[Music] hi there 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 of all the props used in the original tv series the galileo shuttlecraft has the most fascinating cinderella story passed from one owner to another over the past 50 years it has been restored several times and has been left out to rot in the wind rain heat and cold over and over again but thanks to the passionate dedication of less than a handful of people somehow through all of this drama and neglect the model is still with us today like a cat with nine lives the galileo simply refuses to die so join us after the break as we take a look at what is perhaps the most
enigmatic studio model to ever come out of a television series [Music] put your feet up and get comfy because we are going back to the very very beginning of star trek history in the first season of the original tv show the model kit company amt had expressed an interest in purchasing the licensing rights to make model kits based off of star trek it was during one of the subsequent conversations that some folks came up with the idea that perhaps desilu and amt could come to some kind of arrangement so let’s let gene winfield the man who actually built the galileo explain it i went to the studio with a representative from emt and we negotiated the deal to build the galileo and give it to the studio completely free so that amt could
build the enterprise into the model kit form it is at this point in time that we encounter the first of many inconsistencies in star trek fandom over what actually happened when this occurs you generally get two sides battling it out over which side is considered the truth now to be perfectly honest this is normally caused by the fact that let’s face it 50 years have gone by and not everyone who actually saw what happened behind the scenes is still with us today now more often than not it is believed that amt got the rights to make the enterprise model for doing this as we just heard from gene’s own comment and from this screenshot from wikipedia isn’t it funny like that you know 15 20 years ago we were told don’t believe everything you read on the internet and now when we want to get something factual we go to wikipedia according to documents found in the roddenberry papers maintained at ucla the licensing company that handled licensing for desi lou actually did two separate contracts one for the enterprise and one for the
shuttlecraft they weren’t related in either way now i’ve highlighted the first section in green because it clearly shows the enterprise model was a separate contract and not contingent on the shuttle craft they got the rights to produce the enterprise model by paying a 3 000 advance against royalties that desilu would be owed the second section yellow is what we’re most interested in because it shows that in exchange for amt building the shuttle sets at a budgeted cost of twenty four thousand dollars they would be allowed to retain 50 percent of the royalty profits that were owed to desi lou on the shuttlecraft model sales until they had repaid 12 000 so effectively desilu and amt split the cost of the shuttle sets now however the reason that most people have a tendency to think that they did the shuttlecraft sets for free including gene in the previous video is that amt never started selling the shuttle models until 1970
so up to that point amt had never made a dime on the shuttle and by the time they did get their twelve thousand dollars back over eight years later the only people who were even aware of the transactions were the accountants and that ladies and gentlemen is how urban legends are born now a shuttle had been suggested two different times in season one but was ultimately rejected each time due to costs so when amt began negotiations to license the enterprise the star trek folks decided to bring up the subject of the need for a shuttlecraft set matt jeffries drew up a concept of what the shuttle should look like you can see it here on the screen and the design was sent to amt who then in turn reached out to steve winfield with the proposal looking over it steve immediately realizes they have a problem one desi lou wanted the sets completed within 30 days and there is no way that the beautifully gracious and curved craft that we’re looking at here could actually have been done in 30 days but looking over the other paperwork that
had been sent along with that design steve noticed there was a design for something called a utility craft and that design could be used so he sends back word to matt jeffries matt jeffrey says yeah go with it and then steve immediately goes out reaches out to man by the name of thomas kellogg who was most noted for his work on the studebaker avanti thomas kellogg then designs what we call in phantom today the kellogg shuttlecraft and you see a 3d rendering of it right here he sends that information back to steve steve then changes it into what we see today as the galileo now what you see here is a series of photos that were taken at the shop where jean assembled the galileo she was designed to break into three pieces the main cabin and the tuna cell her inner structural skeleton had been made of steel the outside was made out of masonite covered with fiberglass
lastly sheet metal was used from about midships up to the very top where the inner curve had to be done and here’s a fun fact for you the rear landing strut was an honest to god real life surplus airplane landing strut now it is widely accepted today because we have photographic proof by the way that the amt models were built offset and then shipped desi lou but that was not always the case for the first few decades after the 1970s a lot of key people in star trek fandom said that that was impossible that union rules never would have allowed that to happen offset but what they did to get around the union rules was pretty ingenious steve built the shuttle craft then he shipped it in pieces to desilu where the local union labor force completed the assembly did the painting and the fine detail work this is an extremely unusual step for desilu to take this is the reason why so many people believed that the gallery was built completely on set
additionally for maybe 600 650 a 24 inch studio model was to be supplied by amt for filming in miniature it was originally delivered with just the number 173 on it i have no idea what the 173 meant you can see it in the two photos above as they took some test shots against the blue screen before they would send it off to richard dayton where he would apply the now famous numbers letters pinstriping and of course the name galileo so next we have a few shots showing a more close-up view of the model while doing those same camera tests and then lastly we have a high resolution black and white photo that was discovered in the roddenberry papers by doug drexler i believe which shows us our best detailed look yet of the model before it had been sent off to richard dayton to be finished most unexpectedly was the fact that the top of the model had etched lines in it which no one remembered being there
so now we’ll take a look at a few set shots of the shuttle after dayton finished his exterior work and this photo is just awesome there’s no other way to describe it what you see here is a photo of a very young gentleman named ed baracella and ed if i pronounce your name wrong i am really really sorry but a very lucky young man ed was his father was an engineer at film effects of hollywood which just so happened to be one of the studios where the models were filmed for the tv series as far as i’ve ever been able to tell this is the only production set photo that had ever been taken of both the 11 foot enterprise and the 24 inch shuttlecraft in the same photo now one interesting thing to note on the miniature as it appeared in the series by accident the side decals that dayton used on the model were missing the dash between ncc and 1701 as you can clearly see here in the photo of young ed as well as these two other photos taken here from the series
the model vanished sometime after the series ended and they had assumed for many years that it was lost stolen or maybe even destroyed during a massive purge of old props that paramount did in 1973 however in 1987 the galileo model unexpectedly appeared mike akuda a long time scenic art supervisor on various star trek projects over the years told a story where set decorator john dwyer found the shuttlecraft miniature in storage at paramount he grabs the miniature he comes up to the art department shows it to mike and says do you know what this is now this should tell you how bad the condition of the model was because john dwyer worked on the original series as a set decorator with matt jeffries and probably had even seen this model before although granted it had been 20 years earlier mike however knew instantly what they had found the entire front bulkhead that’s the front panel that has the three windows in the front was gone the overall surface was in really bad
condition crapped and worked the cells themselves had already been snapped off and the corrugated cowlings on the end of each of the cells were missing so they sent it down to the effect shop to have it refurbished but amazingly when it came back to them the effect shop had made a mistake they put a one piece plexiglas front bulkhead across the entire bow instead of three ports in a bulkhead like it was supposed to be how could you work for star trek in the art department and not know what the front of the galileo looked like amazing now in a very fitting gesture though dwyer worked magic and he actually used it as set dressing in riker’s quarters in the very first season of star trek the next generation although as you can see here he did have to point the shuttlecraft away from us to hide the fact that the bulkhead was plexiglas and was wrong one thing the refurbishment people did do properly is they corrected the omission of the dash by putting it back where it belonged in the registry decals
on the side years later the model was given on loan to smithsonian in 1992 to be exhibited as part of the star trek exhibition that was held at the hayden planetarium the shuttlecraft model is still in storage at the smithsonian today now moving back to the full-size sets i have one final observation they weren’t really full-sized sets the external set for the shuttlecraft galileo was actually built at 3 4 scale now this meant that the interior of the shuttle craft was not even six feet tall i think it was somewhere around maybe five five and a half feet somewhere in that area you can clearly see this in the publicity photo here showing nimoy literally like you know half in half out the portal and him having to stoop over very low just to be able to get his head out the door now to compensate for that on the interior set the ceiling was raised and even featured a large area in the center of the ceiling where lights and cameras and microphones could be positioned for the shot here is a rare photo print taken i believe from one of the lincoln enterprise 35 millimeter slides that
they sell which clearly shows the upper removable roof the lights and the microphone hanging behind leonard nimoy’s head in the steel in this same shot as it appeared in the tv series we found out that they pulled out slightly and lowered the frame just enough to hide the open ceiling and mic and at the same time just exposing the very top of the front bulkhead in front of the actors next they actually used much lower chairs because of this they tried to stay away from shots of people standing inside the shuttlecraft sort of like the one we see here with leonard nimoy who immediately tends to remind me of gulliver’s travels the actual footage of this quick scene that this is a snapshot from only ran for 1.3 seconds in order to try to trick the eyes into not noticing that the perspective was being off by using the lower chairs and then lowering the camera just enough to cut out the ceiling mic the illusion of the shuttle is bigger inside is now complete one last thing as you can see in the
photograph on the right hand side the interior set was constructed out of four foot wide sections that could be removed and replaced as needed you can see the seams here this allowed them to remove a section stick a camera in it and shoot from that vantage point sort of like what they did in the bridge those seams are not really visible in the tv show but you can clearly see them in photographs of the set now here’s another fun fact that you will not see anywhere else and was told to me actually by my new friend dave arland the galileo shuttlecraft was on wheels which makes perfect sense when you consider that was designed to be pushed around in a sound stage but those wheels have never really been acknowledged by anyone however during the last restoration that was done by the sliders we have photographs finally of what those wheels look like now when star trek was canceled in 1969 paramount donated the shuttle to the braille institute in los angeles for young children to use as a plaything
unfortunately there were many sharp surfaces and edges that really made it unsafe for children especially visually impaired children the children kept bumping into sharp edges so the institute knew they couldn’t keep this in the meantime roger heisland’s son informed him that he wanted the galileo 7 and the robot from lost in space dream high little guy the heismans were actually quite well off so dear old dad was in fact able to contact the two studios and voila actually was able to buy both props they placed the galileo proudly in their front yard but keep in mind this was an interior set for a sound stage it was never ever designed to be kept outdoors so gradually it began to rot this series of photos were taken on june 20th 1975 by michelle evans who had been introduced to heisman to a mutual friend note the padlock on the doors to prevent people from actually prying them open to get inside
now remember that i mentioned that the heismans were fairly well off well they lived in one of the nicer subdivisions out near los angeles and quite frankly the neighbors did not appreciate the sight of a rotting shuttlecraft in the front yard that was visible to the whole neighborhood so they do what all good neighbors do when they first have a dispute they vandalized the model sometime in around may of 1975 one of them even threw a brick just through the left side of the model’s door you can see a significantly visible hole right here in this photo now the last photo that i have from that day that michelle took is a rare shot indeed of the model from the front and right hand side before we go too much further please notice the buckling of the wood towards the nacelle this shot is rare because the model up to this point had only been shown on tv from the left side all photographs were taken from the left side the port side why were they only taken from the port
side you asked well because that was the side that had the doors in it so as the years would go by the starboard side would be photographed many times but by the time this photo was taken in 1975 it’s the earliest known photo of a starboard side of the galileo now as the years went by even though we did not have the internet for several decades after that star trek conventions were their own form of social media amongst fans and word got out where the galileo was and one by one people would come out and they would have their photographs taken standing next to the galileo there are probably a couple hundred of these photographs around the country but because they were taken in the early 70s these photographs pretty much exist in family albums that are probably covered with dust at this point so it’s very rare to see one i was only able to identify four from this time period but before we get too much further into
the story it’s important that we have to acknowledge a few other facts that also cause confusion with star trek fans to this very day first off there was at least one other full-sized shuttle craft galileo making the rounds at star trek conventions as early as 1976. the photos that you see here are of space 1999 actor nick tate who appeared in a 1976 august party star trek convention at the university of maryland in college park notice the condition of the replica that he posed with and also as you can see from sitting in the chair it had a functional interior which the real one did not now not too long ago i was contacted by someone who may have actually ended up with this very same mock-up and this is what makes the history of the galileo even more obfuscated today at the same time the real one was rotting away this gentleman believed that he had a
screen used shuttlecraft galileo prop still believed it to this day that that was used on screen when we know that the internals were not built in the original shuttlecraft galileo so it couldn’t have been a screen used prop but does it really matter does it matter at all that this young gentleman when he was growing up had a replica of a shuttlecraft rather than an actual one no it doesn’t i mean hey he had a shuttlecraft i didn’t have a shuttlecraft you didn’t have a shuttlecraft he had a shuttlecraft and his childhood memories are the most important things in the world and the very fact that he remembers that fondly and has such a strong bond for star trek transcends the physical nature so it doesn’t really matter his memories and love for that particular shuttlecraft are still valid today even if it wasn’t a screen used shuttlecraft however i did tell you i was going to give you some tricks on how to identify
if a photograph was taken during what i call the heisman era so whenever you’re doing research like this contemporary literature is your greatest friend contemporary journalism even better so i went out and i found a book published in 1988 it has not been published since that contained a bunch of photographs in it and obviously more richly detailed information than most of the time exists on the internet today so using that book as a reference source and you can see it here on the screen it is the ships of star trek by james van heist were able to build a profile of what the shuttle looked like when it was in heisman’s hands now because of the photos in the book we know a couple things one the rear roof had collapsed and the impulse deck grille was completely gone two there are two distinct black gashes in the starboard right side of the shuttlecraft towards the front three the buckled panel that was in heisman’s yard is now missing from the right side four
the nacelle cap front ends have completely rusted off now we know from the earlier photograph that when it was in heisman’s yard the middle window cover was missing by the time it shows up in the storage lot earliest pictures two of the covers are missing and at some point before it left the lot the third and final window cover was missing the dead giveaway that you should always look for for a heisman-era picture are the two gashes on the right starboard side because they didn’t exist at any other time now quite a few people photographed this while it was still in that lot they didn’t necessarily know who owned it but they photographed it and when we see the crushed roof that we’re used to we know that they photographed it in the rebel mini storage facility in los angeles and because we have photographs showing the crushed roof and the vehicles beside the galileo the bus and stuff like that we know that any other photographs showing the galileo with those vehicles beside it were taken here as well so after paying for storage for several years for a model he knew he was never going to
use and never going to fix it was literally just rotting away roger heisman decided it was time to sell the model so he reached out to various fan zines and commercial magazines such as star log his asking price at the time was about fifteen hundred dollars he would later say that a lot of people would ask to see it or ask to see photographs but were immediately disinterested once they found out the condition that the shuttlecraft was in now to be honest there were a few very serious buyers that did contact him but they later reported that they found roger to be very difficult to deal with and they couldn’t come to terms my guess is this type of back and forth banter was they wanted to come down on the price however in 1985 there was a chance encounter in which roger mentioned in passing that he had the original galileo and wanted to sell it the other party that he spoke with contacted their brother a man by the name of steve haskins and a deal to buy the galileo as is for hundred 1800 was quickly made haskins moved the mock-up to another
open storage area this time near san diego he then spent another eight thousand five hundred dollars on its restoration and had the preliminary results displayed at the june 1986 creation entertainment’s 20th anniversary star trek convention in anaheim california just before it appeared at this convention it actually made its very first post-series public appearance at the kobe swap meet that was held in the sports arena parking lot now on its way to the convention the rear left in the cell cowl was damaged and had been removed during transport to anaheim repeatedly requested donations and circulated a petition to have the california museum of science and industry and turret as a display but of course the petition would do no good the museum had already made up their mind and turned the model down saying they just didn’t have the room and they weren’t interested in quote television fiction unquote ouch
at the convention haskins met carlos rivera who volunteered to help out haskins with the restoration and who subsequently did the bulk of the restoration moving the shuttle in november to yet another open storage area this time in thousand palms however once again the cost was too high so they moved it again to a different open storage area in la jolla as would be the case for decades to come the only shelter it would ever receive is an occasional tarp now interestingly enough haskins had been approached by paramount pictures who had expressed an interest in using the shuttle in star trek iv regretfully haskins had to turn down the opportunity because the mock-up was in no shape to be able to be used as a filming prop and haskins wanted to have the restoration completed himself so therefore he wasn’t able to do it on their time frame now while galileo would not be in ready for paramount to use it as a filming prop rivera was able to get it put on display in the parking lot of a local movie theater for a week when star trek four
came out to the best of my knowledge no known photos of this exist at this point somebody out there has one send me a line you know let’s face it the weather damage in california can be severe in the summertime it can get to be as high as 125 you know the winter can hit 35. those type of temperature swings were severe enough to cause the model to begin deteriorating almost immediately again now during this time haskins would go off to law school he arranged for carlos to be responsible for the galileo while he was away as years went on the restoration never really took place and when haskins graduated law school he instructed carlos just to sell the model in 1989 it was eventually sold again this time to an ohio-based fan lynn miller who paid a reported three thousand dollars for now after it was sold it would take about two years before lynn would be able to go to california and take it back home to canton fortunately when she picked it up in april of 1991 we have more than some static screenshots to show you as she
had been working with a local fan club at the beginning of her story and they recorded some video on the day that she arrived to pick up the galileo her plan was to restore the shuttle once again ultimately to display it at the national air and space museum alongside the shooting model of the enterprise is it amazing that all these people were certain that museums wanted the models but they never really discussed it with museums before the purchases now some people view these various owners as being responsible for the long-term neglect due to floor planning but let’s look at what the reality of the situation really is none of these people were professional property stores and if a single one of them hadn’t paid out of their own pocket for things like restorations and storage fees the galileo would not be here today we owe each and every one of them a debt of gratitude even if they were not completely successful in achieving their goals now once they got it back into ohio it
became very very clear that a total restoration was going to be needed it had been stored outside since its release from the studio many years earlier and time weather and abuse had taken its toll on the mostly wooden prop it was apparent that several previous restorations have been attempted in some areas but they were all really cosmetic now these photographs will show you just how much restoration work lynn actually did do on this model the port side panel masonite original from just above the main door all the way back to the stern and just above the wing nacelle was all left original it was still in good shape the stern itself was also in fairly good condition with the exception of the impulse engine being gone and along with the roof as well so the wood framework was stripped and replaced from bow to stern the metal frame was blasted and re-primed the exterior panels were recut and mounted in marine grade plywood and new floorboards were installed in the interior of the deck now to help raise
money for the project she displayed the shuttle seven months later in november of 1991 at lagrangecon convention in cleveland unfortunately it was raining that day so the galileo had to be viewed under a tarp as you can see here no one knew at the time that this was going to be the very last appearance of the model for another 22 years so not long after the convention the relationship between lynn and the convention people deteriorated and their assistance in the restoration work pretty much stopped and it left lynn to have to carry it on all on her own now there’s some back and forth both by landing by them as to who was at fault but doesn’t really matter so she moved the galileo to an industrial site for open storage in akron ohio now later the site owners would say that they never heard from her again and when they tried to reach her via phone number she would never answer the phone during this time people had discovered where it was from looking at like google earth imagery that you’re seeing here at least one fan found it by accident they
went to the site and suggested to the owners that maybe the shuttle needed to be quote unquote rescued but let’s face it there are too many issues and costs involved not to mention the legalities of the situation in 2008 the company went out of business and their property was cleared out the shuttlecraft disappeared it was not known if lynn had come to take it or if some other fan had rescued it or if it was simply bulldozed into oblivion most simply believed it had been destroyed so in 2009 internet fans whipped up a frenzy trying to find this shuttlecraft was it destroyed was it moved what happened has anybody seen it this milk carton is one of the most amazing and hilarious things i ever saw i found it amongst the wreckage of an old website that doesn’t exist anymore and seeing the shuttlecraft on the side of a milk carton with a phrase have you seen me really brings back a lot of childhood memory then miraculously lynn miller
came forward in 2011 with some startling news i originally purchased this to save it but who’s going to save me my mother always said i’d better build a bathroom in it so i was going to end up living in it obviously she disapproved and as in many things looking back she was right this thing will either save me or destroy me after 23 years i am about to sell it one way or the other anyone who who’d like to find it look for it on ebay in the near future if it doesn’t sell for more than the minimum then i guess it’ll either continue to be stored or maybe a partner will help me finish restoring it i’m hopeful that there’s somebody out there who has an interest in owning and finishing the restoration i’ve spent 100 000 over the years trying to restore and to store the thing the photo of it in the scrap yard was actually where it was parked undergoing restoration from a guy who i contracted to do the work i wasn’t told to get it out of here now you have one day to do so i had it hauled to another location
where it is still in storage today now interestingly enough that implies that the owners of the site telling people they couldn’t get up with her didn’t really have that communications issue they just chose not to let people know that they were still in contact with her so after all the years of sinking money into it and not having any end in sight she finally put the galileo up for auction at the local auction house kiko auctioneers where it sold for sixty one thousand dollars on june 28 2012. the above video actually shows the condition of the galileo 20 years to the day apart now adam and his wife leslie are fairly well known star trek collectors who have been in possession of many quality props such at one point enterprise e that adam is shown here with having the resources to effectively manage the restoration to its total conclusion was something no other owners had ever had when they owned the galileo
additionally the galileo was taken to a mastership right in new jersey to have them perform the restoration after all who better to do a restoration than someone who is skilled at refinishing sailboats and small ships now there have been tons of stories and photos and tv shows on this restoration so i’m not going to communicate to you again what you probably already know most people even think this is the only restoration which in all honesty is one of the reasons i did this video was to show that other people had tried their best but it was up to adam and leslie to bring it home for us these photos represent the galileo the day they picked her up but if you thought the galileo’s penchant for drama was over you were very wrong not long after they began the restoration hurricane sandy made a beeline straight for the jersey shore while there was not much anyone could do after all it was a hurricane they did decide to hoist her into the air as high as they could in the event that things flooded
luckily that turned out to be a very wise decision as the area did flood but the galileo was held above the worst of the flooding now before we move on though i really have to stop here and have a few respectful comments about the seriousness of hurricane sandy and the indomitable will to survive by the local residents you see when i was a little boy in august of 1969 my family and i had to wait out tropical storm camille in a little trailer just outside of wildwood new jersey while i was nowhere near old enough to understand the danger we were in i remember to this day vividly the look on my mother’s face as she waited for the storm to pass and for that i have to show you just a little clip to let you know how serious sandy was in new jersey
after nine months of restoration effort the galileo was donated to the space center houston visitor center for nasa’s johnson space center on july 31st 2013 amazingly though not only would the galileo be completely restored probably in better condition than she ever was but it would also serve one more time as a filming pro the star trek fan series star trek continues was able to obtain permission to film a sequence of their third episode the fairest of them all with the galileo while it was still in the museum utilizing modern green screen technology all previous filming of the model in the original series was done using matte
paintings in the background the galileo was pressed into service one final time for captain kirk you won’t get away with this spock you’re just one man in every revolution there is one man with a vision who told you that you did over the next few years she was given out on loan to the intrepid museum in new york where she sat fittingly beside the space shuttle enterprise and that as they say is the rest of the story if you’ve enjoyed this video please be sure to like it so that other people can find it as well and subscribe if you’d like to be notified of the next video in our series until next time live long and prosper
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Uncovering the Lost Mystery of the Galileo: Star Trek’s Biggest Secret! – YouTube
[Music] hi there 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 of all the props used in the original tv series the galileo shuttlecraft has the most fascinating cinderella story passed from one owner to another over the past 50 years it has been restored several times and has been left out to rot in the wind rain heat and cold over and over again but thanks to the passionate dedication of less than a handful of people somehow through all of this drama and neglect the model is still with us today like a cat with nine lives the galileo simply refuses to die so join us after the break as we take a look at what is perhaps the most
enigmatic studio model to ever come out of a television series [Music] put your feet up and get comfy because we are going back to the very very beginning of star trek history in the first season of the original tv show the model kit company amt had expressed an interest in purchasing the licensing rights to make model kits based off of star trek it was during one of the subsequent conversations that some folks came up with the idea that perhaps desilu and amt could come to some kind of arrangement so let’s let gene winfield the man who actually built the galileo explain it i went to the studio with a representative from emt and we negotiated the deal to build the galileo and give it to the studio completely free so that amt could
build the enterprise into the model kit form it is at this point in time that we encounter the first of many inconsistencies in star trek fandom over what actually happened when this occurs you generally get two sides battling it out over which side is considered the truth now to be perfectly honest this is normally caused by the fact that let’s face it 50 years have gone by and not everyone who actually saw what happened behind the scenes is still with us today now more often than not it is believed that amt got the rights to make the enterprise model for doing this as we just heard from gene’s own comment and from this screenshot from wikipedia isn’t it funny like that you know 15 20 years ago we were told don’t believe everything you read on the internet and now when we want to get something factual we go to wikipedia according to documents found in the roddenberry papers maintained at ucla the licensing company that handled licensing for desi lou actually did two separate contracts one for the enterprise and one for the
shuttlecraft they weren’t related in either way now i’ve highlighted the first section in green because it clearly shows the enterprise model was a separate contract and not contingent on the shuttle craft they got the rights to produce the enterprise model by paying a 3 000 advance against royalties that desilu would be owed the second section yellow is what we’re most interested in because it shows that in exchange for amt building the shuttle sets at a budgeted cost of twenty four thousand dollars they would be allowed to retain 50 percent of the royalty profits that were owed to desi lou on the shuttlecraft model sales until they had repaid 12 000 so effectively desilu and amt split the cost of the shuttle sets now however the reason that most people have a tendency to think that they did the shuttlecraft sets for free including gene in the previous video is that amt never started selling the shuttle models until 1970
so up to that point amt had never made a dime on the shuttle and by the time they did get their twelve thousand dollars back over eight years later the only people who were even aware of the transactions were the accountants and that ladies and gentlemen is how urban legends are born now a shuttle had been suggested two different times in season one but was ultimately rejected each time due to costs so when amt began negotiations to license the enterprise the star trek folks decided to bring up the subject of the need for a shuttlecraft set matt jeffries drew up a concept of what the shuttle should look like you can see it here on the screen and the design was sent to amt who then in turn reached out to steve winfield with the proposal looking over it steve immediately realizes they have a problem one desi lou wanted the sets completed within 30 days and there is no way that the beautifully gracious and curved craft that we’re looking at here could actually have been done in 30 days but looking over the other paperwork that
had been sent along with that design steve noticed there was a design for something called a utility craft and that design could be used so he sends back word to matt jeffries matt jeffrey says yeah go with it and then steve immediately goes out reaches out to man by the name of thomas kellogg who was most noted for his work on the studebaker avanti thomas kellogg then designs what we call in phantom today the kellogg shuttlecraft and you see a 3d rendering of it right here he sends that information back to steve steve then changes it into what we see today as the galileo now what you see here is a series of photos that were taken at the shop where jean assembled the galileo she was designed to break into three pieces the main cabin and the tuna cell her inner structural skeleton had been made of steel the outside was made out of masonite covered with fiberglass
lastly sheet metal was used from about midships up to the very top where the inner curve had to be done and here’s a fun fact for you the rear landing strut was an honest to god real life surplus airplane landing strut now it is widely accepted today because we have photographic proof by the way that the amt models were built offset and then shipped desi lou but that was not always the case for the first few decades after the 1970s a lot of key people in star trek fandom said that that was impossible that union rules never would have allowed that to happen offset but what they did to get around the union rules was pretty ingenious steve built the shuttle craft then he shipped it in pieces to desilu where the local union labor force completed the assembly did the painting and the fine detail work this is an extremely unusual step for desilu to take this is the reason why so many people believed that the gallery was built completely on set
additionally for maybe 600 650 a 24 inch studio model was to be supplied by amt for filming in miniature it was originally delivered with just the number 173 on it i have no idea what the 173 meant you can see it in the two photos above as they took some test shots against the blue screen before they would send it off to richard dayton where he would apply the now famous numbers letters pinstriping and of course the name galileo so next we have a few shots showing a more close-up view of the model while doing those same camera tests and then lastly we have a high resolution black and white photo that was discovered in the roddenberry papers by doug drexler i believe which shows us our best detailed look yet of the model before it had been sent off to richard dayton to be finished most unexpectedly was the fact that the top of the model had etched lines in it which no one remembered being there
so now we’ll take a look at a few set shots of the shuttle after dayton finished his exterior work and this photo is just awesome there’s no other way to describe it what you see here is a photo of a very young gentleman named ed baracella and ed if i pronounce your name wrong i am really really sorry but a very lucky young man ed was his father was an engineer at film effects of hollywood which just so happened to be one of the studios where the models were filmed for the tv series as far as i’ve ever been able to tell this is the only production set photo that had ever been taken of both the 11 foot enterprise and the 24 inch shuttlecraft in the same photo now one interesting thing to note on the miniature as it appeared in the series by accident the side decals that dayton used on the model were missing the dash between ncc and 1701 as you can clearly see here in the photo of young ed as well as these two other photos taken here from the series
the model vanished sometime after the series ended and they had assumed for many years that it was lost stolen or maybe even destroyed during a massive purge of old props that paramount did in 1973 however in 1987 the galileo model unexpectedly appeared mike akuda a long time scenic art supervisor on various star trek projects over the years told a story where set decorator john dwyer found the shuttlecraft miniature in storage at paramount he grabs the miniature he comes up to the art department shows it to mike and says do you know what this is now this should tell you how bad the condition of the model was because john dwyer worked on the original series as a set decorator with matt jeffries and probably had even seen this model before although granted it had been 20 years earlier mike however knew instantly what they had found the entire front bulkhead that’s the front panel that has the three windows in the front was gone the overall surface was in really bad
condition crapped and worked the cells themselves had already been snapped off and the corrugated cowlings on the end of each of the cells were missing so they sent it down to the effect shop to have it refurbished but amazingly when it came back to them the effect shop had made a mistake they put a one piece plexiglas front bulkhead across the entire bow instead of three ports in a bulkhead like it was supposed to be how could you work for star trek in the art department and not know what the front of the galileo looked like amazing now in a very fitting gesture though dwyer worked magic and he actually used it as set dressing in riker’s quarters in the very first season of star trek the next generation although as you can see here he did have to point the shuttlecraft away from us to hide the fact that the bulkhead was plexiglas and was wrong one thing the refurbishment people did do properly is they corrected the omission of the dash by putting it back where it belonged in the registry decals
on the side years later the model was given on loan to smithsonian in 1992 to be exhibited as part of the star trek exhibition that was held at the hayden planetarium the shuttlecraft model is still in storage at the smithsonian today now moving back to the full-size sets i have one final observation they weren’t really full-sized sets the external set for the shuttlecraft galileo was actually built at 3 4 scale now this meant that the interior of the shuttle craft was not even six feet tall i think it was somewhere around maybe five five and a half feet somewhere in that area you can clearly see this in the publicity photo here showing nimoy literally like you know half in half out the portal and him having to stoop over very low just to be able to get his head out the door now to compensate for that on the interior set the ceiling was raised and even featured a large area in the center of the ceiling where lights and cameras and microphones could be positioned for the shot here is a rare photo print taken i believe from one of the lincoln enterprise 35 millimeter slides that
they sell which clearly shows the upper removable roof the lights and the microphone hanging behind leonard nimoy’s head in the steel in this same shot as it appeared in the tv series we found out that they pulled out slightly and lowered the frame just enough to hide the open ceiling and mic and at the same time just exposing the very top of the front bulkhead in front of the actors next they actually used much lower chairs because of this they tried to stay away from shots of people standing inside the shuttlecraft sort of like the one we see here with leonard nimoy who immediately tends to remind me of gulliver’s travels the actual footage of this quick scene that this is a snapshot from only ran for 1.3 seconds in order to try to trick the eyes into not noticing that the perspective was being off by using the lower chairs and then lowering the camera just enough to cut out the ceiling mic the illusion of the shuttle is bigger inside is now complete one last thing as you can see in the
photograph on the right hand side the interior set was constructed out of four foot wide sections that could be removed and replaced as needed you can see the seams here this allowed them to remove a section stick a camera in it and shoot from that vantage point sort of like what they did in the bridge those seams are not really visible in the tv show but you can clearly see them in photographs of the set now here’s another fun fact that you will not see anywhere else and was told to me actually by my new friend dave arland the galileo shuttlecraft was on wheels which makes perfect sense when you consider that was designed to be pushed around in a sound stage but those wheels have never really been acknowledged by anyone however during the last restoration that was done by the sliders we have photographs finally of what those wheels look like now when star trek was canceled in 1969 paramount donated the shuttle to the braille institute in los angeles for young children to use as a plaything
unfortunately there were many sharp surfaces and edges that really made it unsafe for children especially visually impaired children the children kept bumping into sharp edges so the institute knew they couldn’t keep this in the meantime roger heisland’s son informed him that he wanted the galileo 7 and the robot from lost in space dream high little guy the heismans were actually quite well off so dear old dad was in fact able to contact the two studios and voila actually was able to buy both props they placed the galileo proudly in their front yard but keep in mind this was an interior set for a sound stage it was never ever designed to be kept outdoors so gradually it began to rot this series of photos were taken on june 20th 1975 by michelle evans who had been introduced to heisman to a mutual friend note the padlock on the doors to prevent people from actually prying them open to get inside
now remember that i mentioned that the heismans were fairly well off well they lived in one of the nicer subdivisions out near los angeles and quite frankly the neighbors did not appreciate the sight of a rotting shuttlecraft in the front yard that was visible to the whole neighborhood so they do what all good neighbors do when they first have a dispute they vandalized the model sometime in around may of 1975 one of them even threw a brick just through the left side of the model’s door you can see a significantly visible hole right here in this photo now the last photo that i have from that day that michelle took is a rare shot indeed of the model from the front and right hand side before we go too much further please notice the buckling of the wood towards the nacelle this shot is rare because the model up to this point had only been shown on tv from the left side all photographs were taken from the left side the port side why were they only taken from the port
side you asked well because that was the side that had the doors in it so as the years would go by the starboard side would be photographed many times but by the time this photo was taken in 1975 it’s the earliest known photo of a starboard side of the galileo now as the years went by even though we did not have the internet for several decades after that star trek conventions were their own form of social media amongst fans and word got out where the galileo was and one by one people would come out and they would have their photographs taken standing next to the galileo there are probably a couple hundred of these photographs around the country but because they were taken in the early 70s these photographs pretty much exist in family albums that are probably covered with dust at this point so it’s very rare to see one i was only able to identify four from this time period but before we get too much further into
the story it’s important that we have to acknowledge a few other facts that also cause confusion with star trek fans to this very day first off there was at least one other full-sized shuttle craft galileo making the rounds at star trek conventions as early as 1976. the photos that you see here are of space 1999 actor nick tate who appeared in a 1976 august party star trek convention at the university of maryland in college park notice the condition of the replica that he posed with and also as you can see from sitting in the chair it had a functional interior which the real one did not now not too long ago i was contacted by someone who may have actually ended up with this very same mock-up and this is what makes the history of the galileo even more obfuscated today at the same time the real one was rotting away this gentleman believed that he had a
screen used shuttlecraft galileo prop still believed it to this day that that was used on screen when we know that the internals were not built in the original shuttlecraft galileo so it couldn’t have been a screen used prop but does it really matter does it matter at all that this young gentleman when he was growing up had a replica of a shuttlecraft rather than an actual one no it doesn’t i mean hey he had a shuttlecraft i didn’t have a shuttlecraft you didn’t have a shuttlecraft he had a shuttlecraft and his childhood memories are the most important things in the world and the very fact that he remembers that fondly and has such a strong bond for star trek transcends the physical nature so it doesn’t really matter his memories and love for that particular shuttlecraft are still valid today even if it wasn’t a screen used shuttlecraft however i did tell you i was going to give you some tricks on how to identify
if a photograph was taken during what i call the heisman era so whenever you’re doing research like this contemporary literature is your greatest friend contemporary journalism even better so i went out and i found a book published in 1988 it has not been published since that contained a bunch of photographs in it and obviously more richly detailed information than most of the time exists on the internet today so using that book as a reference source and you can see it here on the screen it is the ships of star trek by james van heist were able to build a profile of what the shuttle looked like when it was in heisman’s hands now because of the photos in the book we know a couple things one the rear roof had collapsed and the impulse deck grille was completely gone two there are two distinct black gashes in the starboard right side of the shuttlecraft towards the front three the buckled panel that was in heisman’s yard is now missing from the right side four
the nacelle cap front ends have completely rusted off now we know from the earlier photograph that when it was in heisman’s yard the middle window cover was missing by the time it shows up in the storage lot earliest pictures two of the covers are missing and at some point before it left the lot the third and final window cover was missing the dead giveaway that you should always look for for a heisman-era picture are the two gashes on the right starboard side because they didn’t exist at any other time now quite a few people photographed this while it was still in that lot they didn’t necessarily know who owned it but they photographed it and when we see the crushed roof that we’re used to we know that they photographed it in the rebel mini storage facility in los angeles and because we have photographs showing the crushed roof and the vehicles beside the galileo the bus and stuff like that we know that any other photographs showing the galileo with those vehicles beside it were taken here as well so after paying for storage for several years for a model he knew he was never going to
use and never going to fix it was literally just rotting away roger heisman decided it was time to sell the model so he reached out to various fan zines and commercial magazines such as star log his asking price at the time was about fifteen hundred dollars he would later say that a lot of people would ask to see it or ask to see photographs but were immediately disinterested once they found out the condition that the shuttlecraft was in now to be honest there were a few very serious buyers that did contact him but they later reported that they found roger to be very difficult to deal with and they couldn’t come to terms my guess is this type of back and forth banter was they wanted to come down on the price however in 1985 there was a chance encounter in which roger mentioned in passing that he had the original galileo and wanted to sell it the other party that he spoke with contacted their brother a man by the name of steve haskins and a deal to buy the galileo as is for hundred 1800 was quickly made haskins moved the mock-up to another
open storage area this time near san diego he then spent another eight thousand five hundred dollars on its restoration and had the preliminary results displayed at the june 1986 creation entertainment’s 20th anniversary star trek convention in anaheim california just before it appeared at this convention it actually made its very first post-series public appearance at the kobe swap meet that was held in the sports arena parking lot now on its way to the convention the rear left in the cell cowl was damaged and had been removed during transport to anaheim repeatedly requested donations and circulated a petition to have the california museum of science and industry and turret as a display but of course the petition would do no good the museum had already made up their mind and turned the model down saying they just didn’t have the room and they weren’t interested in quote television fiction unquote ouch
at the convention haskins met carlos rivera who volunteered to help out haskins with the restoration and who subsequently did the bulk of the restoration moving the shuttle in november to yet another open storage area this time in thousand palms however once again the cost was too high so they moved it again to a different open storage area in la jolla as would be the case for decades to come the only shelter it would ever receive is an occasional tarp now interestingly enough haskins had been approached by paramount pictures who had expressed an interest in using the shuttle in star trek iv regretfully haskins had to turn down the opportunity because the mock-up was in no shape to be able to be used as a filming prop and haskins wanted to have the restoration completed himself so therefore he wasn’t able to do it on their time frame now while galileo would not be in ready for paramount to use it as a filming prop rivera was able to get it put on display in the parking lot of a local movie theater for a week when star trek four
came out to the best of my knowledge no known photos of this exist at this point somebody out there has one send me a line you know let’s face it the weather damage in california can be severe in the summertime it can get to be as high as 125 you know the winter can hit 35. those type of temperature swings were severe enough to cause the model to begin deteriorating almost immediately again now during this time haskins would go off to law school he arranged for carlos to be responsible for the galileo while he was away as years went on the restoration never really took place and when haskins graduated law school he instructed carlos just to sell the model in 1989 it was eventually sold again this time to an ohio-based fan lynn miller who paid a reported three thousand dollars for now after it was sold it would take about two years before lynn would be able to go to california and take it back home to canton fortunately when she picked it up in april of 1991 we have more than some static screenshots to show you as she
had been working with a local fan club at the beginning of her story and they recorded some video on the day that she arrived to pick up the galileo her plan was to restore the shuttle once again ultimately to display it at the national air and space museum alongside the shooting model of the enterprise is it amazing that all these people were certain that museums wanted the models but they never really discussed it with museums before the purchases now some people view these various owners as being responsible for the long-term neglect due to floor planning but let’s look at what the reality of the situation really is none of these people were professional property stores and if a single one of them hadn’t paid out of their own pocket for things like restorations and storage fees the galileo would not be here today we owe each and every one of them a debt of gratitude even if they were not completely successful in achieving their goals now once they got it back into ohio it
became very very clear that a total restoration was going to be needed it had been stored outside since its release from the studio many years earlier and time weather and abuse had taken its toll on the mostly wooden prop it was apparent that several previous restorations have been attempted in some areas but they were all really cosmetic now these photographs will show you just how much restoration work lynn actually did do on this model the port side panel masonite original from just above the main door all the way back to the stern and just above the wing nacelle was all left original it was still in good shape the stern itself was also in fairly good condition with the exception of the impulse engine being gone and along with the roof as well so the wood framework was stripped and replaced from bow to stern the metal frame was blasted and re-primed the exterior panels were recut and mounted in marine grade plywood and new floorboards were installed in the interior of the deck now to help raise
money for the project she displayed the shuttle seven months later in november of 1991 at lagrangecon convention in cleveland unfortunately it was raining that day so the galileo had to be viewed under a tarp as you can see here no one knew at the time that this was going to be the very last appearance of the model for another 22 years so not long after the convention the relationship between lynn and the convention people deteriorated and their assistance in the restoration work pretty much stopped and it left lynn to have to carry it on all on her own now there’s some back and forth both by landing by them as to who was at fault but doesn’t really matter so she moved the galileo to an industrial site for open storage in akron ohio now later the site owners would say that they never heard from her again and when they tried to reach her via phone number she would never answer the phone during this time people had discovered where it was from looking at like google earth imagery that you’re seeing here at least one fan found it by accident they
went to the site and suggested to the owners that maybe the shuttle needed to be quote unquote rescued but let’s face it there are too many issues and costs involved not to mention the legalities of the situation in 2008 the company went out of business and their property was cleared out the shuttlecraft disappeared it was not known if lynn had come to take it or if some other fan had rescued it or if it was simply bulldozed into oblivion most simply believed it had been destroyed so in 2009 internet fans whipped up a frenzy trying to find this shuttlecraft was it destroyed was it moved what happened has anybody seen it this milk carton is one of the most amazing and hilarious things i ever saw i found it amongst the wreckage of an old website that doesn’t exist anymore and seeing the shuttlecraft on the side of a milk carton with a phrase have you seen me really brings back a lot of childhood memory then miraculously lynn miller
came forward in 2011 with some startling news i originally purchased this to save it but who’s going to save me my mother always said i’d better build a bathroom in it so i was going to end up living in it obviously she disapproved and as in many things looking back she was right this thing will either save me or destroy me after 23 years i am about to sell it one way or the other anyone who who’d like to find it look for it on ebay in the near future if it doesn’t sell for more than the minimum then i guess it’ll either continue to be stored or maybe a partner will help me finish restoring it i’m hopeful that there’s somebody out there who has an interest in owning and finishing the restoration i’ve spent 100 000 over the years trying to restore and to store the thing the photo of it in the scrap yard was actually where it was parked undergoing restoration from a guy who i contracted to do the work i wasn’t told to get it out of here now you have one day to do so i had it hauled to another location
where it is still in storage today now interestingly enough that implies that the owners of the site telling people they couldn’t get up with her didn’t really have that communications issue they just chose not to let people know that they were still in contact with her so after all the years of sinking money into it and not having any end in sight she finally put the galileo up for auction at the local auction house kiko auctioneers where it sold for sixty one thousand dollars on june 28 2012. the above video actually shows the condition of the galileo 20 years to the day apart now adam and his wife leslie are fairly well known star trek collectors who have been in possession of many quality props such at one point enterprise e that adam is shown here with having the resources to effectively manage the restoration to its total conclusion was something no other owners had ever had when they owned the galileo
additionally the galileo was taken to a mastership right in new jersey to have them perform the restoration after all who better to do a restoration than someone who is skilled at refinishing sailboats and small ships now there have been tons of stories and photos and tv shows on this restoration so i’m not going to communicate to you again what you probably already know most people even think this is the only restoration which in all honesty is one of the reasons i did this video was to show that other people had tried their best but it was up to adam and leslie to bring it home for us these photos represent the galileo the day they picked her up but if you thought the galileo’s penchant for drama was over you were very wrong not long after they began the restoration hurricane sandy made a beeline straight for the jersey shore while there was not much anyone could do after all it was a hurricane they did decide to hoist her into the air as high as they could in the event that things flooded
luckily that turned out to be a very wise decision as the area did flood but the galileo was held above the worst of the flooding now before we move on though i really have to stop here and have a few respectful comments about the seriousness of hurricane sandy and the indomitable will to survive by the local residents you see when i was a little boy in august of 1969 my family and i had to wait out tropical storm camille in a little trailer just outside of wildwood new jersey while i was nowhere near old enough to understand the danger we were in i remember to this day vividly the look on my mother’s face as she waited for the storm to pass and for that i have to show you just a little clip to let you know how serious sandy was in new jersey
after nine months of restoration effort the galileo was donated to the space center houston visitor center for nasa’s johnson space center on july 31st 2013 amazingly though not only would the galileo be completely restored probably in better condition than she ever was but it would also serve one more time as a filming pro the star trek fan series star trek continues was able to obtain permission to film a sequence of their third episode the fairest of them all with the galileo while it was still in the museum utilizing modern green screen technology all previous filming of the model in the original series was done using matte
paintings in the background the galileo was pressed into service one final time for captain kirk you won’t get away with this spock you’re just one man in every revolution there is one man with a vision who told you that you did over the next few years she was given out on loan to the intrepid museum in new york where she sat fittingly beside the space shuttle enterprise and that as they say is the rest of the story if you’ve enjoyed this video please be sure to like it so that other people can find it as well and subscribe if you’d like to be notified of the next video in our series until next time live long and prosper
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