Comment on After decades lost, Star Trek’s original Enterprise model may have been found

• CCMan1701A@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  The studio is the owner right or the producers? I mean who really paid for the model is the owner. Not sure if that’s the Roddenberry’s or some other person from back in the day. I didn’t realize there was a great search for the original small scale model.

  Cool that it might be found.

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  • Madison420@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Gene is, it was built for Gene at genes direction and he continually requested it back.

    It aught to be as interesting to find out how it came to be where it is as it is to the inevitable detailed inspection/investigation of the model should be.

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    • Prouvaire@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      @CCMan1701A has a point. The model was built for production purposes, so it would have almost certainly been paid for - and therefore owned - by either by Desilu Studios or Norway Corporation (aka Norway Productions) depending on how the accounting was set up back in 1964. So unless Desilu/Norway sold or gifted the model to Roddenberry at some point, ie formally passed title to him, technically it would still be the property of the original corporate owner.

      What I think quite possible though is that after TOS was cancelled Roddenberry took possession of a bunch of production assets nobody ever thought would have any value. Star Trek, after all, was a failed show. IIRC it was known that he used to do stuff like that, eg selling off merchandise to fans that - technically - he didn't own. It's just that nobody really cared too much back then.

      Now as it so happens, Norway was actually Roddenberry's production company, but technically that doesn't matter, as there's a legal distinction between a corporation you own on the one hand, and you as an individual on the other. That's the whole purpose of setting up businesses as separate legal entities. So even if the model was originally purchased by and owned by Norway (as opposed to Desilu, which was sold to Paramount during the show's run) then Norway (Roddenberry's company) would still have needed to pass ownership to Gene Roddenberry the individual (via a gift or sale) in order for Majel Roddenberry's statement that "it was Gene's" to be strictly true. Of course, that would have been a cinch to do: Roddenberry, as owner/executive of Norway, simply sells or gives the model to Roddenberry the individual.

      It's possible that this happened, ie that Desilu or Norway sold or gifted the model to Roddenberry, but it's also possible (especially if the model was owned by Desilu/Paramount) that he merely ended up with it, and that nobody questioned his legal right to it in the years since.

      Personally, regardless of whether technically (ie from a legal or accounting perspective) Roddenberry did or did not own the model, I fully understand that Rod Roddenberry would be interested in recovering this seminal piece of Star Trek memorabilia, and I wouldn't have any issues if it stayed in the Roddenberry family or was gifted to an institution like the Smithsonian.

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      • Madison420@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        CCMan1701A](startrek.website/u/CCMan1701A) has a point. The model was built for production purposes, so it would have almost certainly been paid for - and therefore owned - by either by Desilu Studios or Norway Corporation (aka Norway Productions) depending on how the accounting was set up back in 1964. So unless Desilu/Norway sold or gifted the model to Roddenberry at some point, ie formally passed title to him, technically it would still be the property of the original corporate owner.

        No it wasn’t, it was genes and it sat on his desk before being loaned out to the studio who did not own it hence “loan”. There is no ambiguity, the Roddenberry family has made this very very clear.

        What I think quite possible though is that after TOS was cancelled Roddenberry took possession of a bunch of production assets nobody ever thought would have any value. Star Trek, after all, was a failed show. IIRC it was known that he used to do stuff like that, eg selling off merchandise to fans that - technically - he didn’t own. It’s just that nobody really cared too much back then.

        No the model was made before any production, again documented and linked for source.

        Now as it so happens, Norway was actually Roddenberry’s production company, but technically that doesn’t matter, as there’s a legal distinction between a corporation you own on the one hand, and you as an individual on the other. That’s the whole purpose of setting up businesses as separate legal entities. So even if the model was originally purchased by and owned by Norway (as opposed to Desilu, which was sold to Paramount during the show’s run) then Norway (Roddenberry’s company) would still have needed to pass ownership to Gene Roddenberry the individual (via a gift or sale) in order for Majel Roddenberry’s statement that “it was Gene’s” to be strictly true. Of course, that would have been a cinch to do: Roddenberry, as owner/executive of Norway, simply sells or gives the model to Roddenberry the individual.

        Again, no ambiguity you’re simply spinning tales when the book is already written.

        It’s possible that this happened, ie that Desilu or Norway sold or gifted the model to Roddenberry, but it’s also possible (especially if the model was owned by Desilu/Paramount) that he merely ended up with it, and that nobody questioned his legal right to it in the years since.

        Again it’s documented, you’re simply making things up.

        Personally, regardless of whether technically (ie from a legal or accounting perspective) Roddenberry did or did not own the model, I fully understand that Rod Roddenberry would be interested in recovering this seminal piece of Star Trek memorabilia, and I wouldn’t have any issues if it stayed in the Roddenberry family or was gifted to an institution like the Smithsonian.

        It was part of genes personal property, no studio ever owned it point blank period. It wasn’t even supposed to be used in filming and only was used because the 11ft model was not complete.

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• blanketswithsmallpox@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  I’m serious when I ask this. Can you point me to a source saying it was stolen? I can’t find one.

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  • Madison420@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Are roddennberry lent it to the motion picture set guys and it was never returned even with gene asking for it directly. No 0 one misplaces ≈50lbs of wood that’s 3ft long and has specific storage requirements.

    Historians, like model-maker David Shaw, who wrote a detailed history of the lost 3-foot model, believe that for at least a time, the model sat on Roddenberry’s desk and was his property. They believe Roddenberry loaned it to people working on the production of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, but it was never returned. There is even a record of Roddenberry writing to contacts at the production house inquiring to get it back to no avail.

    www.google.com/amp/s/arstechnica.com/…/amp/

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• Piecemakers3Dprints@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

  The Roddenberry’s what now?

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  • Madison420@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    The Roddenberry’s as in the family or foundation. You act like it’s an incomplete sentence and it isn’t.

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    • grue@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      The apostrophe makes it possessive or a contraction when it’s meant to be a plural instead.

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      • Madison420@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        Neat.

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