NCC-1701 USS Enterprise - conservation starts at the Smithsonian

[bootneck]

USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Stardate 1601.28: After a year of extensive research, conservation work on the original studio model of the USS Enterprise is now underway in the Museum’s spacedock. Our goal is to stabilize the model and return it to its appearance from August of 1967, during the filming of the episode The Trouble with Tribbles, which marked the last known modification of the ship during the production of Star Trek. The model appeared in all 79 episodes of the original series, and was donated to the Smithsonian in 1974. It will go back on public display in the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall this year, in time for the Museum’s 40^th birthday in July and the 50^th anniversary of Star Trek in September. Visitors to our third annual Open House at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center on Saturday, January 30 can catch a glimpse of the work in progress.

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[whitestar12chris]

Saw this elsewhere, great to see, will be interesting to see original paint colour of the model.

Chris

[Tarkas]

Good to see that the Smithsonian is doing their research in order to restore the E to the glory of her heyday in the 60s, but they do seem to be setting themselves up for criticism by not being consistent about what version they're aiming for: first, they say they intend to restore her as she was in August 1967 and thereafter, but later they say that they are going to recreate the very first paint from the first pilot episode, which their own research indicates was under at least two further layers of paint by 1967!

Of course, they're on a hiding to nothing anyway, as any choice they make will be decried by all sorts of people -- as may be seen already on their website, where writers are complaining that the first pilot scheme will be wrong with the later bridge and nacelle modifications, and that the new LED lighting int he forward nacelle caps won't look right without using motors as the production crew did, etc., etc., etc.. Frankly, they have my sympathy, because if there was ever a case of "You can't please everyone", this is it. Heck, I'm prepared to bet that someone will complain if they restore her starboard side on the grounds that it wasn't like that during filming!

I just want them to restore and preserve her properly, so that we can continue to see her for many years to come. There are certain things I'd like them to do, like not weather her anything like as heavily as they did in 1991, but that seems to be happening. Make her look like the beautiful ship we saw (and can still see) on screen, and I'll be happy. Good luck to them, and I am totally envious of the people who visited the Udvar-Hazy Center and saw her at the end of January.