Christie's to hold "Star Trek" garage sale

[Trippy]

Christie's to hold "Star Trek" garage sale

By Chris Michaud
Thu May 18, 7:36 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Trekkies will be setting their phasers to "bid" this fall when Christie's holds the first official studio auction of memorabilia from all five "Star Trek" television series and 10 movie spin-offs.

CBS Paramount Television Studios is cleaning out its vaults for the sale, comprising more than 1,000 lots totaling some 4,000 items, to be held from October 5 to 7 in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the original "Star Trek" series, Christie's announced on Thursday.

Fans and collectors will have a chance to acquire "Star Trek" artifacts ranging from models of the "Starship" USS Enterprise to Capt. James Kirk's uniform or Capt. Jean-Luc Picard's jumpsuit in an auction where Christie's expects to raise more than $3 million.

Other items to hit the block include props, weapons, prosthetics and set dressings unearthed from five Paramount warehouses.

Among the highlights are a miniature of the Starship Enterprise used in visual effects for the film "Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country," expected to sell for $15,000 to $25,000, and a replica of Kirk's chair from the original TV series that was recreated for the 1996 "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Trials and Tribble-ations," which is estimated at $10,000 to $15,000.

Fans with more modest budgets can train their sights on a host of Trekkie ephemera like the 10-inch Resikkan nonplaying prop brass flute used by Patrick Stewart as Picard in the episode "The Inner Light" in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," which carries a low estimate of just $300.

Cathy Elkies, director of special collections at Christie's, said the value of the objects was difficult to gauge because "we don't factor in that emotional fury generated around this kind of material."

Past estimates for auctions associated with the likes of Marilyn Monroe or Jacqueline Kennedy, who enjoyed dedicated followings, have been far off the mark as actual sale prices soared to five, 10 and even 100 times presale projections. "Star Trek" fans, with their Web sites, conventions and clubs, have proven among the most wildly devoted in all of pop culture.

'CULTURAL ICON'

"To several generations of people, 'Star Trek' was a cultural icon that represented our dreams, our hopes and our aspirations -- what we can become as a species, what we aspire to," said Mike Okuda, a graphic designer on four of the TV series and seven of the motion pictures as well as co-author of "The Star Trek Encyclopedia." "And to have a tangible piece of that is to have a tangible piece of a dream."

With the original captain's chair from the first "Star Trek" series in the Museum of Science Fiction in Seattle and the original Enterprise miniature at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington, other items from the 1960s show could be the most sought-after at auction.

Okuda said many of the first "Star Trek" props were reused, destroyed or disappeared. But the auction will feature a mustard-colored mini-dress from the first series as well as costumes worn by guest stars, such as a gown worn by famed attorney Melvin Belli who played an evil alien entity.

"Star Trek" fans will get a peek at the collection when the memorabilia goes on tour this week in Germany.

Conceived by author Gene Roddenberry in the mid-1960s, the original "Star Trek" series debuted in 1966.

The last TV series, "Enterprise," set in the early 22nd century, about 100 years before the adventures of Kirk's five-year mission, ended its run on the UPN network in 2005.

(Additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles)

[stray]

I want Spock's Beard.

[Merusk]

They're expecting an average of $3,000 per lot.  Yeah, I'm going to say they're way too low in their projections.  Not only are Trek fans rabid, quite a few of them make good cash. 

[Riggswolfe]

It's a good thing I'm not filthy rich. I'd be sitting in Kirk's command chair naked, eating chili dogs, while watching Dodgeball on my big screen and telling my girlfriend to hurry up and finish painting herself green damn it!

[Signe]

Wait... Spock didn't have a beard, did he?  Until WoW, I didn't even think elves could grow facial hair.

PS  Riggsie is such a geek.   

[Miasma]

He means the infamous "Evil Spock" goatee.

From Wki: The Mirror Spock’s goatee entered folklore and has now become synonymous with evil twins and parallel universes. The progressive rock band Spock's Beard was named after this and in an episode of South Park Cartman's good twin appeared wearing a goatee. An episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 featured a parallel universe counterpart of Mike Nelson that had a goatee. In the animated television series Futurama, the recurring robotic character of Flexo was visibly distinguishable from his 'evil' counterpart, Bender – a series regular of questionable morality – solely by his goatee, which Bender lacked.

[Roac]

I wouldn't mind having that flute - I liked the episode.  Not for $300 though  :-(

[Signe]

God, I didn't even know they had evil twins!

[HaemishM]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Trekkies will be setting their phasers to "bid" this fall when Christie's holds the first official studio auction of memorabilia from all five "Star Trek" television series and 10 movie spin-offs.

Cutesy lines like that are what make me stabby when it comes to mainstream journalism. There's really just no need for it, Clever McJackass.

[Yegolev]

It's a good thing I'm not filthy rich. I'd be sitting in Kirk's command chair naked, eating chili dogs, while watching Dodgeball on my big screen and telling my girlfriend to hurry up and finish painting herself green damn it!

Awesome.  Wonder how hard it would be to wire up the armrest to a real intercom?  God, that would be hilarious.

[Abagadro]

I wouldn't mind having that flute - I liked the episode.  Not for $300 though  :-(

That thing is going to go for WAY more than 300. It is the pivotal prop in one of the top 5 TNG episodes. I wouldn't be shocked if it went into the multiple thousands.

[Bunk]

I wouldn't mind having that flute - I liked the episode.  Not for $300 though  :-(

That thing is going to go for WAY more than 300. It is the pivotal prop in one of the top 5 TNG episodes. I wouldn't be shocked if it went into the multiple thousands.

I was going to say the exact same thing. Inner Light is considered Next Gen's best episode by quite a percentage of fans. If not, it probably comes in second to the Locutus episodes.

I'm willing to bet that one of the Pugil Stick like weapons from "Amok time" might go higher though.

Yes, I was a bit of a Star Trek geek. Never went to a convention or owned a uniform though, so fuck off.

I can do the Vulcan hand salute without even thinking about it though, which suprisingly a lot of people have trouble with.

[Righ]

I can do the Vulcan hand salute without even thinking about it though, which suprisingly a lot of people have trouble with.

Let them eat Aleve.

[Margalis]

Spock's Beard is also a band...I suppose named after that episode.

Remember the South Park where the evil twins from the alternate dimension had facial hair...makes sense now.

[Abagadro]

Also used to good effect with Bender's opposite (i.e. good) twin, Flexo:

[Righ]

Spock's Beard is also a band...I suppose named after that episode.

Read Miasma's quote. Spock's Beard were a really exceptional band, but their lead singer and songwriter found Jesus and went off to make preachy solo albums. The band went through a pretty bad patch, where they made a very accomplished but seriously boring CD before they got the hang of writing decent music without their former frontman.