2-hour ‘Building Star Trek’ special will focus on preserving show’s vaunted history

By Stephanie Topacio Long July 6, 2016

star trek 50th anniversary video 1 970x647 c — NBC

The biggest upcoming landmark on most Trekkies’ radar right now is the release of Star Trek Beyond, but luckily for fans, they have more to look forward to once that momentous occasion comes and goes. Sandwiched between the July debut of Beyond and the new Star Trek television series’ premiere in 2017, there will be an intriguing TV event. Smithsonian Channel is set to air a two-hour special called Building Star Trek in September, reports Variety.

The special will bring us to two museums, each located in a different Washington: the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and the EMP Museum in Seattle. Each museum is working to preserve the show’s history.

At the former, staffers will be shown conserving and restoring a large model of the U.S.S. Enterprise from the original Star Trek TV series, one that weighs in at 250 pounds and is 11 feet long. Meanwhile, the EMP team will use authentic props and set pieces to rebuild a model of the show’s Enterprise bridge.

Beyond the models, Building Star Trek will also look at the technology we saw on the series, as well as the fascinating work that today’s scientists are doing to make the fictional technology depicted in the original series become real. We’re talking warp drives, cloaking devices, and more. There’s no way a true Trekkie will be able to resist.

The special is both written and directed by Mick Grogan, whose work includes the TV miniseries Perfect Storms: Disasters that Changed the World and the television documentary Mummies Alive. Building Star Trek is produced by Yap Films for Smithsonian Channel and Discovery Camera. The special is executive produced by Elizabeth Trojian for Yap Films and Smithsonian Channel’s David Royle, Charles Poe, and Tim Evans.

Building Star Trek airs September 4 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Smithsonian Channel.

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Stephanie Topacio Long is a writer and editor whose writing interests range from business to books. She also contributes to…

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