Propworx 50th Anniversary Auction

On September 10, 2016, Propworx will be having a special auction of costumes, props and artwork to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek.  There are some lots of incredible quality including several that will be of interest to Vulcanologists.

First is Lot #0040 a Roman Phaser from Star Trek: TNG

Lot #0047 Spock Ear Prosthetics from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Lot #0048 Leonard Nimoy Director's Chair from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock from the collection of Joe Longo.

Lot #0053 & #0054 Romulan Senate Stools from Star Trek: Nemesis

Lot #0061 Unification Photos from Star Trek: TNG "Unification"

Lot #0062 Unification Photo from Star Trek: TNG "Unification"

Lot #0081 Vulcan Ear Prosthetics from Star Trek: Enterprise

Lot #0095 Romulan Shuttle Concept Art from Star Trek: DS9 from the collection of Gary Hutzel

Lot #0169 Ambassador Spock Concept Art by Robert Blackman for Star Trek: TNG "Unification"

Lot #0186 Perrin Concept Art by Robert Blackman for Star Trek: TNG "Sarek"

Lot #0194 Mintaken Concept Art by Robert Blackman for Star Trek: TNG "Who Watches the Watchers?"

Lot #0200 Sarek Concept Art by Robert Blackman for Star Trek: TNG "Sarek"

Lot #0204 Neral Concept Art by Robert Blackman for Star Trek: TNG "Unification".  Interesting, the character's name is spelled "Narel" on the artwork.  I wonder if this was an error or the spelling changed during production.

Propworx Star Trek Auction VIII

This past weekend, Propworx had their eighth Star Trek auction on Liveauctioneers. This was an auction for the Robert Blackman Collection; 152 lots of artwork, costume designs and crew gifts from The Next Generation through Enterprise.

There were three lots of special interest to Vulcanologists. The first was sketches for Perrin's (Joanna Miles) costumes in the TNG episode "Sarek."

I think Blackman did a great job with this costume. It has some touches that throw back to Robert Fletcher's movie-era work (including re-using the jewellery worn by the Vulcan maidens in Star Trek III).  The bright pink makes Perrin stand out as a non-Vulcan. It's reminiscent of the bright colours worn by Sarek's first wife, Amanda, in "Journey to Babel".

The second lot also features work for the episode "Sarek."  These sketches are for Sarek's aide, Sakkath (Rocco Sisto).

The third lot is sketches for Tuvok's (Tim Russ) civilian clothing. We've seen Tuvok in pyjamas a few times but these look quite similar to the costumes he wore in "Riddles" and "Endgame".

Remembering Malachi Throne

Sad news from Romulus today...

Malachi Throne who played Romulan senator Pardek in the two-part Star Trek: TNG episode "Unification" has passed away at the age of 84.

Fans of TOS will also remember Throne as Commodore Mendez in the two-part episode "The Menagerie."  Throne also provided the voice of The Keeper in the original Star Trek pilot "The Cage."

In 2004, Throne played the Klingon Korogh in the Star Trek: New Voyages episode "In Harm's Way."

Rest in peace, Mr. Throne.  You will be fondly remembered.

Propworx Star Trek Auction II

This weekend, Propworx held their second Star Trek auction.  This event was all Online and there was a little less fanfare than there was for the first one in Las Vegas.  Nevertheless, it can be said it was a huge success.  Most of the items sold for at least their estimated price and few were passed over.

There were a few items of interest to fellow Vulcanologists.  A resin life cast of Leonard Nimoy sold for $500.

 A large IDIC sign from Deep Space Nine sold for $550.

The item I was most excited about came from the collection of Michael and Denise Okuda.  It's a "doorbell" that was used in the set for the home of T'Pol's mother in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Home."  I love how the design reflects the shape of the Vulcan gong that was introduced in "Amok Time."  The whole piece is just really pleasing to look at.  It sold for $900!

Another unique item that sold for $100 was a foam core pre-production model of the Vulcan ships seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation "Unification."  I've previously written about Rick Sternbach's design and actual model of the ship here.

Stone of Gol

The Stone of Gol is one of very few Vulcan props created and seen in Star Trek history.  It is almost the only one from Star Trek: The Next Generation.  It appeared in the episode "Gambit, Part II."  Designed, as most hand props for the series were, by Rick Sternbach, the Stone of Gol was realized beautifully for the screen.

This image is of a Sternbach drawing from the book Star Trek: TNG The Continuing Mission

The prop is now owned by Forum member Anthony Sforza who graciously agreed to share some wonderful photos of it.  Anthony bought the Stone of Gol when it became available at Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas many years ago.

The prop is designed in three pieces: the main body, the horn-shaped emitter and a pyramid.  All three are molded heavy resin and they attach to each other by means of magnets.

As described in the episode, the Stone of Gol is decorated with various Vulcan glyphs and symbols.  On the reverse, are the symbols for the Vulcan gods of war and death.  Between them is the IDIC, the symbol for peace and Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.

The Stone of Gol was an artifact left over from a tumultuous time on Vulcan before the Time of Awakening.  It was a psionic resonator which enabled its user to project the power of his mind as a weapon.  Following a Vulcan civil war, the resonator was disassembled and its pieces were strewn across the Alpha quadrant until members of a Vulcan isolationist movement hired a ship of mercenaries to locate the pieces.

The prop is named for the Plains of Gol where we saw Spock studying Kolinahr in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.  Another interesting connection in this episode is the return of Robin Curtis, who played Saavik in Star Trek III and IV, as the isolationist T'Paal.

"Gambit, Part II" also features an appearance of the Vulcan Minister of Security, Satok (Martin Goslins), who wears a costume adorned with the trinity of rata, tafar and tapan.  Finally, we also get a glimpse of some Vulcan script on a computer monitor.  All in all, the Stone of Gol is the star of an episode that gives us many tantalizing glimpses into Vulcan culture.

Thanks to Anthony for sharing this wonderful part of his collection!

Vulcan Language Dice From "Unification"

A friend of mine from the Star Trek Prop and Costume Forum has agreed to let me share some great items from her Vulcan collection.  These were purchased in week 34 of IAW's eBay Star Trek auctions in 2007.

These are wonderful props because, although there were hundreds of Vulcan costumes created for Star Trek over the years, there were very few Vulcan props.  These were also handled by the father of all Vulcans, Spock (Leonard Nimoy).  In "Unification, Part II" a young Romulan named D'Tan (Vidal Peterson) brings these dice to Spock.  He tells Spock that they were his toys as a child and Spock tells him that they are very old and that the symbols form the syllabic nucleus of the Vulcan language.

The description of the symbols as being "syllabic" is in line with what little else we know about the Vulcan language.  It suggests that each symbol represents a group of letters or a sound.  Costume designer Robert Fletcher who designed the wonderful "trinity" of symbols often seen on Vulcan costumes has said that the symbols he created represented entire thoughts or ideas rather than letters.

Each of the dice is uniquely shaped; one is a pyramid, one an octahedron (8-sided), one a tetradecagon (14-sided) and one a icosikaihexagon (26-sided).

The five symbols on the pyramid

 The eight symbols on the octahedron

Fourteen more

 The final twenty-six

As far as I can tell, no symbol on the dice is duplicated exactly.  That means there are 53 individual symbols or sounds (phonemes).  Of course, we cannot be guaranteed that these dice represent a complete set so there could be more but 53 seems a reasonable number.  There are 36-44 phonemes in the English language (depending on dialects), Mandarin has a total of 56 basic sounds, other Earth languages have as few as 20 phonemes or as many as 60.  

The next step would be to assign each of the symbols a unique sound to begin to create the language.  Linguist Marc Okrand created a few Vulcan words for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, however, he was limited because the dialogue had originally been recorded in English so he had to create words with sounds that seemed to fit the actors' mouths.  Hopefully, someday Okrand or other linguists will be given the opportunity to develop the Vulcan language as fully as Klingon has been.

The first photo in this post is credited to IAW.  The screencaps belong to CBS/Paramount and the close-ups of each symbol belong to my friend the photographer and owner of the dice.