Friday, February 1, 2013

U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701

Here are some images of Polar Lights 1/350 scale U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 from "Star Trek" the original series.
Anyway you look at this kit it is a fine piece of craftsmanship. This kit is the most perfect TOS Enterprise kit I think you will find on the market today, and there are a lot of them.
My one complaint though is the price. This whole model wound up costing me close to $400 CDN to complete.
$191 for the kit, $180 for the lighting pack, and that's not the deluxe lighting pack with all the extra photo etch parts and weathering decals, just the regular one. Plus paints and supplies. As I was going to be doing my own weathering anyway, the weathering decals weren't necessary. The photo etch parts would have been nice but in my view not really necessary.
When you compare the price for the refit Enterprise today which is $120, the TOS Enterprise bares a pretty hefty price tag.

Star Trek art director Matt Jefferies designed the original Enterprise, which was originally named Yorktown in series creator Gene Roddenberry's first outline drafts of the series. Jeffries' experience with aviation led to his Enterprise designs being imbued with what he called "aircraft logic". The ship's "NCC-1701" registry number stemmed from "NC" being one of the international aircraft registration codes assigned to aircraft registered in the United States; the second "C" was added for differentiation. The "1701" was chosen in order to avoid any possible ambiguity; according to Jefferies, the numbers 3, 6, 8 and 9 are "too easily confused". Other sources cite it as a reference to the house across the street from where Roddenberry grew up, while another account gives it as the street address of Linwood Dunn. Jefferies' own sketches provide the explanation that it was his 17th cruiser design with the first serial number of that series: 1701. The Making of Star Trek explains that "USS" should mean "United Space Ship" and that "the Enterprise is a member of the Starship Class".

The original production model on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
The first miniature built for the pilot episode "The Cage" (1965) was unlit and approximately 3 feet (90 cm) long. It was modified during the course of the series to match the changes eventually made to the larger miniature, and appears on-set in "Requiem for Methuselah" (1969). The second miniature built for the original pilot measures 11 feet 2 inches (3.40 m) long and was built by a small crew of model makers, Volmer Jensen, Mel Keys, and Vernon Sion, and supervised by Richard Datin, working out of Jensen's model shop in Burbank, California. It was initially filmed by both Howard A. Anderson and Linwood G. Dunn at Dunn's Film Effects of Hollywood facility, who also re-filmed later more-elaborate models of the ship, generating a variety of stock footage that could be used in later episodes.
Initially, the model was static and had no electronics. For the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (1966), various details were altered, and the starboard window ports and running lights were internally illuminated. When the series was picked up and went into production, the model was altered yet again. These alterations included the addition of translucent domes and blinking lights at the forward ends of the engine nacelles, smaller domes at the stern end of the engine nacelles, a shorter bridge dome, and a smaller deflector/sensor dish. Save for re-used footage from the two pilot episodes, this was the appearance of the ship throughout the series. The 11-foot model stands in the Gift Shop downstairs at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Greg Jein created a model of the original Enterprise for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" (1996). Jein's model was built to be exactly half the size of the larger of the two original models, and later appeared in the 1998 Star Trek wall calendar. In addition, a CGI model of the ship makes a brief cameo appearance at the end of the final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise, "These Are the Voyages..." (2005), and another CGI version was created for remastered episodes of the original Star Trek, based on the model in the Smithsonian.

4 comments:

  1. I visited Lin Dunn at his home in Burbank, California in 1986. The street address was 1701 Evergreen Street.

    Here is a photo of Lin at home in '86, and a photo of his former Burbank home.

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  2. Thanks for the story Ellsworth. I just wish I could see the pic. It's not coming through for some reason.

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  3. Sorry - here are a couple of links:

    http://usefulbulk.com/lindunn/lin1986.jpg

    http://usefulbulk.com/lindunn/linhouse.jpg

    Coincidentally, yesterday was #startrekday. Two of my friends have been motion-control cinematographers for Star Trek television and feature films. Another friend worked with the 11-foot NCC-1701 model at the Udvar-Hazy Center at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum that’s probably pictured here with Lin Dunn:

    https://airandspace.si.edu/multimedia-gallery/426072299jpg

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  4. Thanks Ellsworth! Very cool! Linwood's shots are iconic! Permanently burned into my brain from childhood on.
    You know I think I have that calendar, or something similar. Not sure of the year though. I should go and see if I can dig it up

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