Paramount Pictures didn’t know what they were giving up 40 years ago when they donated the 135-inch studio model of the U.S.S. Enterprise—the fictional, 23rd century starship at the center of the groundbreaking science fiction series Star Trek—to the Smithsonian. Star Trek had been canceled after three seasons five years earlier; the first of the now 12 Trek motion pictures was still five years away. Though the first Star Trek convention had taken place in 1972, there was little reason to suspect the beloved but low-rated TV show—unique for its optimistic vision of a future where men and women of all races and ethnicities, not to mention non-humans, merrily travel the galaxies together “to seek out new life and new civilizations”—would blossom into a 50-year multimedia franchise, and a model for every organized fandom to follow. (The 48th anniversary of the first episode of Star Trek’s original air date was earlier this week.)
The Enterprise studio model was suspended from above while on display in the 80s and 90s. (Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum)
The model, which arrived damaged and in pieces, was initially hung as part of a “Life in the Universe” exhibit in the Smithsonian’s Arts & Industries Building. The National Air and Space Museum, where the Enterprise has spent the 21st century thus far on display in a custom case in the basement of the gift shop, wouldn’t open for another two years.
Once NASM opened, the Enterprise spent most of the years between 1976 and 1999 suspended from the ceiling. As Margaret Weitekamp, curator of the Museum’s Social and Cultural Dimensions of Spaceflight Collection, explained to an audience of Trek loyalists at a public lecture last night, the model was initially regarded more as a piece of decor than as an object deserving of preservation and scholarship in its own right. That distinction influenced the approach taken during its most recent restoration, in 1991, which included a new paint job and detailing intended to help the model live up to the memories many visitors have of the starship they originally saw on tiny, primitive TV screens. This is different from trying to make the model look as authentic as possible, or closest to its condition when used in filming the TV show. The fan community has been critical of these efforts to improve the model’s appearance, Weitekamp said—and she sympathizes with their greivance.
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