The Enterprise Restoration Project

TheWhiteGrail

I'd pay a 5er

ixtore

I'm a member at a website ( www.nautilussubmarine.com ) that discusses, primarily, Harper Goff's Nautilus from Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. In a separate section of the site is an area to post films or TV shows of interest. So I posted Star Trek TOS to start a thread on the show and automatically (almost without thinking; as if this was the most pressing aspect) opened with a discussion about the terrible restoration that sits at the Smithsonian. I felt I had to cut to the chase and point out the unfortunate restoration of the Enterprise. The more pictures I pulled up on the web, the more upset I became.
This is the perfect project to right this wrong. And to eventually get the model into an environment that will allow it to last for decades to come would be a crowning touch.
John - I wish you and all that join in your project much success. Money is what will make this miracle happen and I hope you and your team are able to generate what is needed.
A most excellent quest.

TheDuc

Can I ask who in the thread would be the top people to contact to help out in any way possible to make this come true?

Jeyl

I pledge $5.00 to this project. Maybe more.

acereplicas

I cant believe the oversights and mistakes in the restoration! This is a chilling fact for a Star Trek TOS fan...

SteveNeill

Guys I haven't heard a thing more on this project and tried to contact John Cooley but did not receive and email back. I can only hope he's OK. Since he's in the air Force there's no telling. hopefully he will check back on this.

And yes not to **** off anyone that did the restoration (you know who you are but it was done completely wrong in every way. Even the grills are wrong on the Nacelles. And trust me I should know. The Bussards were polished and gave a gloss. Stop me there.

To see some happy more accurate TOS continuing at full speed visit my Blog: Steve Neill's Blog And to you new guys on the scene go back a few pages and see the 66 inch TOS E with the right paint job.

And yes I know this is a hijack. Sue me! LOL!

Steve

acereplicas

Wow Steve! Your Enterprise model is absolutely amazing! Maybe you should have run the museum's restoration.

SteveNeill

Well thanks but we'll see if that ever happens. It was John's hope. We'll have to wait and hear from him. I'm hoping all is well with John and the airforce just has him busy!

Steve

Weequay

As an outsider somewhat looking in a few things strike me...

1) Who in the hell supervised the original restoration? or was the restorer given free reign?

2) It seems odd that dialogue is so hard to open with the museum!

3) Its seems even harder to believe that this restoration could actually cost that much IF everyone pulled together on this. There would be transport cost of course, but once docked I can not see how hundreds of thousands could be spent!!

4) This model seems to be in completely the wrong museum! To hang it in the gift shop diplays a sense of contempt. However if indeed they do feel that way, we may have a chance of seeing this done! Slap it on a truck, give it to Steve and away it goes!...

Just sees odd that this whole thing should be such a major/expensive issue when so many people want to see it done and done well.

Weequay

sapper36

When I saw at he Air & Space one thing that dissapointed me was they had no way to turn on the lights. If the lights were replaced with appropriate LEDs you could add a vending machine sret-up to turn on the lights for a minute or two. Folks would easily fork over $5 to light up he old girl. I know I sure would!

Shawn

i am very new here so i dont want to flash bold opinions or anything, but as a way to get the word out something should be made note of on facebook and move the idea forward. George Takei has a facebook and i bet he would be open to posting about this. money wise i dont see a problem there are so many fans that even a $1 from a small group of them and you would have all the money needed to make it happen.

having this model done right is just as important as any historic aircraft.
maybe more so.

Spoddy

With the right publicity, I don't doubt this project could raise $1 million, if not more without any effort at all.

However, the tricky part will be the politics with the folks who currently hold her... (in captivity?)

pengbuzz

Wow...

Before I start, hi to everyone here! I recognize some folks here from the other sci-fi modelling forums (I'm going by the same name here as I do everywhere else!); nice to see you here, Trekriffic, Captain April and JM Chaldek!


Onto the matter at hand: I have seen pics previously of the current "restoration" (MUTILATION is a far better term IMO), and I was appalled. Not to mention the damage that has been pointed out on parts of the filming model, which is all the more worse. I was under the impression that a restoration is supposed to restore something to what it was, NOT make it into something it never was. That being said, this wasn't a restoration at all.

John Cooley: dunno when you'll be back on, but I say keep going with this!!! I'd love to see the Lady brought back to shape she should be in! Dunno how much I'll be able to contribute (money or otherwise), but my heart is with everyone here who wants this to happen.

BlobVanDam

I'm not a stickler for the TOS Enterprise details, but it doesn't take a diehard fan to see how far the "restoration" on the Enterprise deviates from the original design. What's worse is that if anything, the restoration process destroyed as much detail as it "fixed", which is now probably lost forever.
The best hope is to restore it properly ASAP while we have people around who have put so much time and effort into trying to preserve these tidbits of information about the Enterprise model before they're lost to time too.

Judging by the mega bump, it doesn't look like this has gone anywhere, but if it ever does, you could put me down for a donation to see such an amazing, iconic prop preserved for true posterity. It is truly frustrating to see such a piece of television/scifi history still in existence, yet so far from what it should be, when there are so many skilled and eager people who would kill for the opportunity to restore it lovingly.

Chrisisall

When the restoration was done, if it was too complicated to work from photos of the actual Enterprise, they could have used this as a simple guide

and they still would have come up with a better result.

John Cooley

Sorry guys, and Steve, I somehow missed that email.

Ok, so yeah Steve was partially right; I've been fairly busy with some very real world Air Force stuff and between that and maintaining a family that includes my first baby...well its been a bit nuts over on my end.

With that out of the way, I'm going to move from my somewhat dormant mode of late and really ramp up on this project. My personal deadline on this is September 8th 2016, and I feel just about every tick of that particular clock.

The last news I personally had about the model was that back in November (I think), NASM had (thanks to a bug planted by Mike Okuda) opened the case and made a preliminary study of the model. They noted damage and added it to a list of artifacts that require a full damage survey and restoration. So the museum is aware of our effort, and still doesn't look much closer to moving on a restoration of their own. This is good news. It suggests that they might be willing to work with someone to restore the model, which is good for us. If we come in with a plan and our own financing I think it would be hard for them to turn us away. It would also prevent something like what happened last time from happening again.

Steve I'll try to give you a call sometime today.

Columbo

I'm by no means a model obsessed superfan or anything but IMO the current appearance of the model is a disgrace. What a restoration would cost I couldn't guess. Just insurance on the thing would likely be thousands of dollars!

Offering some kind of reward for donations would maybe pull in enough cash? Like the LOTR DVDs putting peoples names on a credit roll in return for a contribution [what did they have to pay??]. Document the restoration then release the tale on disc with all the "consultant engineers" names on the end. Bigger contributions get bonus items. Trek fans/collectors would surely go for that?

Don't forget the museum has this too. The Enterprise's rightful resting place.
Insert here

Tiberius Kirk

I wonder if the "Restoration Crew" pre-sold a DVD of the restoration (step by step) for say $15 or so, that they might raise a lot of money for the project?

Nwerke

Before this model is re-restored will anybody be taking hi-res reference pics? Or are there any good galleries out there already? If anybody could point me towards a good gallery of pics of the model in its current state I'd much appreciate it.

feek61

Glad to see you back John. This is a worthy project and one that needs to be done and done by the right people. Looking forward to seeing how this progresses.


Take Care,
Will

SteveNeill

Hey John welcome back to the US.

Steve

robn1

Pre-restoration
U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701
TOS 11 Foot USS ENTERPRISE 1701 Studio Model Restoration
Star Trek: NCC1701 "Enterprise"

Post-restoration
Star Trek: NCC1701 "Enterprise"
Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Authority: The U.S.S. Enterprise Star Trek Original Series 11 Foot Filming Model On Display At The Smithsonian

CessnaDriver

Raise big money that they can't ignore, and a portion to something like other museum efforts/education so it's not just a Trek thing and makes it easier for them to go forward on it.

What examples are there out there for fund raising for such things?

Did that civil war sub have a fund? Something like that.

Ford W Maverick

I'm broke as all hell, but I'm willing to chip in at least $5 to see the old girl put back in shape.

John Cooley

All good ideas folks!

Tiberius Kirk...not a half bad idea...a trailer. Perhaps a proof of concept or synopsis of the project. Now if only we knew someone with skills and a perfect filming model of the Enterprise to help with just such an idea. Hurm...think...