What do about the sound effects? Did you ever do any research into those and how did they develop?

There are a lot of really wonderful sound effects on Star Trek. When the phasers would fire, and there was a certain buzzing sound the transport effect had. But then Gene realised that it�s kind of silly to have the engines making a sound out in space and in the second and third seasons of the original series, you never heard the sound of the engines when you saw the ship flying through space.

After Star Wars was released as a feature film, sound became such an important part of selling the idea of travelling at fast speeds in science fiction, so we bit the bullet and went with an engine noise sound in the later series. But I�m not sure where they got a lot of those noises. It wouldn�t surprise me if they recorded a swarm of bees from a safe distance and then amplified that somehow or used a parabolic microphone to record things at a distance.

The people who are called foley artists are the people who do sound effects in films, whether it�s clapping, steps or a dog running on concrete. All of that stuff is produced on a sound stage using fun little practical effects and I�m sure that they did similar things with Star Trek. It would be very fascinating to know where the phaser sound came from. It's such a distinctive, strange sound.