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ABOUT THE FS-1 EFFECTS MINIATURES
The 'Independent' form of film and TV production, eventually to overtake and replace the 'studio system', was not a new concept at the time
of the Voyage TV production. Even in 1964 most of the Talent and senior behind-the-camera people freelanced their services, cutting their own deals with a studio or Producer, one project at a time.
Howard Lydecker for example freelanced his services to Fox. The man, along with his brother Theodore, were the effects wizards most
responsible for breathing life into the sometimes trashy Republic serials and motion pictures of years gone by. It was Howard Lydecker, an outside consultant, who did so much to bring the FS-1 to life, sending it
flying across the television screen. Had Fox not had the ability to seek out and employ part-time contractors, such experts as Mr. Lydecker, the visual impact of Voyage would have been the lesser for it.
Starting with the second season of Voyage a 'new and improved' SEAVIEW is depicted, modified to house, launch and recover a
saucer-shaped flying-submarine. This necessitated a major alteration of the existing SEAVIEW miniatures as well as the creation of several FS-1 miniatures, the new hardware addition to the show.
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My buddy, Gary Kerr. He's
holding one of the surviving FS-1 effects miniatures built for the TV production. This one appears to be a recently restored unit. Gary is one of the many unsung heroes of fine SF model building here on
the continent – it's the work of Gary, Rich Knorowski, Bob Burns, Shane Johnson, Fred Barr, Phil Broad, and so many others, guys who have worked to either pass around copies of actual studio drawings, or
to prepare their own credible drawings of these fantastic vessels. From their efforts, craftsman such as Denis DeBoer, Paul Lubliner, Rick Teskey, Ray Mason, and myself build models of the FS-1, SEAVIEW
and other Voyage craft. Gary Kerr is perhaps the most accomplished orthographic plan illustrator's in the field today. His dedication to detail (effects miniatures sometimes change in detail through a
productions run) is renowned.
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Twentieth Century-Fox was still very much a classic film/TV production company in the early 60's, but it was also a studio very much in
transition during that period. The recent flop of their colossally extravagant Cleopatra, coupled with the ongoing industry transition from the all encompassing studio we-do-it-all-right-here model to the more
streamlined limited, one-production-at-a-time contract form of production were the engines of
change. And the Voyage production at the Fox studio continued to suffer under the much flawed management-worker adversarial relationships created by the Guilds and Unions that (to this day) stifle the industry. It was under these conditions that the FS-1 effects miniatures were constructed.
My point?
Examination of the surviving FS-1 miniatures reveals them to be built by people who worked to a standard of 'good enough', not 'let's make
'em as best we can'. The Fox miniatures would have been more pleasing to the eye (up close) had they been crafted by dedicated, interested, and properly motivated trades people. But, to be pragmatic about it all,
the camera is an uncritical eye, and the Voyage miniature work was good enough for film and translation to TV. I concede that the Voyage effects miniatures were eminently suited for the intended task: film subjects,
not display pieces; they were most suited to the task for which they were created. They just look bad close up.
onto the next page
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