We have all wondered about the penny whistle looking thing that Picard plays in an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation. Well, the whistle is for sale from the Star Trek Experience site. The price is $2000. You can check it out at http://www.ds9promenade.com/ds9promenade/admirals/index2.html. Click on TNG Props. It is listed as Ressikan Flute. Thought some folks might at least like to take a closer look at this item.
Take care
Michael
The link doesn’t work!
On 2001-07-13 10:31, JessieK wrote:
The link doesn’t work!
Just get rid of the period at the end of the url and it will get you there where you will eventually see what could not possibly be a playable instrument (judging by the equal size and spacing of the toneholes).
$2000 = 1 unplayable Ressikan flute or
2 Patrick Olwell unkeyed D flutes
10 Copeland D
18 Overton D
200 Oak D
400 Watltons Little Black Whistle
Sounds like a bargain to me
Hee hee!
Olwell flutes (with tuning slides) don’t cost $1000 anymore.
You don’t think you could tweak it, put a little wax in the fipple area? Or maybe, one of the real whistle makers could make a playable replica “Limited Edition Ressikan” whistle. Sell it for $2000 with a framed photo of Charleton Heston or whoever.
So Jean Luc wasn’t really playing it on the episode. What a letdown.
[ This Message was edited by: TonyHiggins on 2001-07-13 11:26 ]
On 2001-07-13 11:09, JessieK wrote:
Hee hee!Olwell flutes (with tuning slides) don’t cost $1000 anymore.
Now you have my curiosity up. Well, how much do Olwell’s cost now? I’m getting ready to send Hammy some dough. I will not change that, but now I just want to know. Do you know the updated prices? Thanks Jessie.
I suppose this puts an end to all the mystery surrounding the instrument.
What a let down too… I was hoping it was a real instrument.
Even if it was real, it wouldn’t be worth $2000 though!
I would pay a reasonable price for a functional reproduction though… I’m a die hard Trekkie and “The Inner Light” is my favorite episode.
Well, now at least we know the “Maker” of the mystery instrument:
"This prop was created by Alan Sims from The Paramount Prop Department"
Olwell flutes with nickel tuning slides are $1095 and with silver tuning slides are $1195. I have an Olwell and a Hammy, and they are both great…as is the Copley…those three are in a league of their own, I think.
There’s still the mystery of who played the original song and on what instrument. Has that been solved, yet?
And, I’m not convinced that it is unplayable… probably isn’t, but who would go through all of the trouble to create a tapered body if it didn’t work at all. Not only that, but it does appear to be hollow - not just a block of wood with surface holes cut in it (notice the reflection of light at the bottom of the holes). Why not just cut the body off of a Shaw or Clarke and glue it to a piece of wood? And the barrel is very smooth. I can’t imagine getting a piece of metal to bend that smoothly unless it were wrapped around a mandrel. Of course, it could be paper. But, there’s got to be more to this story… and I’ll make it up if I have to
Peace,
Erik
[ This Message was edited by: ErikT on 2001-07-13 13:25 ]
Is anyone else having an urge to buy 100 sweetones, some paint and some white cord??
Now, if only I can get Scott Bakula (Capt Archer of the next ST series "Enterprise) to play one, we’d be rich!
I notice in the photo that the holes are equally spaced and sized. I don’t imagine it would be in tune. A nice job for a prop, though. The other props look pretty cool, too, like the phaser. I’d rather get one of those.
The question that occurs to me is why pay some machinist union scale to make this prop from scratch when they could buy a brass whistle off the card for $10. If it had to be conical, dip a Clarke in gold paint.
No wonder movies cost millions to make!
The music (Ressikan Flute Song by Jay Chattaway) is on the Sessioneer web site if you are interested, http://www.sessioneer.com.
I just got back from Las Vegas and the Star Trek Experience. They have a museum that you walk through before you get on the ride. The Ressikan Flute was there on display. I wondered the same thing when I saw it.
I’m not sure how it plays, but I am sure that it is hollow, and it does have all its holes in all the right places.
Holes in the wrong place? Hrmph! Cultural relativists, all of you. I bet you’ve never even heard Ressikan music, let alone learned to appreciate it!
( 
)
Because I’m bored, I figured out rough estimates of the dimensions. My guesses are below, too, although I’d love input from someone that remembers the math.
Does this make me an honorary Trekker?
[ This Message was edited by: rich on 2001-07-22 02:54 ]
You guys are all a bunch of 12 tone eaual temperament devotees. It’s an alien flute. Maybe it plays in a microtonal alien temperament. You know that aliens are more advanced than we are.
Erik
You guys are all a bunch of 12 tone eaual temperament devotees. It’s an alien flute. Maybe it plays in a microtonal alien temperament. You know that aliens are more advanced than we are.
I would agree, except Picard played a distincty diatonic piece of music.
Personally, I think teaching everyone music-theory based on the well-tempered clavier is a big faux pas. Do you know how many times I’ve had to argue that a Bb is not the same as an A#? Fretless string players unite! Teach the world!