From yesterday, December 29, in 1964: Craftsmen Richard Datin, Vern Sion, Mel Keys, and Volmer Jensen pose outside of Jensen's Los Angeles model shop with the just-completed original 11-foot version of the starship Enterprise.
It's obviously been a long and exhausting project for these guys, but I think -- if you look closely (by which I mean double click on the photo to enlarge it) -- you can sort of tell that they knew EXACTLY what they had wrought.
8 comments:
That is so cool. And your timing is perfect --
Last night for the first time we watched the entire "Tribbles" trilogy -- "The Trouble With" from the original series, the tribbles episode from the animated series, and "Trials and Tribble-ations" from Deep Space 9.
Yes, I have deep nerd-based shame this morning.
So where's that photo from originally?
Not sure -- Tom Tomorrow put it up a few months ago over at his site, which is where I first beheld it...
Here's some shots of the "miniature" in action:
http://cloudster.com/Sets&Vehicles/STEnterprise/11footMiniature.htm
That BG post was me, obviously. I regret the error.
It is now in the Smithsonian, and kind of the worse for wear. In addition to the strain of years of filming and the intervening time when it was deteriorating in various forms of neglectful storage, there were a couple of misguided 'restoration' attempts.
I think a recent restoration did a much better job, if my knowledge is correct, but the difficulty is the changes to the original construction are hard to repair.
Also, I presume this is the pilot model; lights weren't added till the first season, so the left side (the side the builders are standing on) was routed and cut open to allow wiring and access to the interior. That's why you never see that side in the original episodes.
OK, I am putting my geek flag down now.
Cool. I especially like the cars in the pic.
One of the most amazing things ever built.
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