Question about the original 11' USS Enterprise

I meant no hostility, it's mostly just frustration at your ignoring compelling evidence and putting forth your preposterous (at this point) theory. I respect you for asking the question to begin with and your tenacity but at some point the continual excuses for evidence and proof to the contrary of your theory becomes absurd; which is where we have been. People here have tried to help and have pointed out the flaws to your conclusions but you refuse to accept them. There are no photos of the inner dome which I'm sure you are aware of but you blissfully ignore other proof, all the while proposing wild speculation without any credible proof yourself. You have been shown still photography (not film clips) clearly showing the thin fan blades which would be impossible considering different shutter speeds of the camera verses a motion picture camera. There is no logical explanation that these photos of the fan size blades match the video stills almost exactly unless that is the actual size of them. Even if the still photography photographed the spinning fans; it still would not match the motion picture stills if they are as you say. Funny you mention the one person who very early agreed with you but he has not posted since any of the proof has been posted here. I respectfully withdraw from the discussion since you feel hostility (which is not my intent) and honestly I don't think I have anything further to add anyway. I was only trying to help answer your question which I really thought you wanted to know the truth; not use this to continually put forth your theory despite all evidence to the contrary. If you have proof like photos of the inner dome with slits in them or photos of the non blinking lights ; please post them. I would be interested in seeing those instead of wild speculation.

Take care

Cheers and good luck!!
 
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I believe - believe - the Enterprise at Golden West did not have the control box.

Hence no motors and no lights.

Btw Feek is correct. The lights were hot and only turned on rarely and for filming.
 
The lights & box were present at the Golden West display. You can clearly see the dome lights in action from the photo in the article. scan1.jpg
 
I recall reading excepts of an interview with Craig Thompson done some years after the fact, and he described the console in some detail. I used to have a slightly better version of the following studio pic I downloaded off the 'net that shows it in the foreground, but can't seem to find at the moment.

console.jpg
 
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Yes, thanks, that’s the one - though when I posted it once on Hobbytalk I was told that there was an even more high resolution (but privileged) version extant. :rolleyes

I have assumed that the box on the floor and to the right of the model with the slot in the side (which also appears in the photo of the Enterprise after being donated to the Smithsonian) was for the console. Seems too small to be for any part of the model.
 
alensatemybuick said:
I have assumed that the box on the floor and to the right of the model with the slot in the side (which also appears in the photo of the Enterprise after being donated to the Smithsonian) was for the console. Seems too small to be for any part of the model.
Click to expand...

No, that actually looks like something called an "Apple Box", in this case it appears to be a half-apple box. They are commonly used on sets for all kinds of purposes (for actors to stand on to make them appear taller, or even heights with other actors) including apparently as part of the Enterprise stand. They come in several different sizes (half, quarter, etc.). The photo showing the control box box from the NASM is just a crate; not the half apple box shown in the above photo.
 
feek61 said:
No, that actually looks like something called an "Apple Box", in this case it appears to be a half-apple box.
Click to expand...
He wrote: "I have assumed that the box on the floor and to the right of the model with the slot in the side was for the console." (yellow arrow)

That's way too big to be an apple box. There *is* an apple box in the photo - indicated by the red arrow. The dimensions of an apple box are 20"x12"x8", with a "half apple", "quarter apple", and "pancake" being half, quarter, and one eighth of the 8" dimension.

Enterprise_DUNN.jpg
 
Ahh, yes, you are right!! Whatever it is; it does not match the crate in the NASM photos that clearly says "Electrical Control Panel."
 
Will, you can tell what it says on this photo (or a higher-res version you have access to)?

On review, it does not look like quite the same box, though the dimensions sure look similar (hence my ASSumption).

So does anyone know what that weird round plate is with the 3 short tubes sticking up out of it next to the Tholian ship (or is that the Aurora?) behind the Enterprise (it was also in one of the boxes the Enterprise was shipped in)?


74-3977_640.jpg
WEB11192-2009_640.jpg
 

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But, wait. I still don’t understand. How could a society that had telephones and cars and world spanning commercial air travel and rockets to the moon possibly create randomly blinking Christmas lights that allowed other lights to stay constantly lit? I don’t buy it for a second.
 
alensatemybuick said:
Pretty sure that is John Goodson.
Click to expand...

It is John. I've met him. And I know Bill George.

The lights blinked. I've always known that. You could tell on an NTSC TV in the 70s.

Honestly, you can't put too much stock in people's recollections years on. I asked Dorothy Fontana to read something I'd written up about Bill Theiss and she said I had a point wrong... until I pointed out I'd gotten that information from an interview she herself did with him back around 1969. Over 45 years she's just misremembered some details. We ALL do it. Datin was a very nice man who swapped some emails with me close to 20 years ago, but I doubt he really remembered the particulars of an iterative job from decades before.

BLINKED. They BLINKED. :)
 
I can't say that I know Bill George or John Goodson, but I met Bill George at NASM on the 50th anniversary of the premiere of TOS. And I can confirm that he blinked. :)
 
Mark2000 said:
But, wait. I still don’t understand. How could a society that had telephones and cars and world spanning commercial air travel and rockets to the moon possibly create randomly blinking Christmas lights that allowed other lights to stay constantly lit? I don’t buy it for a second.
Click to expand...

Lucy Lawless: Ah, yeah, well, whenever you notice something like that, a wizard did it.
 
The best fix is for dome shaped flexible display screens to replicate the effect with no moving parts. The flexible display screens are on the horizon--and with any luck some internet billionaire will help us out on this.
 
Miniaturizer Ray said:
Been on a bit of a Star Trek jag recently, and I get the impression that it's generally believed that at least some of the bulbs in the nacelle domes blinked on and off. I don't see how that could be the case. Does anybody have any evidence?
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Hi Miniaturizer Ray,
My name is Craig Thompson, formerly of Desilu Studios, and the only person ever allowed to take TOS 11 ft Enterprise off the Paramount lot, in 1972, for display in a major NASA exhibition I created at Golden West College, CA... where over 50,000 guests got to stand within 2 feet of the model and watch it come alive. My former associate, Executive VP Production (Desilu/Paramount Television, Herb Solow, was gracious enough to hand it over. I know first hand that the miniature lights, in the two Nacelles, were just non-blinking Christmas lights (because, when we picked the craft up from its props warehouse storage area—with an open wall exposed to the elements— it was in several pieces and literally caked with years of dust. Once at Golden West College, and cleaned up, we had to take apart the Nacelles and replace the lights. As far as the blinking goes—model designer Richard Datin had been quite clever at creating the illusion of power being generated at Nacelles two ends. The illusion was created with two formed, semi-translucent, fiberglass fittings that spun around *over* the lights, inside their covers—at controllable speeds on a rheostat fitted to the top of a 4 ft high metal control panel that also had switches to control each of the nacelles, deck, and starboard lights (which was the only side of the ship anyone ever saw)... Enterprise’s actual port side was never seen because it literally had large and small electrical cables that spilled out from port—and fed directly to the control panel about 10-15 ft away from the ship. After we returned the ship to the studio... they didn’t want it back, taking up space in the props department. Unfortunately, the control panel must have been tossed—as it was not part of the original donation, when shipped to the Smithsonian, two years later. I hope this answers your question about the non-blinking lights. Technically, you are correct. However, the spinning light covers did present the illusion that something mighty powerful was going on inside the two nacelles. I hope you get to see this answer, since it’s going on three years since it was posed.
 
craigt said:
Hi Miniaturizer Ray,
My name is Craig Thompson, formerly of Desilu Studios, and the only person ever allowed to take TOS 11 ft Enterprise off the Paramount lot, in 1972, for display in a major NASA exhibition I created at Golden West College, CA... where over 50,000 guests got to stand within 2 feet of the model and watch it come alive. My former associate, Executive VP Production (Desilu/Paramount Television, Herb Solow, was gracious enough to hand it over. I know first hand that the miniature lights, in the two Nacelles, were just non-blinking Christmas lights (because, when we picked the craft up from its props warehouse storage area—with an open wall exposed to the elements— it was in several pieces and literally caked with years of dust. Once at Golden West College, and cleaned up, we had to take apart the Nacelles and replace the lights. As far as the blinking goes—model designer Richard Datin had been quite clever at creating the illusion of power being generated at Nacelles two ends. The illusion was created with two formed, semi-translucent, fiberglass fittings that spun around *over* the lights, inside their covers—at controllable speeds on a rheostat fitted to the top of a 4 ft high metal control panel that also had switches to control each of the nacelles, deck, and starboard lights (which was the only side of the ship anyone ever saw)... Enterprise’s actual port side was never seen because it literally had large and small electrical cables that spilled out from port—and fed directly to the control panel about 10-15 ft away from the ship. After we returned the ship to the studio... they didn’t want it back, taking up space in the props department. Unfortunately, the control panel must have been tossed—as it was not part of the original donation, when shipped to the Smithsonian, two years later. I hope this answers your question about the non-blinking lights. Technically, you are correct. However, the spinning light covers did present the illusion that something mighty powerful was going on inside the two nacelles. I hope you get to see this answer, since it’s going on three years since it was posed.
Click to expand...
Hi Craig,
Thanks very much for posting this. I'd be interested in reading anything and everything that you can recollect about your experiences with the Enterprise!
 
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