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00:00 If you've been anywhere near Twitter or social media over the last 24 hours,
00:05 hopefully you will have seen this absolutely beautiful piece of animation that was designed
00:11 by Justin Lee of Gazelle Automations. It depicts the next generation, specifically from Best of
00:18 Both Worlds Part 1, but it's been done in the style of the 1970s Star Trek animated series.
00:26 Right, the description of this video has the link to this video in it. Right, so pause here and go
00:33 and watch that, all right? Okay, I assume that you have now watched it and come back, wasn't it
00:38 deadly? Justin was kind enough to sit down with us and discuss what went into putting this animation
00:44 together. I asked him by the time that we spoke, you know, kind of like, was he expecting this to
00:51 kind of go the way that it was and had he seen a lot of the discourse about it? He said that,
00:56 you know, he uploaded it and he went to bed and went off for a walk and woke up in the morning
01:02 and then... oh my. First of all, hello, and so you've just taken over the internet. That's how
01:09 I'm describing this. You have exploded all over Trek Twitter over the last however long with this
01:15 amazing animation. Well, thank you. I didn't, I still haven't like read all the... it's funny
01:21 because like last night I finished it. Last night? Was it last night? And I just like,
01:28 it was supposed to be like an April Fool's thing. Like I was just like, ah, this would... and then
01:34 it just kind of was like, oh, it's gonna still take me one more day to do it. I was kind of
01:38 also doing it when it was my wife's birthday. She and I both love the animated series. She's
01:43 away right now and I thought I'd send it to her as like a silly birthday present and it just took
01:49 a few extra days. And so last night I finished it and I was like, all right, enough computer for me
01:53 and I went and I took a really long walk and I didn't check my phone or anything for like until
02:00 this morning. And I was like, oh, that's surprising. Yeah. So, and I was really hoping that
02:08 track fans, you know, people who love the animated series, people who love Ray Ellis's music,
02:14 people who love The Next Generation would enjoy this and get a kick out of it. I've read some of
02:20 the comments before I got on the phone with you and people on the phone, like from the 1970s.
02:27 And no, it was really, it was really cool to see people like catching all the little
02:32 details I put in because I was like, okay, you need to have certain... there are certain things
02:36 about the animated series that make it the animated series. And so I'm glad that people
02:40 have caught those things. One of the ones that stands out so quickly is it's when it's toward
02:45 the end, the board cube is moving off and the Enterprise D is following it. And it's like,
02:48 you've got the scuffs in like it's the cell moving across. Yeah. That detail.
02:54 It's like, that's the thing. And when you watch, you know, TAS on Netflix or on Blu-ray
03:01 and you see all that stuff, the fingerprint smudges and the, like the way I picture it is,
03:06 you know, the animators and like the, you know, I don't know, photographer that was taking on
03:10 the Rostrum camera and they putting the cells down and they were probably smoking a cigarette
03:14 while they were doing it. I'm thinking that there was like ash everywhere. And, you know, that's
03:18 kind of what I'm thinking. It was all this dirt and stuff on the frame. So I definitely was thinking
03:23 about all that stuff. I was like, how would, what would this look like if it was actually being done,
03:28 you know, on the animation stand with some, you know, guy just smoking away, like ash going
03:33 everywhere. Obviously, Best of Both Worlds, amazing episode, but why specifically Best of
03:38 Both Worlds? Did you, is this just a scene that you think just lends itself so well to animation
03:42 or is this like a particular favorite of yours? Yeah, I, I, I mean, everybody loves Best of Both
03:49 Worlds. I guess that's kind of like the given, but I definitely was trying to think of, you know,
03:55 I think what it was, this, this, this did evolve over time. It was like my wife and I have been
03:59 doing, this is so nerdy, but it's the right place to say it. We've been doing like a Star Trek-a-thon
04:05 by Stardate. So we started from TOS and we're watching, so now we're Voyager DS9 back and
04:12 forth. And I've already seen all of it. She has only seen where we've stopped or where we've
04:18 gotten to so far, which I think we're like season four of DS9. So I keep telling her she's got so
04:23 much cool stuff to look forward to, but we also watched the animated series as part of the
04:26 chronology. And when we watched it, TOS is done so straight. It's like, it's a serious story,
04:33 you know, it's, it's, it's done in earnest, but of course the animation style and those crazy
04:39 closeups of the faces and like, it just makes it so funny. So you've got this like two things,
04:45 two levels are playing at the same time. And so we were thinking like, what if you did take,
04:50 it's a scene from the next generation, like a really pivotal, you know, iconic moment from TNG,
04:58 but you did it like that. Like, what would that look like? What would that feel like? So we've
05:03 been talking about this for probably for months. I kept saying Star Trek, the next generation,
05:07 the animated series, wouldn't this be funny? So I guess that's kind of why that scene,
05:12 because it's like a really pivotal, you know, Picard is abducted. They're trying to get away
05:16 from the board, but then you've got, you know, Riker doing that filmation run, which is just,
05:21 again, like, I know this is like, this is thing that I was working on, but as I was like,
05:27 drawing the cells and sequencing it and then watching it back, I kept just laughing at it
05:32 because I was just like, this is so, so stupid. Yeah. Yeah. In the greatest, in the greatest way,
05:40 I want to make it clear, in the greatest possible way. And I, and just, yeah, pairing,
05:45 I started by doing the audio first and I paired that Ray Ellis music. Like I took the Ron Jones
05:50 music off and then put the Ray Ellis music on. And I was already like, this is, I have to finish
05:57 this. I was like, this is just too silly. How much of a job was there in pairing the audio
06:02 with the music? Was it relatively simple or was it actually like, did you have to go and scrub
06:06 music out of audio scenes? It was a bit of both. I was expecting, I mean, this was the first hurdle.
06:12 I don't know why I thought of this as the first hurdle because like the animation took way longer,
06:18 but the first hurdle was like, can I pull the Ron Jones music out? And by the way, you know,
06:24 hats off to, I read one comment that said, this proves just how much heavy lifting the Ron Jones
06:30 music does on the original episode. And I was like, yes, absolutely. Yes. But it came, it came
06:35 off relatively without too much pain. So I was, I was like, all right, that's out of the way. So
06:41 we can keep going. But it was like, I thought I might have to like pull the surround, the surround
06:47 tracks off the Blu-ray or something, but I didn't even end up doing that. And it was, I was able to
06:51 get the dialogue and the TNG sound effects, which I thought should stay there because that's in
06:56 universe. It looks exactly like the filmation. Like it's perfect. As far as I could tell,
07:02 compared to filmation from the seventies, how involved was it? Is this you with pots of coffee
07:08 and pencil and paper, or how, how did you go about putting this together?
07:12 See, I want to be careful about answering this because I don't want to break anybody's illusion.
07:15 I mean, it's, it is digital. Like if we're talking about what it actually is, it's digital,
07:22 but in the same way that another, I guess, significant work that we've worked on is some
07:29 Thunderbirds episodes that were made to look like the sixties. And that was something that we did
07:34 with our colleagues in the UK. And that, that was for the anniversary of Thunderbirds. And the same
07:40 thing happened as we were trying really hard to make it look like it was made in the sixties. So
07:44 this, we're obviously trying to make it look like it was animated in the seventies. So I definitely
07:49 went about the workflow the same way. So it was still all drawn mostly by hand, but it was done
07:57 with a tablet instead of doing it on a pencil paper and then tracing onto a cells, but it was
08:02 all done digitally. And then of course, adding all those, like, I looked at episodes of TAS and saw
08:09 that if there was like a background character moving, like all of the foreground characters
08:14 would jiggle because they'd have to take those front layers off to replace the back cell. So
08:18 you do the same thing. So if Worf is in the background talking, Picard and Riker are kind
08:22 of like jiggling around in the foreground because they would always, the registration would be a
08:26 little bit off. So, but the funny thing is I don't, I'm sure somebody's already caught this,
08:30 maybe you've already caught this, is that if you, if you do play the TNG scene or that sequence
08:36 and this sequence next to each other, they're timed exactly the same. Like you can watch them
08:41 side by side because I didn't change the, the dialogue timing. So everything is like
08:46 paced out the same way. So, um, and I, I don't know if that was, uh, I don't know why I did that,
08:53 but that's how I did it. Inspired choice on the sort of pink Borg. Love it. I, as soon as I was
08:59 like, I'm going to do best of both worlds. I was like, the Borg cube is pinky purpley. Like I was
09:04 just like, that's the TAS pink Borg cube for sure. And same thing with like the Borg drones. Like I
09:11 was like, they'd have a kind of purple accent on them. I was just like, that's how they, it just
09:15 felt like that's what they would have done. They seemed to love that. I've heard like both stories
09:21 that the art director was colorblind and also that it was not because of that, but it was just,
09:27 there's something about that kind of, I even added a little like, um, pinky kick to the ceiling of
09:34 the, of the D bridge just because I was like, it just needs a little, you know, it reminds me very
09:39 much of the Klingons from the animated series. Cause yeah, I was like, it's kind of like,
09:44 it's like they decided that villains in Star Trek universe in the animated universe for sure
09:49 have a pink purple tinge. And that's, that is now the rule. The one thing that I love,
09:55 love so much that you added that I know was obviously not in best of both worlds was
09:59 thank you for putting a Kazinti on the bridge.
10:01 So I know because of Lower Decks that there is Kazinti in Starfleet now. And I, what I heard
10:09 was in my head was like, um, there was an interview with Walter Koenig where he talked about writing
10:15 the Infinite Vulcan. And he said the note that he kept getting from Gene Roddenberry was, you know,
10:21 exploit the medium of animation. You're not exploiting the medium of animation. And he of
10:26 course wanted to do that story about clones and Roddenberry as, as Walter Koenig says,
10:30 wanted to do a story about like talking asparagus or Brussels sprouts or something.
10:35 So he kept having to like shove this other thing in. And I was like, okay, it can't all be humans
10:41 and a Klingon on the bridge of the enterprise. There has to be a very like something that would
10:46 have been impossible for live action Trek to do at that time. So, um, thank you for catching that.
10:52 Um, the other Easter egg that I was very proud to put in, which I don't know if anyone's caught
10:57 yet is that the, um, the turbo lift is open. Did it, has anyone caught? Oh, I have.
11:03 In the background. Cause like on TAS, like 90% of the time, I'm sure that's not a fair
11:11 percentage, but almost 90% of the time, the turbo lift door is open on the bridge,
11:17 because I guess when they were photographing the cells, someone kept forgetting to put the,
11:22 the door, the red little red door on, on, so I guess they made the background piece
11:27 so that they could animate the door opening if they had to, but they always forgot to put it on.
11:31 So I was like, it's very important to me that when Picard stands up, when the board shows up,
11:35 that the elevator in the background is open. It was just like that. Of course,
11:38 somebody would have forgotten to put that on. That is proper. And I'm going to say this with
11:44 love. That is proper nerd levels of detail. That is, yeah, you are in good company. That is perfect.
11:51 You've been working on this for a long time, but this has technically been
11:53 in the universe for like 24 hours. Can we have more, please?
11:57 Uh, I'm thinking like, I'm like, what do I, cause like, this was definitely not as with
12:03 things that happened like this, I was just like, I would be delighted to watch this. And I hope
12:08 that other fans would be delighted to watch this. And certainly my wife, I sent it to her. Um,
12:12 she's in the UK right now and she was like crying of laughter watching it. And I was like, this is,
12:18 yes, this is exactly what I wanted. Like taking something that's so serious and iconic, which is
12:24 still serious and iconic. And I'm sure people watch best of both worlds. It'll still be,
12:27 but I was like, I was so glad. So yes, the answer is yes. I'm trying to think of like what, uh,
12:34 what should be following next. Cause I haven't thought about it.
12:37 Deep space nine.
12:38 Um, by the way, yes. I, like,
12:42 I love, I love deep space. And my brother actually just got me this for, uh, for my birthday.
12:49 So I have it. That is a fantastic book. Yeah.
12:52 Yeah. So no, I, I, um, I've already, I'm already on your wavelength, Sean. I'm totally. Yes.
13:00 Like I have been a Thunderbirds fan since I was about, I was knee high to a grasshopper and
13:04 is that Thunderbird one, the command seat sitting behind you.
13:08 Yes.
13:10 And that is, that was like, we, um, so we've been doing work with, um,
13:16 two British companies, uh, century 21 films and Anderson entertainment. And those are all,
13:23 you know, all relating to Thunderbirds and the worlds of Jerry and Sylvia Anderson. And so
13:28 we've actually, we've stuck puppets in that chair and we've had them, you know, doing stuff. So
13:33 it's, um, I'm glad to talk to a fellow fan of this stuff because in Canada, it's not a really big
13:38 thing. But when we went to England to do that stuff to, to shoot Thunderbirds, it was kind of
13:45 shocking. If you took the puppets outside and we went on like good morning to call it good
13:50 morning Britain, but we were on these like daytime shows to like promote stuff.
13:54 And we'd bring the puppets and people went like berserk about them, which was so unexpected.
14:00 Cause like here, if you took them outside, people wouldn't know what they were, but
14:03 people, our age, people, younger people, older, everyone was like, Oh my God. You know,
14:07 it was like a seeing a celebrity. So that was, um, it's yeah.
14:12 Thank you so much for making this and for sharing it with us. Um, this, this could have been
14:17 something that you decided to keep private between yourselves and I'm delighted you didn't. I'm
14:22 delighted you shared it because it was, uh, it brought an absolute smile to my day. And I know
14:27 to so many people's days today. Oh man. Thanks, John. Really appreciate that. Thank you.
14:32 Not at all. Not at all. I'm gonna, I'm gonna let you go there. We're going to put the links to all
14:37 of your, uh, projects, your websites, your socials in the description. Um, and just thank you so much
14:44 again for taking the time to have a chat with me today. Thanks John. This has been great. Yeah.
14:49 Live long and prosper. Excellent. Yeah. Die hard Trekkie. You can do the live long and prosper.
14:55 Die hard Trekkie. No more proof required. Once more Justin Lee, thank you so much. Not only for
15:01 sitting down and having a chat with us, but also for putting the time in and sharing this animation
15:07 with us. This could have been something that stayed private. And in fact, you chose to share it
15:12 with fandom and we are so, so grateful for it. The only thing is just an, as I said to you,
15:18 what's up next? Cause I'm kind of hoping for a DS9, maybe a little bit of sacrifice of angels,
15:24 you know, just a nice, easy job for you. Nice, easy job. Thank you so much again. Thank you so
15:30 much for everyone to sit down and watch this video today. You are all awesome and wonderful.
15:34 As I say, you can find the link to that video in the description of this video. You can get
15:39 in touch with them on Twitter as well at gazelle underscore Inc. You're going to of course get in
15:44 touch with us at Trek culture on Twitter, and you can find myself at Sean Ferrick on Twitter,
15:49 Instagram, and TikTok. You look after yourselves until I'm talking to you again,
15:53 live long and prosper. Enjoy the animation. Make it so.