In
1974,
Paramount Pictures donated the original filming
model of the
USS Enterprise used in making the '60s
television series,
Star Trek, to the
National Air and Space Museum.
Paramount had never been very fond of the series, and the huge success it would become (
motion pictures,
spin-off television series,
etc.) was still just a twinkle in
Gene Roddenberry's eye.
The
Enterprise was delivered to the
Smithsonian in pretty poor shape. It needed a new
paint job, had some cracking that needed to be repaired in the
saucer section, the gold colored
deflector dish was missing, as were the red domes on the
warp nacelles, and the lighting was mostly inoperative.
The
model was
restored, and put on display in the
museum. The restoration cleaned things up, but was hardly accurate in its replacement of the missing pieces. The
deflector disk was too big and lacked detail. The
warp nacelles were a solid red and had no lighting. No restoration was done to the electrical components at all, and so few of the lights worked. Still, the Enterprise looked pretty much like it did when it was being used for the
TV show. In 1984, some more work was done on the model, primarily to fix up the lighting.
In
1991, in preparation for
Star Trek's 25th
anniversary, the model was completely restored again.
Or should I say,
desecrated.
This time, the dish and
warp engines were done right, and the lighting was completely restored.
That was about all that was done right.
The restoration crew must have decided that the smooth, clean surface of the
Enterprise was too boring, because they first
etched grid lines into the surface, and then proceeded to
heavily weather the entire model. The model now looks more like one might imagine a
studio model to look today, but that's not the point.
This model is a piece of
cultural history. It is representative of its time. Now, it looks very little like the model used to shoot the original series. It is almost like repainting the
Mona Lisa with a
nose-piercing, because, hey,
she looks so much cooler that way.
Ok, so the
Enterprise isn't on the level of the
Mona Lisa. That's an exaggeration. Still, the point is the same. When I go to a museum of
history, I want to see things as they were, not the way someone thought they'd look better.
Have some respect.