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Enjoy some bitter dregs
I was thrilled to be invited to speak at this year’s Trekonderoga convention at the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour in Ticonderoga, NY.
I am doing two presentations: Come talk Star Trek collectibles, which is a series of stories behind my best items, and Collecting advice: how to start, what to buy, and how to display it.
Powering my preparation for these talks is vintage music from Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner, and I thought I would share some of that sonic goodness. So here is Nimoy’s Maiden Wine, from his album The Touch of Leonard Nimoy. That album was released just after Star Trek was cancelled.
The performance on the LP is livelier than the screened version and is among the best of Nimoy’s musical outings, but it does present a bleak, albeit often accurate, message about male/female relationships.
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This lunchbox is a tribute to Star Trek’s 50th
This post is long overdue. Back in 2019, I wrote about my 50th anniversary Fan Expo Star Trek lunchbox. It was produced in 2016 and, at that time, four main cast members were still alive: William Shatner, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig. Three of them were guests at that year’s Fan Expo convention in Toronto, and I had each sign for me.
Missing was Walter Koenig. I liked the idea of commemorating the anniversary by gathering their signatures on one item, so I waited on Walter’s return to Toronto.
He has not graced our city since then, but a good friend named Jason travelled to Vegas for the big Trek convention in 2021 and he carried my collectible with him and got it signed. Thank you, Jason, and I am sorry it took so long for me to update this story.
The 2016 version, with no Walter 
That little metal box took on a melancholy air when Nichelle Nichols died in July of 2022, and it will get sadder as each member of that group leaves us in the future.
But I like that it commemorates the 50th, and it is a treasured addition to my collection.
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’70s fandom was okay with cartoon nudity
I am always fascinated by 1970s fandom. Star Trek would have been forgotten after 1969 if dedicated fans had not kept it alive and, simply through the force of not giving up, finally persuaded Paramount to mount a new show and then The Motion Picture.
I am also interested because the fan experience itself was different back then. I wrote about the far more personal celebrity encounters at early conventions over on my Toronto Star Trek ’76 site, and today’s post is about a smaller, quirkier difference.
1970s cons were apparently okay with cartoon nudity, at gatherings we would now classify as family events.
I own the program book for the Vul-Con II convention, held in New Orleans in the spring of 1975. I bought this many years ago because it is signed by Nichelle Nichols, Bjo Trimble and David Gerrold.
The program offered attendees a centrefold of Spock looking at a centrefold. I am here to share Star Trek collectible history, not pass judgement, and this nudity is certainly of a very gentle nature, but it is notable for what it says about how 1970s mores contrast to current norms. Many convention-goers would complain about this today.
Others would be more offended by the illogic of Spock looking at a naked woman who is not his, and by that Vulcan woman even posing for the photo, than they are by the nudity itself. And that’s another reason to love this fan community.
Postscript
I believe the Vulcan centrefold was drawn by artist Danny Frolich.
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Goodbye, beloved Star Trek room
My family and I are moving soon, and our new house is great but the room I am transporting my collection to is significantly smaller than what I have now. So this post is a tribute to my current space, because it has been very good to me.
I have said before that you should display your collectibles if you can (I made a big deal of that here), and so I’ve worried that if I move one day I would not have the same amount of space. This was on my mind when I was interviewed about collecting and was asked “How has your passion for Star Trek influenced other areas of your life?” I answered “If I move someday, my new home has to have a large Star Trek room. I have one now and the walls and shelves are full.”
I am looking at those full walls and shelves as I type this. My current room, which doubles as my home office, is about 37 square meters (or 400 square feet). The new space is about half that.
And the new room has a large window, which makes this worse. You know you’re a true collector when a big bright window — normally a good thing — annoys you because it reduces the wall space available to hang 8x10s and posters.
I know I am fortunate to have a Star Trek room in the new house; there are many collectors who have all their stuff in boxes because they have nowhere to display it. But still, this is tough.
My current space
Here is a recent panorama photo. My room is 360-degrees of Star Trek. Click the photo to see a larger view, or download a higher-res version.
I also took some videos. I have seen other collectors make impressive video tours of their space. My film skills are not as strong.
Tough calls
The smaller space means I have to downsize. I need to make some cuts to what I own and also economize on how all this is displayed.
One casualty will be my big box of TOS calendars. I have almost every wall calendar from 1976 until a few years ago, and I even acquired a number from the other series. They are all in a big Rubbermaid box in storage and I never look at them, so they have to go. I will also get rid of a bunch of unopened model kits. I am not a modeller.
And I am considering letting go of most of my Trek novels. I will keep the older ones, like Spock Must Die! and Spock, Messiah! and the terrible Mission to Horatius, but I own more than 120 novels in paper, and all those old Pocket Books take up a lot of room. Plus, I have been buying them over the last few years as e-books.
I will keep every non-fiction Star Trek book I own. I love all those.
The bigger change will be the amount of display space I have. I own 60 or 70 signed photos, posters, albums, etc., and a lot of those are on my walls right now. I won’t have the space in the new room.
I may scan all that stuff and load the pics onto a digital photo frame. It won’t be the same, but I could at least still see the items regularly.
Earlier in this whole move process, we actually bought a different house. That deal fell through, but for a while I was trying to figure out if I could move my Star Trek life into an 8 x 20 foot shipping container, kitted out as a living space and dropped into the small backyard. That would have been even tighter.
Display your collectibles if you can. That can be one shelf or two bookcases or a full-room tribute but you will enjoy them more if you can look at them every day. Walking into my Star Trek room and seeing my Polar Lights Enterprise or my Mego display or my signed wallpaper poster or my Toronto Star Trek ’76 poster or my Ebony cover or my surprise Roddenberry autograph or my AMT Enterprise or my Heineken ad makes me happy.
Collectibles should not be in a storage box.
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Look to 1950s sci-fi to appreciate the genius of Gene Roddenberry
Perhaps the best science-fiction radio series ever produced was X Minus One. NBC broadcast 126 episodes from 1955 to 1958, with stories from preeminent writers of the period including Ray Bradbury, Robert Silverberg, Philip K. Dick, Robert A. Heinlein, Robert Bloch, Frederik Pohl and Fritz Leiber.
And Clifford D. Simak. Simak’s novels and short stories landed him a Nebula Award and three Hugo Awards, plus two Retrospective Hugo Awards.
The Big Front Yard won a Hugo in 1959 Six of his stories were adapted for X Minus One, including Courtesy. That radio play told “the story of the second expedition to the planet of Landro” in which 180 men attempted to colonize a “god-forsaken sphere” already inhabited by an indigenous population.
In Simak’s tale, the planet’s “aborigines” are described as “strange, ugly little people” and “cave rats” and, when it is suggested they may hold an important answer to a peril faced by the humans, one crewmember promises the commander he will “get a few of them and beat it out of them.” And it gets worse from there.
Gene Roddenberry was a fan of early pulp sci-fi, and the stories written in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s taught him about the genre but, when he committed his view of the future to paper in the 1964 Star Trek is… pitch and wrote The Cage pilot episode, his heroes would act very differently from Simak’s. Roddenberry wanted humans to explore strange new worlds and seek out new civilizations, not beat members of those civilizations to death.
Click the YouTube link below to listen to Courtesy, recorded in 1955, and contrast it to the spirit of The Cage, filmed only nine years later.
Simak’s story offers up a weak, mystical note of redemption at the end that does little to erase the ugliness of what came before. But I called X Minus One the greatest of the sci-fi radio series because the show often delivered great tales.
Cold Equations, broadcast just after Courtesy, is one of those. The hard sci-fi story absolutely sticks the landing, and adventures like these also inspired Roddenberry.
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Not a modeller? Pay a pro. You’ll love the result
I recently commissioned a build of the AMT Enterprise kit from an experienced modeler — and I am thrilled with my new acquisition. It’s vintage and cool and executed with a lot of skill. It’s exactly what I wanted.
And it’s been a long time coming. Like most fans of around my age, I tried to build an AMT kit back in the day, but in addition to the poorly joined pieces and the glue everywhere, I had no idea how to paint the thing. I gave up.
Decades later, I found James Small at Small Art Works in Nova Scotia. He is an experienced professional who has also worked on movie models (for Battlefield Earth) and has been the go-to builder for Round 2, the company that manufactures models under the AMT and Polar Lights brands, among others. He’s constructed more than 100 kits for the company, including all the Star Trek, Star Wars, and Space: 1999 models since about 2009. His builds are used for the vendor’s product shots and his name is on the boxes. So, you know he’s good.
The age of assessment
This commission came about now because I am in what I call the assessment phase of my hobby. Collectors spend years acquiring, because there’s a lot of cool stuff we don’t yet own. Eventually, though, we step back, appreciate what we already possess, and begin to contemplate the gaps, the rare or expensive items that are not yet on our shelves.
An AMT Enterprise was one such gap, although the kit itself is neither rare nor expensive; the recent reissue of it can be yours for about C$60. What is rare, for me, is the skill required to create a really nice build.
If you don’t know the difference between Revell Contacta Clear and Tamiya Liquid Cement — and I do not — hire a pro like Jim. The results are great.
Which kit, and how accurate?
I had to decide which AMT Enterprise to build, and to understand that question we need a little history.
AMT made 10 different versions of the Enterprise over the decades since 1966, and that does not include special editions like the cutaway ship. Memory Alpha has a good summary chart of these products.
My goal was to finally own the model I couldn’t have as a kid, so I wanted a really old kit, right? No. They’re quite expensive but the real problem is that the nacelles eventually droop, as the point where the pylons connect to the secondary hull was too weak in the original kits.
The other issue is that older kits are less accurate, but that didn’t bother me. I own the Polar Lights 32-inch model so I have a ship that’s true to the TV show. My goal here was nostalgia.
That goal also ruled out the newest reissue from Round 2. The newer versions are closer to the real model, but that means they are less old-timey.
The option I chose was already on my shelf: an AMT kit dated 1983 on the box, although I think it was originally released in 1975. It wouldn’t suffer nacelle droop and was from around the time I tried to build one myself.
I mailed my kit off to Jim, and then the questions started, because there are a lot of ways to build these kits. For example, AMT added raised grid lines to the saucer on many of its versions, including mine. Some modellers painstakingly sanded these down. What did I want Jim to do? I opted to keep the lines, as teenage me would have done.
Did I want it painted white or light grey? Light grey. Did I want the front of the nacelles painted red, dark red, copper, or gold? Red with gold highlights. What about the flimsy stand that came with the model? Give me the flimsy stand for when I am feeling authentic but also make me a new one so my ship won’t fall over. (You see both in the photos below.)
And then there were the windows, a significant decision:
Do you prefer the window arrangement/decoration as shown on this model done “old school” (and as etched into the plastic) as the kit was originally?
Or a more “authentic” look, like this?
I agonized over this call, but I went with the old-school look, again to honour the idea that this was a model I might have built as a teen.
I love my AMT Enterprise, and I very much appreciate that Jim asked me all those questions and that there are still people out there with the knowledge and skill to build these things well. Pay a pro to build a model, if you can. The result will be gorgeous and you’ll be supporting a hobby and skillset that are, sadly, disappearing.
Here are photos of the model Jim built for me.
Jim and I also discussed the state of modelling today, and it’s an interesting — if melancholy — read.
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The state of modelling, then and now
Modeling has changed dramatically over the last few decades. Once every young sci-fan, and indeed every horror, airplane or car aficionado, glued and painted plastic model kits, or tried to. Today, far fewer people assemble these shaped sheets of plastic into fantastic spaceships or cool hotrods.
James Small Professional modeler James Small, who recently built my AMT Enterprise model, supplied this grim assessment: “Unfortunately, it’s a dying hobby. Enjoy it while you can.”
Modelling was once big business
AMT launched its Enterprise model kit in 1966, and it was a huge success as soon as it hit store shelves. Star Trek Associate Producer Bob Justman told Gene Roddenberry in a memo dated October 19, 1967, that:
I have it on reliable information that the “STAR TREK” Model Kit will sell more than a million copies within its first year of production… All I know is that the machine which turns out the plastic parts for the kit goes continually 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and AMT is rushing another machine into production, so that they can keep up with the demand.
(I wrote about the Enterprise and other AMT models in an article that mostly covers how much it cost to build the Galileo shuttlecraft.)
Sadly, Jim told me the heyday of modelling is well in the past.
When I was a kid, almost everyone made model kits at some point, and that simply doesn’t exist anymore. The audience for model kits today is pretty much adults my age, which is why they cost so much now. We used to buy model kits at the five-and-dime store; a Matchbox airplane kit was $1.25 and now those types of kits are $50.
Jim got into modeling through airplanes.
It started with airplanes. I think the first one was a Matchbox kit of a Boeing P-12E. I did a horrible job, it was a difficult kit for a kid to build, but it was still interesting.
Photo from scalemates But it was Space: 1999, a show I’ve never liked although the ships are cool, that really cemented his interest and later led to work with Round 2, the preeminent model manufacturer today.
I loved Space: 1999 and…I first learned about making models for movies and TV from reading the book The Making of Space: 1999. I opened it to photos of Brian Johnson and Nick Alder holding that 44-inch Eagle model and it was sort of like a kid discovering a magician’s trick. Then Star Wars came along and I gobbled that up, and it just continued from there.
Nick Alder and Brian Johnson. Photo from The Prop Gallery I had the old MPC Eagle kit from around 1975 but I was never satisfied with it, because it was not terribly accurate. It didn’t match what I saw on screen; it was simplified and the proportions were off, and I always wanted a better model. Then Round 2 hired me in 2008 or so to do some build-ups for them, and I’ve been working with them ever since. Around 2013, I became friends with Jamie Hood, one of the product developers there…and I kept bugging him to do the Eagle from Space: 1999. Then they got the license and they released the old kit and it started flying off the shelves. He couldn’t believe it. They released the other kits too, like the Moonbase Alpha, and I said you have to do a much better model of the Eagle.
I knew a guy named Chris Trice who had access to the original 44-inch Eagle miniatures and he had measured them and built replicas that were superbly accurate, and a guy named Daniel Prud’homme had done some blueprints of the Eagle based on Chris’ measurements. So I said to Jamie “Here’s how you get the Eagle done. All of the design work is already done.”
He took my advice and they built it and it is one of the best-selling kits they ever had.
But even with sales successes like that, modeling is not what it used to be.
The technology has advanced to the point that kits are much better and in fact cheaper to produce and at better quality, but because they’re not selling in the numbers they used to — they used to sell in the hundreds of thousands and even millions, and now they’re selling in the low thousands — the cost per unit is way up.
Kits got better, but fewer people are buying them now.
It’s sad to think that models and the skills of modellers may disappear soon. If you can, buy a kit and build a model, or hire a pro like Jim to do it for you. Either way, the ship you put on your shelf will bring you joy.
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Colour guides are great comics collectibles
One of the best things about being a Star Trek collector is the community of experts and other collectors who are happy to share their knowledge. A good example is a recent assist from comics expert Mark Martinez about colour guides.
(Mark is online at X, Bluesky, and his extensive site, and he is active in the Star Trek Comics Weekly Facebook group.)
I first heard of colour guides on that Facebook group. Being familiar with these meant I knew what I was looking at when some popped up on eBay, and I bought one immediately. My page is from the Peter Pan comic-and-record set for the story Passage to Moauv. I wrote about that tale here.
Creating comics: a quick overview
Some comics are produced by one or two creators who do all the work themselves, but larger companies employ a team, each fulfilling a specific purpose. Scary Sarah has written a good overview of this process; here are the main players.
- The writer crafts a script.
- A penciller creates the basic images.
- A letterer renders the text in a readable format.
- An inker makes the drawings into black-and-white line art.
- A copy of the art is used by a colourist to specify the hues for each element.
- The resulting colour guides are passed to a colour separator to prepare negatives for printing.
Computers are now employed during the colouring process, so traditional guides are rarely made.
Unique pieces of artThe drawings used for guides are copies (often photocopies), but the colours are done by hand, using pencils, felt-tip pens, watercolors or any combination, according to Mark, so each colour guide is a one-of-a-kind piece of comic art.
These guides also give some insight into the creation and editing process. For example, my page includes the penciled question “This is Sulu?” And no, it isn’t; Sulu is on the left of the drawing, and the question indicates the black character sitting at the helm station.
So why the odd question, and why — in the actual published book — has the drawing been reworked? The final comic replaced the familiar figure of Sulu with a generic navigator and instead has the black character answer to “Mr. Sulu?”
One piece of background information answers both questions: Peter Pan had licensed only the likenesses of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. The artist either did not know about this rule or completed the drawing while the licensing was still being finalized. The legal arrangement meant Sulu as we knew him had to go, and this is also why Peter Pan usually depicted Uhura as a blond white woman and Arex as a big blond human.
Mark sent me scans of the line art for my page, the colour guide for another page in the same story, and two guides from the first Gold Key comic, The Planet Of No Return. (Note the red cap on Rand in the Gold Key images. The artist or the coulourist thought the Yeoman’s elaborate beehive hair was a hat.) Thanks for sharing these, Mark, and for giving me permission to use them here.
Postscripts
The seller I purchased from still has a number of guides up for auction, at time of writing.
Many of the Peter Pan titles were repackaged with 33 RPM LPs, instead of the smaller 45 RPM discs. The larger format meant the layouts had to be redone. Here is the LP version of my page.
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A collecting Q&A
A guy named Alex contacted me a year ago to ask if I would contribute to his new Star Trek site. His idea was to interview active fans, “especially those that go above and beyond like bloggers, YouTubers and others like you.” He would send me questions and post my answers on his site.
He had already engaged with John Champion of the Mission Log podcast and Trekland’s Larry Nemecek, so it was nice to be asked.
I emailed my answers but then his site disappeared from the Internet shortly after, and messages to him bounced back as undeliverable. I hope Alex is okay.
So I am posting those answers here, just so the effort was not entirely wasted. There is some solid advice about starting your own collection.
What inspired you to start collecting Star Trek memorabilia?
There are two facets to my collecting. The first is a love for Star Trek, particularly the original series, and it makes me happy to look around my Star Trek room and see a bunch of collectibles. The second is that I enjoy collecting itself. That means if Star Trek did not exist, I would likely collect something else. (Probably Humphrey Bogart memorabilia; I am on a quest to see and own all 74 of the movies he was in.) It’s good to have a hobby, and it’s a lot of fun to learn about a topic and then pursue items related to it.
So being a Star Trek collector is about both the show and collecting.
Having said that, I bought my first items at around 11 years old, so I never really decided to become a collector. I just bought a couple of things, then a couple more, and I realised I was enjoying it. And now I have thousands of items.
Can you recall the first piece of Star Trek memorabilia you acquired?
Yes, it was a used copy of The World of Star Trek, by David Gerrold — autographed by Gerrold. I purchased it in a great sci-fi bookstore in Toronto (Ontario, Canada) called Bakka. It still exists, although it has moved to a new location. I then bought a couple more Star Trek books at the same store, and that was it for me. I was a collector.
So it began with books, but then my collecting took a big jump forward when I attended my first science fiction convention. I discovered there are things called dealers rooms and they are packed with stuff to buy. Amazing!
How has your collection evolved over the years?
I have gone through phases, and I think most collectors do this. In the 1970s and 1980s, collectors bought pretty much anything that said “Star Trek” on it, because there was so little memorabilia. We had books and blueprints and the Mego toys and, if you went to a convention, a lot of 8×10 photos and some homemade items. That was me, starting in about 1979. I bought all of that.
I spent a lot of time getting autographs at conventions, mostly on 8x10s, and then I went through phases: books (non-fiction and novels), collectible plates, comics (notably the wonderful Gold Key line), cards, and then later the high-end models and figures that started to come out and also vintage toys.
The years 1964 to 1979 are now for me the most interesting era of Trek collectibles, for a few reasons. First, fans kept the show alive in the 1970s; if not for them, there would have been no new Star Trek after 1969. Second, that stuff is older, so it’s more fun to collect. And third, items from then are rare, especially the toys. These were made to be played with and they were, and then most often thrown out.
My current focus is on production-related information and material from 1964 to 1969. I own a number of memos and outlines, and I have gigabytes of scanned documents.
What’s the rarest or most challenging item you’ve ever obtained for your collection?
I have a few items that are literally one of a kind. The oddest one, and one of my favourites, is a piece of artwork drawn for the wrap party from the 1971 Gene Roddenberry movie Pretty Maids All In A Row. This was passed around at the party and signed by the cast and crew. I don’t know who did the drawing but it is signed by Gene Roddenberry, William Ware Theiss, Angie Dickinson, and Anita Doohan (James Doohan’s wife), plus many others.
The movie itself is terrible but it holds an important place in Star Trek history, and I will write a large article on the piece one day.
I also own the story outline for Amok Time, typed by Ted Sturgeon and given to Gene Roddenberry; a few other original typed story outlines and scripts; some personal (not convention) autographs by Matt Jefferies; and some letters and memos signed by Roddenberry. All of those are one of a kind.
Are there any specific gaps in your collection that you’re actively working to fill?
There are a couple of large gaps but I can’t say I am actively trying to fill them, because the items are rare and really expensive. I do not have the 1967 Leaf cards or the Mego Mission to Gamma VI playset (but I do have a vintage Enterprise playset in great shape). I would love to own anything related to Wah Chang’s Trek work and an original Jefferies set drawing. And every collector dreams of owning a screen-used prop, but those are incredibly expensive and there are a lot of fakes.
I have some small holes in the line-up, but I am enjoying filling those slowly, rather than just hitting eBay for everything. For example, I am missing a handful of the DC TOS comics and I decided it’s more fun to get those issues by flipping through boxes in stores and at conventions.
How has your passion for Star Trek influenced other areas of your life?
My passion for the show informs who I am today. The original series taught compassion, it said loyalty and friendship and honesty are important, and it advocated for science and scientists, for a rational approach to solving problems based on evidence and experience.
My passion for collecting also influences where I can live. If I move someday, my new home has to have a large Star Trek room. I have one now and the walls and shelves are full.
Do you have any favourite stories or anecdotes related to your experiences as a Star Trek collector?
Many, but I’ll mention only a few.
In my early teens I did not have a lot of money and so I didn’t get autographs, but then I started watching the autograph areas at conventions and I realised that what people are actually buying is a few minutes with someone who was there, on the set of this show we love, and the autograph they take home is a reminder of that experience. So I started paying for autographs at conventions, and I have a number of stories on my site about the conversations those few dollars got me. (Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Howard Weinstein, William Shatner and William Shatner, and Shatner and Nimoy.)
And one time I found three amazing autographs I did not even know I had, when I opened an old colouring book. That story is here.
My favourite story, though, is about a convention pretty much everyone had forgotten. I was digging through a storage box and I found the program for Toronto Star Trek ’76; I had bought it years earlier because it was signed by Walter Koenig. I found out nothing was written about the con, and so spent three years interviewing people and writing the definitive history of the show. That story lives on its own site now.
Can you share any tips or strategies for effectively managing and growing a Star Trek memorabilia collection?
If you have not yet chosen what to collect, go with something small. Stamps bore me but collecting them would be very convenient, as you really just need a few binders on a shelf.
But if you’ve chosen Star Trek, collectors should begin with autographs, because they’re a lot of fun. Get all your first signatures on 8x10s. The photos are cheap, they’re easy to display, and the signatures themselves show up well. I have seen people get models signed, for example, and curved plastic surfaces are tough to sign and the autographs often look crummy.
Also, I recommend you set some limits on what you collect. I decided early on to only collect original series. I have seen every minute of every Star Trek show and movie and a lot of it I like, but I only collect TOS. That has been a good decision. Some people only collect models or comics or books. Whatever it is, setting some limits is often a good idea.
Once you have a sizable collection, go through it once in a while. Pull books off shelves, open storage boxes, go through your piles of magazines… You then enjoy the stuff you already have and will probably find things you forgot you purchased. That has happened to me many times.
Are there any items you’ve been searching for but haven’t been able to find?
Here’s an odd one, but a real example: I tried for many months to get in touch with author and collector Allan Asherman. He had been very active in the 1970s and 1980s but had stepped back from public life. I really wanted to talk to him about early fandom and his collection. I emailed, sent actual letters, and talked to a number of people who knew him and tried to communicate my interest. And then he died in September of 2023. If he received any of those inquiries he chose not to speak with me, and of course had every right to make that decision, but I do hope he at least heard I was interested. If he then decided against it, that’s fine. I wish I could have talked to him about early fandom.
Another is a research initiative that has gone nowhere. John D.F. Black wrote an envelope story for The Cage called From the First Day to the Last. Of course, Roddenberry’s The Menagerie script was made instead. Part two of Black’s script exists but I and other Star Trek historians have not seen part one. It is not even in the library of papers at UCLA. I have asked everyone I can find. I would love to read that.
What is your favourite Star Trek series and character?
The original series, no question. And my favourite character is one of the big three — Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. My choice changes daily. Outside of the main cast, I really like Richard Daystrom, Matt Decker, Vina, Gary Mitchell, Sarek, and Edith Keeler.
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Doug Drexler on designing the NX-01
The greatest ship design in all of Star Trek is Matt Jefferies’ Enterprise. It’s both realistic and fantastical, and looks great from any angle. This is true from its first appearance in The Cage through to the unveiling of the refit Enterprise in that long, loving tribute at the beginning of The Motion Picture and into the debut of the 1701-A in Star Trek IV.
The hero NCC-1701 at the NASM and the NX-01 by Doug Drexler
The second greatest design is the NX-01, from Enterprise. It clearly predates Christopher Pike’s ship and it’s easy to see how it led to the NCC-1701 — especially if the secondary hull that designer Doug Drexler envisioned is added.
Enterprise was cancelled after four seasons but, had it gone further, one option for season five was the crew returning to Earth for an upgrade: the addition of a secondary hull. The warp-engine pylons which had connected directly behind the saucer would now extend down to the new section, with the saucer linked to the main hull with a small neck. This moved the NX-01 a big step closer to the ship that first appeared on televisions in 1966. And the fact we never got to see it on-screen is among the great disappointments that flow from the show’s cancellation.
Luckily for Star Trek fans, Eaglemoss gave us models of the NX-01 and the NX-01 Refit, so we can see what Drexler envisioned.
The Eaglemoss NX-01 and NX-01 Refit models Every detail sweated out
I was fortunate to speak with Drexler for a few stories on this site, and I also asked him about creating the NX-01. I had seen some statements online that the ship was designed very quickly, but Drexler told me this is not true. A number of ideas for the new ship from Production Illustrator John Eaves had not worked out, and the staff was approaching a deadline; Production Designer Herman Zimmerman and Eaves had to begin work on the interior of the ship. Scenic Art Supervisor Mike Okuda suggested Drexler be brought in. Drexler agreed to take it on, even though he already had a full-time gig elsewhere. And despite the deadline pressure, the eventual look was not rushed. Instead, he told me “Every detail of that was sweated out. More time was spent on the NX than on any other starship.”
Drexler also delivered a bonus: he had been learning about computer-generated imaging, a technology new to the Enterprise production offices.
I was at Foundation Imaging, learning to do CG. Art departments didn’t have CG yet…but I had spent two years at Foundation. So basically, Mike Okuda said to Herman Zimmerman ‘If you bring Doug back to the art department, he brings the computer knowledge with him, and we can model a ship and see it from any angle, with different light on it. But I had to give two week’s notice, I couldn’t just leave (Foundation Imaging) so Herman said ‘That’s okay, I’ll just come to your house at night and we’ll work on it.
I would come home from work and Herman would be sitting on my front porch. This went on for a couple of weeks.
But even as the design work progressed, the project was almost pulled out from under him. The higher-ups considered simply using an existing ship design.
At one point, Peter Lauritson, the Post-Production Supervisor, asked about a model of the Akira, and my heart sank. His idea was to just use the Akira. Herman and I talked about it and we decided we needed to push it more towards the [original-series] class of ship.
The pontoons that the engines are attached to (in my design) are similar to the P38 Lightning, a plane from World War II that I loved. That was my main inspiration. It made sense that, if we didn’t have a secondary hull, what is going to hold the engines on? Because you don’t want them near the primary hull. So we had twin booms like on the P38.
The Akira (left) from the old Drex Files site. The P38 is from The Aviation History Online Museum
Drexler finalized the basic design and then sold it with some CGI showmanship. “I did animations of it flying by the camera, and they had never seen that before.”
The secondary hull
Drexler is a TOS fan, and he had always looked up to Matt Jefferies. (“Matt Jefferies became extended family for me and the Okudas.”) He wanted his design to be a clear precursor to the NCC-1701, and that meant it too needed a primary hull.
I always planned that a second hull would be added. When I was building the approval model for the NX, I would always take that secondary hull and put it underneath, just to see how it worked. There was an evolutionary thread. They would go out for the first four years and have their asses handed to them and while that is happening, [Starfleet is] building a secondary hull for when the NX comes back. They would then refit it with that secondary hull.
An early test rendering of the Refit And, thankfully, Eaglemoss took that concept and produced a model of the NX-01 Refit, although sadly only in the company’s small size. I and a lot of other fans would have purchased an XL version.
Enterprise is not among the most popular of the Star Trek series, but even those who don’t love it should take a second look at the NX-01’s place in a starship lineage that eventually gave us TNG’s 1701-D and the 1701-E of First Contact. It fits perfectly, especially with the addition of the secondary hull, because Doug Drexler respected the artists who had created the design language of Federation starships. I wish the production team on Discovery had the same understanding of that aesthetic.
Collecting Trek
A TOS collection 40 years in the making
Collecting Trek 
