Ticonderoga, New York - most famous for the 18th century fort of the same name - is home to an extraordinary museum: the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour. James Cawley, who amassed his "fortune" as an Elvis impersonator (no, seriously), devoted 14 years to rebuilding the set of the classic television show according to original blue prints. There are a few original pieces scattered around but most was built anew from the ground up.
Why does my sister care? She is not remotely interested in Star Trek but she has her own classic television obsessions. I intrigued her when I shared this little nugget: Trek and The Brady Bunch used the same chairs. I don't just mean the same kind of chairs. I mean the same, actual, physical chairs. Trek had them first - the two shows didn't quite overlap. For Trek, they slipped a black covering over the back to make them look future-y. Without the covers, they passed for suburban stylish.
We learned a lot of cool stuff. The original set builders were a resourceful crew. Much of the random technojunk you see on the walls is made from reclaimed packaging materials.
The two boxy things above our tour guide are from electric typewriter packaging. The studio had bought 120 IBM typewriters for office use. The set guys swooped in to grab the styrofoam.
Funny story about the spray bottles here in Dr. McCoy's lab:
Spray bottles were introduced to the public at the 1964 World's Fair in New York City as a futuristic wonder. As they were creating a space age show, the set guys bought a bunch of them. Of course, by the time the first episode aired two years later, spray bottles were ubiquitous in American homes. But they still had the bottles. They had to find a use for them.
Another link to my sister's passions...
The displays includes a Jefferies tube, invented for the series and named after the art director who designed them, Matt Jefferies. Jefferies was also the art director for another of my sister's favorite shows: Little House on the Prairie.
The tour addressed a matter that came up on my blog several years ago. My post about the original series episode "Journey to Babel" inspired a discussion in the comments about the rise of color television. Apparently, NBC, Trek's original network, carried more color programming than its competitors and there was a very good reason why. NBC was owned by RCA, the world's largest producer of color television sets.
I highly recommend the museum. We had a marvelous time. If you're a Trekkie and you're ever in the area, it's a must-see. Even if you're not one of the devoted, I expect if you have any interest in the television medium's early days, you might still find it fascinating.
Right, my fitness goals... I was 7 for 7 this week. I was actually a little worried about meeting the step goal the day we went to Ticonderoga. Generally speaking, sightseeing is great for steps, especially the way we do it. But the museum is small - not exactly Smithsonian scale. Plus it meant a lot of time in the car, there and back. Fortunately, I still managed.
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