While poring over the items in the big Star Trek acution over on ebay, a few sketches done by Matt Jeffries immediately grabbed my attention.
For those who don't recall this, back in the 60s the AMT corporation released a spacecraft kit in conjunction with their Star Trek kits. This ship -- originally called the "Leif Ericson", and later rereleased as a glow in the dark "UFO Mystery Ship" -- bears a striking resemblance to some of Jeffries sketches...so much so that I have no question that it's Jeffries drawings that were the basis of it. Not only are the similarities too close, right down to the scout ship and engine pods, but the conning tower is downright DY100.
Makes me wonder what those sketches were originally generated for. Was it for a ship never used on the show? Or was it an original design Jeffries did for AMT?
Curiouser and curiouser.
Anyone have any other info on this oddity?
[ June 20, 2002, 00:02: Message edited by: MrNeutron ]
Posted by Shik (Member # 343) on :
The guys over at Starship Modeler know all about it.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I guess they look somewhat similar.
[ June 20, 2002, 00:01: Message edited by: Sol System ]
Posted by MrNeutron (Member # 524) on :
I'd say more than somewhat...Same nose cone, same conning tower profile, same hull shape, same engine pod shapes, same doors on the top of the hull. Scoutship is similar in shape and labeled as such on both the sketches and the kit. Yeah, the wings are different on the sketches I found, but it's as recognizably the same ship to my eye as the final TOS Enterprise is to Jeffries concept sketches for that.
I went over to Starship Modeler but all I found about the ship was what I already knew: that it was the inspriation for the I.N.S.S. MacArthur from Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "A Mote in God's Eye".
Was there more information on the design there?
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Interesting. The two ships look so similar, I doubt this could be a coincidence. Looking at the UFO Mystery Ship box, it almost looks like the design was originally supposed to be a Star Trek design. It sits right along side all the major TOS icons.
This is going to sound strange, but perhaps this was a Trek ship (perhaps another AMT joint project, like the shuttlecraft) that was supposed to make an appearance on the show. AMT acquired the modelling rights, and perhaps built the model a bit prematurely. The model was then never used on the show, and AMT was forced to give the ships silly names not related to Star Trek.
I've mailed the author of this webpage -> http://www.bol.ucla.edu/~frank/le.html He seems to know a few things about this.
Posted by Reverend (Member # 335) on :
Looks like an early Klingon concept to me...perhaps this is what the mysterious klingon scout was supposed to look like.
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Er...both look vaguely like spaceplanes. That isn't a damningly unique design, in my opinion.
Posted by AndrewR (Member # 44) on :
Reverend - this is EXACTLY what I thought this ship was when I first saw that linked picture... The scout ship - the KLINGON scoutship from "Errand of Mercy" except they probably ran out of money - I guess.
It is SOOOO Klingon looking, It's not funny.
I would have loved to have seen this. Could we adopt this as a Klingon scout-ship PLEASSEEEEEE! Can someone ask Matt Jefferies!?! Does he have e-mail!?! PLEAAAASEEEEEEE! This would be fantastic. Why couldn't they have just used an ATML model instead of the silly flashing light.
You can't tell me that the distant ship on the cover of the box for the Leif Ericson, doesn't look very Klingon to you!?!
Andrew
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
The unassembled kit might look a little Klingon. The picture on the box doesn't, though.
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Okay. He replied.
My message:
quote:Hi,
My name's Harry. I'm a Star Trek fan, and member of the Flare forums. Recently, E-Bay started a huge Star Trek auction, selling, among other things, design sketches by Matt Jefferies, the man who designed the original Enterprise and the Klingon battlecruiser. A fellow Flare-member found two sketches that look remarkably similar to the Leif Ericson/UFO Mystery Ship and Mini Scout models (http://fleetyard.host.sk/leif.jpg and http://fleetyard.host.sk/scout.jpg). I did a little search and found your website. You seem to know quite a bit about the two AMT model kits. Do you know if Matt Jefferies designed the ship? Or is it just a coincidence? The fact that ERTL seems to think it is a Star Trek ship is perhaps a clue that this was supposed to be a Star Trek ship. What do you think?
quote: Hi Harry, Thanks for writing! I should update my Leif Ericson page soon. I've been in contact with Mike Okuda (who's been very helpful with my web page) and he mentioned that the Leif Ericson/UFO Mystery Ship were indeed designed by Matt Jefferies. Other than this, I don't think that there was a direct connection with Star Trek. Jefferies may have done the design just for AMT, or he may have used an existing, discarded Star Trek design. The e-mail is at home; Mike gave me permission to put the info up, but I just haven't had the time. I'll make the time now, though. Do you mind if I put a link to those two sketches on my page? They're a fantastic find. The Web is amazing, isn't it?
Frank
So there *is* a direct link between the Jefferies sketches and the AMT ships.
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Oh. He updated his site (http://www.bol.ucla.edu/%7Efrank/le.html) with some interesting bits:
quote:Mike Okuda, who's great work has been seen on several Star Trek shows, has given me some background info on the Leif Ericson design. The Leif Ericson was designed by Matt Jefferies, designer for the original Star Trek series. While it never showed up in the original series, Mike mentioned that the Leif Ericson showed up in a couple of places on Filmation's storyboards for the animated Star Trek series in the early 1970s, althoug the ship did not appear in any of the finished episodes of the animated series.
So, it's an unused TAS design! I've searched the "Time Trap" scenes on The Guardian of Forever, but Okuda's right, it doesn't appear anywhere.
Posted by MrNeutron (Member # 524) on :
quote:Originally posted by Harry: So, it's an unused TAS design! I've searched the "Time Trap" scenes on The Guardian of Forever, but Okuda's right, it doesn't appear anywhere.
Well, I don't think that's quite accurate, either. The model kit appares to date from around 1967-68, while TOS was still on the air. So, it appears to be a "comporary with TOS" design at least. In fact, two of the other sketches on the site where I found those posted earlier features ships with the beginnings of the Leif Ericson type nose, one of which below a sketch that looks like one of the Klingon Battlecruiser development drawings.
[ June 21, 2002, 01:22: Message edited by: MrNeutron ]
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
Huh. Go figure.
Posted by OnToMars (Member # 621) on :
Don't that beat all?
Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :
The connection between Jeffries's design and TAS makes we wonder if he designed anything else for TAS, possibly ships that are better known, like Bonaventure and Huron. That would be sweet!
Posted by Treknophyle (Member # 509) on :
BTW: This design was also the inspiration for the 'MacArthur' for Niven-Pournelle's novel "The Mote in God's Eye".
Posted by Nim Pim (Member # 205) on :
It looks a bit like a Defiant with atmosphere fins and a enlengthened "head".
Why is it named Leif Ericson? Sounds swedish.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
Leif Borgson?
Posted by MrNeutron (Member # 524) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nim Pim: Why is it named Leif Ericson? Sounds swedish.
Okay, Lily.
As to the name I suspect because it was a good explorer name.
For them's that don't know Leiv Eiriksson -- the son of Norwegian-born Eirik Thorvaldsson, known as Eirik the Red -- became the first known European to set foot on the shores of North America almost 500 years before Columbus is credited to have.
That's why October 9th is "Leif Ericson Day"here in the U.S. Too bad we don't get a three day weekend out of it...
Posted by Cpt. Kyle Amasov (Member # 742) on :
Leif Ericson was also mentioned in 'Space Seed'. We even got a hand-drawn picture of that dude.
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)