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The Deck
Star Trek! Though the original series was short-lived, few television series have had such an impact on modern culture.
Although it has spawned (so far) an animated series, three additional live-action series, nine movies and countless books, magazines, web sites, games and more, it is still the original series (or "TOS", as fans refer to it) which has had the widest influence.
Even those people who do not consider themselves fans know much from the show: phrases such as "Live Long and Prosper", "beam me up, Scotty", "highly illogical" and "the Prime Directive" have made their way into the lexicon, and a person would have to have lived in a cave for more than thirty years to not recognize images such as Mr. Spock's splay-fingered hand gesture and the distinctive shape of the USS Enterprise.
It's not surprising that no less than ten different decks of playing cards have been created based on the various series' images. The one shown here in the gallery is arguably the best of the lot.
With distinctive, futuristic suit-signs, aces depicting ships from the various alien races, and characters from the series faithfully reproduced in beautiful color on double-ended court cards, the deck is quite handsome.
Produced by CIC Video in Australia in 1996 (and again in Germany in 1998), the deck was originally distributed as a promotional item in conjunction with the release of videos of the original series.
I have read both that:
Individual videos contained certain cards, and only by purchasing all videos were you able to complete the deck, and
A boxed set containing the entire series of videos also came with a complete deck.
Either way, there don't seem to be a lot of the complete decks floating around.
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Where to Find It
Of all of the Star Trek playing card decks, this one is probably the hardest to locate (for reasons explained above).
Your best bet to locate it would be to keep an eye on internet auction sites.
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The Cards on Display
- The Queen of Hearts - Orion Slave Woman (played by Susan Oliver). Although originally appearing in the episode "The Cage", this character is best remembered as one of the most striking images from the series' closing credits. A possibly apocryphal story: Filmed makeup tests for the character kept returning from the lab with the green not showing at all. After a few tries, it was eventually discovered that the people in the film lab didn't realize the woman was supposed to be green, and were doing their best to remove the green tint in the development process!
- The Jack of Clubs - Captain Koloth (played by William Campbell). Klingon officer featured in the episode "The Trouble With Tribbles".
- The Ace of Diamonds - Romulan Bird-of-Prey. Equipped with a cloaking device, this craft was first seen in the episode "Balance of Terror".
- The King of Spades - Captain James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner). A capable captain with a woman on every planet! Say what you will about Shatner's acting style - his Kirk was unquestionably the heart behind the original series.
- The Joker - A Tribble. These cute, cuddly, and prodigiously reproductive creatures were first seen in the episode "The Trouble With Tribbles".
- The Card back - The USS Enterprise leaving orbit, with a Klingon Battle Cruiser close behind.
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Star Trek Resources on the Web
- KLM Cards - Playing Cards - The KLM site is the place to go for information on Star Trek trading cards, and this page of the site shows images from many of the various ST playing card decks.
- Mabel's Card Shack - Science Fiction Playing Cards - Mabel's is a great place to purchase modern playing card decks, and this page shows decks with a science fiction theme, including some Star Trek decks (though not the one shown here). Tell Mabel that The Gallery sent you!
- The Official Star Trek Site - Paramount's official site for the show, containing a huge amount of data on all of the series and films.
- Alta Vista Search - Search the net for more Star Trek sites!
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