The three-foot USS Enterprise NCC-1701 model used on Star Trek: The Original Series, missing for over 40 years, appears to be for sale online.
The main setting for Star Trek: The Original Series, the Enterprise NCC-1701 also appeared in the first three movies in the franchise, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. It was gradually upgraded across each successive film before being replaced altogether by the Enterprise NCC-1701-A in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
The original Enterprise later returned in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek soft reboot, albeit sporting some significant aesthetic alterations. These changes were explained away in-universe by the film taking place within an alternate timeline. More recently, the Enterprise NCC-1701 appeared in recent Paramount+ prequel series Star Trek: Discovery and its spinoff, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. Once again, the starship’s design was tweaked to balance its established look with modern audiences’ expectations.
The look of the Enterprise NCC-170 isn’t the only thing that’s changed about the craft in the decades since it first debuted, either. Advancements in filmmaking techniques mean that the miniatures initially used to realize the Enterprise were gradually phased out in favor of all-CGI creations.
Original USS Enterprise model reportedly surfaces on eBay
The upshot of this is that relatively few Enterprise models were ever produced, although the total number of those models still in existence may have just gone up. That’s because Star Trek fan Alex Perry recently posted screengrabs on X of an eBay listing for what appears to be the “lost” three-foot USS Enterprise model built for Star Trek: The Original Series.
This is absolutely wild. The long lost 3 foot filming miniature of the USS Enterprise – stolen from Gene’s office in the 70s – showed up on eBay overnight listed by someone who purchased an abandoned storage unit. Analysis of the photos shows it is likely genuine. #StarTrek pic.twitter.com/qb0Shco8AM
— Alex Perry (@alexandertperry) November 1, 2023
The model was built by Richard C. Datin for use on the rejected Star Trek pilot “The Cage,” plus several episodes of the series that made it to broadcast. It was soon replaced by a larger, more detailed model, and ended up as an ornament on Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s desk. At some point in the late 1970s, the USS Enterprise model went missing, with conflicting reports as to whether it was loaned out and never returned or outright stolen (as Perry’s post asserts).
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Neither of these scenarios is mentioned in the USS Enterprise model’s eBay listing, which simply states that the seller found it in “an abandoned storage unit.” Perry – who is convinced the miniature is genuine – has since posted that the listing is no longer live and that “people have been in communication with the seller about it, who are trying to ensure it ends up back in the hands of the Roddenberry family.”
Which upcoming Star Trek TV projects feature the Enterprise?
No matter whose hands the USS Enterprise model winds up in, its days appearing on the small screen are well and truly over. However, the same can’t be said for its digital counterparts. The CGI Enterprise is set to return in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3, which Paramount+ greenlit in March 2023.
There’s also a chance that the USS Enterprise could cameo in the upcoming fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery, although that show’s recent narrative time jump makes such a development unlikely.
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