Christie's to hold "Star Trek" garage sale
Fri May 19, 2006
By Chris Michaud
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 totalling 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" artefacts
ranging from models of the "Starship" USS Enterprise to Capt. James Kirk's
uniform or Capt. Jean-Luc Picard's jump-suit in an auction where
Christie's expects to raise more than $3 million (1.6 million pounds).
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.
"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 Encyclopaedia." "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-coloured 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)
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