Star Trek Fan Sues Christie's Over "Fake Prop"

A lawsuit has been filed by a Star Trek fan (Trekker) over a poker visor which was supposedly worn by Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation during the poker games which were a recurring scene on the show. The lawsuit filed against Christie's auction house claims the prop is a fake.

Ted Moustakis, of Towaco, N.J., purchased the item for $6,000 in an auction of CBS Paramount Star Trek props in 2006. He also a purchased table that was part of a set for $6,600 and a Data uniform for $11,400.

Moustakis said that when he asked Brent Spiner. the actor who played Data, to autograph the item in August, he was told it was fake.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in Manhattan, demands millions of dollars in punitive damages (of course). A spokesperson for Christie's said the auction house stands behind the authenticity of the item.

While Moustakis noted the table doesn't look like the ones that appeared the show, and the uniform did not appear to be one-of-a-kind, as he believed it to be, Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) commented in a forum:

There are no "one-of-a-kind" spacesuits for regular cast members, because the studio needed to have several doubles in case one of our costumes got dirty or damaged in some way (I once fell while running to the set, and tore the knee out of my hideous gray suit from Season 2, for example.) We never had just one of anything, unless it was expensive to make, or for a guest star who was appearing in just one show.

This guy also says that Brent told him that the visor he bought wasn't the one Brent wore, because Brent already sold that one years ago. Again, Brent could have been talking about a visor from Best of Both Worlds, and this guy got a visor from All Good Things, or something like that.

It doesn't make sense that CBS would defraud fans the way this guy alleges, and I think it's more likely that this guy has buyer's remorse.