Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Wolf 359

7. Saratoga On High

Star Trek Deep Space Nine Emissary Saratoga Sisko
CBS Media Ventures

As shown on the Movie Magic episode Space Effects: The Space Race, the scale of the explosion of the Saratoga for Emissary required filming be moved from in-house at production company Image G to a much larger sound stage on the Paramount lot "for safety reasons". This was the early '90s. Blowing things up for television risked more than the computer processor.

To capture the shots needed, a "breakaway model" of the Saratoga, Miranda-class, was "wrapped with explosive primer cord" (aka detonation cord or blasting rope), then hoisted vertically into the air over a camera which filmed upwards in slow motion at 240 frames per second. The camera was shielded from debris by a sheet of Lexan (a transparent polycarbonate thermoplastic) and a fan.

"Usually, for some reason, everything goes in threes," noted Robert Legato on the Movie Magic episode. First bang wasn't a boom, so "even more explosives" were added to another breakaway model. Second time didn't quite work either, so the third and final Saratoga model was rigged and sent to high heavens. Just right.

 
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Jack has been a content creator for TrekCulture since 2022, and a Star Trek fan for as long as he can remember. He has authored over 170 articles, including one of TrekCulture's longest, and has appeared several times on the TrekCulture podcast. He holds a first-class honours degree in French from the University of Sussex, a master's with distinction in Language, Culture and History: French and Francophone Studies and a PhD in French from University College London (UCL). He has previously worked in the field of translation. His interests extend to science-fiction television and film more widely. His favourite series is Star Trek: Voyager, followed closely by Stargate SG-1.