Warp Speed, Captain!
Borgs be damned! When it came to the Star Trek memorabilia sale at Christies, resistance was futile. Fans set paddles to “bid.”
To mark the 40th anniversary of the cult TV show’s debut, Christie’s held the first official auction of Star Trek items last weekend, all from the CBS Paramount Television Studios vaults. The three-day event saw more than its share of pointy ears and Vulcan greetings, and at least one bidder who came dressed as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Enthusiasts spent more than $7 million, more than double the auctioneers’ expectations.
I was wandering through Christie’s galleries a few weeks ago after a behind-the-scenes event, and ran into an old buddie, Cathy Elkies, who runs special sales like this for the venerable auction house. After some chitchat, she invited me into a sunny room brimming with hundreds upon hundreds of Star Trek costumes being prepped for the sale, from faded stretchy Star Fleet uniforms worn by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy to fabulously elaborate alien costumes from more recent Star Trek incarnations. As I commented on the great condition of many of the items (”We really selected carefully,” Elkies explained), and the fashion-forward look of much of the alien garb, in particular, with their lush fabrics and inventive detailing, she invited me to try on one that caught my eye: a regal turquoise silk jacket that I’d have been happy to put in my closet. Alas, the sleeves were too short. But where was a camera when I needed one?
In all, the sale featured more than 1,000 artifacts hailing from the five television shows and the ten Star Trek movies: costumes, detailed models of alien crafts and space stations, various ephemera, even a replica of Captain Kirk’s famous command chair.
The “set-phasers-to-stun” moment of the weekend? A phone bidder plunked down $576,000 for a six-and-a-half foot model of the famous Starship Enterprise-D, used extensively in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series (estimate: $15,000–$25,000). Models did well in general. The Klingon “Bird-of-Prey” ship (first seen in the film Star Trek III: The Search For Spock) flew to $307,200, more than 30 times its pre-sale estimate of $8,000–$12,000. And an Enterprise-A model used in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and later sequels pulled in $284,800. A Klingon Battle Cruiser model (estimate: $3,000–$5,000) made $102,000.
Other noteworthy results: Dr. McCoy’s costume from the episode “The Tholian Web” in the original series fetched $144,000, Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s chair earned $62,400, and a 42-inch bazooka-style prop rifle used by Michael Dorn as Worf in Star Trek: Insurrection (est: $600–$800) prompted a battle to $19,200. At one point the faux starship captain in the audience placed the winning bid ($6,000) on Ron Perlman’s vinyl jumpsuit from Star Trek: Nemesis, and before hitting the gavel, the auctioneer said, “It’s with Picard, then.” Whoda thunk?
It’s clearer than ever that this is a show that has taken the Vulcan motto to heart: Live long and prosper.
