Matt Jefferies

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Matt Jefferies

"Some day, I'll fly away, way, way beyond the clouds!"

– Richard Jefferies, brother, 2008, citing a childhood statement Matt Jefferies made [1]

"Matt Jefferies was the most decent and devoted human being on the production team. He never lost his cool, never lost his temper."

– Robert Justman, Producer, 1996, Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, p. 169

Walter Matthew "Matt" Jefferies (12 August 1921 – 21 July 2003; age 81), nicknamed "Jeff" by his family and older brother to fellow Star Trek designer John Jefferies, was the art director and production designer on all three seasons of Star Trek: The Original Series, and has done some preliminary work as such on Star Trek: The Motion Picture (or rather its immediate predecessor, Star Trek: Phase II), albeit uncredited.

It was Jefferies who designed the original Enterprise studio model with its saucer-shaped hull, engineering hull, and two nacelles, as well as the type 1 and type 2 phaser designs seen in The Original Series, for which he, along with brother John, did the design drawings. His involvement in the Star Trek franchise started in 1964, when Gene Roddenberry asked Jefferies to design a starship for his new TV series. His signature design survived to influence starship designs in all subsequent Star Trek productions. As influential as his starship designs, was his bridge design. Apart from these, he designed the vast majority of the numerous sets, landscapes, props, and other ships (most notably the Klingon D7-class) for the original series.

Jefferies came to the attention of Roddenberry after the latter saw the 1957 Cold War movie Bombers B-52, on which Jefferies, as one of his earliest motion picture contributions, had served as a production designer, albeit uncredited. It was on the initiative of Roddenberry that Jefferies was unexpectedly released from the production he was working on at the time by his employer, Desilu Studios, to start work on the first Star trek pilot, "The Cage". (The Making of Star Trek, p. 79) Upon meeting in early fall 1964, both men took an immediate shining to one and other, as they shared a common history. Both men had served in World War II as Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber pilots, though Roddenberry had served in the Pacific theater, whereas Jefferies had flown over Africa and Europe. After Roddenberry had explained what he wanted to see, and more importantly, what he did not want to see in the design of the new starship Enterprise, Jefferies remembered leaving the meeting elated, "I could make him laugh, and we seemed like a perfect combination in that he was a real head-on-the-clouds dreamer, and I was a nuts-and-bolts man." (Star Trek Memories, p. 45) Little did he know upon leaving the meeting, what a challenge working on the show proved to be the next four years.

Jefferies worked as art director on the two Star Trek pilots, at first in tandem with Pato Guzman and subsequently with Franz Bachelin, after the former left, then became production designer later on, starting with the first season in 1966. He worked with fellow art director Rolland M. Brooks on the first season and the beginning of the second. After Brooks left the series, Jefferies became the sole production designer, or rather art director, for Star Trek. Very much one of the most influential production staffers on the visual look of The Original Series, since then attaining a near legendary status, at least where the Star Trek community is concerned, Jefferies was held in highest regard by producers Roddenberry, Herb Solow and Robert Justman throughout his tenure at the franchise. Justman, as treasurer, in particularly, was deeply impressed with Jefferies' abilities to make do with the meager means he was allocated with, especially since he was the one who had to continuously inform Jefferies that his budget was slashed, every time the studio lowered the series' budget, and his art department was among the first where Justman looked for money to be saved. An appreciative Justman said of Jefferies, "His eyes got watery and he would find it difficult to speak when an over-budget show forced me to take away half his construction money. And I'd demand the impossible, that he still provide us with believable sets for less money then it should cost. He'd gulp a bit and finally said, in a very throaty voice, "Well...let me see what I can do. I'll give it a try." So Matt would try harder [note: greatly aided by his younger brother John and his team, who became very adept at scavenging for any and all items that could be used in set construction], and he always came through for us. And I always felt guilty, so I sent him a memo of thanks and prodded Gene to do the same. By union contract, Matt wasn't entitled to a raise until after his first six months as a full-fledged Art Director. I talked Gene into discussing the problem with Solow. He did, and Herb "bumped him up" immediately." Promoted to "Production Designer", a highly desirable title at the time, this act of appreciation did not sit well with Jefferies' own Art Directors Union, who effectively blocked his promotion, only allowing the use of the title on the first five aired regular series episodes (including the second pilot episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", for which he was originally credited as "Set Designer"), where the title was already featured. Nevertheless, Justman was determined to get Jefferies the title he so much believed he deserved and continued to lobby for it, though he ultimately did not succeeded in doing so. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, pp. 111, 169, 173)

In 1977, Jefferies was sounded out by Roddenberry to rejoin the franchise for the Star Trek: Phase II television project that was under development. While he did some preliminary work in June on the redesign of the Enterprise, using as starting point the ship he designed for the Original Series, and which eventually resulted in the fabrication of detailed Template:Brokenlink based on his preliminary redesign sketches for the build of the Phase II Enterprise studio model, he ultimately decided to decline the offer as he was unwilling to give up his then job at Little House on the Prairie. In his stead, he recommended Joe Jennings, his assistant during the original second season, for the position and who was subsequently hired as art director. (Star Trek Phase II: The Lost Series, p. 26; Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 8, p. 84)

The series of interviews with Jefferies for the 2000 run of the publication Star Trek: The Magazine were the most elaborate ones, he has given on his work on Star Trek, and has helped to clear up some of the misconceptions that had evolved over the years on some of his work in Star Trek lore, such as the origins of the USS Enterprise's registry number and the raison d'etre for the D7-class studio model. Jefferies, along with his brother John, sold off virtually all of their Original Series production items, including all of his design art, still in their possession in the Profiles in History The Star Trek Auction of 12 December 2001, in order to raise funds for the charitable organization "Motion Picture & Television Fund". Prior to the auction, most of Jefferies' Star Trek design art, much of which previously unseen, was published in Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook and the interview issues of Star Trek: The Magazine.

Never a science fiction fan, Star Trek was for Matt Jefferies a job like any of his others, albeit one he tackled with professionalism, and when the Original Series wrapped, he moved on, not giving a second thought on the work he had done on the show. He was therefore taken aback and mystified when Star Trek became the runaway success it did in syndication in the 1970s. He admitted in 1987, "I still don't understand it, I think if we'd known it was gonna last so long and be studied by so many people we'd probably have been so frightened of it we'd never have been able to make a decision." (Cinefantastique, Vol 17 #2, p. 27) While honored by the growing admiration, it was also a reason for him to shy away from every form of public expression of acclaim, the Star Trek conventions in particular, though not for want of invitations as he received a multitude of them. Only trice did Jefferies made a public Star Trek appearance, and the first one was already something of a traumatic experience for him. A bit ushered on by Paramount Pictures, he reluctantly conceded to attend the highly-publicized 1996 Pasadena Star Trek convention, but once there he was mobbed by well-meaning admirers to such an extend, that he had to be delivered by police. Jefferies vowed to his wife, Mary-Ann, never to attend a convention again. (Beyond the Clouds, p. 264) Four years later, though he relented a bit when Star Trek Archivist Penny Juday asked him personally to attend the Template:Brokenlink science fiction convention, Star Trek themed that year and held on 14-16 July, 2000, in Los Angeles. Together with a multitude of other Star Trek staffers he attended the Gala Awards Dinner on the 14th, and was pleasantly surprised when he was awarded by the organization with the honorary Shooting Star Award, which was presented to Jefferies by Juday. [2]

Additionally, has confessed to a lack of enthrallment for all post-The Original Series reincarnations of Star Trek, having stated in a BBC interview, shortly before his death in 2003, in regard to The Motion Picture, "I went to the first movie. I was invited to the screening. I fell asleep. John Dwyer noticed it from across the screening room and said, "Matt, wake up." Fortunately nobody else in there knew me.", and in regard to Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Gene asked me how I liked the show, and I said that he had taken the bridge of my ship and turned it into the lobby of the Hilton. And I have just never watched any of them since. I’m lost." [3] Still, he has expressed his professional admiration for his successors on the newer shows, when he exclaimed, "I'm dumbfounded by what you've people have done!" at the June 2001 Visual Effects Society Festival, his third and last public Star Trek appearance and where he was one of the Star Trek visual effects guests of honor. Template:Brokenlink

Nevertheless, it was in his honor that the crawl spaces on all Starfleet vessels are named Jefferies tubes, a reference used throughout the entire Star Trek franchise. Likewise, the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "First Flight" mentioned Captain Jefferies, who was also named in honor of Matt Jefferies. Aside from this, Jefferies became revered by numerous later Star Trek staffers, especially by those working in the art and visual effects departments, such as Doug Drexler, Michael Okuda (with whom Jefferies developed a close friendship later in life), Bill George and many others. How evident this reverence was, was exemplified when Jefferies was lured to Paramount Pictures under the pretense of discussing a video chronicling the origins of The Original Series (actually the TOS Season 2 DVD "Designing the Final Frontier"-special, released a year later). Upon entering the screening room Jefferies was greeted by a host of Star Trek staffers, old and new, and family members who had assembled to honor him. Hosted by Penny Juday, a humbled Jefferies made use of the surprise tribute, to again express his appreciation, but also his befuddlement, for the accolades his Star Trek work had gained him, "I find it very difficult to comprehend, honestly, how design work that I did oh-so-many years ago has been accepted and continues to be accepted by millions of Star Trek fans throughout the world." The tribute took place on 15 July 2003, a mere six days before his death. (Beyond the Clouds, pp. 285-286)

Career outside Star Trek

Hailing from the East Coast, Matt Jefferies developed a passion for aviation in the interbellum years, and joined the United States Air Force to serve a bomber pilot over Africa (famously, surviving a mid-air collision with a German fighter plane) and Europe during World War II. His war time services earned him the Air Medal (as it had Roddenberry) and the Bronze Star. His brush with death in the war did nothing to dampen his enthusiasm for aviation after the war, and he personally restored his own plane, a 1935 Waco YOC. Its registry, NC17740, has in Star Trek lore given rise to a decades long myth that the USS Enterprise received its registry from his plane, a notion Jefferies finally dispelled himself in 2000. (Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 10, p. 26) Directly after the war Jefferies became an aviation illustrator at the aircraft manufacturer Erco, followed in 1948 by an illustrator's position at the Library of Congress. A detailed cutaway drawing of a Seversky P-35 airplane, he did for the magazine Air Trails HOBBIES for Young Men earned Jefferies his first nation wide recognition. (Beyond the Clouds, p. 209)

Jefferies' first brush with the motion picture industry came in 1956, when he was asked by Warner Brothers for technical input on the X-2 Bell experimental rocket plane for the movie Toward the Unknown. Less than a year later, he received a phone-call from his younger brother, Hollywood Art Director Philip and the first of three brothers to work in the motion picture industry, who was looking for an art director for another Warner Brothers aviation movie, the earlier mentioned Cold War movie Bombers B-52. The studio was, at a time when art directors/production illustrators were relatively sparse in Hollywood, looking for an illustrator with detailed knowledge on the bomber, and as Matt Jefferies, the aviation enthusiast, had an extensive library of B-52 manuals, he was hired on the spot. Matt was the last of the Jefferies brothers who made the move to Hollywood as the youngest, John, had already been brought over by Philip in 1956. (Beyond the Clouds, pp. 211, 213)

Though mostly remembered for his work on Star Trek, at the time, it was but a small part of his career, and he has always considered it as such. It was aviation that has always been and remained his true passion. Before Star Trek he further worked for Warner Brothers on the movies, The Old Man and the Sea (1958, as production illustrator), Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959, as set designer) and The Crowded Sky (1960, as set designer), all uncredited. In 1960 he moved over to Desilu Studios, where he worke as set designer on the television productions The Untouchables, Mission: Impossible, and Ben Casey, the series from which he was unexpectedly pulled by his employer, after he returned from a holiday, only to find himself working on the new Star Trek show. It gave him a scare though, as he recalled, "I had been working for Desilu as a sort of assistant art director in Ben Casey. And during the run of that show I's taken four weeks off, during which time I went to the New York World's Fair and visited with family in Virginia. At the end of my vacation I came back to work, walked into my little cubicle and found it empty. My drawing board and my drafting tools were gone. So I went into my boss's office and said, "I don't know where all my stuff is, but where the hell is the next Casey script?" He said, "Forget it, you're not on the show anymore." So I figured, "Well, I guess that serves me right for being a smartass and taking a month off." But as it turned out, my boss wasn't firing me at all." (Star Trek Memories, pp. 44-45)

Though not a science fiction fan, Jefferies took in later life an interest in real world spaceflight, particularly NASA's space shuttle program. And while he was not present with the other Star Trek alumnni at the unveiling of the Enterprise (OV-101), the one named for his starship, he did on NASA's invitation attend the first free-flight test of the shuttle on 12 August 1977. (Beyond the Clouds, pp. 285-286)

Afterwards he worked on productions such as the 1970s-1980s television series Love, American Style, Little House on the Prairie, Father Murphy and Dallas, with the television movie The Killing Stone (1978, and like Little House and Father Murphy a Michael Landon production, with whom Jefferies enjoyed a close working relationship) his last recorded motion picture work. He particularly enjoyed working for Little House, which, apart from being a higher paid job and his close working relationship with Landon, also resonated with his childhood during the Depression Era, according to his brother Richard, and it was therefore that he choose not to return to the Star Trek franchise. [4] Richard further stated in this regard, elaborating on the fact that Matt, like most of his kin, valued strong family ties, "Matt often said that he enjoyed his work on Little House on the Prairie more than anything else he had done in the film industry. Matt was a history buff. He derived great pleasure from remembrances of days and events of the past. He marveled at the entrepreneurial zeal of the pioneers. The men and women who settled in the great plains and in the West were a sturdy and resourceful lot. Matt admired their spirit of adventure. Designing the sets for the mythical town of Walnut Grove brought to mind their ominous hardships. Michael Landon an John Hawkins shared Matt's passion for bringing to screen a true representation of family life on the prairie." (Beyond the Clouds, p. 245)

After his retirement, Jefferies became a prolific aviation artist, also remaining otherwise active in the world of aviation. While renowned in Star Trek lore, Jefferies likewise had something of a standing in aviation circles, as his brother Richard attested to, when Matt attended a forum held at the American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum, "A neatly attired man threaded his way through the crowd, reached out to shake Matt's hand, and said, "I feel honored to meet you. I have admired your work since I was a boy. I am head of this department. It is because of you and your extraordinary work that I became an engineer." Needless to say Matt was overcome by the adulation. He later remarked that never in his wildest dreams did he think that his work would inspire one to choose engineering as a profession." (Beyond the Clouds, p. 272)

Survived by his wife Mary-Ann, Jefferies died of congestive heart failure (as did Roddenberry) after a fight with cancer, the illness his younger brother Phil (31 May 1925 – 6 April 1987; age 61) had already succumbed to years earlier. Matt Jefferies had a third, by eighteen months younger, sibling, the aforementioned Richard, who has written a biography on his brother, published in 2008 (see below). He was spurred on to write the work, not only by Star Trek fans, but by aviation fans as well, he met after the funeral service of his brother. On its title, Beyond the Clouds, Richard had stated in an interview, "When my brother was a little boy, he said, "Some day, I'll fly away, way, way beyond the clouds."" [5] His beloved Waco YOC airplane is currently owned by the Virginia Aeronautical Historical Society and resides at the Virginia Aviation Museum, Richmond, Virginia, whereas the famous starship he designed, is residing in the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.

Star Trek Awards

Matt Jefferies received the following award and nomination for his work on Star Trek, incidentally the only award considerations he has ever received for his work in the motion picture industry.

Emmy Award Nomination

As "Art Director", Matt Jefferies was the only television Star Trek visual effects production illustrator ever considered as such for an Emmy Award, even though the latter title did not yet exist in the franchise at the time. The distinction between visual effects and special effects did not yet exist, and only came slowly into being from the mid-1980s onward. Until then the design of these were lumped together under the denomination "Art Director"/"Production Designer". This echoed what Jefferies himself had said in 1968 when he was asked to describe his duties, "I'm responsible for everything they photograph, except the people. It entails the initial designs of the sets, supervising the building, colors, painting, everything that's on the stage or location, having it ready for the camera and within the budget. It calls for working with the director, set decorator, carpenters, painters, special effects, the whole ball of wax." (Inside Star Trek, p. 2) After the split production designer was the title for the designers of special effects, such as props and, most notably, sets. But even though visual, and special effects are currently separate departments, production illustrator is a subordinate position under production designer, at least in the Star Trek franchise, and considered Art Department.

• 1969 for TOS Season 3 in the category Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Scenic Design, shared with set decorator John Dwyer.

Shooting Star Award

Jefferies received the following honorary Shooting Star Award from the FantastiCon Science-Fiction Convention

• 2000 for Star Trek: The Original Series

Star Trek interviews

• Star Trek DVD and Blu-ray special features:
  • TOS Season 2 DVD-special feature, "Designing the Final Frontier", interviewed on 2 December 2002
  • Star Trek Generations (Special Edition) DVD-special feature, "A Tribute to Matt Jefferies" (archive footage), 2004
• Print publications:
  • "Behind the camera: Walter M. Jefferies", D.C. Fontana, Inside Star Trek, issue 4, October 1968, pp. 2-5
  • "Behind the Scenes; Designing the Starship Enterprise", Larry Nemecek, Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 10, February 2000, pp. 24-30
  • "Behind the Scenes; Matt Jefferies: Inside the U.S.S. Enterprise", Larry Nemecek, Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 11, March 2000, pp. 20-27
  • "Behind the Scenes; Matt Jefferies: Shuttles and the Shuttlebay", Larry Nemecek, Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 1, Issue 12, April 2000, pp. 20-25
  • Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 1, May 2001
    • "Behind the Scenes; Designing the Future: Matt Jeffries at work", Larry Nemecek, pp. 26-33
    • "Star Trek Stories; Matte Paintings: How to create a city with tracing paper", Larry Nemecek, p. 112
  • "Behind the Scenes; Designing the Klingon Battle Cruiser", Larry Nemecek, Star Trek: The Magazine Volume 2, Issue 9, January 2002, pp. 66-71
• Star Trek documentaries:
  • "Models and Miniatures – A Model of Perfection", Movie Magic, Season 1, Episode 11, 1994
  • Inside Star Trek - The Real Story, 1998

Appendices

Further reading

• The Making of Star Trek, 1968
• "Star Trek", Ben Herndon, Cinefantastique, Vol 17 #2, 1987, pp. 24-30, 32-39, 55
• Star Trek Memories, 1993
• The Art of Star Trek, 1995
• Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, 1996
• Star Trek: The Original Series Sketchbook, 1997
• Beyond the Clouds: The Lifetime Trek of Walter "Matt" Jefferies, Artist and Visionary, 2008
• "Where no Artist had gone before" (retrospective), Dwayne A. Day, Star Trek Magazine issue 162, July/August 2011, pp. 18-27

External links

• MattJefferies.com - official site
• Matt Jefferies at Wikipedia
• Template:IMDb-link
• Matt Jefferies profile
• Matt Jefferies 1968 interview by D.C. Fonatana online version at StarTrekPropAuthority.com
• Matt Jefferies interview at BBC.co.uk