Last night, two of my hobbies collided.
Over the last year or so, my girlfriend and I have been working our way through Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine on Netflix. For those who aren’t into all things Trek, those shows were spin-offs from the original William Shatner-starring Star Trek series. They’re a lot of fun, and now that every episode is available with the touch of a button, it’s easy to burn through a bunch of them in one night.
Anyway, last night we encountered a season seven episode called “Take Me Out to the Holosuite,” in which the cast of the show forms a baseball team to challenge the crew of an all-Vulcan starship. (A holosuite—again, for those who don’t know—is sort of like Star Trek’s version of a video game, but instead of playing with a controller and a TV, you interact with holograms. The future is interesting.)
ANYWAY, it was a total trip to watch these actors wearing alien makeup, who I typically see firing phasers at each other and piloting spaceships, try their hand at America’s pastime. Even more exciting were the costumes they wore, with the show’s regular cast wearing jerseys for their team, the Deep Space Niners, and really cleverly designed caps. The jerseys of the opposing team, the Vulcan Logicians—Vulcans are obsessed with logic, don’t you know—was equally enjoyable to see.
I had to see if I could find them anywhere. Christies has been holding auctions on props and costumes from Star Trek for years, and sold a lot of 11 costumes for $4,560 in the 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection sale back in 2006. Needless to say, I’ve missed out on the real deal.
Fortunately, there’s a much more budget-friendly option out there, though I’m not totally sure about the authenticity. An artist/actor/designer named Jon Baas has set up a CafePress shop featuring the logos from the episode on caps and baseball jersey-style shirts, and claims that the designs are officially licensed by CBS/Paramount. Sadly, no actual replica Niners jerseys are available on the shop, but the hat and shirt are pretty great…and I think I’ll be adding them to my collection shortly. Even better, he’s got the Logicians too.
When baseball and Star Trek collides, you get some cool junk. Engage!
