A Visit to the Enterprise
The Star Trek tour in Ticonderoga, New York features replicas of the NCC-1701 sets, which were used in the "New Voyages" fan series.
The Star Trek set tour building in Ticonderoga, New York.
Ticonderoga puts the rust in rustic.
That’s not meant as a criticism. It’s the reality for rural America.
Several businesses are shuttered in Ticonderoga, apparently abandoned for some time. The only significant attraction for years was Fort Ticonderoga, an 18th Century fort that played roles in both the French and Indian War and the US revolutionary war. In the fictional world of the CBS sitcom Ghosts, Isaac Higgintoot negotiated the American fort’s surrender to the British in July 1777, just before his death from dysentery at the Woodstone mansion.
(I asked several fort employees what they thought of the Higgintoot character’s fictional fort connection. None of them have seen the show. Go figure.)
Ticonderoga has a population of about 3,400.1 No major airports are nearby. The closest is Burlington International, about 55 miles away in Vermont. We flew into Albany International Airport, about a hundred-mile drive with a rental car.
If you want to visit Ticonderoga, it’s more than a commitment. It’s a pilgrimage.
Which is why we made the trip to visit the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour located in downtown Ticonderoga. The sets were built and financed by James Cawley, an Elvis impersonator who spent his income on building replica sets in his home town, Ticonderoga. His hope was to produce fan films he could made with his friends. The episodes were released until the titles Star Trek: New Voyages and later Star Trek: Phase II, a nod to the abandoned 1970s Paramount project that would have continued the Original Series.
A 2016 interview with James Cawley explains the sets’ origins. Video source: Trekyards YouTube channel.
According to Cawley in the above 2016 interview, the sets were relocated to their current location in Ticonderoga for the episode “To Serve All My Days,” which was produced in 2006. That episode guest-starred Walter Koeing, who played Chekov in the original series. Other Original Series actors appeared in episodes, including George Takei as Sulu in “World Enough and Time,” and Majel Barrett as the voice of the Enterprise computer. Denise Crosby appeared in “Blood and Fire” as an ancestor of her The Next Generation character Tasha Yar.
All the episodes, with additional content, can be found on the startreknewvoyages YouTube channel.
Several Star Trek alumni returned to help produce the episodes, such as writers D.C. Fontana and David Gerrold. New Voyages produced Gerrold’s “Blood and Fire” script, adapted from an earlier version he’d written for The Next Generation.
That version was rejected by producers Gene Roddenberry and Rick Berman. According to Gerrold in a 2014 TrekMovie.com interview, the story was an allegory about fear of donating blood due to AIDS. Two male guest characters happened to be gay. Roddenberry’s lawyer, Leonard Maizlish, also objected to the story. David asked Roddenberry not to renew his contract and moved on to other projects.
Not only did New Voyages produce “Blood and Fire,” but David also directed. In the TNG version, after the producers objected to the gay characters, he gave “half the lines to Tasha Yar.” In this version, Denise Crosby was cast as Tasha’s ancestor. Perhaps she was finally able to deliver those lines after all.
“Blood and Fire” was originally a two-part episode, but was later released as this 92-minute “movie” version. Video source: startreknewvoyages YouTube channel.
David now lives across the state border in Vermont, not far from Ticonderoga. He appears about once a month to lead tours of the replica sets. The afternoon tour concludes with his Original Series episode “The Trouble with Tribbles” aired on the bridge viewscreen (which is a modern high-definition flatscreen TV). David provides live commentary.
Phase II production ended after Paramount sued another production called Axanar which was alleged to have crossed the copyright legal line. Cawley’s production released its films for free on the Internet; he and the Phase II staff went unpaid, working for the joy of Star Trek. Paramount had agreed to look the other way so long as no one made money off the episodes. But Axanar producer Alec Peters was alleged to have spent on his own personal expenses the $1.4 million fronted by donors. The 2017 settlement restricted what Axanar, Phase II, Star Trek Continues, and other fan films could do with Paramount’s intellectual property. The new guidelines limited episode length to fifteen minutes, banned the term “Star Trek” from any title, and forebade Star Trek series alumni, cast and crew, from working on any project.
Under those conditions … Phase II was cancelled.
But the sets remain in Ticonderoga. Cawley licensed permission from Paramount to conduct tours. Although you can take a standard guided tour for $24.00 per adult, alumni such as Gerrold sometimes appear. William Shatner will appear in late November. Walter Koenig, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, LeVar Burton, Nana Visitor, and Terry Ferrell have also trekked (so to speak) to Ticonderoga.
The fort is no longer the only attraction in Ticonderoga. Now you can beam aboard the Enterprise.
These are photos of David’s September 27 afternoon tour, as well as the sets and the gift shop, which have many Original Series artifacts on display. Two of the guests on our tour had pilgrimed from Brazil. That’s boldly going.
The newspaper reporting Edith Keeler’s death, that appeared in “The City on the Edge of Forever.” I don’t know if each specific item on display is a replica or the original.
Various Original Series props.
Costumes from The Next Generation series and films.
David Gerrold greets guests outside the entrance to the replicas of the sets once found on Stage 9 of Desilu Studios.
David on the transporter pad. To his right is the box used to carry Medusan ambassador Kollos in “Is There In Truth No Beauty?”
Wandering the Enterprise.
Dammit, Jim, I’m a writer, not a doctor.
The briefing room, which was often redressed as the recreation room and other locations.
What happens in the captain’s quarters stays in the captain’s quarters.
Engineering.
On the bridge of the Enterprise.
Some sources suggest the population as measured by the 2020 US census is about 4,700, but the US Census website is unavailable due to the federal government shutdown. The Data USA website reports the population was 3,375 in 2023.