Michael Westmore's Aliens

Michael Westmore's Aliens is a series of DVD special features that are featured on the first to the fifth season box sets of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Similar special features are included on the Special Edition DVD and the ENT Season 4 DVD.

In the interviews, Michael Westmore talks about the makeup of selected aliens from the series and the movie. There are no interviews about the aliens from the sixth and seventh seasons of Deep Space Nine as very few new aliens were required.

DS9 Season 1

 * Westmore discusses:
 * The sheer number of aliens required for the show, including Odo, Quark, Jadzia Dax and the many Bajorans and Cardassians.
 * The development of the ridges on the Bajoran nose, which came from Rick Berman, who told him "We've hired a pretty girl (Michelle Forbes) and we want to keep her that way." Westmore goes on to explain how Bajoran noses were sculpted.
 * Cardassian makeup, describing how Marc Alaimo influenced the design of every Cardassian character that would follow. He also talks about how the "spoon" of the Cardassian forehead was inspired by an abstract painting of a woman he saw in a restaurant in Studio City.
 * The Tosk from, who was made to resemble an alligator.
 * The Wadi from, who were decorated with tattoos instead of spots or stripes.
 * The Miradorn from, with their unusual neck design including a flap of skin coming over their necklaces, as opposed to running underneath.
 * The Kobliad from, which was again inspired by trying to keep the actress attractive but still indicate that she is an alien.
 * The "tailheads", as seen on the promenade in numerous episodes, are also mentioned, and how light the tails actually are.
 * The creation and evolution of the Bolian makeup from its beginning with actor Michael Berryman in to the actors on Deep Space Nine.

DS9 Season 2

 * Westmore discusses:
 * The Skrreea from, whose 'bumpy skin' design was created by combining little bags of , found in a hobby train shop, with a liquid , which was then stippled onto the actors faces and dried. Westmore also discusses how when the makeup was applied to one single individual, it simply looked like someone with a lot of pimples, but when applied to a group, it became an alien race.
 * The Dosi from, whose facial art designs are based on colorations found in tribes from and in the . Westmore also discusses the continuity problems that arise when using elaborate paint designs.
 * The redesign of the Trill symbiont which took place for . The original design, as seen in was based upon a caterpillar with an octopus' head, but for DS9 the design was given a more "streamlined" look.
 * Melora Pazlar from, whose makeup was designed under the guideline to keep the actress beautiful.
 * Cardassian women, specifically Natima Lang from . Westmore explains that the blue coloration of the 'spoon' design on the forehead of Cardassian females came about due to a concern that people wouldn't be able to tell the difference between the males and the females. He also discusses that because the producers wanted some of Mary Crosby's chest exposed, a large breast plate had to be designed which Westmore says must have been uncomfortable for Crosby to wear, but he never heard her complain once. He also discusses how the love scene between Lang and Quark is one of his all-time favorite Star Trek scenes, because despite the heavy makeup, it is still just a simple, touching romantic scene, and the makeup is completely unimportant.Vole_Model.jpg
 * The Cardassian voles from, which were mounted on radio-controlled cars. Westmore explains that the teeth are made from acrylic, and the eyes are glass, and he notes that it was more complex to build a vole than a facial appliance. He also points out that because the voles are Cardassian, they too have the spoon design on their foreheads.
 * Fenna and Nidell from, with their unusual ear designs, which was again, based upon the desire to have the actress look alien, but not compromise her beauty.
 * Maihar'du, whose makeup was based upon that of from .
 * Kang, Kor and Koloth from . Westmore discusses how the three actors weren't used to spending so long in makeup, and he compares the look of Klingons in DS9 with those in The Original Series. He also notes that the characters wore permed wigs to give more volume to their heads, and that the forehead bones were subdued so as to suggest age.
 * Fallit Kot from, whose makeup was based upon the fact that Westmore had never had the opportunity to bridge the face of an alien.

DS9 Season 3

 * Westmore discusses:
 * Iliana Ghemor's makeup, as worn by Nana Visitor for, explaining that a new forehead appliance was made, and that he tried to ensure Visitor's natural beauty was still prominent through the heavy makeup by giving her dark lips and using a great deal of mascara around the eyes. He also explains how when regulars who don't have to wear makeup normally actually do experience heavy prosthetics, they tend to develop a new appreciation for their fellow actors who have to sit in the makeup chair for hours day in, day out.
 * Julian Bashir's aging makeup as worn by Alexander Siddig for, which took four hours to apply. Westmore mainly discusses Siddig's performance, praising how he used the makeup as a prop and altered his body language and voice to complement the prosthetic work.
 * Ferengi makeup, and how during The Next Generation, there was a one-head-fits-all Ferengi appliance. This changed when Armin Shimerman had his own unique head and nose developed for, while Wallace Shawn was given a completely different type of head for . In relation to the character of Ishka from , Westmore explains that the appliance was based on that worn by Shawn as Zek, and that it was designed to look almost caricature-like, with drooping lobes and large jowls. For the scene when her knees are seen, Westmore even designed drooping kneecaps. For the shot where her shoulders and the top of her chest were exposed, Westmore didn't have time to create a proper foam-latex appliance, so he rubberized Kleenex, and wrinkled it, laying it across her shoulders and on the upper portion of her chest. According to Westmore, actress Andrea Martin was not amused by the makeup.
 * The evolution and alterations to the Odo makeup over the first three years of the show. In specific, Westmore talks about the scene in where Odo is tortured by Garak and begins to disintegrate. For this scene a new head-cast of actor Rene Auberjonois was needed, and a new Odo mask was sculpted, which was then enhanced on-set by the addition of small bits and pieces of loose skin to give the impression of flaking. Westmore also talks about the makeup needed for when Curzon Dax and Odo became unified in, and how after Auberjonois had the Odo makeup applied, Westmore then had to hand paint the Trill spots on top of the existing makeup.

DS9 Season 4

 * Westmore discusses:
 * How several characters who had already been introduced in the previous three seasons returned in the fourth season. The proved to be a great time-saver for the makeup department, as not every actor needed to have new molds designed. On the other hand, because there were so many recurring characters, the department began to run out of storage room for all the molds that weren't once-offs.
 * Michael Dorn's return as Worf, and how all of his TNG molds were still in storage because of the upcoming.
 * The teplan blight from . Normally a makeup like this would be done by sculpting the veins in a piece of plaster, placing rubber on top of the plaster, and then placing a sheet of clay on top of that, pressing it down, and baking the whole thing in the oven. However, because so many veins were needed extremely quickly, Westmore decided to dispense with the top piece of clay, instead just scraping the excess rubber off the bottom piece of plaster and putting that straight into the oven without a top, thus baking in half the time. This method proved so successful that it has since been used on all Star Trek shows and films.
 * Soto from, whose Lethean makeup design had been introduced in the previous season (in ), and that for its reappearance here, there was a subtle color change, bringing out the red, and pulling back the brown. Westmore also discusses that race was originally conceived as a kind of "dream-monster," which had to be scary, so he designed teeth protruding from the jaw and forehead, and also used glaring red contact lenses.
 * The Nausicaans from, who have a "bony" design, with over-emphasized teeth.
 * "Nasty" characters; when he is told to design a nasty looking character, Westmore explains that he interprets it as meaning a character that people might be afraid of, a character that isn't attractive or appealing to look at. As such, for research, he tends to look at pictures of snakes, reptiles, bats etc He also notes that generally, ridges on the skull, tilting the nose upwards, exposing the teeth, and/or bringing out the cheekbones can all help convey a sense of nastiness.
 * The makeup worn by Dennis Madalone as the Marauder in . Westmore says they were trying to convey that he was a tough guy who had been in a lot of combat, and the idea was that he had lost his eye when someone smashed a bottle into it during a barfight.
 * Hanok in . Westmore notes James Cromwell's performance as Jaglom Shrek in, and how much Cromwell liked performing with makeup in general.
 * Morn, and how his head piece was designed in such a way as would have allowed the actor to speak.

DS9 Season 5

 * Westmore discusses:
 * The Klingon makeup worn by Avery Brooks, Colm Meaney, and Rene Auberjonois for the episode . Contrary to what it says in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, Westmore claims that Brooks and Meaney enjoyed working with the makeup, because it gave them a chance to play a different type of character.
 * Silaran Prin from, whose makeup is based on real burn scars studied by Westmore.
 * Jem'Hadar makeup. Westmore says that for the duration of the third season, there was only one Jem'Hadar headpiece, a one-size-fits-all design. However, for the fourth season episode, a new headpiece was designed for Scott MacDonald, who played Goran'Agar. Another new headpiece was designed for , for James Horan, who was playing Ikat'ika. Westmore also discusses the origins of the Jem'hadar makeup. Originally, he was told to "design something that was tough, that they could shoot at but they couldn't hurt, they were indestructible, as an army they were unstoppable, and they would have thick skin." Westmore based the basic design of the Jem'Hadar on a rhinoceros skin, but also incorporated elements from dinosaur skin, and he compares the top of the Jem'Hadar head to a.
 * Terry Farrell's Trill makeup. Westmore says that every time he did Farrell's makeup, he would write the number in Roman numerals just below her collar-line, and that they reached number 479. He points out that for the episode, he had to do the makeup down to her feet, and he got some of his staff to help him out because he feared it would take so long. However, he explains that when the others tried to do it, they tended to make very controlled designs which took far too much time, while Westmore would just make completely random shapes, as if his hand were shaking. In the end, doing the entire makeup from top to bottom for that episode took only an hour.