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January 31, 2016 5:20 PM   Subscribe

Starship Enterprise in the shop for repairs [Washington Post]
After 50 years of imaginary intergalactic service and epic flights of science fiction, the starship Enterprise, registry number NCC-1701, lies in pieces on a table at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia.
posted by peeedro (54 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 


Some more details here on the Smithsonian's site.
posted by octothorpe at 5:26 PM on January 31, 2016 [2 favorites]




Star Trek related: as part of an effort to fund their Rollertown movie, a couple of the cast (Cheryl Hann & Mark Little) created custom songs as donor rewards. This is the Wrath of Khan Rap. It's bit meandering and low-fi but still funny.
posted by bonobothegreat at 5:33 PM on January 31, 2016


After they finish restoring the Enterprise, will the conservators just spend hours walking around the model and gaping at it while listening to a Jerry Goldsmith score?
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:39 PM on January 31, 2016 [23 favorites]


One of the things I recollect from my misspent youth reading every Star Trek behind-the-scenes book* is that the fourteen-foot model had a bunch of cables running in the port side to illuminate the interior lights, which is why on the show (pre-remastering) we only ever saw it from the starboard side.

*not an unwieldy list in 1976.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:42 PM on January 31, 2016 [4 favorites]


William Shatner has an eye for detail.
posted by djb at 5:43 PM on January 31, 2016 [8 favorites]


Utopia Planitia must have been all booked up.
posted by dr_dank at 5:53 PM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Conservator Ariel O’Connor conducts X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry to figure out exactly which metal alloy was used to build the port nacelle.

Verterium cortenide, duh.
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:25 PM on January 31, 2016 [3 favorites]


The Enterprise is made of wood!
posted by Jode at 6:36 PM on January 31, 2016


I guess they didn't have hole saws in the future.
posted by Trochanter at 7:24 PM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


After they finish restoring the Enterprise, will the conservators just spend hours walking around the model and gaping at it while listening to a Jerry Goldsmith score?

Yes, but the curator pulls rank at the last minute to get themselves installed as head conservator right before the unveiling, despite incomplete knowledge of its retrofits.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:25 PM on January 31, 2016 [9 favorites]


I always noticed an odd detail on the back of the engine nacelles. You know that scooped-out area on the "exhaust" tips? In some episodes there's just some detailing like vertical lines drawn in the scooped area. In other episodes, there's a globe-like object in the scooped space (sort of a smaller version of the globes at the front tips of the nacelles.) Anyone have a guess which version this restoration will sport?
posted by Thorzdad at 7:28 PM on January 31, 2016


Aw, we used to take a lot of trips to the museums downtown when I was a kid, and I remember seeing that model all the time. I don't think I could see it in person again without getting some sort of Pavlovian desire for space ice cream.
posted by teponaztli at 7:31 PM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


Ugh. The symbolism is rife here.
It’s also a piece of history, along with the Wright Brothers’ “Flyer” and Charles Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St. Louis.”

The museum is now restoring the make-believe voyager as a part of America’s real-life air and space heritage.
posted by monospace at 7:36 PM on January 31, 2016 [7 favorites]


Thorzdad, I'm pretty sure it will have the globes. The vent detailing (horizontal, not vertical lines) at the back of the engine nacelles dates to the earliest pilot; the domes at the back were added to the nacelles for the second pilot and remained throughout the run. While some of the re-used shots of the Enterprise flying away from the camera still showed the venting, it's the globes that are the 'standard' version.
posted by hanov3r at 7:48 PM on January 31, 2016 [6 favorites]


Ugh. The symbolism is rife here.

I'm not really sure what you're getting at here.
posted by teponaztli at 7:53 PM on January 31, 2016 [4 favorites]


The museum is now restoring the make-believe voyager as a part of America’s real-life air and space heritage.

1) It's an artifact the museum has taken into its care. That means its worthy of conservation, because *all* artifacts in the museum are worthy of conservation. If they weren't, they don't belong in the museum.

2) Given that the Shuttle Flight Test Article was named Enterprise, simply because of fans of the show writing in, I would have to say that Star Trek is, in fact, part of our real-life air and space heritage.*

The stated goal was originally "somewhere near the end of the 2nd season," where documentation shows the model had stabilized. Before then, it changed constantly as things were added and removed for whatever reason (looks, damage repair, lighting effects, etc.)
Now, they've picked a definite point, the goal is to get the model back to the state it was in during the filming of "The Trouble With Tribbles." This is based on the documentation they have with the model, so this must be the time period when they have the most documentation.

Elements from previous restorations (the lighting system, which was not prop-original, various paint coats) are being removed. They found a spot on the model where the original paint still shows, they're using that as a reference for restoring the entire surface.



* And, they sort of screwed up. If they'd waited a couple of years, one of the actual orbiters might have been named Enterprise. Of course, it might have been one of the ones that didn't come back, and the Enterprise is still here, so....
posted by eriko at 7:58 PM on January 31, 2016 [10 favorites]


Patsy: It's only a model.

Arthur: Shhh!
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 8:04 PM on January 31, 2016 [6 favorites]


You know what can ride in a ship that's only nine feet long?

Bugs. /meninblack
posted by Bringer Tom at 8:18 PM on January 31, 2016


Given that the Shuttle Flight Test Article was named Enterprise...

Seeing that Enterprise at the New Orleans World Fair in 1984 is one of my earliest memories.

I also remember being too scared to ride a Ferris wheel, so my grandfather stayed with me on the ground while the rest of the family rode. He was scared too, he said.
posted by brundlefly at 8:22 PM on January 31, 2016 [4 favorites]


The real life Enterprise sat in that very museum for 18 years. And it was intended to go into space when it was constructed, although it only ended up being used for atmospheric tests. It seems fitting that now that the real thing is gone, the fictional one can take its place.
posted by miyabo at 8:27 PM on January 31, 2016


Do you have similar objections to Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon being part of the National Air and Space Museum's collection? Because I don't. I think the dreams of space flight that inspire us are worthy of preservation.
posted by fings at 8:32 PM on January 31, 2016 [3 favorites]


Anyone have a guess which version this restoration will sport?

Should be to the configuration seen in The Trouble With Tribbles, whatever that may be. A possible complicating factor: that episode used both the eleven-foot model and an assembled AMT vacuum-form plastic consumer kit model.

Regarding the placement of the shooting model with Apollo 11 and The Spirit of St. Louis and its' most recent deployment in the gift shop, the original display locale was on the main floor over the entrance to an exhibit which iirc was themed something like "the future of flight". Other galleries then and now (as of my last visit downtown, 2000 or so) commonly featured pop-culture manifestations of interest in the exhibition's content near their entrances. So, for example, the Great War gallery entrance featured comics and pulp fiction and games and records featuring first world war aviation themes.

When the model went into the shop for the early-90s overhaul, there was some pushback about the appropriateness of including what effectively functions as an advertisement for a current commercial entertainment property in close proximity to artifacts which were used in non-fictional high-risk ventures, and sadly, the fun police won. The gift shop locale was a clear-cut, wholly intentional diss.

NCC-1701 may not have been the first interstellar craft made primarily from wood, but it is likely to remain among the best known. I'm overjoyed to hear it's coming back to a prime display locale. I did not note if the coverage specifies the new exhibit's locale, so I don't know if it's downtown or at U-H. I'm guessing downtown, since I have a hard time imagining them moving the Spirit of St. Louis and Apollo 11 out to the airport on a permanent basis.

Regarding the green tint of the '91 restoration, I don't recall much about the decision-making process involved but very clearly remember the overall dismay it generated. The model was very definitely easier to look at and examine down in the gift shop, instead of hung ten feet overhead.
posted by mwhybark at 8:32 PM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


God, I love looking at these kinds of images. I remember struggling to find high-quality reference material for the Enterprise when I was making a CG model not too many years ago and wading through blurry screen caps and fan blueprints. Now I'm tempted to have another go!
posted by Foomandoonian at 8:35 PM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


As cool as this already is...imagine how cool it'll be in 50, 100, 200 years.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 8:38 PM on January 31, 2016 [2 favorites]



The Enterprise is made of wood!

Enterprise! Enterprise!

Enterprise is really good,
Enterprise is made of wood!
We're restoring Enterprise!

Saucer! Nacelles! George! Nichelle!
Jimmy! De! Leonard! Bill!

Enterprise is full of shit,
Just a plastic model kit!
We're restoring Enterprise!
 
posted by Herodios at 8:41 PM on January 31, 2016 [9 favorites]


I used to have a set of blueprints, printed for fan consumption in the 70's. They came in a pastic envelope that snapped shut, & were a quad-fold the unfurled to about 10x 24 inches, with cross sections & plans of all the parts of the ship. I memorized those utterly. No idea what became of those- may need to track a set down.

Still have my Starfleet Technical Manual. It went everywhere I went between the ages of 10 & 12.

Really glad to see the original model getting some tlc.
posted by Devils Rancher at 8:48 PM on January 31, 2016 [4 favorites]


DR, you are referring to the Ballantine edition of Franz Joseph's blueprints. Here, have a browse. The original conventioneer sets are somewhat more expensive than the mass-market ones on ebay, but both are pretty easy to find on ebay.

Of course, that's not a hard requirement if you just want to take a look onscreen.

Here's a fairly evenhanded overview of the material accessible on the Trekplace website.
posted by mwhybark at 9:06 PM on January 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


Memory Alpha has info on the history of the model and prior restorations. This is the fourth in their accounting. The last was in 1992, and generated controversy in fandom for adding 'weathering' and lines to indicate 'paneling'.
posted by anazgnos at 9:21 PM on January 31, 2016 [3 favorites]


It's a slippery slope. One day you put a fictional spaceship in the Smithsonian, the next you get the Thermians beaming down to Hollywood in search of a crew.
posted by Ber at 9:52 PM on January 31, 2016 [13 favorites]


A perfect time to install a toilet.
posted by pibeandres at 10:02 PM on January 31, 2016 [2 favorites]


You know what can ride in a ship that's only nine feet long?
Bugs.


Bunny?
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:58 PM on January 31, 2016 [1 favorite]


You know what can ride in a ship that's only nine feet long?

Very small whales?
posted by PlusDistance at 4:39 AM on February 1, 2016 [8 favorites]


You know what can ride in a ship that's only nine feet long?

The entire crew? They've managed to do it in ships far smaller than nine feet. ("Requiem for Methuselah" [TOS] , "One Little Ship" [DS:9] , "Death Wish" [VOY])
posted by dances with hamsters at 5:47 AM on February 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


Ber: "It's a slippery slope. One day you put a fictional spaceship in the Smithsonian, the next you get the Thermians beaming down to Hollywood in search of a crew."

Of course it couldn't be Illinois... Meh!
posted by Samizdata at 5:49 AM on February 1, 2016


Of course it couldn't be Illinois... Meh!

They got Galaxy Quest. We got The Blues Brothers.

We won.
posted by eriko at 6:01 AM on February 1, 2016


Of course, that's not a hard requirement if you just want to take a look onscreen.

I just wasted my lunch break looking at all those blueprints, thank you so much. :D

On this one, there's a note that the Enterprise doesn't store equipment if it can help it, but builds them as needed from "raw materials", and recycles them when finished. Apparently the designers predicted 3D printers on spacecraft fifty years before it actually happened.
posted by Eleven at 6:09 AM on February 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


Apparently the designers predicted 3D printers on spacecraft fifty years before it actually happened.

The idea that consumables, particularly food, were being created as needed by matter replicators goes back to TOS season 1, mainly because Roddenberry didn't want to have a subordinate class doing things like kitchen work. Obviously if they can do that for chicken breasts and Earl Grey tea, they can do it for crescent wrenches and power relays. There are just a few forms of matter like dilithium crystals which can't be replicated for one reason or another which are special exceptions.
posted by Bringer Tom at 7:08 AM on February 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


A perfect time to install a toilet.

ha

To quote a man who has my utmost respect and admiration:
Where are the bathrooms in Dodge City? At the Ponderosa? In Stalag 13? At the Mayberry sherrif's office? In Fort Courage, Kansas? On the SSRN Seaview? Aboard the Jupiter-frigging-Two?

The bathrooms on the Enterprise are in the same place as the bathrooms on all the other 1960s teevy shows: staying out of the way until they're needed to tell a story. . . .
posted by Herodios at 7:26 AM on February 1, 2016 [4 favorites]


There are just a few forms of matter like dilithium crystals which can't be replicated for one reason or another which are special exceptions.

Right, just a few exotic materials, like:
Tritanium
Topeline
Zenite
Pergium
"The mineral needs of a hundred planets."
Antarean glow water
Spican flame gems
Kevas
Trillium
Spare parts for obsolete "PXK pergium reactors"
Perfume
Wheat
Thanksgiving turkeys

And salt.

And all the other stuff that all those mining operations and interstellar transport vessels the big E was constantly dealing with were extracting, processing, packaging, and transporting at great expense.
 
posted by Herodios at 8:10 AM on February 1, 2016


Does this old rocket ship make my face look fat?
posted by sonascope at 10:43 AM on February 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


What is this?! A starship for ants?!
posted by brundlefly at 12:48 PM on February 1, 2016 [4 favorites]


After 50 years of imaginary intergalactic service

Intragalactic service. There's a barrier in place to keep us from leaving the galaxy. (Yes, they say they left the galaxy in Is There in Truth No Beauty?, but with no reference frame, how did they really know?)
posted by miguelcervantes at 1:25 PM on February 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


they say they left the galaxy in Is There in Truth No Beauty?,

They left the galaxy in "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

And in "By Any Other Name" after crossing the barrier, they sailed toward Andromeda at warp 14 or something for several days before turning around. That's, like, 142 million kilometers.

As far as the Feds know, that's a record intragalactic voyage from our galaxy (though obviously beat by the Kelvans).
 
posted by Herodios at 1:42 PM on February 1, 2016


Does this old rocket ship make my face look fat?
posted by sonascope at 11:43 AM on February 1



Is that you?
posted by Trochanter at 1:56 PM on February 1, 2016 [1 favorite]


It's him, and that's the conservation shop at U-H.

(Bastige! None of the Trekanalia was at U-H or Garber the day we had our all-access! Mercury spacesuit gloves and SkyLab suit liners are as nothing before a wooden spacecraft!)
posted by mwhybark at 12:12 AM on February 2, 2016 [1 favorite]


It's him, and that's the conservation shop at U-H.

Pretty effin' cool.
posted by Trochanter at 1:29 PM on February 2, 2016


Quentyn Quinn Space Ranger and his AI pal are not impressed.
posted by gregoreo at 2:58 PM on February 2, 2016


Right, just a few exotic materials, like ... salt

Some of those materials are almost certainly mined because mining them is cheaper than matter duplication. I think it's safe to say that matter duplication might require a lot of energy or exotic feedstock, and that mining salt might be a lot cheaper than making it. But a matter duplicater that can't make salt when it needs to will make pretty crappy food, and food is the thing we mainly see it making at first.

Dilithium of course can't be duplicated because of its magic hyperspace-engine properties (it might even be necessary for the matter duplicators), but a lot of the rest is probably economic. You wouldn't 3D-print something you can buy for a few cents at the five and dime. But if you were on Mars the 3D printing option would suddenly look a lot more realistic.
posted by Bringer Tom at 3:42 PM on February 2, 2016


Bringer Tom: You wouldn't 3D-print something you can buy for a few cents at the five and dime.

You don't know anyone with a 3D printer, then, because they will 3D print ANYTHING just because "holy shit, I 3D printed that!".
posted by hanov3r at 7:04 PM on February 2, 2016


Well hanov3r presumably the novelty value will have worn off by the 23rd century.
posted by Bringer Tom at 7:05 PM on February 2, 2016 [1 favorite]


Phil Plait's visit to the Enterprise.
posted by Pendragon at 5:47 AM on February 3, 2016


Popular Mechanics also ran a great article about this latest presentation. There are more cool pictures, but I learned some things I didn't know too. For example:
  • There was a debate between Roddenberry and designer Matt Jeffries about whether or not the Enterprise should have weathering on the hull. Originally it didn't, but Roddenberry won out after the original pilot. (The Smithsonian conservator calls this weathering "space algae."
  • The three-foot model of the Enterprise is lost. Roddenberry probably lent it to someone and then forgot who.
  • Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has the NCC-1701-D from TNG. (Damn him, I wanted it!)
posted by Foomandoonian at 10:05 AM on February 3, 2016


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