Star Trek Starships Collection: S.S. Intrepid
Another of Eaglemoss’ tiny Star Trek starships, the U.S.S. Intrepid proves that I’m a sucker for those “primitive” 22nd century ship designs, for here is another early Starfleet ship that flies alongside the NX-01 and the U.S.S. Franklin already in my collection.
Unlike the Eaglemoss ships in my little fleet, however, the Intrepid is far more representative of the company’s monthly offerings than the other ships, which were “special edition” releases. It’s a smaller replica than either of those (with a smaller price tag to boot) – to say this is a little piece of the 22nd century isn’t an error.
The Intrepid has an interesting pedigree, too.
The second coming of Star Trek, ten years after its cancellation, was a licensing goldmine for Paramount. Star Wars had already primed the public pump for science fiction, and Superman had proven that throwing a large budget and an existing, recognizable brand at that audience was a surefire recipe for success. Having already quietly cancelled a proposed second swipe at Trek on TV – a project so far along that sets had been constructed and scripts for half a season’s worth of episodes had been written – Paramount decided to take those sets, and the movie-length pilot script, and go large with it. The result was Star Trek: The Motion Picture… but who should the new Star Trek adventure be marketed to? 
First aired in the only broadcast of the two-hour version of Encounter At Farpoint, the Cheerios Star Trek: The Next Generation sweepstakes commercial may be just a little bit on the cheesy side, but for fans of the show and admirers of the Galaxy-class U.S.S. Enterprise, it also offers several unique glimpses of the bridge – possibly in an unfinished state – that would never be seen in footage from the series itself. 
Released to coincide both with Christmas 2006 and the 40th anniversary of the launch of the original Star Trek, this year’s main Star Trek Christmas ornaments are a testament to just how far we’ve come from the original NCC-1701 ornament – assuming that engineering is on the ball and everything is working. 
After the smash success of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Ertl stepped up to the plate to grab the toy license for Star Trek III – which, of course, was a much less action-oriented movie. Ertl produced only four characters, as well as small die-cast metal replicas of the Enterprise (not as good as the earlier version released by another manufacturer for Star Trek: The Motion Picture) and the Klingon Bird of Prey. 
In May 1999, Paramount Domestic Television splurged on the outgoing Deep Space Nine by sending some rather large items to the stations carrying the show’s final season. The curved, pie-wedge case seen below stood over two feet tall, and opened up to display a nice shot of the wormhole. Part of that shot was a separate dossier which could be removed, containing photos, publicity material, and other information. 
In July 1999, Paramount Domestic Television sent out one of these nifty, scaled-down photon torpedo casings to those 200-odd stations which had finalized the contract to carry Star Trek: Voyager in nightly syndication. The torpedo contained two binders of promotional material, an open audio reel with radio spots, a CD-ROM with much of the same material as the binders, and a VHS videotape with examples of promotional spots for the show.