Maurice
New Member
But the engineering hull was built like a barrel, and those are pretty darned curved. Plus, you can go pretty damned curvy on a lathe...I've done it.
RED ALERT Lost 3 ft TOS Enterprise found????
- Thread starter CessnaDriver
- Start date
I suspect they went with the more straightforward cone shape because it was faster and easier, as well as helping to ensure structural stability for those heavy pylons and nacelles.
jheilman
Sr Member
LOVE your site BTW. Excellent work.
Yup no news. Pretty sure at this point the storage unit guy is gonna put this in a consignment auction. He's not gonna let it go for a little cash. He wants at least 1 million I bet...
Maurice
New Member
Thank you! It's a huge amount of work to research those pieces, which is probably why no one's done it before. Much easier to "print the legend." We're super proud to have finally gotten to the bottom of why NBC put Star Trek in the so-called "death slot," which we don't think anyone's done previously (there's more to that story but it takes time for all the due diligence).
Top-tier.
RossW
New Member
Site?
tim
Sr Member
"In that case, Mr. Chekov, it resides in the purview of the lawyers."
Top-tier site/research.
It was especially nice to see them debunking all of "Cash Markman's" claims.
I swear, more than any other franchise, STAR TREK seems plagued by scammers, grifters, weirdos, and people who pollute the factual record with lies and urban legends.
RossW
New Member
I was looking for Maurice’s site where he talks about Star Trek - is it facttrek.com?
Ah, yes, it is.
If Rod Roddenberry has decent legal representation, and I have no reason to believe he wouldn't, the person currently in possession would already have been served with a cease and desist letter directing them to do nothing with the model until it is authenticated and legal ownership is determined. If they are any good at all, they would get cease and desist orders/injunction legally prohibiting them from selling the model until legal ownership is determined.
There is abundant reason to believe the model is the one Gene Roddenberry lent to the studio which subsequently went missing/was stolen. As such, the Roddenberry estate/heirs are the legal owners of the model and attempting to sell or purchase it without their authorization is trafficking in stolen goods. For an artifact of such significance and potential value in the millions of dollars, the penalties could be severe. There's no statute of limitations for legal ownership and, while often required for insurance purposes and useful in theft claims, a report to law enforcement isn't required to prove that the item was stolen.
At this point, anyone who could reasonably authenticate the model for an auction house or consignment seller is also certainly aware of its history and any reputable agency wouldn't touch it until the legal issues are sorted out. If the person currently in possession actually did something so mind-bogglingly stupid as to sell it in some kind of black market deal, they almost certainly wouldn't get to enjoy the fruits of that deal, as the subsequent lawsuit and possible criminal proceedings would probably use it all up and then some. I can't imagine someone with the scratch to buy the model would want to get tangled up in this nonsense, either.
Then again, people get really stupid when money is involved.
RossW
New Member
They do indeed.
tim
Sr Member
Agree. Though I also am reminded of the stolen Gardner Museum paintings, which still haven't surfaced after 30+ years and are worth half a billion dollars. Greed has no limit.
Maurice
New Member
Maurice
New Member
Maybe that's just because the fandom is so large and long-established. But there's sure a lot of weirdos amongst the wonderful people. One thing we find hilarious is the sense of entitlement we see even in Trek fanzines from when the show was on the air. That's been there practically from day one.
One problem we've seen is that many Trek-adjacent people have a financial stake, and it's more profitable to pander than dig up sometimes uncomfortable truths. Also, most Trek experts and faux-historians have no standards for assessing information and don't understand that you can't take anything anyone connected to shows says at face value, because human memory is faulty, and oft-told tales evolve. As Nolan Bushnell said at an event I attended, "The stories get better the more I tell them."
You should have seen us squirming in our seats watching the first episode of "The Center Seat."
Back to the topic of the model, I emailed back and forth with Richard Datin around 1995, not realizing how close he lived to me. Had I realized I would have tried to meet him and do an in-depth interview. Alas!
I have no doubt. Literally the only reason I bought the physical media release was for the PHASE II screen-test footage and other rare clips and bits. The rest is cringe and useless.
I'm guessing that people are wrong on the whole stolen merchandise thing. I would think at this point if the people this guy handed it over to was the Roddenberrys we would have heard by now. I'm thinking he has some right to it. The laws vary in states as well... somehow really knows. But one thing is for sure this guy is not gonna let it go easily without a windfall....
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