I think DD did a great job on his TDM project. And his has the added virtue of having been finished! (TWO years ago, no less!)

I have to admit that I am not comfortable with Miarecki’s paint job. In his defense, he has some valid points. Consider that he’s been a lot closer to the model than we will ever be and he had the advantage of forensic paint layer archeology, and I agree with his argument that details would have had to have been overemphasized to be picked up by the camera, especially considering multi-generational analog 60’s filming on a budget, BUT, the Enterprise is no longer being viewed through the lens of a camera, but by the human eye.

Let’s say, for instance, the Smithsonian wanted to make a painstakingly accurate diorama of a Hollywood film production from the 30’s or 40’s, including sets, wax figures of famous actors, the cameraman, the director, and all the equipment. One problem: in the days of black and white film, the actors wore a type of makeup that worked well with B&W film but in real life made their skin look green. Does the Smithsonian display the wax figures in regular flesh tone, or with the green makeup?

If they choose the green makeup, the government could go deeper into debt hiring a tour guide to explain the whole green makeup story and the Smith’s desire for absolute accuracy to every single visitor, but nearly every visitor will still have a WTF moment. If they go with flesh tone, it won’t be absolutely, perfectly, painstakingly accurate, but now almost none of the patrons are going to ask, “Why does Clark Gable look like Frankenstein’s monster?” You’ll only very rarely get the occasional Hollywood buff that will say, “They should be in green makeup!” In other words, sometimes absolute, perfect, painstaking accuracy needs to be put aside to get the majority shut up.

I made my own pilgrimage to see the Gray Lady in 1982. and while I was disappointed with the golden wok deflector and flashing red bussards, I had no problem with the simple paint job. Up to that point in my life I had only seen the Enterprise on static-stricken UHF channels. But now after having seen it on DVD I’m a lot pickier. The over-detailing–especially the lower grid lines on the primary–is just awful.

I don’t have a nice pic of Nona to lighten the mood (thank you Spockboy…gawd…THANK YOU!), but I guess we should be thankful we still have the model at all. According to Craig Thompson the Enterprise gathered a lot of dust in Paramount’s prop warehouse during the years before it was shipped to the S.I.; the workers had little respect for the model and might have even sold it to get it out of the way. We are fortunate that it did not get trashed, lost or, even worse, cut up and recycled for other sci-fi shows like some of Irwin Allen’s stuff did.

Hopefully, the next restoration will gets things right.