Every once in a while we hear or we get to know people who were influenced by Star Trek to such a level that they decide to incorporate Star Trek into their everyday lives. It could be something as small as gluing a Star Trek insignia sticker on your car or wearing Star Trek inspired jewelry to something as big as attending every Star Trek convention out there. Or…. It could be as big as dedicating a part of your house to Star Trek, be it a shelf, cabinet, room or even an entire basement.
Which is exactly what Line Rainville, a Canadian social worker and a published novelist from Notre-Dame-des-Prairies, Quebec, Canada did. Internet went abuzz with photos and news about this long time Trekkie renovating her basement in Star Trek style. We set down with Line and talked to her about her love of Star Trek that ultimately had her create a little piece of Star Trek in her own basement.
Line is a lifelong Star Trek: The Original Series fan that she started watching at the age of 9 with her father. Her love of it just grew from there. This love is evident from the moment you start talking to her about Star Trek and her favorite character, Captain Kirk. She lets out a little girly giggle as she explains:
“Captain Kirk is my favorite character because first, he is handsome, he considers his officers, he has wonderful values, values that are important to me. He is open minded and he respects the differences. Kirk believes in Prime Directive, not to interfere and he knows what it implies. The thing I really love about Kirk is that he accepts to compromise about his authority when it comes to Spock. I treasure those moments when Spock disobeys an order from Kirk and convinces Kirk to change his mind and agree with him. Those scenes are precious to me.”
Operation Annihilate is a favorite episode of hers as everything she loves about Star Trek is in this single episode: unknown planet, dangerous aliens, great interaction between Kirk and Spock, great character development and of course, someone else other than a red shirt dies in it.
Line always dreamed about being aboard the Enterprise. Its bridge, its corridors and the officers’ quarters impressed her so much when she was young. So two years ago, when her basement needed major renovations, she began thinking about how to go about it. Not wanting something usual, she started drawing inspiration from her favorite Star Trek series. Initially, it all began as ideas of having a few things from Star Trek included in the renovation, but it proved to be so inspiring and so much fun that it just grew from there.
“I had nothing to lose at the beginning; we were to try and if it would not please me, we would make something else. The more we worked on that, the more ideas came to me. I bought props and replicas. At first, just for fun, just to put it as decoration somewhere in this decor.”
Line opted for the TOS style decor thinking it would be the easiest to duplicate because they didn’t have a lot of technology in this series. Turns out she was wrong! During the renovations, she faced many challenges, but was determined to remain true to TOS era as much as humanly possible. She even went as far as creating red curtains for Spock’s quarters herself as she couldn’t buy exactly the kind of fabric she needed.
“I had ordered buttons on EBay. Then I found someone who could do some for me. I ordered 300!!! Poor guy, I just imagine what he might have thought. While I was waiting for the buttons, I began painting. I installed the curtains, the lights were difficult to find because I did not exactly know what kind. I even learnt welding to create the light system I wanted. I was stubborn in my search. I held onto my idea and refused any other proposition that was not directly and closely linked to TOS”
The one thing that stands out from TOS style decor, but fits in very well with the entire Star Trek theme, is the fake dome ceiling in the living / bridge room. She had hired a painter to create it and then glued a large picture of space in the center covering it with plastic and making it look like a window into the stars.
Line scoured Ebay, internet and even frequented the flea markets to find what she needed to complete her vision months before she started the renovations. She bought an intercom at ComicCon and bottles at the flea markets. One thing she is especially proud of is the Jeppesen B-1 model that Spock used to navigate in Star Trek.
Transforming the kitchen and bathroom proved to be much easier and less complex than the Home Theatre room. Line chose recreation room as inspiration for the kitchen and sickbay for the bathroom. Of course, no Star Trek would be complete without the Transporter. Line transformed a space just down the stairs into a transporter, complete with a motion sensor that turns the lights on.
Many family members and friends were there to lend a helping hand when needed. Some of them were worried about the outcome, but overall very supportive in Line’s endeavor to re-create a little piece of her childhood dream.
“All the time, while I was doing it, I felt like I was playing. I got trapped in my dream and wanted to pursuit it.”
She faced many challenges during this great adventure of hers, but she overcame them with her admirable determination and creativity and successfully completed it.
Overall, it took about two years and $ 30000 to see her vision come to light, mainly due to major renovations that needed to be done to the basement in general. There are still a couple of rooms in the basement that are not decorated and shuttle craft comes to her mind for one of them. For now though, Line is ready to enjoy her creation so far. As she also points out “I have to steady myself, because it’s expensive to renovate”.
There is plenty of inspiration that she can draw from and as evidenced from the photo slide below, she does not lack creativity to create a space that is both functional and beautiful. We look forward to seeing the end result!
[doptg id=”1″]
- Beyond the Veil Tier 194: Catching up 4! - August 3, 2016
- Beyond the Veil Tier 193: Catching up 3! - August 3, 2016
- Beyond the Veil Tier 192: Catching up 2! - August 3, 2016