Prop Store’s “Uhura” Earpiece: A Case of Mistaken Identity

Ray Minarcik • October-10-2022 17:15

The Uhura Earpiece in Prop Store's 2022 London Auction

Lot #340 in the upcoming Prop Store 2022 London Auction features an earpiece supposedly worn by Uhura in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. That’s huge for an auction because these rarely come up at auction (if ever as I can’t recall the last one off hand).

Here’s the lot description:

Uhura’s (Nichelle Nichols) earpiece from Nicholas Meyer’s sci-fi sequel Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Uhura wore her earpiece as she once again took on the position of communications officer of the Enterprise-A for the last time during the Khitomer crisis.

Although Uhura often used a metal earpiece, Paramount Pictures archivist Penny Juday identifies earpieces of this style as Uhura’s in the “Penny’s Toy Box” special featurette from the DVD release. This earpiece consists of a hollow, cast-resin main body painted silver-colour, with a rotating clear plastic ear insert, a simulated black button, and the word “Stanton” inscribed beneath the clear insert. It exhibits minimal paint chipping, some staining on the clear plastic, and a slight rattle from a loose piece inside. Dimensions: 7.75 cm x 5.25 cm x 2.75 cm (3″ x 2″ x 1″)

Estimate: £5,000 – 7,000

 

At first glance, it sure looks like an earpiece Uhura would have worn and it does have a few things going for it that would make you think it was.

The It's a Wrap! Origins

The earpiece was first sold by It’s a Wrap! (IAW for short) during their famous eBay auctions back in 2006. That lot description read:

STAR TREK VI: “STARSHIP BRIDGE COMMUNICATION EARPIECE”

A Starfleet communications bridge console ear piece like those used by “Commander Uhura” (Nichelle Nichols) in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The item is lightweight molded resin, believed to be hollow, painted metallic silver, with a rotating ear piece made from clear plastic that does fit into the wearer’s right ear. A black faux button is present on the outside of the pivot and a molded inscription can be made out on the side of the pivot reading ‘STANTON’. The pivot allows the item to be worn up or down. The earpiece measures approx. 2.75 X 1.5 X 1 inch. This item is believed to have been presented in the Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country DVD set featurette titled ‘Penny’s Toy Box’.

Sold price on this was $918.00 with an ecstatic buyer:

Great prop from Penny’s toy box ! Confirmed worn by Uhura ! WoW !! A+

Since then, it’s remained in private hands until making it’s Prop Store appearance.

 

The "Penny's Toy Box" Reference

Penny Juday was the archivist tasked with cataloguing and keeping track of the vast majority of production items (set pieces, props, models, etc) and was the go-to if production needed things for upcoming movies or episodes. Her Memory Alpha bio can be found here to read a bit more about who she was and her different roles within production.

For the Star Trek: VI DVD release, Penny did a featurette called “Penny’s Toy Box” which showed her showcasing different props that were used in the movie. One of the items was this exact prop which she said was “an Uhura earpiece.” Her commentary was:

“What I’m surprised mostly is that they didn’t change too much from the original series. Of course this fits into your ear and I don’t know how they ever got this thing to sit there in the first place but I just thought this was such an interesting thing that there’s poor Nichelle sitting there trying to keep this thing sticking in her ear the whole feature.”

(If you want to watch the whole featurette, it can be found on YouTube here).

As you can see from the screen cap below, it’s definitely the same prop and matches the Prop Store lot exactly.

 

Seems Like It's Uhura's. What's The Problem?

To get that answer, you don’t have to go too far as we get to see a close up shot of Uhura’s earpiece and they are definitely not the same. The one she wears is made out of aluminum (not resin) and is a different design, the notable difference being three ridges instead of four with different spacing and style of grooves.

You can see in these screen shots the clear differences:

The used ones were also made by Ed Miarecki (not this “Stanton” who I assume is the maker of the one Prop Store is offering) and came with a battery and working electronics. However, the battery made it too heavy for the piece to remain in Nichelle’s ear so they took it out and left it static.

Where Are The Used Ones?

Production usually makes multiples of key props in case of damage, theft, etc. and I am aware of two in private hands, one being shown here on yourprops.com by user “shanco”.

As you can see, the one pictured matches up to the one we see in the movie and the differences are pretty glaring.

If It Wasn't Used, What Is It Then?

I think  that the one IAW sold and Penny showcases is a production-made prototype that was ultimately not used. It ended up in the archives with all of the other props and when Penny saw it, safely assumed it was Uhura’s. The issue, of course, is how Prop Store is protraying the one they are offering:

Uhura’s (Nichelle Nichols) earpiece from Nicholas Meyer’s sci-fi sequel Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Uhura wore her earpiece as she once again took on the position of communications officer of the Enterprise-A for the last time during the Khitomer crisis.

Although Uhura often used a metal earpiece, Paramount Pictures archivist Penny Juday identifies earpieces of this style as Uhura’s in the “Penny’s Toy Box” special featurette from the DVD release.

Two problems here:

  • First, they are saying it is Uhura’s earpiece from the movie. It might have been intended to be but we can clearly see that it wasn’t.
  • Second, they say that Penny “identifies earpieces of this style’ as Uhura’s in the featurette. Penny never said that the style was Uhura’s (she even said upon examining it that she was surprised the style remained relatively unchanged, even though it did). All she did was pick up the prop and said it was an “Uhura earpiece” which, to me, means that she felt what she was holding was the one used.

I did reach out to Prop Store with my concerns but at the time of writing this article, they have yet to take action. I think they are resting on vague wording and interpretation along with Penny’s featurette to leave it in as-is. With an estimated auction price range of £5,000 – 7,000 (about $5,500 and $7,700 USD) as well as an added 25% buyer’s premium on top of that, someone could pay over $10,000 for an unused prototype. If it were me, I would keep hailing frequencies closed on this one at that price range.

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About the author

Ray Minarcik

Ray started collecting screen-used and production-made props since the great It's a Wrap! days, but became a serious collector in 2012 with the addition of the TOS "I, Mudd" necklace. Since then, Ray has added many iconic props, LCARS, and set pieces to his collection (with a few wardrobe pieces sprinkled in). He is the creator and administrator of the Star Trek: Auctions, Props, and Wardrobe Facebook group and has positive, working relationships with not only former and current production crew members, but also several large auction companies to share news and sneak peaks of upcoming lots. Ray has been able to source many different types of props and production materials to collectors, either long-term or new to this great hobby, to add to their own collections.

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