Interesting, the interview I read he told it as if it was intentionally done at the time, but he also was a bit unreliable at times in how he chose to remember things. Do you have the source for this info handy?
He didn't actually start getting interviewed, really, until about the 25th anniversary stuff. He kept everything, though. The best book to get for all manner of Jeffries goodness is the Star Trek Sketchbook, by Herb Solow (a name anyone who watched TOS should be familiar with) and his daughter. A lot of people misunderstand what he said, though. Or latch onto one thing while forgetting another. In that very book, right at the beginning of the first chapter, there's a facing page of an
Enterprise sketch, the caption for which says:
The final sketch, from which the model for the show was made, can be called the "birth" of the Enterprise. It was this drawing that Desilu Studio Vice President and Executive in Charge of the entire production of Star Trek, Herb Solow, approved for production, giving the final go-ahead to the producer and the creative team.
...Except it's dated "6-77" and is obviously a preliminary sketch of the Phase II
Enterprise. It is also labelled "1701A", which Jeffries had jotted down during the
actual original design process as indicating the "1st moderize [sic] or modification". I.e., the refit that would begin Phase II/TMP. The drawing that
should have been on that page isn't in the book at all. It's hinted at on page 68. The top drawing is annotated "paint -- white on black matte board + color". Which he did, placed it in a prominent place amongst other drawings, and sure enough Herb and Gene picked it as the direction the ship should go. That
actual drawing/painting is on page 9 of The Art of Star Trek:
That's the one that should be on that opening page of the Star Trek Sketchbook. None of the reference books are proof from errors. Take what's presented with some skepticism and compare it against other sources -- or even other parts of the same source -- and see what holds up and what doesn't. The interview with Matt in that book jibes with what can be gleaned from his own drawings. Shortly after that painting is when he came up with the registry and meaning of the
number. I need to dig through all my reference material to find the other interviews where he mentions things like what the NCC means and other ship types, as well as the whole Main Engineering thing (there's a lot). I'll take Jeffries' own cross section of the
Enterprise over FJ's, much as I love the guy. And I keep hoping someone will make a model of Jeffries' Phase II shuttlecraft redesign:
It'd make a lovely predecessor to
Voyager's aeroshuttle...
--Jonah
.
