The K2 Project

[Shaw]

As you guys can most likely guess... I spend a ton of time looking at the Enterprise. But I don't do this in silence. For example, I've been listening to the soundtrack for TMP (with selections from TWoK and TSfS) while working on my TMP Enterprise study model. Oddly enough, I listened to the soundtrack to Generations (with selections from TMP) with my Phase II Enterprise study model. Recently I've paired up scifieric's recent offerings with the soundtrack to WNMHGB. And when it comes to the Enterprise in general (the 11 foot model or most artist's CGI renditions) I have more than 15 hours of TOS music to play in the background.

I'm sure some of you are asking why is this post in this thread?

For me the 33 inch Enterprise (and my replica) is a little different. The 11 foot model is still a living manifestation of the Enterprise. And the artwork of artists like yourselves infuse life into your representations. But we lost the 33 inch studio model, and tragically she didn't return from what should have been a routine and uneventful mission.

So when I look at images like these...

... or stare at my replica from across the room, I feel like I'm looking at a ghost ship. And this is what I am usually listening to...

Click to listen
(Background.mp3, 14 MB)

I just thought I'd share that with you guys.



Also, here is a handful of shots missing from this threat...

Click images to enlarge

[scifieric]

I think I get it.  I have periods like that where a musical queue gets into my head and simply WON'T go away until I do something about it.  Often, work on a model.

That's a great selection and what is BETTER is that your work on reproducing that 3 foot model is SPECTACULAR!

I may be misremembering, but I think the original 3 foot model was given to Robert Able and associates at the beginning of the special effects planning for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and it was simply never returned.  I'm wondering if one of Able's associates has the thing at home.

[Tralfaz]

It would be sweet if the original 3 foot model did somehow resurface just like the Aries 1B did from 2001 A Space Odyssey.

[scifidude79]

I love those pictures of your model, bro.

It would be sweet if the original 3 foot model did somehow resurface just like the Aries 1B did from 2001 A Space Odyssey.

The best bet of that happening is probably if whoever has it in their private collection kicks and the person taking care of their estate sees what it is, recognizes the significance and makes it resurface.

[Shaw]

Thanks guys!

I may be misremembering, but I think the original 3 foot model was given to Robert Able and associates at the beginning of the special effects planning for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and it was simply never returned.  I'm wondering if one of Able's associates has the thing at home.

Yeah, that is pretty much it.

Roddenberry liked the Phase II Enterprise design and asked that Taylor and his team use it as a starting point for the movie Enterprise.

When Roddenberry talked Jefferies into designing the Phase II Enterprise, Jefferies had to do this in his spare time (he drafted the main plans in his hotel room while on location for Little House on the Prairie). Because this was always supposed to be an upgrade of the original Enterprise (with the bridge and engine room being the biggest changes in set design) and because Jefferies was short on time, many of the features were omitted from the plans but were to be lifted from the studio model (the 33 inch model because by this time the 11 foot model was in the Smithsonian).

And to help them do this Roddenberry gave Robert Abel and Associates both Jefferies' Phase II plans and the 33 inch Enterprise (as the two combined were needed for the full Phase II Enterprise).

Here is the thing, Taylor (who wasn't a Trek fan) didn't seem to understand that he had been given the original (as in first) model of the Enterprise. He seems to have been under the impression that this was the Phase II Enterprise. Some telling quotes from a 2013 interview describing what he believed to be the Phase II Enterprise...

"... The model that was being built really didn't have that -- I can't remember any lights that were built into it but it was about two and a half, three feet long or something."

"...  I totally redesigned the nacelles so they weren't, as in the original television series, like cigar containers, or circular.  They were much more rectilinear and longer, a lot of parallel lines.  I was very much trying to give the Enterprise an art deco look, a lot of horizontal lines, stretched things, and added a lot of detail everywhere on the surface and throughout the construction of the Enterprise, that's one of the primary things that I did with all of the models, not just Enterprise, but adding surface detail, enlarging the models, building light systems into them so that we could make multiple passes."

As you guys know, the 33 inch Enterprise was a solid wood model and was never intended to be lit. By contrast, the Phase II Enterprise was a 5.5 foot model that was meant to be fully lit with lighting effects for things like the nacelles (meant as a nod to the effects on the 11 foot TOS model). Taylor seems to believe he also designed the new nacelles from scratch when they are clearly a variation on Jefferies' Phase II design.

From what I can tell, Taylor may never have seen the Phase II Enterprise being built by Price/Loos. Jim Dow and Magicam had wanted to build the Enterprise from the start and bad mouthed Price/Loos' work any chance they got so they could start over. They made a big deal about the size not being good enough for the big screen and pointed to Star Wars as an example. Of course the Star Destroyer at the beginning of Star Wars was about 3 feet long and the Reliant in Star Trek II was actually about the same scale as the Phase II Enterprise, so neither argument holds water.

(historical note: Dow was the source of the erroneous idea that Loos had worked on the 11 foot TOS Enterprise... which he hadn't)

Anyways, so the 33 inch Enterprise was last in the custody of Taylor's team from Robert Abel and Associates, and they seemed to believe it to be the Phase II Enterprise. And Taylor's feelings on Phase II...

"... I took an objective look at all of that and came back with our recommendations -- which was basically "scrap everything and start over,"..."

By the beginning of 1979 Robert Abel and Associates was gone and Trumbull was finishing the effects for the film.

Shortly after the films release (early 1980) Roddenberry contacted Bob Abel asking for the return of the original Enterprise. Abel got back to Roddenberry informing him that they had no idea of the model's whereabouts. I'm not sure how hard Roddenberry pushed the issue with Abel, but I know that he withheld the fact that it was Robert Abel and Associates he had loaned the model to when ever he was asked about it.

So what happen to the model? I don't think it exist anymore... and I'm absolutely sure that the person responsible for her fate would never admit to it. Plus if Roddenberry wasn't willing to pursue it further, it might be better to leave the mystery where it is at.

[scifieric]

Oh man.  That's too bad if it is really gone.

[scifidude79]

Richard Taylor was one of the people who toured Brick Price Miniatures on December 1 1977 and inspected the incomplete miniature being built by Don Loos for Phase II. Pictures were taken and given to Andrew Probert to use as a starting point for his design. Probert recalls Taylor giving him the pictures. So, he definitely saw the Phase II model. He probably just didn't remember what model was what.

I really love how Taylor tries to take credit for everything. "I redesigned the nacelles." No, Matt Jefferies did. Andrew Probert finished the design. Taylor hired Probert and assigned him to work on the ship design and probably gave him some basic instructions, but everyone knows the design work was done by Probert.

Apart from the size, they also complained about the Phase II model having a high gloss finish and that not working for the film. Of course, that's the dumbest argument as paint covers that up nicely. Plus, the model they wound up building ended up being very glossy, something that ILM moaned about for years. Like you said, they were just badmouthing the work being done by Loos and finding excuses to start over.