Costumes here are presented in ascending chronological order (most recent costumes are up top).

DancingMad's costumes Anima (Final Fantasy X) Temari (Naruto) Kefka Palazzo (Final Fantasy VI) Tasuki (Fushigi Yuugi) Fancy Toph Bei Fong (Avatar: The Last Airbender) Judge Q (Star Trek: The Next Generation) Mozenrath (Aladdin) Baaya (Rose of Versailles) Byzantine Angel

Cachalot's costumes Shiva (Final Fantasy X) Gaara (Naruto) Suboshi (Fushigi Yuugi) Shadow (Final Fantasy VI) Tifa Lockhart (Final Fantasy VII) Cid Highwind (Final Fantasy VII) Osaki Nana

Q - Judge Q - Star Trek: The Next Generation

Halloween 2007 costume

Oh man. Me and Star Trek: TNG. We go way back. I grew up watching the show, I remember waiting to see it every week on NBC, gathered around the TV with my family. It was A Big Deal back then, which is hard to believe looking back on it now. That summer of the Locutus cliffhanger? PURE AGONY! I'll never forget it, or the countdown to the new season, or how awesome it was to pick up on the second part finally after weeks of waiting. There really isn't a show closer to my heart than Star Trek: The Next Generation. It fueled my life-long love of science and amateur love of astronomy!

That said, the show was certainly flawed and arguably one of its biggest cheats was Q, the ultimate Deux Ex Machina character. But who cares? Q is so fun! John de Lancie was brilliant as Q and every episode with Q in them was my favorite -- especially the opening and ending episodes, with Q's trial as bookends. Just fabulous TV writing.

apologies for the blatant photoshopping - the background of the picture was REALLY distracting

That's why I wanted to do Q's awesome Judge Q outfit for Halloween one year. Anyone who knew Star Trek growing up as I did got chills just looking at the costume. Going around as the Arbiter of All Humanity? Yeah, I liked that. A lot ;D

So this costume was a little weird to construct, but not terribly hard. As you might imagine, the robe is all straight lines. The thing making it a challenge was that the red fabric I used was some remnant polyester I had lying around -- no clue the yardage. I didn't have a pattern either. So I was totally flying blind for this outfit. I just started cutting and kept my fingers crossed.

Somehow I had just enough. I seriously lucked out! I even had enough to do the little 'ermine' detail tossed over the shoulder. I didn't know how to do the rosette on the shoulder though so I omitted it.

Reference photos:

I used stamped filigree for the necklace and cemented on some red stones for the center pieces. It looked pretty convincing! To my chagrin it wsa also very fragile and bendy, but it has held up pretty well all things considered.

The hardest part was actually the headpiece. I made a tube of art foam and basically draped heavy cloth over and around it. It didn't really stay together. Basically if I wear this costume again I am going to buy a balaclava (which I wanted to avoid) and fix the headpiece for good.

Remember: The trial never ended!