This is by far the funniest scene in POSERS if you ask me. Here Sulu has dialed up some epic Japanese Midget Wrestling on the main view screen, while Kirk and Spock are down on Earth working. This video is particularly hilarious because the wrestlers are wearing Star Trek-like costumes, and performing a famous face slide stunt that repeats a few times in this scene.

“You are away from your post, Mister.”

“Is Captain Kirk here? Is Spock here? While the cat’s away…”

It becomes apparent that Sulu is the baby’s father, even though George Takei is notoriously gay.

This is a recent subplot addition to Act 3. The USS Enterprise is in Earth orbit, accompanied by Gerald Fried’s epic “Amok Time” battle music and the voice of T’Pring, the Vulcan Priestess from Spock’s home planet.

“It has begun. Let no one interfere.”

Meanwhile, Kirk spots movement in the workshop area and realizes they’re being watched.

Spock begins scanning a grand hall with his tricorder, which appears to operate like a Polaroid camera. This is a green screen turntable shot.

Spock and Captain Kirk jump out of their poses on the revolving Louvre exhibit, and gather themselves under the glass pyramid. Kirk motions ahead for Spock to begin scanning the museum. For what, we don’t know.

This shot gets cut into and out of a few times in the chaos of Amanda’s departure from the Bunker of Evil. It’s also the third head-swap for Dennis. This one is the alternate, unwigged head that came with his puppet. I painted it with dabs of neon paint and let him swing free with his trusty axe.

Note the placard on his cage, with a reference to Otto Warmbier — may he rest in peace. You and I know the story, but perhaps Ambassador Rodman didn’t when he signed up for this.

During his death throes, Dennis bites onto a cage rail and grinds his teeth along it. After a moment, neon paint comes gushing out of his face. Then his neck separates, leaving his head stuck to the cage while his body collapses below the frame. I did this by dripping a very strong adhesive (LocTite 495) into his mouth and letting it set. The electrical effects were done with a handheld flashlight shot in stop motion.

The horror of it all…

This is Amanda’s last showdown with Dennis. She grabs him by his jaw and gives it a bone-crunching twist, as she breaks free from his feeble cockatoo-man-grasp. I love how the UV light makes his white gloves glow through her hair.

This is a rather complex shot, and unfortunately it didn’t turn out quite the way I envisioned. Basically I moved Dennis’ cage to my turntable cyclorama. I removed the top gate, and drilled three eye hooks into Dennis’ back and butt, and suspended him via green fishing line. Up top, I connected the single stretch of rigging to a square wooden bar that I could use both like a pulley and a ratchet.

Then I animated The Ambassador flapping around like he was flitting and flying inside his tight little cage — bumping his beak, wings and legs off the bars as the cage rotates around in timed increments. The ratcheting allowed me to change Dennis’ elevation within the cage, getting his feet up off the floor.

It will take some time to remove all the visible rigging via Photoshop, so the effect will improve greatly once that process is complete. And no, I’m not looking forward to that menial task!

Oh, the best thing about this scene is that my brother-in-law (who voices James Bondáge) and his family were here for summer vacation. So he sat in the studio and watched me animate while we enjoyed a few beers.

Spock then sees a poster advertising a VIP Rave in the Mona Lisa hall, apparently hosted by the same wrong Leonardo.

This was just a Photoshop image. I plan to redo it with my Leonardo DiCaprio puppet and my 1:6 scale Mona Lisa, posed like a diorama.

Spock also notices a diorama honoring Leonardo DiCaprio’s character from Titanic, who Spock misidentifies as Leonardo DaVinci. An honest mistake.