, has worked in that capacity in a hospital in Orange County, CA., where she met and befriended Debbie Mirek, the future collaborator on the Chronology and Encyclopedia. [3]

Denise Okuda started her career in the motion picture industry in 1990, when she worked as computer graphics artist on the pilot episode of the television series, The Flash. During her years on Star Trek, she has, apart from her work for the franchise, also worked as "Computer and Video Supervisor" on the television series Threshold (1995), the television movie The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy (1998) and the special edition video release Buckaroo Banzai Declassified (The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension – with several other Trek alumni including Gregory Jein, Mark Stetson, Christopher Lloyd, and Robert Ito, among others) (1984, 2002).

In 2007, Denise and Michael Okuda were hired as video supervisor and scenic designer, respectively, for a planned zombie series co-created by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens entitled Alive. John Billingsley and Gary Graham were set to star on this series, planned to debut in the summer or fall of 2008. However, the series was never made. [4]

Bibliography

• Star Trek Chronology, 1st ed. 1993 and 2nd ed. 1996 – Co-author
• Star Trek Encyclopedia, 1st ed. 1994, 2nd ed. 1997 and 3rd ed. 1999 – Co-author
• Star Trek Sticker Book, 1999 – Co-author

Star Trek interviews

Star Trek DVD and Blu-ray special features:

• TOS Season 1 Blu-ray-special feature, "Spacelift: Transporting Trek Into The 21st Century" (2009)
• TNG Season 1 Blu-ray-special feature, "Energized! Taking The Next Generation to the Next Level" (2012)
• Unification (Blu-ray)-special feature, "From One Generation to the Next" (2013)
• TNG Season 5 Blu-ray-special feature, "Requiem: A Remembrance of Star Trek: The Next Generation" (2013)
• ENT Season 1 Blu-ray-special feature, "To Boldly Go: Launching Enterprise" (2012)

Print publications:

• "Denise Okuda: Video Coordinator", David Hirsch, The Official Star Trek: Voyager Magazine, issue 8, September 1996, pp. 42-47
• "Michael and Denise Okuda: A Star Trek Love Story", Alec Peters, The official STAR TREK prop and costume auction catalog, 2010, pp. 24-27

Star Trek documentaries:

• Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier, 2007

External links

• Denise Okuda - official site
• [5]
• Template:IMDb-link
• Denise Okuda at Wikipedia
• 2012 three part interview with Mike and Denise Okuda at TrekCore
• 2012 two part interview with Mike and Denise Okuda at TrekCore