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Star Trek Voyager screenshots, and scans, buttons, bullets, backgrounds by Janet. See also Sources & Credits

      PAGE 6

BEHIND-THE-SCENES: THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN PROTON
BEHIND-THE-SCENES: THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN PROTON

 


Ray gun		 Steve Horch of HMS Creative Productions:
"Having grown up with all these old shows, we loved all the machinery, with those big dials, knobs and great sense of mechanical ingenuity. We wished we could have done all the set pieces, but there wasn't time. So we rented a bunch of the old serials and watched them to get the ideas. One thing we noticed right off was the use of the villains' weaponry; they used to hold them up, with an underhand grip, then fire. So we thought it would be cool to try this approach as something new. The other guns were pretty much stock, borrowing on the .45 handgun, with unique barrel designs."


Captain Proton's pistol. Source ST:M.

Captain Proton wields his pistol. [Night]

The guns took a week to make. Knowing that they would be using the .45 handgun as the base, creating the main style was done by Max Cervantes, another member of the HMS team.

Steve Horch: "Once he [Max Cervantes] saw it in his mind, he basically completed it in 3D. Alan [Sims] just had to OK the tip designs, suggesting that they put in a few body lines here and there on the sights."

Each of the three guns were made from polyurethane resin and cast in RTV (room temperature vulcanisation) rubber. Once demoulded they were given slightly different barrel designs and painted in one of three distinct colour schemes:

  • blue and silver for Captain Proton
  • red and silver for Harry Kim
  • red and gold for Tuvok (never used)
Buster Kincaid's pistol. Source ST:M.


Gun built but not used. Note also the wrist-communicator. Source ST:M



Captain Proton and Buster Kincaid, their guns in their hands
[Bride of Chaotica!]

 

The holsters for the three main guns were a variation on that used by the old Western gunslinger, with pouches large enough to accommodate the elaborate barrels and a large loop at the top in order for them to loop them over wide black leather belts. The holsters were left open-ended, allowing the pistols to be extracted and cradled easily. This had the extra benefit of them being seen more easily by the tv audience.


Holster design. Source ST:M

Captain Proton's empty holster can be seen on his right hip.
[Bride of Chaotica!]

 

Arachnia escapes by secretly wafting her pheromones and enticing Lonzak (instead of the intended victim, Chaotica), but originally the writers had her escape using a small pistol. This pistol was inspired by an idea in Men in Black and featured a long needle-barrel and sapphire-blue lit, inner power chambers. The prop was designed and made but never used.