USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)
USS Enterprise is a series of starships in the Star Trek media franchise. Enterprise is the main setting of the original Star Trek television series, nine Star Trek films, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The vessels carry their crew on a mission "to explore strange, new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no one has gone before."
Matt Jefferies designed the Enterprise for television, and its core components – a flying saucer-shaped primary hull, two offset engine nacelles, and a cylindrical secondary hull – persisted across several television and film redesigns. The vessel influenced the design of subsequent franchise spacecraft, including other vessels named Enterprise, and the model filmed for the original Star Trek TV series has been on display for decades at the National Air and Space Museum.
Initially a vision of the potential for human spaceflight, the Enterprise became a popular culture icon. The Enterprise has repeatedly been identified as one of the best-designed and most influential science fiction spacecraft.
Development and production
Concept and initial design
Series creator Gene Roddenberry reviewed hundreds of science fiction magazines, dating back to 1931, to gather ideas about what he wanted Star TrekRoddenberry further specified that the ship would have a crew of 100–150 and be incredibly fast. Art director Pato Guzman's assistant, Matt Jefferies, was responsible for designing the ship and several of its sets. Jefferies and Roddenberry did not want the vessel to look like any of the rocket ships already used by the aerospace industry or in popular culture; many designs were rejected for being "too conventional". To meet Roddenberry's requirement that the ship look believable, Jefferies tried "to visualize what the fourth, fifth or tenth generation of present-day equipment would be like". Jefferies' experience with aviation let him imbue his designs with what he called "aircraft logic". He imagined the ship's engines would be too powerful to be near the crew, requiring them to be set apart from the hull. Jefferies initially rejected a disk-shaped component, worried about the similarities to flying saucers; however, a spherical module eventually flattened into a disk. Because the ship would be expected to flash by quickly on television screens, Jefferies wanted the design to be "very simple, but immediately identifiable – a shape that you could instantly pick out."
During a visit with Jefferies, Roddenberry and NBC staff were drawn to a sketch of the ship resembling its final configuration. Jefferies had created a small model of this design that, when held from a string, hung upside-down – an appearance he had to "unsell". He kept the hull smooth, with a sense that the ship's components were serviced from inside. He designed the Klingon starship seen in the third season by rearranging and changing the shape of Enterprises basic modules: a main body, two engine pods, and a neck with a head on it. Some of Jefferies' rejected design concepts – such as spherical hull sections and warp engines that encircle a ship – inspired future Star Trek vessel designs.
The Enterprise was originally named Yorktown, but Roddenberry was fascinated by the aircraft carrier Enterprise and had "always been proud of that ship and wanted to use the name." The NCC-1701 registry stems from NC being one of the international aircraft registration codes assigned to the United States. The second C was added because Soviet aircraft used Cs, and Jefferies believed a venture into space would be a joint operation by the United States and Russia. Jefferies rejected 3, 6, 8, and 9 as "too easily confused" on screen; he eventually reasoned the Enterprise was the first vessel of Starfleet's 17th starship design, hence 1701. The Making of Star Trek explains that USS means "United Space Ship" and that "Enterprise is a member of the Starship Class". Licensed texts, on-screen graphics, and dialogue later describe the ship as a Constitution-class vessel.
Filming models
The first miniature built from Jefferies' drawings was a scale model. Desilu Studios, which produced Star Trek, hired Richard C. Datin to make a pre-production model. Datin used a subcontractor with a large lathe for major subcomponents and otherwise worked on the model for approximately 110 hours during November 1964. The model was made mostly of pine, with Plexiglass and brass details. Datin made minor changes after Roddenberry's review, and he submitted the completed model – which cost about $600 – to Desilu in December 1964.File:NCC-1701 Prop.jpg|thumb|right|The filming model, which Paramount Pictures donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1974
Desilu then ordered a larger filming model, which Datin contracted to Volmer Jensen and Production Model Shop in Burbank. Datin supervised the work and did detailing on the model, which was constructed from plaster, sheet metal, and wood. When completed, it was long, weighed, and cost $6,000. The model was delivered too late to be used much for the initial pilot, "The Cage". When Roddenberry was approved to film the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", various details of this 11-foot model were altered, and the starboard windows and running lights were internally illuminated. When the series went into production, the model was altered again, and it was regularly modified throughout its active filming. Most of the fine details on the large model were not visible to television viewers. Wiring for the interior lighting ran into the model on its left side, so it could only be filmed from the right; for shots requiring the other side of the Enterprise, the footage was either flipped or filmed using the 33-inch model. Because of this, some of the fine details added to the model were added only to its right side. The model was filmed with an 18mm lens "to accentuate the speed of travel as well as retain an adequate depth of field."
The 11-foot model was initially filmed by Howard Anderson. Anderson's team struggled to film the model in a way that suggested it was moving at tremendous speeds, as the producers wanted to avoid the cliched look of a spacecraft drifting through space. Additionally, the model was so large there was little room in the filming space for the camera to move around it. Anderson could not keep up with the filming and special effects needs for regular production, so producers hired several other studios to contribute effects and additional footage. Motion control equipment was too expensive, so the ship was filmed with stop motion. Filming was often delayed by the heat generated by the studio and model's lights. Most third-season footage of the Enterprise was reused first- or second-season footage. Special effects were produced as cheaply as possible. Animators for Star Trek: The Animated Series rotoscoped Enterprise footage to recreate the ship's movements, contributing to the impression of the animated series being a fourth season of the original. The animated show's limited color palette could not accommodate all of the ship's various colors, so the Enterprise was depicted as a consistent gray.
Sets, sounds, and fixtures
The Enterprise was meant to serve as a familiar, recurring setting, similar to Dodge City in Gunsmoke and Blair General Hospital in Dr. Kildare. Guzman created the first bridge set design in 1964. The bridge was monochromatic for "The Cage", but it was redecorated for "Where No Man Has Gone Before" because of the increasing popularity of color televisions. The first pilot episode's bridge set was rigid, making it difficult for cameras to move in. For series production, the bridge set was rebuilt modularly, allowing large sections to be removed to make camera movement easier. The complicated electronics that provided bridge set readouts and lights required expensive air conditioning to avoid overheating. The chairs used on the bridge and other sets were manufactured by Burke of Dallas and were similar to the tulip chair designed by Eero Saarinen. When production ended after the third season, major elements of the bridge set were donated to the UCLA Theater Arts Department; the remaining components were discarded.Reusing sets helped address Desilu's budget concerns. The engine room, whose sense of scale was enhanced by the use of forced perspective, was redressed as the shuttlebay. Other sets that were redressed to save costs included the briefing room, which also served as the recreation room and cargo deck; and Kirk's cabin, which was also Spock's. Going into the show's second season, NBC executives pressed the production to have fewer episodes based on the ship, and more that occur on alien worlds. In April 1968, Roddenberry pushed back, comparing the Enterprise to the home and ranch on Bonanza, the location of some of that show's best episodes. He also said they would create new Enterprise sets to "help counteract any 'sameness' about the ship". Roddenberry described the ship's hallways as "Des Moines Holiday Inn Style". To keep the ship from looking too sterile, Mike Minor created paintings that hung in Kirk's quarters, the recreation area, and the upper rim of the bridge.
As production continued, standing sets like the engine room and bridge became increasingly detailed. Jefferies and associate producer Bob Justman walked through the production lots looking for "serendipitous items" that could be modified into set details to enhance the interiors. Jefferies added new details to a portable maintenance tunnel set each time it was used. The production staff called the set the "Jefferies tube" as an inside joke, and the term is used in dialogue to describe similar crawl spaces in spinoffs.
Sound effects designer Doug Grindstaff created sounds for different parts of the vessel: console sound effects were often created with a Hammond electric organ or other musical instrument, and engine sounds were created in part with a noisy air conditioner. Although there is no sound in space, producers thought that dramatic license required the ship to make noise during exterior shots. The sound of the ship "whoosh"ing past in the main title sequence was recorded by composer Alexander Courage.
Although the interior in The Animated Series was largely recreated from the live action series, a second turbolift was added to the bridge in response to Roddenberry being asked, "What do they do if the doors get stuck?" Franz Joseph designed full Enterprise interior deck plans in 1974 with approval from Roddenberry.