Rod Roddenberry wants to make one thing perfectly clear: he did not chuck his father’s original model of the Enterprise in the family pool.
The affable heir to the Star Trek mantle, Rod admits that the franchise, now in its 60th year, is at a crossroads. Strange New Worlds has wrapped its fifth and final season and no new Trek shows are in production. John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (Dungeons and Dragons, Game Night) are writing a new film that they plan to direct, which will feature new characters in a new timeline, but that project is still years away. But Rod Roddenberry has come to San Diego Comic-Con with something to celebrate: that 33-inch Enterprise (which, let’s remind you, he didn’t toss in the pool) has been found after a decades-long lost voyage and is on display at the Paramount Lodge exhibition — and could soon find a permanent new home for fans to visit.
In this sit-down with Gold Derby, the younger Roddenberry, the only son of Trek mastermind Gene Roddenberry and his second wife and original series co-star Majel Barrett, shares how he reclaimed and restored the MIA model, the state of Star Trek at 60, and his favorite memories from the final frontier.
Gold Derby: Let’s talk about the Enterprise. As the story goes, it was just sitting on your father’s desk for years. Do you remember it being there or were you too young?
Rod Roddenberry: I honestly don’t know if I’m making things up, so let me explain. The model was built around ’64, and they used it for the opening sequence of Star Trek: The Original Series — and I think it was in an episode, “Requiem for Methuselah.”
Then they built the 11-foot model right after, to be the main show ship, and this one they gave to my father. It sat on his desk from right after TOS until about ’78, ’79. Then they borrowed it as a reference model for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and never gave it back. So, to actually answer your question: I don’t know if I remember seeing it, because I would have been so young. I’d feel like I was lying to you if I said I knew for sure.
And you’ve probably seen dozens of photos since.
Right. And I didn’t throw it in the pool — because there was that rumor.
Really?
Yes. We launched some YouTube shows, and our first one, Inside the Roddenberry Archive, was about the model, because we’ve got tons of stuff. There was a fan story for years that I’d thrown it in the pool, because I was a very destructive kid. But I don’t remember doing it. Now that it has [been found], I get to say on the show: “I didn’t throw it in the pool.”
So after all these years, it was found in a storage unit. What was your reaction?
Roddenberry: I’m a little embarrassed by the truth. One day I got these text messages — I can’t remember from whom — and they were pictures people took of their eBay screen with their phones. A small image of a ship: “Oh my God, they found the ship!” And I said, “Great.” Then a day or two later I got a call from Heritage Auctions. Once it was on eBay, it came down quickly, because everyone told them, “Oh my God, that’s the ship!” So they took it down and contacted Heritage, and Heritage called me and said — in a much nicer way — “Are you going to be a problem with this? Is there going to be an issue?”
And I still didn’t know what was going on. I’d heard about this ship, but I didn’t understand it. I knew the 11-foot model, but I had no idea what the big deal was. So I first said no. Then I spoke to [Star Trek graphic designer] Michael Okuda or [VFX artist] Doug Drexler, and they explained: this was the first one ever made. This is the one in the picture, the one your dad had on his desk. And I went, “Oh — holy s–t, that’s the one.” They showed me the letter my father wrote to Jeffrey Katzenberg [who at the time was the Paramount production executive in charge of the Trek film], saying, “Hey, I loaned you this. Where the f–k is it?” So — I’m a little slow sometimes — the light bulbs went off, I called them back, and I said, “Yeah, that is our property, and we do want it back.”
I was happy to pay a finder’s fee, and I threw out a very significant number. They felt they could get more at auction, so it became a bit of a legal thing. Without saying anything bad about them — they’re not bad guys, they did what they needed to do — it ended in our favor.
How recently did you physically acquire the model?
Within six months. It sat for a bit at my home before I could know for sure that I had it. And then I had it conserved.
How do you conserve something like the original Starship Enterprise model?
From my dad’s desk to when I got it, it had suffered some good damage. The neck was broken. Nacelles had come off. Someone had glued things on, spray-painted it, tried to fix it with some clunky glue. So I got recommendations from Michael Okuda, Doug Drexler, and all these luminaries in the industry, and they recommended a gentleman named Lou Zudovny, who worked with ILM and has done this for 30 years, building ships. He just loved being in the presence of the ship — he’s a big historical-model geek. So I hired him, and he restored it.
We have tons of video, because we put a camera on him every time he worked. It was dirty, first of all, so we decided to do it in phases. First, get the dirt off and take a look — and there was a lot of dirt. When it came off, a lot of the color came through. But there was also a top clear coat, and I think we’ve all seen this before, where it yellows over time.
Long story short, we got the nacelles fixed, the neck fixed, everything waterproofed, all the exposed wood. I was going to make it look not new, but new with some age — and I realized, with Lou’s advice, let’s stop here. You can always do more. So right now it’s completely clean. Everything is rock-solid. Any exposed wood has been coated. The whole thing was taken apart, emptied out, and he cleaned it with, I think, just water and maybe a little soap and a Q-tip. He got off a whole layer of paint and brought out the color underneath. Some of the decals are broken and coming off. This can all be done, if we — I say “we” because I consider the fans in this too — want to. But right now, when you see it, this is the real history behind it.
What happens next? Do you create a digital asset so you can use it down the line in a future Trek? Do you want to display it on your desk like your dad? Does it go in a crate in a warehouse, Indiana Jones-style?
That thing has been scanned down to the micron. OTOY — they’re good friends of mine; they did the short unofficial Star Trek film Unification — they have a micron scanner, and they scanned it. Then they scanned it again once it was done, and they’re creating a full digital completed version. So, to answer your question, it’s going to go to a museum. You made the Indy reference — it belongs in a museum.
I’m thinking of all the options. There’s the Academy Museum. There’s the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle, which is just screaming for something like that.
Well, the Smithsonian has the 11-foot. I’m very interested in the Lucas Museum — one on the East Coast, one on the West Coast. We haven’t had any luck finding the right person there to ask. But maybe if something comes out in an article that says we’re looking, the right person will surface. And there’s that contrast of Star Wars and Star Trek. It’s about all art and cinema, and I think, on some level, the Enterprise belongs there.
A big tent. Thank you for that little nerd-out. I truly hope it finds a good home. Switching gears a bit, it’s also the 60th anniversary of this franchise. What is the state of Trek right now?
I’d say we’re in between. People are carefully looking at the past — recent and distant — and considering what worked and what didn’t, and probably looking at the future. Especially now, you’ve got Paramount coming in, and now CBS, and — well, we don’t know about Warner Bros. yet. It’s all the buyouts, and who bought whom. So my answer is: I don’t know. I really don’t. We hear things every now and then. But once we hear something, then they’re going to buy Warner Bros., and then something else.
I was in the directors-on-directing panel last night, and John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein were there. They’re writing the new movie now, and they said it’s going to be a different time period, a different crew — something we haven’t seen before. Does that excite you?
It really depends on what it is. Do I personally want to see Kirk and Spock on screen again? There’s only one case where I’d want to see that. But no — my father always said it’s the universe, it’s a galaxy; we’ve got tons of stories within it. And he’s absolutely right.
From the original series to the subsequent versions, Trek was essentially an anthology — they could tell different kinds of stories. They had the core cast doing detective noir, hard science fiction, fantasy, Westerns, romance. It was a great way to explore different forms.
I know I have a very narrow vision of what I think Star Trek is — what I might call Roddenberry Star Trek. It harkens back to, I don’t want to say the original, but The Next Generation. It’s very interesting to see Captain Kirk and that crew and TOS — and my father at a younger age, with the history he had — and then, 20, 25 years later, to see Picard, who was more of a diplomat. That showed this maturing of Gene Roddenberry. Kirk would maybe get into a fistfight pretty quick — not to say my father would or wouldn’t. So I want to live in The Next Generation future, because those characters are better than us. We’ve evolved intellectually, and we can aspire to be like them. I like that Star Trek, because I want to be Captain Picard, or be with Data, or be on that ship, where sometimes the tough decision is the right decision, and you’ve got to do it.
You mentioned there’s only one instance where you’d like to see Kirk and Spock together again?
Star Trek: The Motion Picture was way ahead of its time. Even though, as a kid, I was bored out of my mind — and for decades I didn’t get it, and I’d argue there are certain things I don’t get now — it was essentially about AI. It was talking about something that’s very relevant right now, and I think there could be something there in that story, because you’ve got the machine planet. Spock has touched it but couldn’t fathom it, couldn’t even process what he touched. I think there’s an interesting, beautiful story about this existence, this life out there that is so foreign to us — something we can’t comprehend. It’s not organic, it’s not mechanical. There’s something beautiful in that, to let us look at it and see our own humanity through it.
How precious are you about the original actors from The Next Generation or TOS in those roles? Other actors have played those parts. For you personally, are you fine with different takes on these characters with different actors?
As in what J.J. did?
Yes.
I think J.J. did a great job. I was actually very impressed with the casting. If someone pitched me an idea that said, “Hey, we’re going to redo The Next Generation, we’re going to have a new Picard” — I’ve gotten to the age where my gut response to a lot of stuff is, “Oh, that’s terrible, don’t do it,” like the fans did when they went from TOS to Next Gen, and Next Gen tends to be the most popular one. I’d be a little concerned. But I also know how many times I was concerned about something and proven wrong. I read the Lower Decks script when it first came out, the first episode, and I had no experience reading animated comedy scripts. When I read it, I kind of internally chuckled a little, but I was like, “This does not feel like…” And I was wrong. I’m thrilled to be wrong. I’m absolutely thrilled I was wrong about that.
Do you have an all-time favorite episode or movie moment? When you think of Star Trek, is there something that comes to mind right away?
One of my main realization moments was watching “The Devil in the Dark,” with the Horta. You know the story, but I’ll tell it the way I normally do. The Enterprise is called in because there’s this planet where they’re mining, and there’s a rock monster that’s killing people, and the Enterprise is called in to save the day. At first they try to kill it, but then Spock realizes it’s an intelligent life form and communicates with it. And we learn that it’s a mother protecting its young — that what we’re mining are its children. So it flips. It’s the first time I experienced something flip on me. Who’s the devil in the dark?
We’re killing its children. What else is a mother going to do? And every time I tell it — just now, I got shivers again — every time I tell it, I get shivers, because that, for me, is some of the best storytelling. When a show, especially Star Trek, does something where you just go, “I see the other point of view now. Now that I see it, I feel bad for the bad guy.” I f–king love that.
One last question. When you weren’t throwing props into the pool — or not — your dad had the Enterprise on his desk. Were there other things around the house from Star Trek, or was that a separate part of his life?
There were occasional things around the house — definitely stuff — but it wasn’t littered with it. Usually things that were important to him. There were models of the Space Shuttle Enterprise, because NASA would give him one. I remember when Voyager 1 or 2 passed by Saturn, they sent him all these photos, and I was like, “That’s so cool.” But my father really had his home life and his Star Trek life, and there was not a fine line dividing it. He went to work with Star Trek, then came home. And I’m very happy — he came home to dinner almost every night. He said he wouldn’t do the same thing he did in his first marriage, when he was gone from his family a lot. So I have to thank him for that.
One thing I love about Star Trek, and it comes through in all its different forms, is that it’s very much about a found family — this crew that comes together from all walks of life, all ethnicities, all races, all planets in the galaxy.
Absolutely. And they’re all together, working in unison for a common good. I love that. Not to — I don’t think it’s cheesy, but when I say it out loud, I feel like it is. We, as a species, need to think more like that.
