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An open letter to Paul Allen: Building The Enterprise
ThomPotter
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
To whom it may concern and with all hope that will eventually mean to you Mr. Paul Allen.
My name is Thom Potter and I just have an idea. An idea that I want to share with you because I think of all the people in the world, you would understand it the most.
Mr. Allen, would you consider building the Enterprise?
Now of course I do not mean a working starship, but a full 1:1 scale replica of her. And yes I am talking about the original Captain James T. Kirk NCC-1701 Enterprise. The most beloved and iconic starship in science fiction history. Just imagine it if you will, you would finally get to have something millions of us geeks and nerds have dreamed of for decades. To live and see the Enterprise. To walk her halls, to ride the turbo lifts, to touch her, experience her.
The Enterprise has never existed outside our imaginations. But is she still not just as real and important as any ship or plane or spacecraft that has existed? I propose to you Mr. Allen, that you make her a reality.
It could be so many things. A museum, an adventure, a hotel, or even just a simple tour destination. Conventions, conferences, weddings, private events, show reenactments. How many Star Trek fans do you know? How many fellow nerds and geeks? How many of them would love to see her? I‘m willing to bet the answer is every single one of them. I can’t imagine any science fiction fan not wanting to visit her and getting to relive great moments from the show. It could also be a boom to the local economy, for no one else on the planet will has one. Because even if you’re not a big Star Trek fan or even sci fi fan in general, she would still draw a lot of interest. It would become the thing you have to do when visiting where ever she was at.
Now imagine it downtown Seattle, by the pier. How amazing would Seattle look with the Enterprise docked at her side? It is the home of the Space Needle after all, a symbol of the town’s technological pride and ambition. Also, being home to Boeing and the Museum of Flight, Seattle has a proud history of aviation. But if for some reason public opinion were to react poorly to this idea there are of course many other places she could be built. San Francisco, home of Starfleet would be a great place or the future ship yards in Iowa. Even Las Vegas would work. There is no shortage of locations where she could be built.
Truth be told, she’s not that large of a ship either.
Width: 127.1m Height: 72.6m Length: 288.6m
She’s not tiny but she is in no way a huge ship. 280 feet tall and 900 feet long. At that height it would be the same at the 30th highest skyscraper in Auckland New Zealand and the length of a modern US aircraft carrier (in dry dock that would also be about the same height as well but how often does Auckland's 30th tallest skyscraper ever get used as a point of reference?). She has room for 430 “crew” and a good portion of the ship would be decoration only. The warp nacelles are a very large part of the ship as you know but aside from some access points to look at during a tour, they would require very little substance. No rooms, no utilities, just giant fake engines. The important parts of course are the hull and saucer. When you factor in just those sections requiring rooms, hallways, lighting, ect, by volume it’s not that terrible large of a project.
I have searched online to see if anyone has had this idea before and ever wrote it down and I can find nothing. So far no one has ever dared to dream so big. Because while you may have his chair, no one has his ship. No fake replica sets, no false bridge without a ceiling tucked away in Las Vegas. This is it, the absolute end all ultimate Star Trek anything. No theme park could top, no hotel could rival, no rare original props, or scale model artifacts could even begin to compare to her.
My dream is to see her Mr. Allen. But I am not a rich man. I do not have the resources available to me for anything so grand. But you, you Mr. Allen could build her without so much of batting an eye. I have not tried to come to you with this idea with the desire for profit, though done right I’m sure it could easily generate one. And if given the opportunity I would love to help be a part of this fantastic adventure. I just had a dream and thought, if there was any man on Earth who would do it, who could do it, it would be you. You are a Star Trek lover through and through. Just imagine it for yourself. The bridge, sickbay, the engine room, the shuttle bay. She could be as real as possible. The windows could all have LCD screens showing stars blazing past, making you feel as though you really are in space.
Many of us, most of us, will never be able to go into space in our lifetime, it’s a sad fact that we must face. But could this not be the next best thing? For haven’t you dreamed too of being on the Enterprise? Sitting in the chair, the view screen showing you the infiniteness of it all. This is how you get that feeling. This is how you achieve that childhood dream of flying through space on the Enterprise.
The moment you step aboard, you’ll forget you’re still on Earth.
In the end you’re just constructing another building. All the specs for her are out there Mr. Allen. She’s already designed and ready to go, she just needs someone to build her. There are countless blue prints, references, cut away prints, designs, and the show itself. Every little detail has been thought of but there is still a lot you can do to make it your own. Because when you get down to it, she’s not that complicated in design. Retro-futurism is generally minimalist by nature. She could have great quality without requiring great costs. If you can build the EMP, Quest Field, and one of the worlds largest and most expensive yachts, you can build the Enterprise. Why wouldn’t you? Star Trek is still a hot commodity, just look how successful the new movie was. We need another new generation of original Star Trek fans and I can think of no greater way. You would be preserving something important. It would just be another building, but it would also be so much greater than that. She could be hope. A world we look at and say yes, that the direction we wish humanity will go. She would be a symbol, she would be an icon.
I beg you Mr. Allen, consider this idea for a while. Once I started to imagine her, it become all I could focus on. She is endless in potential and I have dozens of more ideas for her. But just make it something everyone can enjoy. Don’t turn it into something for only the incredibly wealthy like the proposed Star Trek themed park in Jordan. Have her here. I know you are a truly fanatical fan of sci fi if by nothing more than a parting glance at just some of the things in your museum and you want to share them with others. This could be your greatest gift.
And doesn’t it seem crazy that no one has tried this before? How many huge Star Trek fans have go on to become rich and powerful men, yet none of them have built her. And not just her, there are no classic sci fi ships, no Star Destroyers, no Battlestars, not even The Millennium Falcon and she’s a tiny little ship. There are none. I think it will be an inevitability that sooner or later someone, somewhere, builds one of them. Shouldn’t the Enterprise be the first, shouldn’t you be her builder?
This is a new thing, I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve had one of those.
I honestly believe this is my great idea. That asking you to do this and convincing you to make her is the most honorable and ambition thing I can do in my life. You would fulfill the dreams of so many of your fellow Star Trek lovers. Ask yourself, why not? How much could she really cost and is it even possible to image it not making a profit? People travel from all over the world just to attend things like Comicon and they do it year after year after year. How much could Seattle use her? She would bring in so much for the economy. You could have huge events with formers cast members.
Which brings me to another matter, time. It’s been 35 years already and she is more loved today than ever. But William Shatner is getting older as is Leonard Nimoy, don’t they deserve to see her in real life before they too are gone?
I have written this open letter to you for one reason and one reason only. To me, the man who has the chair, is the man who should build the ship.
I am sending out this letter to as many relevant parts of your organizations as I can find online. I am also posting this online for others to ponder the idea. I hope that between them, someone will read this who knows you and pass it along to you. Maybe they will think it’s something you would be interested in, maybe they think you’d just get a good chuckle out of it. The reason why it gets to you is not important, only that it does.
Thank you for your time.
-Thom Potter
My name is Thom Potter and I just have an idea. An idea that I want to share with you because I think of all the people in the world, you would understand it the most.
Mr. Allen, would you consider building the Enterprise?
Now of course I do not mean a working starship, but a full 1:1 scale replica of her. And yes I am talking about the original Captain James T. Kirk NCC-1701 Enterprise. The most beloved and iconic starship in science fiction history. Just imagine it if you will, you would finally get to have something millions of us geeks and nerds have dreamed of for decades. To live and see the Enterprise. To walk her halls, to ride the turbo lifts, to touch her, experience her.
The Enterprise has never existed outside our imaginations. But is she still not just as real and important as any ship or plane or spacecraft that has existed? I propose to you Mr. Allen, that you make her a reality.
It could be so many things. A museum, an adventure, a hotel, or even just a simple tour destination. Conventions, conferences, weddings, private events, show reenactments. How many Star Trek fans do you know? How many fellow nerds and geeks? How many of them would love to see her? I‘m willing to bet the answer is every single one of them. I can’t imagine any science fiction fan not wanting to visit her and getting to relive great moments from the show. It could also be a boom to the local economy, for no one else on the planet will has one. Because even if you’re not a big Star Trek fan or even sci fi fan in general, she would still draw a lot of interest. It would become the thing you have to do when visiting where ever she was at.
Now imagine it downtown Seattle, by the pier. How amazing would Seattle look with the Enterprise docked at her side? It is the home of the Space Needle after all, a symbol of the town’s technological pride and ambition. Also, being home to Boeing and the Museum of Flight, Seattle has a proud history of aviation. But if for some reason public opinion were to react poorly to this idea there are of course many other places she could be built. San Francisco, home of Starfleet would be a great place or the future ship yards in Iowa. Even Las Vegas would work. There is no shortage of locations where she could be built.
Truth be told, she’s not that large of a ship either.
Width: 127.1m Height: 72.6m Length: 288.6m
She’s not tiny but she is in no way a huge ship. 280 feet tall and 900 feet long. At that height it would be the same at the 30th highest skyscraper in Auckland New Zealand and the length of a modern US aircraft carrier (in dry dock that would also be about the same height as well but how often does Auckland's 30th tallest skyscraper ever get used as a point of reference?). She has room for 430 “crew” and a good portion of the ship would be decoration only. The warp nacelles are a very large part of the ship as you know but aside from some access points to look at during a tour, they would require very little substance. No rooms, no utilities, just giant fake engines. The important parts of course are the hull and saucer. When you factor in just those sections requiring rooms, hallways, lighting, ect, by volume it’s not that terrible large of a project.
I have searched online to see if anyone has had this idea before and ever wrote it down and I can find nothing. So far no one has ever dared to dream so big. Because while you may have his chair, no one has his ship. No fake replica sets, no false bridge without a ceiling tucked away in Las Vegas. This is it, the absolute end all ultimate Star Trek anything. No theme park could top, no hotel could rival, no rare original props, or scale model artifacts could even begin to compare to her.
My dream is to see her Mr. Allen. But I am not a rich man. I do not have the resources available to me for anything so grand. But you, you Mr. Allen could build her without so much of batting an eye. I have not tried to come to you with this idea with the desire for profit, though done right I’m sure it could easily generate one. And if given the opportunity I would love to help be a part of this fantastic adventure. I just had a dream and thought, if there was any man on Earth who would do it, who could do it, it would be you. You are a Star Trek lover through and through. Just imagine it for yourself. The bridge, sickbay, the engine room, the shuttle bay. She could be as real as possible. The windows could all have LCD screens showing stars blazing past, making you feel as though you really are in space.
Many of us, most of us, will never be able to go into space in our lifetime, it’s a sad fact that we must face. But could this not be the next best thing? For haven’t you dreamed too of being on the Enterprise? Sitting in the chair, the view screen showing you the infiniteness of it all. This is how you get that feeling. This is how you achieve that childhood dream of flying through space on the Enterprise.
The moment you step aboard, you’ll forget you’re still on Earth.
In the end you’re just constructing another building. All the specs for her are out there Mr. Allen. She’s already designed and ready to go, she just needs someone to build her. There are countless blue prints, references, cut away prints, designs, and the show itself. Every little detail has been thought of but there is still a lot you can do to make it your own. Because when you get down to it, she’s not that complicated in design. Retro-futurism is generally minimalist by nature. She could have great quality without requiring great costs. If you can build the EMP, Quest Field, and one of the worlds largest and most expensive yachts, you can build the Enterprise. Why wouldn’t you? Star Trek is still a hot commodity, just look how successful the new movie was. We need another new generation of original Star Trek fans and I can think of no greater way. You would be preserving something important. It would just be another building, but it would also be so much greater than that. She could be hope. A world we look at and say yes, that the direction we wish humanity will go. She would be a symbol, she would be an icon.
I beg you Mr. Allen, consider this idea for a while. Once I started to imagine her, it become all I could focus on. She is endless in potential and I have dozens of more ideas for her. But just make it something everyone can enjoy. Don’t turn it into something for only the incredibly wealthy like the proposed Star Trek themed park in Jordan. Have her here. I know you are a truly fanatical fan of sci fi if by nothing more than a parting glance at just some of the things in your museum and you want to share them with others. This could be your greatest gift.
And doesn’t it seem crazy that no one has tried this before? How many huge Star Trek fans have go on to become rich and powerful men, yet none of them have built her. And not just her, there are no classic sci fi ships, no Star Destroyers, no Battlestars, not even The Millennium Falcon and she’s a tiny little ship. There are none. I think it will be an inevitability that sooner or later someone, somewhere, builds one of them. Shouldn’t the Enterprise be the first, shouldn’t you be her builder?
This is a new thing, I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve had one of those.
I honestly believe this is my great idea. That asking you to do this and convincing you to make her is the most honorable and ambition thing I can do in my life. You would fulfill the dreams of so many of your fellow Star Trek lovers. Ask yourself, why not? How much could she really cost and is it even possible to image it not making a profit? People travel from all over the world just to attend things like Comicon and they do it year after year after year. How much could Seattle use her? She would bring in so much for the economy. You could have huge events with formers cast members.
Which brings me to another matter, time. It’s been 35 years already and she is more loved today than ever. But William Shatner is getting older as is Leonard Nimoy, don’t they deserve to see her in real life before they too are gone?
I have written this open letter to you for one reason and one reason only. To me, the man who has the chair, is the man who should build the ship.
I am sending out this letter to as many relevant parts of your organizations as I can find online. I am also posting this online for others to ponder the idea. I hope that between them, someone will read this who knows you and pass it along to you. Maybe they will think it’s something you would be interested in, maybe they think you’d just get a good chuckle out of it. The reason why it gets to you is not important, only that it does.
Thank you for your time.
-Thom Potter
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