The 11-foot TOS Enterprise model-

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Lance wrote:

---

I say: clean it up, and display it in the proud fashion that it deserves.

Well, first of all it's competing for space with the whole modern real world history of flight. This is one reason it's been moved around so much over the years.

At least in the glass case in the gift shop it seems to have found a long-term home where it can be displayed at eye level (it was briefly displayed this way on the museum floor after its return from a national tour in the 90s; other than that it's always been hung from the ceiling somewhere or another).

Notably, your other examples - Kermit and the ruby slippers - are part of the collection of the National Museum of American History, which is where other TV and movie exhibits are displayed and where many at the Smithsonian have always believed the Enterprise actually belongs.

And finally - fine, display it. How? I suppose I'd rather see it supported in the plexiglass truss arrangement than gutted and rebuilt. Everybody talks about how it's so important an "artifact" but it seems as if a lot of folks just view it as a sideshow exhibit - its preservation being less important than the opportunity to gawk at it. Skinning it on a more durable metal armature is not preservation by any stretch.

[plynch]

I'm not a curator, so I do not know how to display it. If it needs a truss, fine.

I, also, journeyed a long way to see it, and it looked weird. Still cool to be in her presence, but it was "off," for sure, compared to what my eyes saw for 35 years on TV. I understand the restorer restored it so it would photograph to look like it did on tv. But I was going there to see it with my eyes, not make a new TV series with it under Klieg lights.

[Ronald Held]

Maybe Alec and Adam can raise money for this restoration after the Galileo is restored?

[M'Sharak]

My Name Is Legion wrote:

---

Here's a lengthy blog post that contains, among other things, detailed information about the condition of the model upon its arrival at NASM and the several restorations it's undergone:

http://enterproject.wordpress.com/20...ther-versions/

Awesome. And bookmarked.

[Admiral Buzzkill]

You know, to the National Museum of American History the Enterprise would be a prized exhibit; you can bet they'd lavish attention on it. At various times over the decades NASM as treated the thing either reasonably well or as something of a white elephant. The competition to be put in charge of the 25th anniversary exhibit was not, shall we say, particularly intense. It was only after the exhibit opened and brought tremendous visitor traffic that it was really appreciated (and probably paved the way for the Star Wars exhibit a few years later).

[ZapBrannigan]

My Name Is Legion wrote:

---

You know, to the National Museum of American History the Enterprise would be a prized exhibit; you can bet they'd lavish attention on it.

I agree, NASM is the wrong place for the Enterprise. Putting it there inadvertantly highlights its unreality, among all those real planes and spacecraft. Ideally, the model should be where it can share a common dignity with other fictional things.

[Maurice]

^^^Write your congresspeeps.

[Therin of Andor]

My Name Is Legion wrote:

---

You know, to the National Museum of American History the Enterprise would be a prized exhibit; you can bet they'd lavish attention on it.

At the moment, almost one-half of the National Museum of American History is closed off to the public and under major reconstruction. Very little of its US TV and movie material was on display. I assume a huge reopening is planned?

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a plan to move the Enterprise model there. The woman who seemed to be the manager of the Air & Space gift shop told me that the model was under scrutiny by some higher-ups only a few weeks ago, and she expected they wanted to find a different location for it.

[bbailey861]

M'Sharak wrote:

---

Awesome. And bookmarked.

Indeed, and I have bookmarked as well. Thank you.

[plynch]

I have started a White House petition to re-restore, preserve, and move the Enterprise.

Sign at the link below. It is not public until there are 150 sigs. Publicize this and share the link if you agree with the idea. Be well!

http://wh.gov/pewY

[Warped9]

Until R2's 1/350 kit I didn't know the lower sensor dome had internal ribs or supports or whatever.

[Gary7]

I think they ought to suspend it in a TOS accurate space-dock superstructure, with some direct support to the nacelles. That would at least alleviate the greater stresses on the model and allow it to go for longer periods between restorations.

[Redfern]

Interesting concept, but since a spacedock was never depicted in the original series, how would we know whatever was built for the exhibit would be "accurate" to TOS?

I'm guessing you mean a miniature replicating the one we saw in the first motion picture. And "in story", it seems reasonable that platform was already there when the Big "E" concluded her 5 year mission. But considering it from the perspective of the production crew for the series, that thing is far too detailed for what the effects department could have constructed in the late 60s for television.

I remember a painting that was printed in an early issue of StarLog, some time before TMP debuted. I think it was meant for the aborted "Phase II" project. It depicted the Enterprise still in her "series" configuration floating within a rather different dock. The frame used a series of girders that resembled that "tri-rung" ladder we saw at a corridor intersection. Was that drawn by Matt Jeffereies or Mike Minor? If either of those people, who both worked on the original series, drew that design, I'd say that might "meld" better with the Jefferies/Datun miniature.

Then again, I think some people might not like having the "Gray Lady" partially obscured by a some sort of frame.

Sincerely,

Bill

[plynch]

Spacedock would obscure too much. I want to see her. Plexi cradle or wires.

[trevanian]

Redfern wrote:

---

Interesting concept, but since a spacedock was never depicted in the original series, how would we know whatever was built for the exhibit would be "accurate" to TOS?

I'm guessing you mean a miniature replicating the one we saw in the first motion picture. And "in story", it seems reasonable that platform was already there when the Big "E" concluded her 5 year mission. But considering it from the perspective of the production crew for the series, that thing is far too detailed for what the effects department could have constructed in the late 60s for television.

I remember a painting that was printed in an early issue of StarLog, some time before TMP debuted. I think it was meant for the aborted "Phase II" project. It depicted the Enterprise still in her "series" configuration floating within a rather different dock. The frame used a series of girders that resembled that "tri-rung" ladder we saw at a corridor intersection. Was that drawn by Matt Jeffereies or Mike Minor? If either of those people, who both worked on the original series, drew that design, I'd say that might "meld" better with the Jefferies/Datun miniature.

Then again, I think some people might not like having the "Gray Lady" partially obscured by a some sort of frame.

Sincerely,

Bill

That concept art was Mike Minor's. There was a drydock built for P2 along those lines, discarded pre-TMP, but not looking graceful AT ALL (pics are in the PHASE 2 book), big ugly 20thcentury thrusters on it.

Probert's notion for the TMP drydock was that it could be a century old, that the Enterprise was supposed to seem new and shiny by comparison. Not sure if it comes across that way fully, but the paint color somehow makes it seem old to me.

I suppose if we really wanted to stir up trouble,we'd have the 11'2" mounted in a half-shell cutaway of one of Franz Joseph's big dock spheres from the STARFLEET TECHNICAL MANUAL.