A Trekkie's Paradise

You probably never thought you could ride along with the Star Trek crew, but now you can buy your own starship. Christie's in New York will be auctioning off a galaxy of Star Trek props next week — some 4,000 items from the Paramount warehouses. The collection includes dozens of spaceship models, like this 8-foot "enterprise." hundreds of costumes, even Captain Kirk's epaulets.

"There's magic here. There's no question," Catherine Elkies of Christies, told Sunday Morning correspondent Anthony Mason. "There's never been a collection like this that's come to market."

From the back, most of the props are just plastic and compressed wood. But with a little bit of imagination you can be on the bridge of the starship enterprise. That's right you can buy this thing. Bring it home. Set it up in your rec room. But Christie's estimates it will sell for upwards of $20,000."

George Takei played helmsman Sulu in the original series and six films. He looked over the model which served as the damaged Enterprise in "Star Trek 3."

"Well, its gone," he said as he examined the old enterprise with Mason "We would have been somewhere - the bridge would have been here."

"We were actually in there," Takei explained. "That's the illusion we created. When I was at the console - it was a plastic sheet with jelly beans on 'em. But I created for myself a warp 1, warp 2, warp 3, so they became a reality for me."

For legions of Trekkies these props are almost priceless. Four years ago, Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, paid more than $ 300,000 for Captain Kirk's chair. Now even the evil Klingon's furniture is up for sale. It was 40 years ago this month that "Star Trek" first went on the air.

"We have lived so much longer than we expected and prospered in so many wonderful ways," Takei said.

Paramount will prosper again when these props are sold. For example, A Star Trek communicator is estimated to be worth about $500.