{"id":5476,"date":"2009-03-19T20:26:39","date_gmt":"2009-03-19T19:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.slipserver.com\/wordpress\/2009\/03\/sitting-in-kirks-command-chair\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T08:13:50","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T15:13:50","slug":"sitting-in-kirks-command-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/2009\/03\/sitting-in-kirks-command-chair\/","title":{"rendered":"Sitting In Kirk&#8217;s Command Chair"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Diamond Select Toys &#038; Collectibles is offering a replica captain&#8217;s chair for only &#038;_#36;2,700, but enterprising fans are creating their own versions of Kirk&#8217;s command chair.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.trektoday.com\/images\/news\/031909Chair.gif\" align=\"right\" border=\"0\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" \/>As reported by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/\">The New York Times<\/a>, fans, some of whom were not even born when Star Trek first aired, have incorporated part of the Enterprise into their home decor with full-sized replicas of the captain&#8217;s chair from the bridge of the USS Enterprise.<!--more-->One of these fans, 27-year-old <b>Scott Veazie<\/b>, has his replica chair set up in a corner of his townhouse. An original series fan, he watched reruns of the show with his mother in the 1980s. &#8220;The original show is was the first one I saw,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It was so idealistic. A lot of us kids wanted to be Captain Kirk, and part of that was the chair.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So Veazie built his own chair and found it to be quite the conversation piece. &#8220;When someone comes in, it&#8217;s the first thing they comment on,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Building a chair is easier due to the spread of digital video, where shots of the chair can be freeze-framed and examined from all angles to get the details correct. &#8220;The closet command-chair Trekkies have come out of the closet,&#8221; said 45-year-old <b>Keith Marshall<\/b>, whose own yet-to-be-completed chair sits in his brother&#8217;s garage. &#8220;For a lot of people in the last few years, the pieces have come together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For some, building a chair is a natural progression from the days of building model kits. &#8220;I loved the show,&#8221; explained 42-year-old <b>Mike Paugh<\/b> of British Columbia. &#8220;I had all the model kits and that stuff, but when I moved, I had to get rid of them. Now I&#8217;ve started to build again.&#8221; Paugh&#8217;s chair cost about &#038;_#36;1,000, and now graces his family&#8217;s rec room.<\/p>\n<p><b>Herbert F. Solow<\/b>, former vice president of Desilu Studios, says that Kirk&#8217;s chair was made from scratch, as does <b>John Jeffries<\/b>, brother to set designer <b>Walter &#8220;Matt&#8221; Jeffries<\/b>. Jeffries remembers his brother constructed the chair&#8217;s extended frame, swivel base and pedestal from plywood, then coated it with dove-gray paint from the Desilu stores. &#8220;It was a function of what we had to work with and the ability of the people we had,&#8221; explained Jeffries. &#8220;Cost was a factor. Today, it would probably be made of fiberglass or carbon fiber material.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But do the builders actually sit in their creations? Yes, according to auto parts manager <b>Bruce Boyd<\/b>. &#8220;Everyone wants to sit in it,&#8221; he said. There&#8217;s some charisma there. It&#8217;s hard to explain.&#8221; Boyd sits in his chair when he needs to address his family on discipline issues. &#8220;When we have a little family powwow,&#8221; said the father of four, &#8220;I sit in it to lay down the law.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Even though the hobbyists sit in the chairs, they&#8217;re the first to admit that the captain&#8217;s chair is not for long-term lounging. &#8220;It&#8217;s not the most comfortable of chairs,&#8221; said Veazie. &#8220;The arms are too low and they&#8217;re too far apart. Now I know why <b>William Shatner<\/b> was always leaning forward in it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To read more, head to the article located <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/03\/19\/garden\/19trek.html?_r=2&#038;hp\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Diamond Select Toys &#038; Collectibles is offering a replica captain&#8217;s chair for only &#038;_#36;2,700, but&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2421],"tags":[2549,2478],"class_list":["post-5476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-star-trek-tos","tag-command-chair","tag-uss-enterprise"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","newsphere-slider-full":"","newsphere-featured":"","newsphere-medium":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"T&#39;Bonz","author_link":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/author\/tbonz\/"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/categories\/star-trek-tos\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Star Trek: TOS<\/a>","tag_info":"Star Trek: TOS","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5476"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7065,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5476\/revisions\/7065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}