Sci-fi and genre fans are certainly an enthusiastic bunch.
Just check out the story we recently ran about the fans who built their own Firefly spaceship out of LEGOS, the guy who constructed a 900-pound Millennium Falcon out of car parts, and the engineer who designed real, moving replicas of R2D2 and Wall-E.
We’ve also seen that some fans are willing to spend a cool six figures for real movie memorabilia, like the camera that filmed Star Wars, or an original tie-fighter model.
Now there’s a group of Star Trek fans who are banding together to restore the Enterprise D Bridge from the Next Generation (TNG).
As their Facebook page explains, “This is an ongoing project to entirely restore an official Paramount created Star Trek Next Generation Enterprise Bridge that Paramount created in the late 1990’s…”
The set, which was built with fiberglass, was saved from being destroyed, and now this restoration crew says it’s their “prime directive” to bring it back to its original sheen and luster.
When restored, the bridge will apparently be open to the public for meetings, movie showings, fund raisers, tours and filming projects.
A fundraising campaign is expected to kick off soon, with the group pledging to initiate one “only after it has all the estimates of restoration,” plus the support of Star Trek actors and famous fans.
Building a Millennium Falcon replica, or a real, fully functional R2D2 may be one form of dedication, but this bridge restoration project clearly takes geek dedication where no fan has gone before.
Of course, this type of obsession really shouldn’t come as a surprise, especially considering this is Star Trek. We all know Trekkies are devoted, but this really does raise the proverbial bar.
