The pumpkins are put away, turkey time is over — now it’s time for the Christmas décor to come out! Here in our household, we’re pulling out all of our Star Trek Hallmark ornaments and getting them ready to go on the tree.
Closing out 2022 — after Mirror Scotty, which I reviewed in September — are two new releases. Mirror McCoy, the final entry in Hallmark’s “Storyteller” Original Series collection, and Captain Pike’s Enterprise from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
After several years of collecting Hallmark’s Star Trek Mirror Universe “Storyteller” ornaments, with the addition of McCoy, I have a complete set at last! So stroke that fabulous Terran goatee and wrap yourself in a gold lamé sash, because it’s time to revisit “Mirror, Mirror” once more.
When you add McCoy to the other six ornaments from this collection, you get a fabulous six-minute reenactment of this legendary episode. The audio sounds nice and clear, and Hallmark did a great job of including some of the most iconic lines.
What makes this Mirror Universe set work is Hallmark’s radio technology:
Each of the character ornaments contain audio from the episode, and will play back lines from the episode on their own — but when brought together, the ornaments will communicate with each other with built-in radio technology to replicate scenes from the episode where those characters interacted.
As with the other ornaments in this set, you’ll need a Hallmark Keepsake Power Cord (sold separately) in order to experience the audio/visual elements.
I was especially impressed with the sculpt on this ornament; it looks so much like DeForest Kelley! They even captured that skeptical eyebrow arch and slightly furrowed brow. As with the other ornaments, I wish the gold lamé sash had been truly sparkly, but overall, this is a great looking addition to Hallmark’s “Mirror, Mirror” collection!
I think it’s safe to say that these ornaments, particularly when displayed together and plugged in, are worth leaving up all year long to enjoy — and save some room on your tree, as we understand Hallmark will be bringing Next Generation character ornaments to their “Storytellers” lineup starting next year.
For now, though, you can round out your Original Series “Storyteller” crew with Mirror McCoy, available how through Hallmark for $34.99.
Of course, McCoy wasn’t the only ornament to get an October release this year. as the USS Enterprise from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds also just warped into collectors’ hands.
There have been numerous Enterprise ornaments over the decades, of course; last year, our household decided to put as many of them on our tree as we could — like any good Star Trek ornament collector, we have more ornaments than tree space, so we usually rotate what gets on the tree each year. I honestly couldn’t tell you off the top of my head how many there have been in total, but I think it’s close to a dozen? Am I mad that we got another one this year? Absolutely not! She’s beautiful and she deserves her moment on the tree.
I’ll admit that I am not super well-versed in ship architecture and I tend not to notice some of the nuances that others do. While I’ve read some views that the ornament looks more like the version of the ship introduced in Star Trek: Discovery — a model which was slightly tweaked for Strange New Worlds — I can’t say I notice any of those differences. I looked through some official reference images, and if there’s something to critique, I think it’d be left to the nitpickers to find it.
Like the other ships of this most recent Hallmark era, it is powered by three button batteries (LR41 to be exact, which are included). You press the little button on the hull to make it light up. I understand why Hallmark made the shift away from the old-school light strand plug in type several years ago, but I miss having the ships lit up persistently on the tree.
The Star Trek: Strange New Worlds USS Enterprise ornament is also available from Hallmark now for $32.99.
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