Star Trek fans will one day soon be able to see behind the camera on the Enterprise.
From the very first moment of the very first episode of Star Trek, fans have always wondered what it would be like to tour the franchise’s first ship. The USS Enterprise is among the most iconic creations in all of entertainment history. The ship is among the most dreamt about tours ever. It’s so popular of a thought that there are fans who have built entire layouts in their homes and on off-site properties.
Well, if The Roddenberry Archive has its way, you’re going to be able to just that all thanks to their painstaking recreation of the USS Enterprise.
The Roddenberry Archive is attempting, and will presumably, make it possible for any fan that wants to tour the USS Enterprise. They’re recreating the ship in the hopes of making it a virtual tour at some point or as some put it, a real holodeck simulation. To get there, however, the Roddenberry Archive is painstakingly creating the entire ship’s sets by hand.
The Roddenberry Archive is state of the art like Star Trek could only hope to have been
Everything that was in the show will eventually be represented in physical form, and characters will be digitally added. Surviving members of the Original Series, both cast and crew alike, have already toured the recreation.
Robert Butler, who directed the original pilot “The Cage”, toured the set, as did the second man to play Captain Pike, Sean Kenney. Chris Hunter, son of original Pike actor Jeffrey Hunter, has also seen the state of the art set pieces, which incorporate real models and digital effects to get the real effect of being on the USS Enterprise.
The other remaining members of the original pilot, the last remaining Talosian actor, Sandy Gimpel was also on hand for the first look at the project.
The goal is to have just about every canonical version of the Enterprise represented by the end of 2030. Not only that, but the creators of the project hope to show fans what was behind the cameras in all of those shots. We know they were just sets, but now we’ll be able to see everything that was just assumed there.
It’s a lofty goal but when it’s done, it very well may be an experience any fan will want to check out.