Exposing flesh in intersting alien ways

I�ve sort of got away with murder. [In False Prophets] those three girls that are hand maidens in the background, they�re exposed in ways that aren�t exposed at all. I�m just revealing parts of the body that we don�t usually look at, the underside of the breast rather than the top of the breast. The nipples are covered, rather, but the bottom of the breast is shown. And it seems terribly erotic and weirdly naughty but, in fact, it�s just as if you put a bikini on upside down, but we think of it as something else, because we never look at that area. So, it�s the � creating a new erogenous zone.

That actually follows the concepts of Bill Theiss [Star Trek�s original costume designer]. He was always thrilled to find a place that he could open up that would make our minds think that it was naughty but it really was just we had closed up another area and opened up this area � [with] cut-outs and weird sheer fabrics wrapped in gold cord and marabou. It�s an amazing thing that he was able to do and at the time that he did it.

The Dabo girls and all that Deep Space 9 stuff, I got away with a lot of stuff, sometimes because it was just a pan across them and then you went to the action and so the studio didn�t really pay as much attention to what was being panned as perhaps they ought to. Rick has always said to me, �You know, I was looking at this thing and how did you do that? How did you get that past?�

But, you know, we�re not dealing with America, we�re supposed to be dealing in other cultures that have other ideas about what is sexy and what isn�t. It�s no different than Victorian morals, in a way, you know, seeing an ankle at that point was shameless, you know. Bare shoulders during the day Would send someone away screaming in fits. And it�s just taking those ideas and shifting them around them again.