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Jean-Luc Picard's (Patrick Stewart) Ressikan flute and screen-matched box with a costume continuity script from the classic Season 5 Episode "The Inner Light" of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek: The Next Generation. Picard acquired his flute in "The Inner Light," in which he experienced 25 years of life as Kamin on the planet Kataan while in a coma aboard the Enterprise. He kept the flute in a colorful box as a memento of his alternate life, and also played it in the Season 6 Episode "Lessons" as he fell in love with Lieutenant Commander Nella Daren (Wendy Hughes). Paint patterning on the box in this lot screen-matches it to "The Inner Light" as well as the season 6 episode "Lessons."
While it is difficult to screen-match the flute itself due to limits on the show's resolution, this was the one-and-only Ressikan flute in the official CBS Paramount archive. It was stored in the archive with this screen-matched box, indicating it was very likely the on-camera piece used throughout TNG. Studying the series at the highest possible resolution reveals several compelling marks of a potential screen-match, but ultimately the imagery is not clear enough to be absolutely certain.
"The Inner Light" is considered one of the best episodes of the entire series among Star Trek fans, as well as Stewart, who has declared it his personal favorite. To ensure that Picard's fingering was correct in "Lessons," musician Bryce Martin sat just out of frame, giving the impression that his hands were Picard's. Picard's Ressikan flute also appeared in such classic episodes as "A Fistful of Datas" and "Emergence," while its box also appeared in Star Trek: First Contact.
After production concluded, Picard's Ressikan flute - one of the most memorable and important props from the show - toured the US, with fans regularly asking to see and hold it. It was later sold in Christie's 2006 auction "40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection," which introduced many other classic Trek franchise memorabilia into the collector's market for the first time.
The otherworldly brass flute features six drilled holes down the shaft, a white cotton tassel wrapped around it, and holes drilled in both ends. It is largely solid, rather than hollow, and does not produce musical notes, a quality Stewart found amusing when it was originally sold by Christie's. It is likely that reconditioning work was performed to this flute during production on the TNG-era films, though prior to Star Trek: First Contact and Nemesis. The holes are believed to have originally featured basic aluminum stickers around them which were converted during reconditioning to dimensional grommets. The tassel is also believed to have been changed in this period.
The box is cast from resin, lined with silver-color foam, and airbrushed and spattered with paint over decorative jagged shapes along its exterior. Following production, it underwent sympathetic restoration to touch up its paint. Also included is a full multicolor final draft script added to the set after the flute's sale in the 2006 Christie's auction. Dated "March 24, 1992" and hand-marked "225 The Inner Light," the script contains costume continuity photographs with handwritten notes regarding prominent characters in the beloved episode, including Kamin (Stewart), Eline (Margot Rose), and Batai (Richard Riehle).
The set exhibits various signs of production use and age, including tarnishing on the flute's brass, glue residue from loose metal on the mouthpiece, silver-color paint transfer from the foam to the flute box, and curled and creased pages throughout the costume continuity script. Dimensions: (flute) 10.25" x 0.75" x 0.75" (26 cm x 2 cm x 2 cm); (box) 12.25" x 3.5" x 3.5" (31 cm x 9 cm x 9 cm)
Estimate: $250,000 - 500,000
View all lots from STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION (TV SERIES, 1987-1994)
View all lots from STAR TREK FRANCHISE (1966-PRESENT)
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