Director J.J. Abrams is putting a younger face on Star Trek with his movie, due out in May. But dedicated Trek fan Frank Elchesen is honoring the original TV series by re-creating props and entire episodes of the '60s show in Lego form.
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Choosing memorable moments from classic episodes such as "The Doomsday Machine," above, Elchesen lovingly renders his detailed images with nothing but Lego bricks. He then captures the images with a simple camera and shares the images with the world.
Elchesen, 49, recently finished re-creating the entire original Star Trek pilot episode, "The Cage," which he posted in three separate photo sets on Flickr.
As Elchesen moves on to more episodes and more images from the expanded world of science fiction, he spoke about his methods with Wired.com from his home in Cleveland.
In this re-creation from "The Cage," green-skinned Orion slave girl Vena dances for Captain Pike. Why does Elchesen put in the hours necessary to create such images? "The time involved depends on if I feel like working on my latest creation or not," Elchesen said. "As for the effort, when someone sees it, I want that person to see something that is one of a kind — never done before."
Elchesen analyzes his source images in an effort to keep the details true to Trek, as in this shot of the Enterprise bridge. "I want people to ask themselves, 'Is that made of Legos?' A few people have asked that, and that makes the time and effort all worth it," he said.
How long does it take for Elchesen to complete a shot like this moment of Captain Pike meeting the Talosians from "The Cage?" "Not as long you might think," Elchesen said. "The backgrounds I use are really quite simple. I use bricks to raise or lower objects, stand over them with my camera, shoot the pictures, zoom in and trim. That's all there is to it."
While re-creating space shots like this image of the Enterprise leaving a space-dock, Elchesen uses a black kitchen rug. "I sit the ships or planets or docks on the rug and arrange the shot," he said. "Other backgrounds like skies and planets might be different colored shirts or a big piece of cardboard."
Elchesen only has a few self-imposed rules when making his scenes, like this shot of the Enterprise self-destructing in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. "I try to keep it all Legos — especially with the ships and the planets," he said.
What's the fan reaction been to Elchesen's Lego versions of Trek scenes and props, like the communicator and phaser shown here? "It's been unbelievable and totally unexpected," he said. "I hope I can keep up the views with what I have planned next."
Photos: Frank Elchesen
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