Tony Alleyne boldly went where no other DIY enthusiast had gone before when he turned his studio apartment in Hinckley, Leicestershire, into a replica of the bridge of the Starship Enterprise.

The flat included a life-size model of the show’s transporter room. He even reshaped his windows to look like portholes and set up vertical lights so that he can pretend to be “beamed up”, but the nine-year mission failed and Mr Alleyne, 52, came crashing back to Earth with a bump. Yesterday, at Coventry County Court, he admitted that he has been declared bankrupt with debts of £166,000.

Mr Alleyne spent more than £30,000 turning his modest Midlands residence into a Star Trek set, and another £100,000 marketing his firm, 24th Cen-tury Interior Designs, which offered to do the same for other people. Astonishingly, there were not that many takers.

As he spun into a black hole of debt in 2004, propelled by loans and credit cards, Mr Alleyne launched a rescue mission. He put his residence on the market for £700,000, but there were about as many potential buyers as there are waterfalls on Mars. The debts mounted. He realised that his whole concept was out of date, as Scottie could have told him.

So he gutted the flat and is now rebuilding it as the bridge of the later Star Trek series, Voyager. The work is funded by his income support payments, and the flat will shortly be put on the market again, at a price that should put him back on course for Planet Solvency.

“I did not set out with the intention of selling it; I enjoy science fiction interiors,” Mr Alleyne, a former club DJ, said, “but it has been valued at £850,000 because of its uniqueness. It’s the only one in the world; if it was in London it would probably be worth double that.”

Mr Alleyne blamed his troubles on his attempts to set up a business, using loans and credit cards, which he admitted was “pretty daft”. He felt confident, however, that he would find a buyer for his revamped pride and joy. Mr Alleyne is separated from his wife. Have you any idea why that might be, Mr Spock?

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