You may just be pulling out the Halloween decorations, but for Hallmark ornament collectors, Christmas is already on our minds!
The first Star Trek ornament we’ve gotten our hands on for 2023 is the charming “Ode to Spot.” Who can forget Data’s adorable feline companion (who turned into a lizard that one time) from Star Trek: The Next Generation?
Featured in the episode “Schisms” — did that episode mess anyone else up? Just me? — the poem “Ode to Spot” has a special place in this 90s kid’s Star Trek lovin’ heart. I was delighted to see that Hallmark decided to immortalize this iconic TNG moment in this year’s ornament line up.
The push button audio includes the first and final stanzas of the poem, leaving out the two in the middle as such:
Felis catus is your taxonomic nomenclature,
An endothermic quadruped, carnivorous by nature;
Your visual, olfactory, and auditory senses
Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defenses.
[…]
O Spot, the complex levels of behavior you display
Connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array.
And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend,
I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend.
In a perfect world, I’d have loved for the ornament to include the whole poem. I don’t know if this was some kind of technical limitation or just a creative decision, but it’s a small demerit on what is otherwise a lovely ornament for my collection.
I thought the paint and sculpt job was really well done. Data has those striking gold android eyes and the precision brown haircut just as he should. Spot is painted beautifully in all her cuddly orange tabby cat glory. I also thought the red 1701-D bridge carpet-inspired base was a clever touch.
One of the reviews on Hallmark.com noted a “a manufacturing flaw on the arm sleeve as well as general poor paint job on the shirt,” but nothing like that jumped out at me on my version — so most probably won’t have that kind of issue.
Unlike previous years’ ornaments which require a power cord connection, “Ode to Spot” uses two button batteries that are provided — and as the parent of a toddler, I was both impressed and frustrated by how secure the packaging was on those little guys!
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“Ode to Spot” is available for purchase now, along with “The Hand of Apollo” ornament inspired by the Original Series episode “Who Mourns for Adonais?”
Joining them in October will be a mini Captain Kirk and mini U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701, along with an ornament from Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Relics” and two Badgey ornaments from Star Trek: Lower Decks. There will also be a U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 Tabletop Decoration with light and sound.
Hallmark’s “Ode to Spot” ornament is available now.