Do the ship studio models still exist?

With the Enterprise restoration going on, I was wondering if any of the other TOS ship models still exist. Like the "Doomsday Machine" or the "Tholian" and "DY-100" ship models. Anyone know?

 

I once saw the Klingon ship at the Air & Space Museum, but that was back in the 80s I think. Presumably they still have it somewhere.

 

I'm pretty certain The Planet Killer, Fesarius, Romulan Bird of Prey, 33" Enterprise and K-7 models all disappeared a long time ago.

Here's a Memory Alpha piece on the Smithsonian's 1992 Star Trek Exhibit, which names some of the models still around (link).

And some photos (link).

 

I've read an account that Wah Chang himself destroyed the original Romulan ship he constructed for "Balance of Terror". I think it involved his not being associated with the "correct" crafts union so he was not paid for his efforts.

The "Doomsday Machine" appears to have been constructed primarily of fragile metallic foil and colored cellophane over an armature, so it probably did not "survive" long after it was filmed. (Conjecture on my part, I'll admit.)

Sincerely,

Bill

 

It looks to me like it was carved roughly out of wood and then wrapped in cellophane. Either way, not the sort of thing that was made to last.

 

What, it wasn't a "windsock dipped in cement?"

 

Thanks for answering my question. It's a shame most of them are lost now. And thanks for the links too.

 

It looks like painted blackwrap foil and gels. I think Dochterman is on the money on that.

 

^Hmm, you may be right. I was thinking of the way the maw of the Planet-Killer looked -- it seemed to have a roughness suggesting an opening hastily carved out of a block of wood. But looking more closely at the available images, I see that the interior roughness is similar to the exterior and has some visible corners of what are probably the cellophane or foil sheets; it's just the orange interior lighting that made it look woodlike to me.

In any case, it's amazing how such a roughly assembled model could be so effective onscreen. The original still looks better than the CGI version in TOS-R. It has an intriguing sheen to it that suggests it's coated in a layer of diamond or some similar, stronger material, which (per Robert L. Forward's science and SF writing) is the only plausible way you could contain a mass of neutronium. So purely by chance, it makes a certain amount of scientific sense, as well as having a very striking look.

 

Dochterman's theory is expounded on The RPF. Here's the speciific post (link) and here's the overall thread (link), I mostly agree with his thinking.

 

According to season 2 of These Are The Voyages, Roddenberry says it was a windsock
dipped in plaster and covered in painted aluminum foil.

That matches with what the word of mouth has been all through the years.

 

How about the Fesarius? Any info on it? I read that it was mostly ping pong balls cut into halves and placed all over a giant ball. It was difficult for the staff to hold it so in the end, on film it ended up looking really massive.

The limitations of TOS did allow for creative ships made from scratch. Before I saw the "The Doomsday Machine" episode. I had seen the planet killer in the ending credits stills and thought it was like a giant fish monster.

 

It's possible there's a windsock in there, but if the Roddenberry recollection is correct, Dochterman's foil assumption is still correct. The thing is still covered in something translucent (tape and/or gels), is really apparent when you look at at closely.

 

Wow, a really impressive and convincing analysis. Thanks for the link!

 

I remain dubious about this ping pong ball idea re the main ship. The "balls" don't appear to be complete hemispheres, for one thing. It looks more like someone found an interesting material of interlocked circular (flat backed) beads and wrapped it around a sphere (easy to do with a triangular pattern, if you cut out a few of the triangles). The smaller discs between and overlapping the larger ones reinforces this idea.

Screenshot

Screenshot with repeating pattern indicated

 

Both Tholian ships (well one and the "The Way To Eden" Aurora conversion) still exists along with the DY-100. All three along with the original Klingon D7 were at the Star Trek exhibit at the Smithsonian in the early 90's

 

Yes, seems like of the "major" ship types only the Romulan BOP and the Enterprise 3 footer are missing in action. I have to think the BOP was indeed destroyed since there are NO photos of it post filming.

 

I find that hard to believe because Wah supplied a bunch of stuff to Star Trek (including the original hero tricorders, communicators, the re-worked the phasers, the Gorn mask, the Galileo Seven creature, the cell creatures from Operation: Annihilate, etc.) and none of them were destroyed because of the union. It seems unlikely that the BOP would be singled out. Once the BOP was delivered to Desilu; how would he get it back to destroy it and why would Desilu give it back? Why would he continue to work for Star Trek if they didn't pay him? I heard years ago that the model which he made of vacu-formed plastic warped due to the heat of the internal lighting and could not be used again. Not sure if that is true or not but it seems more likely that it was destroyed because it was somehow damaged.

Do you happen to remember where you heard the union story from?

 

I'm at work at the moment, so a lot of sites are firewall blocked for me (I'm surprised this site is available). It will be at least this evening when I return home before I can do some decent digging. Ithink the anecdote came from either the "HeroComm" site or another that it linked. I was rather shocked myself.

Sincerely,

Bill

 

From Absolute Astronomy (link)