Tarah is coming!

"Star Trek: Enterprise": "Cease Fire". A military conflict erupts between the Vulcans and Andorians over Weytahn, a Class D planetoid near Vulcan, which was terraformed and colonised by Andorians almost a century earlier. We learn that the Andorian colonists were forcibly relocated to refugee camps to enforce the Territorial Compromise. Now known by its Vulcan name, Paan Mokar, the strategically-located base is again claimed by both sides. When the Vulcans announce they wish to discuss terms for a "cease fire", Imperial Guard Commander Shran believes the only person he can trust to mediate such a negotiation is Jonathan Archer. The captain and the Enterprise are called into the fray.

Shran is assisted by a tall Andorian female, Lieutenant Tarah (played by Suzie Plakson). Tarah is Shran's first officer, but is her loyalty in question?

Suzie Plakson, who won many Star Trek fans' hearts as Selar and K'Ehleyr on "The Next Generation" (and a visit Down Under for a rather controversial convention called "Holodiction"), and then as a female Q on "Voyager", notched up her fourth "Star Trek" alien as Tarah.

Last time the Star Trek Props, Costumes and Auctions Board sent me a reminder to come back and check out all the new info, I ended up buying a handsome Pakled outfit. (Not that Pakleds are handsome, but their grotty uniforms certainly are, in that rustic kind of way.)

This time, as I mentioned on Facebook the other afternoon, I did a very naughty thing on Thursday morning. I accidentally discovered the below Tarah the Andorian costume for sale there. Then I accidentally confirmed US shipping with a trader named Federation Surplus and accidentally organized payment via PayPal. Accidentally. Well, it goes so well with the wonderful Andorian general/ambassador's costume I bought via the "It's a Wrap!" eBay auctions a few years ago. (Thanks FedSur, and thanks "Star Trek Props, Costumes and Auctions Board"!)

STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE “ANDORIAN TARAH – CEASE FIRE” STUNT COSTUME
"This costume was worn by Tarah's stunt double [presumably Katie Rowe?]. The jumpsuit is metallic copper and blue vinyl with a crimson chest, shoulders and striped accents down the limbs. Around the waist is a brown vinyl midsection, the shoulders are pleated and there is brown cross stitch trim. Worn over the jumpsuit is a black and gray harness with two pouches and a gun holster attached. The harness needs repairing in the back. The accompanying knee high boots are heeled black leather with accents over the toes and around the top section. Also included are black gloves with two fingers. Costume comes complete with costume tag."









Happy birthday to me. ;)

Itchy eBay trigger finger!

After selling 40 Hoyts' "Star Trek" logo aluminium water bottles to my friends at the Playtrek toy collectors' listserv, I had some Paypal funds just sitting dormant and burning a hole in my pocket - and my finger just sorta, kinda hit that pesky, tempting eBay "Buy it now" button.

I had accidentally come across a thread, on the Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Board I now rarely seem to visit, about someone selling off a "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Pakled costume. With the "It's a Wrap!" eBay auctions no longer running, I keep forgetting to go back there and chat with my fellow costume collectors. It's been to long, but my visit tonight was rewarded!

Now, as a long time Data impersonator in my heyday, a Pakled costume (rather like Data's lookalike evil twin, Lore, wore in "Brothers") was way too hard to pass up. Sadly, I'm carrying enough weight, and am jowly enough, to do the full Pakled these days! (As I found out when I bought my "Enterprise" Tellarite Ambassador costume - and I can wear it without the fat-suit undergarment that came with it!)

From "The Samaritan Snare":

Grebnedlog the Pakled
(He looks for things to make us go - and spend up big.)

The exciting "It's a Wrap!" eBay auctions finished up many months ago now, and I must admit to some withdrawal symptoms. Tonight was chance to grab a fantastic, authentic Trek outfit, at an excellent price, and considerably lower than the seller had paid for it himself two years ago!

The original "It's a Wrap!" listing said:

STAR TREK: TNG "GREBNEDLOG" THE PAKLED FROM "SAMARITAN SNARE"
An elaborate Pakled costume featured in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Samaritan Snare" for wear by Chris Collins in his portrayal of "Grebnedlog". The costume is a series of thickly padded tan and brown elements consisting of texture patterned trousers, a thick woven sweater, a quilted jacket with brown trim and affixed brown leather straps and buckles, a pair of brown painted rubber boots, fabric gloves, multiple brown leather straps with buckles, and a sash with straps. The costumer's tag reads #143 TNG "Samaratin (sic) Snare" PAKLID (sic) – Grebneblog (sic) Chris Collins. This costume is believed to be one of the last two remaining Pakled costumes. Chris Collins is also known for his portrayal of the voices of "Cobra Commander" in the "G.I. Joe" animated series, and "Starscream" in "Transformers".

The late Christopher Collins did his animated voice work as Christoper Lawrence Latta.







Today's photo of the day, to continue the theme: my Pakled customised action figure from the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode, "Samaritan Snare", accompanied by an official Playmates' Lore, from "Brothers":




We look for things to make us go - broke.

Cover story

Trekmovie has previewed a new batch of Star Trek novel covers and blurbs. I'm excited that I own the Tellarite costume ("It's A Wrap!" eBay auctions), that appears on the cover of "The Romulan War"!


Staff dinner - Harness racing at Club Paceway, Penrith.

Back to Andor - boots 'n' all

The post office's parcel courier van arrived in my driveway bright and early this morning and I assumed it was my latest batch of "Star Trek" action figures, but no... it was a package all the way from Andor, via eBay!

A few weeks ago, I noticed some Andorian Imperial Guard uniform boots up for auction, as part of the It's a Wrap! eBay auctions (of "Star Trek" props, costumes and set pieces from Paramount's soundstages and warehouses), which have continued running for longer than any fan could have imagined. I've been very cautious about peeking at the auctions. eBay is soooo addictive. I'd already won the Andorian ambassador's outfit from "Enterprise" in 2007, as regular readers of this blog would know - and I did buy myself some very cool farmed-crocodile skin boots to go with it, but now I know how Andorians prevent their robes from trailing on the ground... they simply wear very, very tall boots!

Look what I won last month, and which just arrived:



They are purposely lightly "weathered" with grey paint, but otherwise are almost-new, commercially-available, leather boots. The big gamble was that the auction description omitted a size. They looked rather tiny. A tag inside each boot indicate that they were worn by one Chase Bandy, whom the Internet tells me has also been a stand-in on a Topher Grace movie, "Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!", has played a minor recurring character in TV's "Days of Our Lives" - and once attended the 2005 Hollywood celebrity gala premiere of "The Headhunter", at least long enough to be photographed by one M. Castner.


Chase Bandy,
up and coming Hollywood spunk?

Now that the boots are here, I can see that they are GBX brand boots. As they'd appeared online, and even when pulling them out of the box and bubblewrap, I was convinced they were quite small. Imagine my surprise when they had US size "10.5" marked inside! It's an optical illusion caused by the huge soles, I guess. Even placing my foot alongside the boots, there was no way I was going to be able to wear them, but... they are a perfect fit!


No, I didn't blue my legs just for the occasion, Sorry.


Art Asylum did a good rendition of the Andorian boots on their Shran action figure.

By wonderful coincidence, I also won some Andorian medical dressings, in a different auction lot, the same week, and the items arrived together. The bandage pads have Andorian script screenprinted onto them, and were probably created for the episode featuring the destruction of Shran's ship, the Kumari. Lots of gravely injured Andorians in that one. (Was Chase Bandy one of them?)

I guess the bandages will be perfect for my heels if my new Andorian boots cause some big blue blisters!

Showing restraint

When I first moved here in 2000, I made myself a promise that the lounge room would be a "Star Trek-free" room, since I had a spare room to gussy up as a Star Trek Shrine, and a family room (with no family to put in it) for the overflow. But it didn't take long for the Star Trek videocassettes and CDs, and then DVD boxed sets, and even my wonderful "Piiiiiigs iiiiiin Spaaaaaaace" playset (with First Mate Miss Piggy, Captain Link Hogthrob and Dr Strangepork of "The Muppet Show"), to creep into the lounge room and help to clutter it up.

Well, now that the new lounge suite is here: the dust has been eradicated, for the time being, at least; the two caged birds have been banished to another part of the house; the walls, ceiling and skirting boards are all freshly painted; and I've shown great restraint by bringing out only the Trek CDs, DVDs, and just a few VHS tapes. And the antennaed blue mannequin dressed in his authentic "It's a Wrap!" Andorian outfit from "Star Trek: Enterprise", of course. Only the essentials...

Salute to eBay and Voyager - Weird Al style

This is one brilliant, conscientious fan's Youtube salute to all those "It's a Wrap!" auction-lovers who went through major withdrawal symptons as IaW moved warehouses for a week, and posted no new "Star Trek" costumes! Music by Weird Al Yankovic.

On the mark

Mark asks, "Re: your (Star Trek) costume purchases mentioned in the previous post - It sounds like there are notations on the costumes themselves, but do you get any other documentation about their history?"

Good question, Mark! Thank you!

The It's a Wrap! Star Trek costumes come with up to four pieces of identification.

Firstly, on the Star Trek clothing items themselves, many Paramount costumes have sewn-in, rectangular, cloth tags, usually identified with the official logo of the Star Trek television series or feature film for which they were made, or perhaps a generic "Western Costumes" tag (as in Gulf & Western/Paramount). These labels have lines for several wearers, and the name(s) of these actors, extra or stunt people, plus often an episode number, are hand-lettered with a laundry marker. It's unlikely there is any more extensive and official surviving documentation than this. (The Christie's 40th anniversary auction, last year, did sell off some albums of wardrobe continuity Polaroids, if I recall correctly.)

However, many of the costumes also have a thin cardboard "luggage" tag (below), which lists any individual items that go together to make one costume. This costume tag would have been originally attached to the hanger, and when the item gets sold off, it gets placed into the envelope with the Certificate of Authenticity. (In fact, I didn't think to look for the Andorian tag until my Tellarite costume arrived with one. I checked the bottom of the Andorian's envelope - and there was the tag!)


Costume tags accompanying my eBay wins

There's also the online eBay description, a paragraph (usually) listing the most important appearances of the costume. While it's obvious that the Paramount and It's a Wrap! staff have put considerable effort into researching the costumes, many of which have hung on racks since the mid 70s, they do make mistakes and hasty assumptions, and that's where fans like Jörg (who posts all manner of errors and corrections to the Star Trek Auctions, Props & Costumes bbs), come in handy!

I actually lucked out on my Andorian costume, as the eBay description seems to focus on the costumes first onscreen usage, as per the costume ("luggage") tag. Had they used the sewn-in tags, they'd have listed the actor who first wore the outfit in scenes later reshot with a different actor, and the major re-use of the costume - with an additional cape - by a named character in a later episode! Had there been more information online, the price would have gone much higher!

Similarly, as I noted in my Tellarite post, the fat-suit's sewn-in tag (below) reveals that it has a more extensive life than the outer costume, and a quick Google search on actors' names, and/or episode numbers, brings up some exciting research results! It even revealed an extra name I could add to Memory Alpha.


The sewn-in tag reveals its history!

Finally, there's a Certificate of Authenticity from It's a Wrap! This features the title of the item, exactly as it was listed on eBay, and a small photograph of the item.

I recall Richard Arnold, then-Star Trek Archivist at Paramount, once mentioning the fun he had during the lead-up to 20th anniversary of Star Trek in 1986. A huge display was being organised and, for the first time, a serious rummage was made through the surviving costumes and props of the original series, the failed "Phase II" and the early movies. Much of TOS was unlabeled, but even more had been lost to the winds of time (or rejigged for renting out to shows like "Mork and Mindy"). At one point, someone found a box of random scarves. Richard suddenly recognized the colours and patterns, and realised it was actually a skimpy outfit once worn by one of "Mudd's Women"!

"It's... a piece of the Enterprise!!!"

Or so said game show host, Therin of Andor, during the first Harpic Productions extravaganza, Sale of the 23rd Century at a 1985 Brisbane science fiction media convention called Con Amore.

I had a good belly laugh this morning, checking out the latest batch of amazing screen-used "Star Trek" props and costumes on eBay by It's a Wrap!...

It's... a piece of a Klingon vessel!!!




While Tharrah and Therin wrote questions for Sale of the 23rd Century, Tackee, our irrepressible, green Orion slave girl cum game show merchandise model was making a big, light, easily-foldable (into carry-on aeroplane luggage) prop of a piece of the Enterprise (from "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock") so we'd have something hilarious and impressively big to put in the "gift shop" of our "Sale of the Century"-inspired game show. Yes, it was "... a piece of the Enterprise!!!"



I think ours (above left; photo by John Tipper) compares pretty well to the Klingon piece that "The Next Generation" SPFX guys did for the episode "A Matter of Honor"! I wonder where our piece ended up? Perhaps we let our winner, Garfield Barnard, keep it? Maybe it'll turn up on eBay some day?

It's a Wrap!

My eBay win arrived this morning! And it fits! It fits!


Left: Andorian Ambassador Thoris's robes ("Enterprise: Terra Prime");
Right: Andorian General's outfit ("Enterprise: Proving Ground").

The cape has a long piece of Velcro where Ambassador Thoris had his universal translator attached, but I decided to put my facsimile UFP pin from ST IV into this position, and it looks great!.

And yes, as I suspected, the Paramount "Enterprise" label inside the dark blue, sleeveless, full-length costume has three actor names on it: Ted Sutton (originally cast as the Andorian general in "Proving Ground"), Granville Van Dusen (who played the role in the reshot, aired footage) and Joel Swetow (a "Star Trek" alien veteran) who featured in "Terra Prime". The top with the blue-furred sleeves lists Granville Van Dusen and Jowel (sic) Swetow, and the silver cape just Joel Swetow!