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Saturday, February 24, 2018

Discovery Vulcan Shuttle

 In the Star Trek: Discovery episode "Lethe", we spend some time with Sarek aboard a Vulcan shuttle. The shuttle is a new design but it does a good job of bridging the design gap between the Vulcan ships designed by Doug Drexler for the Enterprise-era, and the Vulcan ships designed by Rick Sternbach for The Next Generation. I don't see many similarities to the Vulcan shuttle designed by Andy Probert for The Motion Picture.



In the second frame above, you can see that the "warp ring" that Drexler conceptualized for Enterprise, has been bent into a more angular construction that is on it's way to the ships Sternbach designed for "Unification". The sloping body of the shuttle is also reminiscent of the main hulls of Drexler's Vulcan ships.



The interior of the shuttle is clearly alluding to the design of the SkyRose Chapel where the Star Trek (2009) Vulcan Council scene was filmed. The angles and exposed "bones" are very similar to the architecture there.


The holographic displays used in the shuttle are similar to the "Kir'Shara" displays we saw on Enterprise and the learning pod displays seen in Star Trek (2009) and in Discovery.



At the New York Toy Fair this week, Gentle Giant revealed a new line of Star Trek: Discovery "Fleet Flyers" that includes a tiny replica of this shuttle. This is the first Vulcan collectable being released for Discovery. At about 3" in length, I wish it were larger but I'll take what I can get!




Thursday, November 16, 2017

Kelvin Universe Prop Store Auction: Spock and Starfleet


The final category of interest to Vulcanologists in the upcoming Prop Store auction is items associated with Spock and other Vulcan Starfleet officers. The jewel of the collection is a complete uniform worn by Zachary Quinto as Spock in Star Trek Into Darkness. This lot includes a phaser and communicator. This is Spock's look from his climactic chase/fight scene with Khan. Michael Kaplan's redesigned Starfleet uniforms were one of things I quite liked about the first two Kelvin Universe films. I think he did a great job of refreshing them for a 21st century audience while keeping very true to the TOS designs.








If there's one prop that is most associated with Spock it is the tricorder. The auction includes a couple of tricorders but the nicest example is Lot 86, listed as stock's stunt tricorder.





In addition to the complete uniform noted above, the auction includes a stunt uniform worn by Quinto's double as Spock.





The auction also includes a couple of tunics worn by Quinto and his doubles.








Star Trek Into Darkness also gives us a look at some new Starfleet dress uniforms. The auction includes both a hero and stunt version of this costume for Spock.












The final Spock costume in this auction is Spock's civilian gear from Kronos. The auction includes two copies of this costume. I don't think this is particularly interesting so i'm only highlighting one of the lots here.





Finally, there is a lot of two costumes including one for Captain Abbot and "Abbot's Vulcan". This is a terribly unflattering way to refer to someone but the character is barely visible in a couple of shots during the high level Starfleet meeting in Star Trek Into Darkness. Unfortunately, the actor is not credited. Hopefully her name is on the costume tags and she can be identified.





The live auction takes place on December 2, 2017 so you still have lots of time to register and bid if you are interested.