Read part two of our look back at 20 years of Hallmark Star Trek Keepsake Ornaments below.
2001—The Keepsake Ornament version of the Deep Space Nine space station was the first ornament deliberately constructed to display miniature Star Trek ornaments sold separately. Miniatures that year included the starships Enterprise-E, Defiant and Voyager, with the latter design initially rejected as being unlikely to be seen docked at the station (although it had during the Voyager pilot, “Caretaker” in 1995). Keepsake Ornaments played an on-screen role in Star Trek as well this year, in the Star Trek: Voyager episode “Prophecy.” Take a look at the starship mobile hanging over the Paris family’s crib, and you may recognize ornaments of U.S.S. Voyager and the Klingon Bird-of-Prey. Voyager Set Decorator Jim Mees repurposed the ornaments for the scene after picking them up on eBay.
2002—Ornaments this year included The Doctor and the Delta Flyer from Voyager and Enterprise NX-01, the first ornament from Star Trek: Enterprise. The ship ornament was die-cast zinc with nickel plating and featured a base with voice recordings from the series.
2003—Look closely beyond the smoked canopy of the Scorpion ornament, and you may discern painted figures of Captain Picard and Data in the cockpit as sculpted by Keepsake Artist Anita Marra Rogers. Original designs for the ornament included a transparent canopy transparent on the ornament, but changed to match the studio model used for filming. The change came too late to alter photographs on the ornament’s retail box and other Hallmark publications, which clearly show the figures. Joining the Scorpion on the tree that year were figures of Captain Jonathan Archer and Subcommander T’Pol.
2004—This year was a technological first for Star Trek ornaments as the Vulcan Command Ship used LED electrical components to provide illumination. Other ornaments that year included Commander Trip Tucker, a set of three miniature insignias and “The City on the Edge of Forever,” the first diorama-style Star Trek ornament featuring sound from a fan-favorite scene.
2005—Another tech-driven first for Keepsake Ornaments as the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A becomes the first battery-powered Star Trek ornament. For a second time, the ornament’s design raised compliance issues, which threatened to have it pulled from the release schedule altogether. Keepsake Artist Lynn Norton and studio engineers redesigned and retooled the Enterprise-A hull to accommodate battery power, solving the issues but delaying the ornament’s release by three months. Since then, all lighted Star Trek ornaments have been designed to operate on batteries. The year’s other Star Trek ornaments, Khan and Locutus of Borg, also were released in October rather than the traditional July.
2006—To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Star Trek, Norton sculpted a new, correctly proportioned U.S.S. Enterprise complete with a display base that plays the theme to the original series. That year also saw the release of the Transporter Chamber, which features light and original sound effects to simulate Kirk, Spock and Scotty beaming down from the starship and returning.
2007—Fourteen years after appearing on trees, Norton’s original sculpt of the NCC-1701-D got a refit with a third nacelle and other features to become Future U.S.S. Enterprise as seen in the ST: TNG series finale “All Good Things …”. Lieutenant Uhura became the first Star Trek ornament offered in limited quantities as a Hallmark Gold Crown exclusive ornament. A scene of the Enterprise bridge served to mark the 25th anniversary of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
2008—The Star Trek Communicator became the first prop from the original series to be recreated as a Keepsake Ornament featuring sound clips from various episodes. Keepsake artists and engineers experimented to simulate cascading Tribbles in that year’s “The Trouble with Tribbles” ornament. Recognition of the popularity of Star Trek II extended into a second year with the U.S.S. Reliant joining the tree.
2009—A banner year for Star Trek ornaments with five new designs available for collectors and fans. A Klingon Battle Cruiser and a limited-quantity offering of Ilia Probe marked the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Keen-eyed fans will notice a button makes the battle cruiser’s front torpedo tube flash three times, a nod to how many torpedos are launched into the V’Ger cloud in the film’s opening scene. A Starfleet Phaser featuring sound clips from the original series served as a companion ornament to the previous year’s communicator. A scene from “The Menagerie” featuring Kirk, Spock and the injured Captain Pike honored that series' only two-part episode. Visitors to San Diego’s Comic-Con International that year had the chance to buy a con-exclusive repaint of the 2007 Lieutenant Uhura ornament. The communications officer was depicted in a command gold uniform as she wore in two episodes of the original series: “Mudd’s Women” and “The Corbomite Maneuver.”
2010—During Keepsake Ornament’s 20th year with Star Trek, there were a pair of firsts: Captain James T. Kirk represented the first in the new Star Trek Legends series of characters from The Original Series, and the U.S.S. Enterprise became the first ornament based on Star Trek (2009). Rounding out the year was “Amok Time,” featuring a clip of original music from the Star Trek episode that has become a signature “fight” music cue in Star Trek pop-culture awareness.
And what’s in store for coming years? Count on more ships, more characters and more scenes from classic episodes courtesy of the artists of Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments.
