Wow Jim, you outdid yourself this time (probably have already in past vids I haven't come across yet). You did so much research, and produced quite a bit of new and interesting content and information, I had to rewatch several times to grasp the stories you shared. And your technical skills shined right thru. Thank you for a very enjoyable production. Idk if you've posted any content on your recent ST convention but I look fwd to watching it. Cheers, Sam.
So, that destroys once and for all the speculation that mean ol' mercenary Gene Roddenberry sold it for a modest amount to make some quick cash. But this does not completely absolve Robert Abel or anyone else at Paramount since SOMEONE had to have known that the model was sent over to Burton and Holmes and Hololab to make the hologram from, and someone failed to document that, in addition to informing Gene to ask his permission to use the model. That latter part is most important and makes the model "stolen" in that sense. That now leaves the mystery of the breakdown in the chain of custody and documentation, and where and when the damage happened.
Jennings worked with Robert Able. While Povill did the delivery to blue, my guess is that the $5K Rosa has spoke about was money Jennings had to hand over to whomever it was that paid for the hologram’s production. She obviously was a child at the time and may be mis-remembering what her dad said about paying. The 2004 find of BHI material was most likely the first tip the Jennings family had about where the model went after it wasn’t returned.
The hologram company making one-off pieces solves a lot of problems since if the model had gone to someone to create mass-produced merchandise, this would've been discovered quickly and Gene likely would've gotten it back, but not after some very angry exchanges, and an agreement for him and his company to get a share of profits.
@@TREK-WORLD We need to keep in mind that damage was occurring to the model in stages all throughout its long career and life. The first obviously was the loss of the shuttle bay doors, then the damaged intercooler piece can be seen in the Roddenberry photos, but the how of that and when isn't known. The model was well-travelled at that point. The hasty repairs seen on the model today makes me wonder if these people actually knew what they had the whole time and were scared to return it for fear of retribution.
@@TREK-WORLD I don't think this story is done throwing a few curveballs at us. For example, why wasn't Gene ever informed about the model being used for making the holograms? Why in his letter didn't Gene ever mention the possibility of it having been stolen? Him being diplomatic, I suppose. But after a certain amount of time after he sent the letter to Paramount, why didn't Gene ever file a police report? Was he told to back off? Rosa is another wild card here. If BHI and Hololab were paying down the rent for the units, not the Jennings family, then how could she claim that unit or whatever should never have been auctioned off? Neither the model nor the unit was legally theirs. Her imperfect memory from childhood and not knowing about the model being used for making holograms makes this very sketchy.
That is an amazing story! These deep dives into Trek history just keep getting better and better! It seems the world of TOS Trek continues to have stories as compelling as ever. Thank You for what you do😎🖖
Somewhere in my house I have a hologram of the Enterprise. I got it around the late 1980s at a hologram store (I think) in Gatlinburg, TN. I had it in a shadowbox with the Enterpise uniform branch insignias.
I can recall a McDonalds a couple of blocks from where I worked that had a cylindrical hologram of the Millennium Falcon backing out and turning away from the Death Star. Always thought it was awesome, and wondered how I could get it. Never did of course. I haven’t thought of that for almost 50 years. Jeez….im getting old…..
It wasn't exactly deteriorating. There's a number of photos of the model at Baycon on display where the nacelles and pylons are very extremely kinked. The model appears to have been able at one point to be disassembled for transport and storage, kind of like how the 11 footer was.
@@mikedicenso2778 Yes, the model did suffer early damage in the form of the loss of the shuttle bay door piece and the loss of one of the intercooler pieces at the rear of the nacelle, but the model looks like it could be made to be taken apart to some degree and put back together.
The white light hologram still at 10.17 looks to be a cylinder. The cylinder would be rotated slowly by a motor showing an animated 3D object within, in this case the Enterprise. Multiplex Company created very similar Holograms 3 years earlier for use in Logan's Run, showing Michael York's head, and that effect earned the movie a special Academy Award for visual effects, tied with the man in a suit remake of King Kong.
Correct. They actually used a process o this hologram referred to as an “Integral Hollowgram”. Which was invented in 1972 as an inexpensive way to create a white light hologram using a filmed source. Sent from my iPad
I saw the Enterprise hologram as a kid. I do not know for sure where I saw it but the most probable place was an L5 Society meeting I went to in Los Angeles. If I saw it, there were probably others. I was not special enough to have seen "an original!"
Jim, you mentioned that the model was used as a reference in making STTMP but skipped over what it was initially “borrowed” for- Star Trek Phase II. Am I mistaken in my memory of the Abel (ironically named?) company being fired for that new series and it being canceled? As I remember, TMP was then green lit and the Enterprise refit model was reused. Of course, there is the photo of the refit model with the 33” model in the background. Great presentation and thank you again for the past video where you gave me credit for being the first to supply you with the auction photos. 🖖
That isn't the 3 footer in the background. It's a standard AMT model. You can tell because the bottom of the saucer is fully visible and it's conical, not flat. On top of that, the model there is clearly too small in size when scaled to features on the desk itself. The refit model for Phase II was not used because it was too small and not detailed anywhere near enough for a major motion picture. So the 8 foot model was built and then modified for use by Douglas Trumbull and John Dykstra's respective FX staff. Robert Able & Associates were let go because they hadn't up to that point produced any usable special effects footage, even though several models were ready for tests or production. Joe Jennings and his art department staff also got the axe, but were rehired along with some other folks.
Hi there! Right now there is really no separate evidence that Abel actually ever used the 3FT model officially for anything at all. Since Susan told me that the model was delivered directly to Abel one time.... That leads me to believe that it was only given to them in response to someone wanting to create the hologram for the cast party.
And as Mike points out as well, the photo showing the smaller ship in the background turned out to be an AMT. When I first saw that photo years ago, I also believed it was the 3FT model. But upon inspection it doesn't have the proper saucer shape.
@@mikedicenso2778 Jim might need to comment on this, as he didn’t believe the model in his video about the “Stolen Enterprise” was the 18” AMT one but the 33” one. It looks too big to me, as well.
HoloLabs used a process known as Integral Holograms. In the early 70s, Lloyd Cross developed integral holograms by combining white-light transmission holography with conventional cinematography. This innovation allowed for the creation of moving three-dimensional images from two-dimensional movie footage recorded on holographic film
@@TREK-WORLDThis was also in the scene from Logan's Run where we see Michael York's head spinning? ("There is no Sanctuary" scene.) After seeing the entire video, I think the glass tank at 17:55 is actually that hologram tank from Logan's Run!
@@TREK-WORLD Ah, that explains it. I just deleted the exact same question jsalazar3 asked. I couldn't figure out how 'hologram' and 'movie strip' fit together either. Maybe that needs a quick reference in the video, because I sort of lost track of the video a bit while I kept thinking about that.
@@berendharmsen put in very layman’s terms, because that’s the only way I can remember this as it was way too long ago to get in anyway technical, I think the trick was to use the frames of film not just for the motion, but because the eye would essentially see two adjacent frames of the film at once, one in each eye, the 3 dimensional depth effect would generate naturally in the mind’s-eye of the observer. Pivoting the hologram, moving by it, or sometimes printing it in such a way as to make a cylinder then revolving it, would produce the desired 3D animated effect. That’s probably what they did with this short celluloid animation, essentially creating a physical GIF in 3D. Old 3D lenticular cards used a similar technique for a similar effect, I remember a time when they were given away as free gifts in cereals, they had the advantage of being in full colour but the ‘resolution’ was much lower than in a true hologram. Btw I only know this because there used to be little seaside hologram museums that not only demonstrated these wonders of future science, but explained how they were made and used some to generate laser light shows (you could even buy some holographic prints and stickers to take home) but it’s worth bearing in mind I was barely dressing myself at the time, so my memories will be extremely open to conflation, exaggeration or error by now. Quite why all this ‘future tech’ essentially vanished sometime in the late 70s/ early 80s (ish), I really don’t know, but for a time it was extremely common and very popular, appearing in toys, games, collectibles, postcards, movie merchandise, framed wall pictures, posters, etc. Perhaps as these various creative companies died off some of the knowledge and skills went with them?
Jennings worked with Robert Able. While Povill did the delivery to blue, my guess is that the $5K Rosa has spoke about was money Jennings had to hand over to whomever it was that paid for the hologram’s production. She obviously was a child at the time and may be mis-remembering what her dad said about paying. The 2004 find of BHI material was most likely the first tip the Jennings family had about where the model went after it wasn’t returned.
I will do a wrap up of the family drama items coming out of Rosa Jennings. But for this video, I stuck with reconstructed the physical chain of custody. This does explain how the Jennings family really thought it was lost. And it was mostly them you reached out to Hollingsworth when the first BHI unit showed up in 2004. Which is how they became aware of the storage units. Why they never followed up with Hollingsworth, only Rosa can say. Sent from my iPad
My personal belief right now is that Jennings did have a check for $5K. But it is what he had to give to Hololabs to pay for the hologram. However, Rosa is still maintaining her version of the story. But she was a child at the time and could be misremembering something her dad said. For this video, I focused on only the physical chain of custody. For the drama that Rosa is claiming, I will be doing a separate video in the future that only concerns itself with the stories that she and others have maintained behind the scenes as this moved toward resolution. And there are other stories by high profile folks who seem to be pointing in a direction of conspiracy theories, It's been a wild ride!
Yeah, I think that Rosa Jennings may be quoting the $5K “buy” based on a map-formed childhood memory. I think that “Jennings paid $5K for the model” to be imaged into a hologram. I don’t think she lied; I just think that she didn’t actually know the whole story. And Jennings has been gone for quite a while now.
@@TREK-WORLD If that were the case, why didn't Joe Jennings simply tell Gene Roddenberry, 'Your model is over with BHI and HoloLabs. Here's their phone number and address. Go get it from them'? There's still a gap here that makes it unclear, unless you think that Jennings and others were just getting back at Gene for being fired from Phase II/TMP. The point about why this never became a criminal case, much less a civil lawsuit case by Gene is also another thing that needs to be looked into.
Robert Abel & company are still the vector through which the ship vanished. It was delivered to them. And somehow they got it to HoloLabs and then promptly forgot who they gave it to.
Yes. In the very first comments to the press in the day or so following the news, Dustin & Jason actually name dropped BHI. This is how the name got out early on. But then no one could remember who said it, or where any post concerning it was originally seen.
Very interesting story. Seems a long way to go for a party decoration. Wouldn't numerous TMP models or even the 11 footer be available for such a purpose?
That’s what made the issue even more difficult to track down. When I showed Susan Sackett one of the film frames; she responded that she had no idea why it was made, or who made it. I would seriously question why in the world someone even wanted the model in the first place. However, knowing that the film studio models were not camera ready in 1978 might explain their reasoning.
The 11-footer was in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum at that time. The TMP models were either being constructed or used for filming, so they couldn't be used. The 3-footer was much smaller and lighter than the other models, so it would've been more convenient to make a hologram from that one.
The 11 foot model wasn't available for the same reason i wasn't available for use by the Phase II/ST:TMP staff: The Smithsonian had the darn thing on display and didn't want to go through the trouble of taking it down and shipping the 200 lb. thing. They especially wouldn't have let the 11 footer go after the D7 model debacle, and they were resistant to letting it go for use by the Deep Space Nine FX staff use for Trials and Tribble-ations" for that very reason. The 1977/78 timeframe seems to indicate that the TMP models were still in use or under construction.
HoloLabs used a process known as Integral Holograms. In the early 70s, Lloyd Cross developed integral holograms by combining white-light transmission holography with conventional cinematography. This innovation allowed for the creation of moving three-dimensional images from two-dimensional movie footage recorded on holographic film
Yup! And he was the first Captain of the Enterprise. Whereas ROBERT ABEL was a failed special effects house that got fired from Star Trek The Motion Picture. Don't sweat it though. Alot of our younger fans don't know their TMP history and it certainly isn't a cause for shame.
Thanks for being persnickety on this, and running everything to ground. It’s a fascinating and important story!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wow Jim, you outdid yourself this time (probably have already in past vids I haven't come across yet). You did so much research, and produced quite a bit of new and interesting content and information, I had to rewatch several times to grasp the stories you shared. And your technical skills shined right thru. Thank you for a very enjoyable production. Idk if you've posted any content on your recent ST convention but I look fwd to watching it. Cheers, Sam.
I never would've expected that this model took a detour to a hologram facility. Thank you for documenting these findings!
Thanks for all your hard work.
My pleasure!
wow incredible story , its something how these things are lost and sometimes found, thanks for sharing
So, that destroys once and for all the speculation that mean ol' mercenary Gene Roddenberry sold it for a modest amount to make some quick cash. But this does not completely absolve Robert Abel or anyone else at Paramount since SOMEONE had to have known that the model was sent over to Burton and Holmes and Hololab to make the hologram from, and someone failed to document that, in addition to informing Gene to ask his permission to use the model. That latter part is most important and makes the model "stolen" in that sense.
That now leaves the mystery of the breakdown in the chain of custody and documentation, and where and when the damage happened.
Jennings worked with Robert Able. While Povill did the delivery to blue, my guess is that the $5K Rosa has spoke about was money Jennings had to hand over to whomever it was that paid for the hologram’s production. She obviously was a child at the time and may be mis-remembering what her dad said about paying. The 2004 find of BHI material was most likely the first tip the Jennings family had about where the model went after it wasn’t returned.
We know the damage happened while in the hands of Hollingsworth. Because the dame was not present in the 35mm film they shot to make the hologram.
The hologram company making one-off pieces solves a lot of problems since if the model had gone to someone to create mass-produced merchandise, this would've been discovered quickly and Gene likely would've gotten it back, but not after some very angry exchanges, and an agreement for him and his company to get a share of profits.
@@TREK-WORLD We need to keep in mind that damage was occurring to the model in stages all throughout its long career and life. The first obviously was the loss of the shuttle bay doors, then the damaged intercooler piece can be seen in the Roddenberry photos, but the how of that and when isn't known. The model was well-travelled at that point.
The hasty repairs seen on the model today makes me wonder if these people actually knew what they had the whole time and were scared to return it for fear of retribution.
@@TREK-WORLD I don't think this story is done throwing a few curveballs at us. For example, why wasn't Gene ever informed about the model being used for making the holograms? Why in his letter didn't Gene ever mention the possibility of it having been stolen? Him being diplomatic, I suppose. But after a certain amount of time after he sent the letter to Paramount, why didn't Gene ever file a police report? Was he told to back off?
Rosa is another wild card here. If BHI and Hololab were paying down the rent for the units, not the Jennings family, then how could she claim that unit or whatever should never have been auctioned off? Neither the model nor the unit was legally theirs. Her imperfect memory from childhood and not knowing about the model being used for making holograms makes this very sketchy.
Good work Jim! Fascinating!
Glad you enjoyed it
Can’t get enough of this story, thanks so much l hang on to your every word not knowing what really happened to that ship has bothered me for decades.
Had not heard about the hologram before. Fascinating stuff!
That is an amazing story! These deep dives into Trek history just keep getting better and better!
It seems the world of TOS Trek continues to have stories as compelling as ever. Thank You for what you do😎🖖
Glad you enjoyed it
Somewhere in my house I have a hologram of the Enterprise. I got it around the late 1980s at a hologram store (I think) in Gatlinburg, TN. I had it in a shadowbox with the Enterpise uniform branch insignias.
Brilliant detective work. This was wonderful to watch!
Thank you very much!
Very informative & interesting 🖖
Glad you enjoyed it
I can recall a McDonalds a couple of blocks from where I worked that had a cylindrical hologram of the Millennium Falcon backing out and turning away from the Death Star. Always thought it was awesome, and wondered how I could get it. Never did of course. I haven’t thought of that for almost 50 years. Jeez….im getting old…..
🙏 Incredible sleuth work
Thanks, that means a lot coming from you!
Excellent job 😂❤
Interesting, and sad, to see the nacelles drooping already less then ten years or so after it was made. It was deteriorating already.
It wasn't exactly deteriorating. There's a number of photos of the model at Baycon on display where the nacelles and pylons are very extremely kinked. The model appears to have been able at one point to be disassembled for transport and storage, kind of like how the 11 footer was.
@@mikedicenso2778 Yes, the model did suffer early damage in the form of the loss of the shuttle bay door piece and the loss of one of the intercooler pieces at the rear of the nacelle, but the model looks like it could be made to be taken apart to some degree and put back together.
The model has definitely been disassembled and glued back together. You can clearly see the excess gluing where the nacelles attach to the pylons.
amazing
The white light hologram still at 10.17 looks to be a cylinder. The cylinder would be rotated slowly by a motor showing an animated 3D object within, in this case the Enterprise. Multiplex Company created very similar Holograms 3 years earlier for use in Logan's Run, showing Michael York's head, and that effect earned the movie a special Academy Award for visual effects, tied with the man in a suit remake of King Kong.
Correct. They actually used a process o this hologram referred to as an “Integral Hollowgram”. Which was invented in 1972 as an inexpensive way to create a white light hologram using a filmed source. Sent from my iPad
I saw the Enterprise hologram as a kid. I do not know for sure where I saw it but the most probable place was an L5 Society meeting I went to in Los Angeles. If I saw it, there were probably others. I was not special enough to have seen "an original!"
Jim, you mentioned that the model was used as a reference in making STTMP but skipped over what it was initially “borrowed” for- Star Trek Phase II. Am I mistaken in my memory of the Abel (ironically named?) company being fired for that new series and it being canceled? As I remember, TMP was then green lit and the Enterprise refit model was reused. Of course, there is the photo of the refit model with the 33” model in the background. Great presentation and thank you again for the past video where you gave me credit for being the first to supply you with the auction photos. 🖖
That isn't the 3 footer in the background. It's a standard AMT model. You can tell because the bottom of the saucer is fully visible and it's conical, not flat. On top of that, the model there is clearly too small in size when scaled to features on the desk itself.
The refit model for Phase II was not used because it was too small and not detailed anywhere near enough for a major motion picture. So the 8 foot model was built and then modified for use by Douglas Trumbull and John Dykstra's respective FX staff.
Robert Able & Associates were let go because they hadn't up to that point produced any usable special effects footage, even though several models were ready for tests or production. Joe Jennings and his art department staff also got the axe, but were rehired along with some other folks.
Hi there! Right now there is really no separate evidence that Abel actually ever used the 3FT model officially for anything at all. Since Susan told me that the model was delivered directly to Abel one time.... That leads me to believe that it was only given to them in response to someone wanting to create the hologram for the cast party.
And as Mike points out as well, the photo showing the smaller ship in the background turned out to be an AMT. When I first saw that photo years ago, I also believed it was the 3FT model. But upon inspection it doesn't have the proper saucer shape.
@@mikedicenso2778 Jim might need to comment on this, as he didn’t believe the model in his video about the “Stolen Enterprise” was the 18” AMT one but the 33” one. It looks too big to me, as well.
@@BuShips Didn't you see Jim's reply comment in this thread? He's basically in agreement with me for all the same reasons I outlined.
I thought holograms are made directly off the object or scene that is being recorded, with lasers directly onto film.🤔
HoloLabs used a process known as Integral Holograms. In the early 70s, Lloyd Cross developed integral holograms by combining white-light transmission holography with conventional cinematography. This innovation allowed for the creation of moving three-dimensional images from two-dimensional movie footage recorded on holographic film
@@TREK-WORLDThis was also in the scene from Logan's Run where we see Michael York's head spinning? ("There is no Sanctuary" scene.)
After seeing the entire video, I think the glass tank at 17:55 is actually that hologram tank from Logan's Run!
@@TREK-WORLD Ah, that explains it. I just deleted the exact same question jsalazar3 asked. I couldn't figure out how 'hologram' and 'movie strip' fit together either. Maybe that needs a quick reference in the video, because I sort of lost track of the video a bit while I kept thinking about that.
@@berendharmsen put in very layman’s terms, because that’s the only way I can remember this as it was way too long ago to get in anyway technical, I think the trick was to use the frames of film not just for the motion, but because the eye would essentially see two adjacent frames of the film at once, one in each eye, the 3 dimensional depth effect would generate naturally in the mind’s-eye of the observer.
Pivoting the hologram, moving by it, or sometimes printing it in such a way as to make a cylinder then revolving it, would produce the desired 3D animated effect. That’s probably what they did with this short celluloid animation, essentially creating a physical GIF in 3D.
Old 3D lenticular cards used a similar technique for a similar effect, I remember a time when they were given away as free gifts in cereals, they had the advantage of being in full colour but the ‘resolution’ was much lower than in a true hologram.
Btw I only know this because there used to be little seaside hologram museums that not only demonstrated these wonders of future science, but explained how they were made and used some to generate laser light shows (you could even buy some holographic prints and stickers to take home) but it’s worth bearing in mind I was barely dressing myself at the time, so my memories will be extremely open to conflation, exaggeration or error by now.
Quite why all this ‘future tech’ essentially vanished sometime in the late 70s/ early 80s (ish), I really don’t know, but for a time it was extremely common and very popular, appearing in toys, games, collectibles, postcards, movie merchandise, framed wall pictures, posters, etc.
Perhaps as these various creative companies died off some of the knowledge and skills went with them?
I guess the next video will reveal how it came to be in the hands of the Jennings family? Or did I miss something?
Jennings worked with Robert Able. While Povill did the delivery to blue, my guess is that the $5K Rosa has spoke about was money Jennings had to hand over to whomever it was that paid for the hologram’s production. She obviously was a child at the time and may be mis-remembering what her dad said about paying. The 2004 find of BHI material was most likely the first tip the Jennings family had about where the model went after it wasn’t returned.
@@TREK-WORLDThanks, Jim. Your work and your enthusiasm are appreciated!
I will do a wrap up of the family drama items coming out of Rosa Jennings. But for this video, I stuck with reconstructed the physical chain of custody. This does explain how the Jennings family really thought it was lost. And it was mostly them you reached out to Hollingsworth when the first BHI unit showed up in 2004. Which is how they became aware of the storage units. Why they never followed up with Hollingsworth, only Rosa can say. Sent from my iPad
Bravo Jim Payne
So… Roddenberry DIDN’T sell the Enterprise model for $5,000 - and lie about it - as originally suggested?
My personal belief right now is that Jennings did have a check for $5K. But it is what he had to give to Hololabs to pay for the hologram.
However, Rosa is still maintaining her version of the story. But she was a child at the time and could be misremembering something her dad said.
For this video, I focused on only the physical chain of custody.
For the drama that Rosa is claiming, I will be doing a separate video in the future that only concerns itself with the stories that she and others have maintained behind the scenes as this moved toward resolution.
And there are other stories by high profile folks who seem to be pointing in a direction of conspiracy theories,
It's been a wild ride!
@@TREK-WORLD Wow. Fascinating! Thank you!
So Gene didn't sell it! Even though we know he had plenty of faults, it's a relief that this wasn't the scandal that was suspected.
Yeah, I think that Rosa Jennings may be quoting the $5K “buy” based on a map-formed childhood memory. I think that “Jennings paid $5K for the model” to be imaged into a hologram. I don’t think she lied; I just think that she didn’t actually know the whole story. And Jennings has been gone for quite a while now.
@@TREK-WORLD If that were the case, why didn't Joe Jennings simply tell Gene Roddenberry, 'Your model is over with BHI and HoloLabs. Here's their phone number and address. Go get it from them'?
There's still a gap here that makes it unclear, unless you think that Jennings and others were just getting back at Gene for being fired from Phase II/TMP. The point about why this never became a criminal case, much less a civil lawsuit case by Gene is also another thing that needs to be looked into.
So not Abel and Associates at all? That explains the Burton Holmes name with the storage unit from the time the story first broke...
Robert Abel & company are still the vector through which the ship vanished. It was delivered to them. And somehow they got it to HoloLabs and then promptly forgot who they gave it to.
@@TREK-WORLD Or conveniently forgot. Wink-wink. Know what I mean?
Yeah, I do. While I could never prove that they knew where it was; I wouldn't be surprised if they had played dumb just to spite Roddenberry.
Yes. In the very first comments to the press in the day or so following the news, Dustin & Jason actually name dropped BHI. This is how the name got out early on. But then no one could remember who said it, or where any post concerning it was originally seen.
Fascinating
Very interesting story. Seems a long way to go for a party decoration. Wouldn't numerous TMP models or even the 11 footer be available for such a purpose?
That’s what made the issue even more difficult to track down. When I showed Susan Sackett one of the film frames; she responded that she had no idea why it was made, or who made it. I would seriously question why in the world someone even wanted the model in the first place. However, knowing that the film studio models were not camera ready in 1978 might explain their reasoning.
The 11-footer was in the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum at that time. The TMP models were either being constructed or used for filming, so they couldn't be used. The 3-footer was much smaller and lighter than the other models, so it would've been more convenient to make a hologram from that one.
The 11 foot model wasn't available for the same reason i wasn't available for use by the Phase II/ST:TMP staff: The Smithsonian had the darn thing on display and didn't want to go through the trouble of taking it down and shipping the 200 lb. thing.
They especially wouldn't have let the 11 footer go after the D7 model debacle, and they were resistant to letting it go for use by the Deep Space Nine FX staff use for Trials and Tribble-ations" for that very reason.
The 1977/78 timeframe seems to indicate that the TMP models were still in use or under construction.
The nacelles were droopy back then
I assume you’ve seen Mr.Trek.
Folks - Robert ABEL was a special effects guy. He is not talking about Robert APRIL!
What you call hologram isnt
HoloLabs used a process known as Integral Holograms. In the early 70s, Lloyd Cross developed integral holograms by combining white-light transmission holography with conventional cinematography. This innovation allowed for the creation of moving three-dimensional images from two-dimensional movie footage recorded on holographic film
The Name was "ROBERT APRIL"
Yup! And he was the first Captain of the Enterprise.
Whereas ROBERT ABEL was a failed special effects house that got fired from Star Trek The Motion Picture.
Don't sweat it though. Alot of our younger fans don't know their TMP history and it certainly isn't a cause for shame.
Oh No not the character. Sorry.