The Captain's Chair

It has become popular in certain circles to create replicas of Captain Kirk's Command chair from the Starship Enterprise bridge. The New York Times has an article about the obsessive hobbyists who spend months or even years making precise replicas of the chair. So, once you've made an exact replica of the chair, what do you do with it?

“You sit in the chair,” Mike Paugh said, “and you’re watching an episode and pushing buttons and you find yourself saying, Fire photon torpedoes or whatever, and you’re making the sounds yourself because I don’t have the sound effects yet.”

“Personally,” said his wife, Barbara, “I think my husband is a nerd.” (source)

Others have more serious intentions for the chair:

Some watch TV in theirs, or simply loll, and some seem to find the chair an empowering place from which to deal with others. “When we have a little family powwow — I have four children — I sit in it to lay down the law,” said Mr. Boyd, the auto parts manager.

And most, of course, indulge their fantasies, imagining doing battle with Klingons and otherwise cruising the cosmos. “Sitting in it,” said Mr. Bradshaw, the graphic designer, “I find myself striking an action pose quite unconsciously.” (source)

Do I want one of these? Of course I do. How cool would it be to have a replica of Captain Kirk's chair in Man Town (that's what we call the room with the TV in it)?

-t