Gauging Interest: Saving The Enterprise-A Filming Model

[Christopher]

The refit Enterprise is a beautiful design and hugely influential within the franchise, but it’s nowhere near as culturally significant as the original. The original series Enterprise is the symbol of Star Trek and one of the most iconic images in all of science fiction.

Why should it be a competition? The Smithsonian already has multiple Trek items in its collection, including the encased Enterprise pendant from "Catspaw" and an AMT Enterprise model kit donated by the retired Naval officer who assembled it (according to the book Inspired Enterprise, which we're discussing in this thread). Since when was a museum only allowed to have one object associated with a given artist or topic? Exploring how a cultural idea or an artist's body of work evolves over time is part of a museum's function.

And so is preserving historical artifacts, whether they're publicly displayed or not. The refit Enterprise is just sitting out in the open in a lobby, not protected from deterioration. Why should its preservation be dependent on whether it meets some threshold of "cultural significance"? That's not how museum staffs or historians think. They want to preserve as much of the past as they can, not just the parts someone arbitrarily says are more "important" than others. After all, those decisions are inevitably biased, and different generations and subcultures won't agree on what parts of a culture "deserve" to be remembered by history. Any part of the past ceasing to exist through neglect or deliberate destruction is a loss to history.

 

[The Wormhole]

Paramount chose to put the model up for sale, as was their right. Bezos made a legal purchase of it, as was his right. Like it or not, the model now belongs to Bezos and as his property he can do with it as he pleases. I see no reason to get worked up over this, especially now, close to twenty years after the model was sold.

 

[Christopher]

Paramount chose to put the model up for sale, as was their right. Bezos made a legal purchase of it, as was his right. Like it or not, the model now belongs to Bezos and as his property he can do with it as he pleases. I see no reason to get worked up over this, especially now, close to twenty years after the model was sold.

I don't think anyone is unaware of how property works. But rich people can often be persuaded to make donations, whether out of altruism (as rare as that is among non-fictional billionaires) or a desire for good PR or because it gets them a tax write-off. If Bezos is enough of a fan to want to own the miniature, maybe he's enough of one that he could be persuaded it would be better off in a museum where it could be preserved. There's no harm in asking.

 

[TrickyDickie]

Get the best craftspeople to do an exacting copy. Offer Bezos a trade. If he accepts, great. If not, there would be something to display for the general public....until such time as he changed his mind or his heirs could be convinced.

What happened to the previous one....the one they were going to use, but didn't? It did appear in all kinds of promotional pics, on magazine and book covers, etc. I lost track of the story on that one.

 

[fireproof78]

"It belongs in a museum!"

Alright, who had page one on the betting pool?

Paramount chose to put the model up for sale, as was their right. Bezos made a legal purchase of it, as was his right. Like it or not, the model now belongs to Bezos and as his property he can do with it as he pleases. I see no reason to get worked up over this, especially now, close to twenty years after the model was sold.

"Shaina, they bought their tickets. They knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash."

 

[James Cole]

One of the rather unique factors of this BBS is the frequent clustering of people expressing aggressive indifference to something other people care about. They don't care about whatever ~it~ is specifically, but they damn well care that ~you~ care.

Am I going to lose sleep over Jeff Bezos owning the refit Enterprise model? No. But ideally something like that should be in a museum accessible to the public, much like a da Vinci painting should be in a gallery, and not on some random billionaire's yacht.

Luckily Bezos does seem to have a very long term outlook with his "long time" interest and that 10,000 year clock somewhere out in Arizona or New Mexico. He'll probably want to have a Blue Origin museum eventually. And the Enterprise-A would make for a good exhibit near the entrance...

Most of the cultural progeny of the 20th century was created by people whose work was ultimately owned and controlled by a handful of major corporations. So even though a filming model may seem like a punchline more than something serious, there is a live issue here.

 

[fireproof78]

Methods to contact Jeff Bezos:

• Email: Send an email to jeff@amazon.com. Your message will likely be read by his executive team who will then decide if it requires Bezos's attention.
  
  
• Social Media: Reach out to him on his X (formerly Twitter) account, which he uses to receive customer feedback.
  
  
• Physical Mail: You can send a letter to his office at Amazon's headquarters.
  

 

[Tomalak]

Get the best craftspeople to do an exacting copy. Offer Bezos a trade. If he accepts, great. If not, there would be something to display for the general public....until such time as he changed his mind or his heirs could be convinced.

The value is in the authenticity. That it's *the* model. Otherwise, just make a copy and put that one on display for the fans.

What happened to the previous one....the one they were going to use, but didn't? It did appear in all kinds of promotional pics, on magazine and book covers, etc. I lost track of the story on that one.

You mean the Don Loos Phase II Enterprise? No one really knows, but it was assumed scrapped when it was deemed unsuitable for the movie. The model was never actually finished. All the promotional uses were illustrations.

Designing the Phase II Enterprise — Forgotten Trek

When time came to upgrade the famed starship, Gene Roddenberry turned to its original designer, Matt Jefferies.

forgottentrek.com

 

[JonnyQuest037]

<shrug> Kivas Fajo is going to Kivas Fajo.

I wish Bezos would at least put the Enterprise model under plexiglass to protect it from damage, but if he hasn't yet after all this time, I doubt he's going to. I suppose it's better displayed in the offices of his toy rocketship company than squirreled away in one of his homes, where hardly anyone could see it.

But I'm not a fan of company owners ostentatiously flaunting their wealth in the workplace, either. About five years back, I worked for a company where the owner displayed a wide variety of framed sports jerseys he'd bought over the years. Every time I passed them, I just thought, "...This is what he spends his money on instead of paying his employees a better wage."

 

[David cgc]

I wish Bezos would at least put the Enterprise model under plexiglass to protect it from damage, but if he hasn't yet after all this time, I doubt he's going to. I suppose it's better displayed in the offices of his toy rocketship company than squirreled away in one of his homes, where hardly anyone could see it.

It's possible he has. The only pictures we have of it on display are over ten years old.

 

[Tomalak]

Doesn't he refuse to allow photography too?

 

[137th Gebirg]

"It belongs in a museum!"

Lots of Indiana Jones references here...

Got some more.

Which can be said... by whom, exactly?

However, to employ another well-known Raiders meme, these filming miniatures may be in private collections, but at least they're generally well-known where they are; many are on display and not relegated to this kind of sad fate:

 

[Riley]

One of the rather unique factors of this BBS is the frequent clustering of people expressing aggressive indifference to something other people care about. They don't care about whatever ~it~ is specifically, but they damn well care that ~you~ care.

Am I going to lose sleep over Jeff Bezos owning the refit Enterprise model? No. But ideally something like that should be in a museum accessible to the public, much like a da Vinci painting should be in a gallery, and not on some random billionaire's yacht.

Luckily Bezos does seem to have a very long term outlook with his "long time" interest and that 10,000 year clock somewhere out in Arizona or New Mexico. He'll probably want to have a Blue Origin museum eventually. And the Enterprise-A would make for a good exhibit near the entrance...

Most of the cultural progeny of the 20th century was created by people whose work was ultimately owned and controlled by a handful of major corporations. So even though a filming model may seem like a punchline more than something serious, there is a live issue here.

Thank you for pointing this out. I've been here for years and was here long ago before various site changes. One thing that's never changed in all that time is the determination of some to belittle others for having an interest in something they don't share. It's the ultimate irony, really, when you consider that this is a Star Trek discussion board. No matter what's been done to the franchise since Abrams, it's still not "cool" in the way a lot of pop culture is and likely never will be. That's one of the many reasons we Trek fans stick together and support one another. For whatever reason(s), though, there are some who delight in raining on other people's parades rather than going down a few streets and starting their own.

 

[HotRod]

That's one of the many reasons we Trek fans stick together and support one another. For whatever reason(s), though, there are some who delight in raining on other people's parades rather than going down a few streets and starting their own.

This you?

Until then, it's just more big corporate product shat out for profit, consumed primarily by people with middling to non-existent critical standards.