n c c 1 7 0 1 no bloody a b c or d hi this is jim from weird nashville and today we are continuing our series on the actual studio models that were created for the original star trek television series if you would like to view our earlier videos or to make sure that you don’t miss any of the new ones as they’re released please be sure to click on the little red banner in the lower right hand corner to subscribe in 2022 the starship enterprise will celebrate 48 years in residency at the smithsonian institution join us after the break as we take a look at the initial donation and the four major restorations that the smithsonian has performed to date [Applause] in 1963 michael collins flew
six years later he would accompany neil armstrong and buzz aldrin on the greatest achievement mankind has ever made the first landing on the moon he retired a year later in 1970 and in 1971 he became the first director of the newly planned national air and space museum in washington dc and that is where he will soon enter our story but first we need to take a little side trip on our way to the smithsonian in 1972 the uss enterprise was loaned out by paramount to a local college for an exhibition in huntington beach california many people visited that local exhibition and took photos the top left photo was taken of the man who arranged for the exhibit the other three that you see were taken on ectochrome slide film
by a family who attended none of them could ever have guessed how important those slides would be to the smithsonian institute half a century later meanwhile in 1973 former apollo 11 astronaut michael collins contacted paramount and asked if the studio would be willing to donate the production model to the smithsonian’s national air and space museum the smithsonian institution received the model and its filming stand on march 1st 1974 but it had been broken down into three boxes and was in very poor condition only one week after receiving the model it had been assembled and an initial assessment had been done now as i said the production model was an extremely poor shape also since the model had never been filmed from the port side the left side that portion of the model was never finished
huge holes existed in the neck and the hull where armatures had supported the model during filming electrical wiring used to light portions of the model hung out of most of these holes even more holes had been cut into the hull to make repairs and add even more lighting and these holes existed in places all over the hall and has literally just been covered up with duct tape on top of that the studio had stored the model in an open warehouse where grime grease dust and dirt just clung to it like a magnet finally the smithsonian officials discovered that not only was the deflector dish missing but also the warp into cell caps and their internal mechanisms had been lost as well the very first smithsonian restoration took place shortly after the starship was received and was completed by july 29th 1974. this particular restoration was coordinated with matt jeffries the
original designer of the starship and gene roddenberry the creator of star trek now most people believe that the model has always been displayed in the air and space museum but in fact it was displayed in the smithsonian for almost two years before the air and space museum opened to the public the model was suspended from the ceiling in the smithsonian arts and industries building in the fall of 1974. three wires were attached to the model to support it on the inside of the starboard nacelle on the outside of the port nacelle and one from the dorsal then finally in 1976 the national air and space museum opened for the very first time and the model was prominently hung at the very front of gallery 107 life in the universe and it stayed there until the summer of 1979 when they moved it to gallery 113
the rocketry and space flight gallery now ironically during this time paramount had actually asked for the model back so that they could use it for their proposed phase ii television series but the museum wisely declined as they said it was now a part of a permanent exhibit in 1981 photographer greg holmes from thelope.com visited the national air and space museum and took a series of photos on the model using ectochrome slide film the same film we had talked about from the college he shot a series of photos both with and without flash the results are what i believe to be the highest quality photos taken of the model between its first and second refurbishment the first set you see here was taken without flash so you can see the model with natural lighting as well as the strategically placed spotlights that were aimed at the bridge as well as at the intercoolers at the end of each
nacelle this next set of photos was taken with flash and they provide the very best view of the original refurbishment now considering the shape the model was in when it was sent to the smithsonian they did a remarkable job it is easy to overlook the initial refurbishment because the later ones were much better publicized by the media whereas this one was done before anyone in the public even knew it was done including me when i visited the model in 1976 i had made the assumption that the model as it had been displayed was in that condition when it was donated by far this was the greatest before and after shot the model has ever experienced multiple pieces stuffed in three boxes to hanging in a gallery now photos of the left side of the model are much harder to find as the years went on most people photographed it from the prominent side that faced them when
they entered the exhibit and also they assumed the other side of the model looked like the side that was facing them if they actually did walk around to get a better look at the back unfinished side quite often they didn’t take a photograph because it was unfinished and quite frankly didn’t look as nice as the other side this did however make the left side photos rare and very important in later years in particular on this left side photo you can take a closer look and see the three mount points one in each missile and one on the dorsal as well as the reflective tape that covered all of the sealing of the holes now this photo position would be the most popular style of photograph of the model to date however its location was such that all the photos taken including the actual smithsonian photo on the lower left corner there left the model in shadows
greg’s elevation and use of flash gives us a far more superior image as you can see here in august of 1984 the second restoration was done some of the things they did during this restoration included removing all of this cloth silver tape and the wires that it hid were placed in gray tubing that could then be molded to the side of the model this gave the model a much more professional appearance because it covered up not only the wiring holes but other holes in the port side of the model could be covered this way as well any internal wiring that they could reach through the holes was removed and replaced with modern wiring and any burned out or malfunctioning lights that could be reached through the holes were replaced as well keep in mind they did not take the model apart so this limited what they could actually do a new mechanism for re-lighting the nacelle covers was created and added although the solid paint scheme for the nacelles turkey red remained unaltered sometime between 1974 and now the small plastic dome over the bridge