Gregory "Greg" B. Jein is a science fiction model-maker and artist whose work includes studio models and other artwork, such as landscape miniatures, that appeared throughout the Star Trek franchise. He spent much of his time as an independent contractor operating his own model shop, "Gregory Jein Inc." Jein traces his professional connections to Star Trek as far back as 1979, when Apogee, Inc. asked him to build the exterior sets of V'Ger for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. In 1987, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) had him work on the construction of the two and six-foot studio models of the USS Enterprise-D.

Contents 1 Forming Gregory Jein, Inc. 1.1 Staff 1.2 Other work 2 Commercial availability 3 Cameo 4 Beginnings as a fan 5 Continued fan-production work 6 Other projects 7 Footnotes 8 Star Trek interviews 9 Reference 10 External links

Forming Gregory Jein, Inc. Edit

Later that year he left ILM and formed his own company, Gregory Jein, Inc., located in Marina Del Rey, California, and he started working as an independent contractor for the Star Trek franchise. (Cinefantastique, Vol 23 #2/3, p. 95) Among his most notable achievements during this time were the four-foot USS Enterprise-D, which he built for later seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the recreated USS Enterprise and Deep Space Station K-7 models built for DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations". Jein received his first Emmy Award nomination for his visual effects work on that episode in 1997 and shared this nomination with Gary Hutzel, Judy Elkins, Paul Maples, Adrian Hurley, Don Lee, Steve Fong, Davy Nethercutt, Kevin Bouchez, Laurie Resnick, and Adam Howard.

Gregory Jein, Inc. was the primary supplier of studio models for the The Next Generations series during its entire run and has produced the vast majority of the models for that series. Only during the second half of 1989 was the company not available to the television franchise, as the services of the company were exclusively reserved first by Ferren and Associates for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and subsequently by Paramount Pictures for the production of Hunt for Red October. During that period the slack was taken up by Starlight Effects and Tony Meininger. The two other model builders called in during those years, Science Fiction Modelmaking Associates and Bill George, were contracted to ease the workload on Gregory Jein, Inc. when demands for a specific episode were particularly tasking for the company.

Gregory Jein, Inc. was superseded as primary studio model vendor for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager by Meininger's Brazil-Fabrication & Design, though the company continued to provide services for the franchise on an occasional basis, most notably the "Trials and Tribble-ations" models.

Staff Edit

While operating Gregory Jein, Inc., his staff at one time or another, included, among others:

• Larry Albright (subcontractor)
• Eduardo Batres
• Gunnar Ferdinandsen
• Mike Harsh
• Jason Kaufman
• Bruce MacRae
• David Merriman, Jr. (subcontractor)
• Warren Riggs
• Scott Schneider
• Richard Slifka
• Greg Stuhl
• Dana White

Other work Edit

Other models credited in full or part to him include the following classes:

• Ambassador-class^[1]
• D'deridex-class^[2]
• D'Kora-class ^[3]
• Daedalus-class^[4]
• Excelsior-class (second smaller studio model)^[5]
• Freedom-class^[6]
• Nebula-class^[7]
• Niagara-class^[8]
• Vor'cha-class^[9]
• McKinley Station

Commercial availabilityEdit

At one time some of Jein's work was commercially available to the public. On 22 May 1997, Viacom, the parent company of Paramount Pictures, opened the Viacom Entertainment Store in Chicago, an attempt to emulate the merchandise store formula like the Disney Store and Warner Bros. Studio Store. Part of its merchandise was a limited production run of twelve of Jein models for Star Trek, cast by Jein's company from the same molds as the original studio versions. The models chosen were the four-foot Galaxy-class, the D'deridex-class, the second (smaller) Excelsior-class, the Vor'cha-class and the "Trials and Tribble-ations" version of the Constitution-class. They cost from US$5,000-$10,000 apiece and came with certificates of authenticity, but were more crudely detailed and sported no internal lighting. The store was not a success and closed down in 1998. That was the only time Jein originals were commercially available. [X]^wbm Pieces that by that time went unsold ended up in Planet Hollywood restaurants or the shop at Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. [1]

CameoEdit

Jein provided photographs of himself in a baseball jersey to be used in a prop piece of artwork: Benjamin Sisko's baseball card depicting Buck Bokai. Keone Young was later chosen to perform the role in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "If Wishes Were Horses". Many DS9 crew members were astonished by the physical similarity between the two men, although the producers maintained that this was a coincidence, and that they had simply cast the performer with the best acting ability. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 54)

Beginnings as a fanEdit

As a fan, he wrote an analysis of starship registries for the April 1973 T-Negative fanzine, "The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship", in which he matched known and assumed names of starships to the registry numbers seen in TOS: "Court Martial". [2] This list of starships with registry numbers became popular among fans, and eventually FASA role-playing game incorporated it into their sourcebooks. The list was adopted by Michael Okuda for the official Star Trek Encyclopedia in 1994. Many of the registries became canon with the remastering of Star Trek: The Original Series in 2006: for the upgrade, Okuda applied most of Jein's numbers to their respective ships. Another of the registry numbers appeared on-screen on the USS Defiant (NCC-1764) in ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly".

Continued fan-production workEdit

In 2007, Jein served as technical adviser on the fan-made internet series Star Trek: New Voyages (since rechristened Phase II) episode "World Enough and Time", which featured James Cawley, Jeffery Quinn, George Takei, Grace Lee Whitney, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, and John Carrigan.

Jein is a long time fan of TOS, and he owns several props from the series, including the original studio model of the DY-100-class.

Other projects Edit

Other projects he worked for include the War of the Worlds (1988), V (1983) and V (The Final Battle) TV movie and series, as well as the movies Dark Star, Flesh Gordon, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (working as sub-contractor for Douglas Trumbull's Future General Corporation), 1941, Fukkatsu no hi, Hunt for Red October, The Scorpion King, Serenity, and Avatar. Another project he worked on was The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension, with several Trek alumni including Denise Okuda, Christopher Lloyd, and Robert Ito, among others.

Jein was nominated for the Best Visual Effects Academy Award in 1977 and 1979 for his work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 1941, respectively. He was also nominated for an Emmy for his effects work on the HBO mini-series, Angels in America.

FootnotesEdit

1. ↑ Star Trek Encyclopedia 2nd ed., p. 10
2. ↑ Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion 2nd ed., p. 60
3. ↑ Star Trek Encyclopedia 2nd ed., p. 150
4. ↑ Star Trek Encyclopedia 1st ed., p. 64
5. ↑ Drex Files
6. ↑ Ex Astris Scientia
7. ↑ Star Trek Encyclopedia 2nd ed., p. 317
8. ↑ Ex Astris Scientia
9. ↑ Star Trek Encyclopedia 2nd ed., p. 243

Star Trek interviews Edit

• TNG Season 3 DVD special feature "Departmental Briefing Year Three" ("Greg Jein: Modelmaker"), interviewed on 5 October 2001
• TNG Season 4 DVD special feature "Select Historical Data" ("A New Ship Debuts"), interviewed on 5 October 2001
• 2007 Interview with Gregory Jein at StarTrek.com

ReferenceEdit

• Brad Munson, "Greg Jein; Miniature Giant", Cinefex, issue 2, pp. 24-49

External links Edit

• Gregory Jein at Wikipedia
• Gregory Jein at the Internet Movie Database
• Gregory Jein at the Internet Movie Database (as Gregory Jein, Inc.)
• The Case of Jonathan Doe Starship at TrekPlace.com