Christie's Boldly Goes Into the 'Star Trek' Vault

"I think they want to sell the catalogue."

Well, they do want to sell the catalogue, which costs $90 for both volumes and is a required purchase for anyone who'd like to watch or bid on the sale in person. Christie's won't say much about catalogue sales (it's in "the thousands," according to Elkies), but the point of this rather labor-intensive event probably isn't to make a fortune. It's to raise Christie's profile with a different stratum of buyers. The company can earn more in three minutes selling a Gauguin than it will earn in the next three days.

After winning the consignment in January, Christie's promptly dispatched the husband-and-wife team of Michael and Denise Okuda. They are former "Star Trek" production crew members who are also the co-authors of "The Star Trek Encyclopedia." The couple were cut loose on five Los Angeles warehouses, where for months they spelunked and catalogued what they turned up in hundreds and hundreds of boxes.

"We'd get there in the morning and work till the warehouse got too hot," says Michael Okuda. "We'd accumulate questions all day, like 'Are we sure where this control panel showed up?' And then we'd check the episodes on DVD and make sure we had it right."

The Okudas offered a tour of the collection on Monday, starting in the costume room where racks of colorful outfits hung on poles. It looked like Earth's biggest Halloween clearance sale -- psychedelic jumpsuits, wedding dresses, Vulcan robes, lots of fake armor. Adding celebrity wattage to all this camp styling were shmattes worn on the show by Whoopi Goldberg, Terri Hatcher, Kirsten Dunst and a giant, glittery silver number draped over Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood.

"A lot of people didn't realize it was him," says Okuda, "because his face was hidden under a big rubber fish head."

Given the financial constraints of weekly television, "Star Trek" was always sci-fi on a budget. Most of the props were given just enough character to look convincing on TV, but up close and in person, the seams shine through. Which is part of their charm. In a room dedicated to spaceships sits Lot 482 (estimate $2,000 to $3,000), a Klingon space station model, which Okuda says is the result of some very hasty improv.

"This was literally made from parts we bought at a hardware store." The special-effects people called and said, "We need a space station immediately," and the Okudas were in their car in a jiffy. "This is a hair curler, these are baby-proofing latches" he says, pointing. "We glued it together, painted it up and there you go."

Most of the vessels, he hastens to add, took months to build. But this whole berserk menagerie amuses most when it reminds you that TV is created by people struggling to meet deadlines, under budget.

In the wardrobe room, there is a shirt from the original "Star Trek" series that was later modified for use in, of all things, "Mork and Mindy." A big number "2" was simply stitched on the front and lo and behold, it was Morkified.