hi this is jim from weird nashville and today we are looking at the second in our series of video packages on the effects library shots that were done in the original star trek television series in this case we’re going to take a look at every time one of the amt starship enterprise models was used in the television series itself now we’ve been asked several times about the amt model kits that were used for filming in the original star trek television series these over-the-counter model kits were used as filming props due to their low cost and the ability to damage them without having to damage one of the more expensive shooting models so today we’ll look at every shot ever recorded using one of these models so join us after the break as we look at episodes that these model kits were used in [Music] now the very best photo of an amt model
kit in star trek is this top down view that is shown under the title card of the episode the doomsday machine the other shots that we see here are when they took two shots of the models from far off and slowly pulled in to make it look as if they were approaching it the smallest one in the top left was used at the very beginning of the episode and represents the initial sighting of the constellation by the enterprise the second shots shown at the top right begins a much closer vantage of the same view and pulls in again the last two shots we see are where they have filmed the model and then composite it onto stock footage of the 11 foot model now these two amazing photos were taken from 35 millimeter slides that were sold by lincoln enterprises in the 1970s they are believed to be the most detailed surviving images of the model used in this episode now this group of shots were used when we see the constellation making an approach on the planet killer notice the animated phaser
strike coming from the one on the top right since the 11 foot model was only finished on one side when they needed to show the other side they would flip the negative and make it look like it was going in the other direction most of the time they wouldn’t even bother to correct the ncc 1701 decals so they still showed up backwards on tv however they did have reversed decals and they did use them from time to time here is a photo showing the model being filmed with the backwards registry decals now in the case the constellation being shown on both its port and starboard sides they didn’t use the old flip the negative trick as you can see from these two photographs they actually filmed the model from both sides how do we know that you can definitely see from the saucer damage that we’re seeing two sides of the saucer believe it or not even in the original unrestored tv print you can still make out the colors of the decals and the damage to the saucer after over 55 years
now this would end up being the money shot so to speak in the episode doomsday machine what we’re seeing here is a series of four clips that show the constellation as kirk takes it into the planet killer now similarly to before i was actually able to find a single high definition slide photo of one of these shots although as you can see it in this case the additional detail calls clear attention to the fact that the ship is a toy model just look at the damage to the nacelles this is one instance when having the lower resolution of your tv set in the 60s actually aided the presentation of the shot in the episode the ultimate computer they would dust off two clips from the doomsday machine and use them in this episode to represent the uss lexington with only one miter modification and that is they added the explosion graphic that you see on the top left to indicate that the lexington had been hit and finally the very last appearance of the amt model in the original star trek
television series at the top they used the amt model as the enterprise when it was shown behind space station k7 they used the 11 foot model to force perspective when it was shown in front of space station k7 note that the enterprise in both of these shots is slowly moving now they actually did wire one of the cells of the 18 inch model for light but the noise was so loud they had to remove the noise in editing in the bottom series that you see here you can see that they also used it to represent the enterprise outside of station manager lurie’s office portal note however it is not moving a continuity error and before we move on we have yet another photo from a 35 millimeter slide sold by lincoln enterprises but like the planet killer photo it really doesn’t add much detail to the scene as the years went by nothing had ever been heard again of these models either the lighted one or the damaged one since
they were literally off the shelf plastic kits nobody had any reason to believe that either the two were still surviving indeed it actually made more sense to assume that they ended up in the trash along with all the sets and props that paramount simply tossed out instead of saving like the entire bridge set however when matt jeffrey sold off virtually all of his original series production items in the profiles in history star trek auction in 2001 fandom was in for a shock when he revealed he actually had the 18-inch model that was used in the trouble with tribbles the model is now on display in paul allen’s museum of pop culture in seattle wisely it has been left in the same unrestored condition shown at the auction [Music]
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