Why did Gene R want the 11-footer?

[ZapBrannigan]

I noticed in this Memory Alpha article, under Post-production use, that Gene Roddenberry wanted the 11-foot Enterprise model and Paramount didn't want him to have it. They wanted to be rid of it, but not to let Gene have it.

I wonder what he wanted it for. I can only imagine that he wanted to monetize it somehow, either to sell it outright or rent it to conventions. Imagine how beat-up it would have gotten if he had done the latter.

I think we're pretty lucky it toured only once and then went to NASM.

 

[Maurice]

That doesn't make any sense, and it's just one person claiming that after the fact.

 

[CrazyMatt]

I can only imagine that he wanted to monetize it somehow....

Given his obsession is getting any $$ out of Star Trek--witness the blow up with Sandy Courage over lyrics for the theme music and the whole IDIC mess--let's just say I wouldn't be surprised...

I think we're pretty lucky it toured only once and then went to NASM.

True dat.

 

[Nebusj]

I can only imagine that he wanted to monetize it somehow....

Given his obsession is getting any $$ out of Star Trek--witness the blow up with Sandy Courage over lyrics for the theme music and the whole IDIC mess--let's just say I wouldn't be surprised...

``Fan-produced movies,'' Gene chuckles, ``that's where the real money is! They'll need me for the special effects!'' And everyone around nods patiently and says that's very good and he should maybe go play outside now.

 

[urbandefault]

Didn't Paramount offer GR the rights to Trek for some insanely small amount of money, like $150k? If he'd really wanted the studio model, he probably could have had it.

 

[Maurice]

Assuming he had the money. $150K was a lot more money in the early 70 than it is today.

 

[CrazyMatt]

Didn't Paramount offer GR the rights to Trek for some insanely small amount of money, like $150k? If he'd really wanted the studio model, he probably could have had it.

If memory serves, that happened right after cancellation and GR didn't have $150K. No doubt he regretted not being able to buy the rights until his dying day.

 

[Mudd]

Well, now that's a real interesting question - the bit about GR regretting not owning Trek.

If Paramount sells Roddenberry the rights, how does that affect their interest in back-end syndication during the 1970s?

 

[urbandefault]

Well, now that's a real interesting question - the bit about GR regretting not owning Trek.

If Paramount sells Roddenberry the rights, how does that affect their interest in back-end syndication during the 1970s?

Knowing absolutely zero about the business, I'd have to say that if Gene owned Trek it probably would never have seen syndication.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Knowing absolutely zero about the business, I'd have to say that if Gene owned Trek it probably would never have seen syndication.

If Gene had bought Star Trek, I think he would have had to pay all the costs of storing the 35mm negatives, master prints, etc. at Paramount. And he would have had to pay for all the 16mm syndication prints. So he would have had to invest a lot of his own money to ever get to the point where we all got obsessed with Star Trek re-runs. Way more money than he had.

Come the movie era, he have needed a film studio's deep pockets to make TMP, and therefore ownership of the film series would have been shared.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Well, now that's a real interesting question - the bit about GR regretting not owning Trek.

If Paramount sells Roddenberry the rights, how does that affect their interest in back-end syndication during the 1970s?

Knowing absolutely zero about the business, I'd have to say that if Gene owned Trek it probably would never have seen syndication.

If I understand the timeline correctly (as related in the Solow/Justman book), Paramount offered to sell Roddenberry the rights after the series ended, but the syndication deal was made with Kaiser Broadcasting before the show was cancelled. So it was going to be syndicated anyway.

 

[T'Girl]

IIRC Roddenberry took film of episodes and cut them into one or three frame pieces and sold them with a letter of authenticity.

If Roddenberry got control/ownership of the eleven footer, he could have cut it into small pieces and then sold them through Lincoln Enterprise with a similar letter.

Now I feel sad.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

IIRC Roddenberry took film of episodes and cut them into one or three frame pieces and sold them with a letter of authenticity.

If Roddenberry got control/ownership of the eleven footer, he could have cut it into small pieces and then sold them through Lincoln Enterprise with a similar letter.

Now I feel sad.

I suspect he would have put the model on a truck and offered it for paid exhibition at conventions, auto shows, and casinos. Everywhere it went, it would have suffered a little more (or a lot more) damage and been subjected to amateur, makeshift repairs and cover-ups. I don't know if the end would have involved selling pieces of it; that's pretty dark and hard to imagine. We're talking about something there was only ever one of.

After Greg Jein built the 5.5 foot Enterprise model for DS9, he created a number of exact replicas for exhibition and sales. Likewise, in 1966 George Barris produced three replicas of the Batmobile that could tour auto shows and race tracks around the country while the actual filming car stayed safe. It's too bad the 11-footer's construction wasn't followed immediately by several exact replicas from the same molds.

 

[Maurice]

A lot of the ship is wood and sheet metal. The saucer is the only large really large component which was molded, so you couldn't easily make a copy without a lathe and a lot of woodworking tools.

 

[Green Shirt]

and been subjected to amateur, makeshift repairs and cover-ups.

Kinda like what happened to it during its last "restoration".

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

If Gene had bought Star Trek, I think he would have had to pay all the costs of storing the 35mm negatives, master prints, etc. at Paramount. And he would have had to pay for all the 16mm syndication prints. So he would have had to invest a lot of his own money to ever get to the point where we all got obsessed with Star Trek re-runs. Way more money than he had.

If GR bought TOS, then the cast members' various legal actions regarding royalties would have targeted GR alone, and with imagined animosity spilling over from that, I cannot see ST ever becoming a movie series. I'm sure GR would have tried a Phase II without TOS cast, but that was not going to fly in that TOS-crazy period.

 

[Metryq]

and been subjected to amateur, makeshift repairs and cover-ups.

Kinda like what happened to it during its last "restoration".

Look what happened to George Pal's TIME MACHINE prop before it was rescued.

 

[bbailey861]

and been subjected to amateur, makeshift repairs and cover-ups.

Kinda like what happened to it during its last "restoration".

Well, at least it appears all that is being properly addressed now.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Look what happened to George Pal's TIME MACHINE prop before it was rescued.

Irwin Allen relics weren't safe, either. The original Lost in Space Robot costume was heavily modified for Mystery Island (1977).

The Jupiter 2 got it just as bad: two filming miniatures were mutilated for City Beneath the Sea (1971). They became the tops of mushroom-like towers, with big, square windows cut into them all around.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Look what happened to George Pal's TIME MACHINE prop before it was rescued.

Irwin Allen relics weren't safe, either. The original Lost in Space Robot costume was heavily modified for Mystery Island (1977).

The Jupiter 2 got it just as bad: two filming miniatures were mutilated for City Beneath the Sea (1971). They became the tops of mushroom-like towers, with big, square windows cut into them all around.

At least a couple of the Seaview miniatures, the Flying Sub and Spindrift survived the decades in ok shape.