Since 1966, Star Trek has been taking its viewers along as Starfleet has explored “Space, the final frontier.” In 2017, Star Trek: Discovery debuted and took audiences aboard the U.S.S. Discovery for five seasons of missions and adventure. In addition to exploring both familiar and new worlds and civilizations, the series also showcased the incredible prosthetic and special effects makeup of Glenn Hetrick and his team at Alchemy Studios.
Buy Star Trek: The Art of Glenn Hetrick’s Alchemy StudiosNow entertainment journalist Joe Nazzaro (who has covered Star Trek extensively) has given fans of both Hetrick and Star Trek a fantastic behind-the-scenes look at the makeup that helped bring to life the characters from all five seasons in his new book, Star Trek: The Art of Glenn Hetrick’s Alchemy Studio.
This coffee-table book is absolutely stunning and a must-have. Nazzaro takes readers from the concept art and challenges and changes Hetrick and his team faced, to the finished characters and the physical application of the makeups. The book is filled with stunning photos as well as firsthand accounts from the Alchemy Studios team about what it took to bring all five seasons of Star Trek: Discovery to the screen.
In addition to the wonderful photos of the processes that bring these characters to life, my favorite part of this book is learning about Hetrick’s long fandom of Star Trek and how he channeled that love into the character creations and applications. His encyclopedic knowledge of the show and its civilizations become very apparent as he discusses both the big and small details he included in the makeups for each of the characters on Discovery. I especially loved reading about his ideas about how to develop the Klingon Houses while staying true to the heart of the canon.
Another aspect of this book I truly appreciated was that Nazzaro made sure to document and discuss the challenges that the Hetrick and his team faced in regards to being an LA-based studio who was supporting a television show that was shooting in Toronto, Canada. I think that this is an important aspect of prosthetic makeup that viewers don’t always consider once they are watching the finished product.
Star Trek: The Art of Glenn Hetrick’s Alchemy Studio is available now wherever you buy your books and will make the perfect gift for the Trekkie or SFX makeup lover in your life. And if you want to catch the Alchemy Studios work in action, you can stream, all five seasons of Star Trek: Discovery on Paramount+.
