Props Re-used

So, what is Majel Barrett holding in these Third Season publicity photos?





Well, she’s holding a "cardiostimulator"—also referred to as a "physiostimulator."

We first see this portable medical device in "Journey to Babel." Folks may remember that some of the ship’s system got knocked out during the battle with the stalking Orion vessel right in the middle of the surgery on Ambassador Sarek. When the bulky over-the-torso cardiostimulator unit stopped working, Dr. McCoy instructs Nurse Chapel to "get me that old portable cardiostimulator"—which she then retrieves from a shelf on a nearby small instrument cart. Here’s the relevant scene (Scene 91) from Dorothy Fontana’s script:

[color=yellow]ANGLE ON OPERATING TABLE

Christine has quickly hooked in a machine which is
working. The ship BUCKS and staggers heavily again.
The lights and systems go BLACK.

Lights come on almost immediately… but the key
machines stay silent. Christine clicks a switch on
the cardiostimulator… nothing happens. She tries
it again, a little frantic.

CHRISTINE
All the systems are off…

McCOY
Get me that portable cardiostimulator.

She turns quickly, takes a small odd-shaped instrument
from an instrument drawer nearby. This should not be
any of the instruments we have seen before. She hands
it to him, and as he snaps it on (APPROPRIATE SOUND
EFFECT):

McCOY
(continuing)
Call Engineering and put priority
call on the Sickbay systems.

CHRISTINE
Yes, sir.

She hurries to wall intercom near Amanda.[/color]

So, this cardiostimulator had to be odd-shaped and something we had never seen before; it was made specifically for this episode. Here are a couple of shots:





It bears all the fingerprints of a Matt Jefferies-designed prop: elongated, obtuse angles with a few curves. It has that same angular look as a pistol phaser body and even has the same non-descript gray color as the pistol phasers.

It doesn’t get a lot of major screentime, but it does actually have fairly frequent appearances.

It’s visible in "Obsession:"





You can see it sitting over on the Exercise Machine exam table in "By Any Other Name:"



You can see it on the bedside instrument tray as Dr. McCoy and Nurse M’Benga work on Kirk/Sargon in "Return to Tomorrow:"



McCoy uses it on Ambassador Petri in "Elaan of Troyius" in the prop's first appearance in the Third Season:



You can make it out in the "Emergency Surgical Kit" that Nurse Chapel brings down to the planet Amerind in "The Paradise Syndrome:"



You can see it as McCoy attempts to “revive” Captain Kirk from his “Vulcan Death Grip” in “The Enterprise Incident.” (It’s in this episode that McCoy asks Nurse Chapel to hand him the “physiostimulator”--apparently the other name for this instrument.)





It’s visible (just barely) on the instrument tray in “Spock’s Brain:”



McCoy uses it on Lieutenant Johnson in “Day of the Dove:”



McCoy uses it to examine Kirk after they return from Scalos in “Wink of an Eye:”



And it's sitting over on the Exercise Machine exam table (again) in its final appearance in TOS in “The Lights of Zetar:”



It’s also visible in a series of Third Season publicity photos:





And if you’re wondering, in the very first publicity photos at the top of this article, Majel is holding the cardiostimulator/physiostimulator prop up against a “pressure packet” bandage like the one seen in “A Private Little War” as they work on the wounded Mister Spock:



So, this thing is about the size of a desk-top stapler or wood plane. There seems to be two communicator-type Thunderjet wheel hubs on the top and another chrome type piece on the front that looks like it might have been some engine/exhaust manifold piece from some old model car kit. These a ribbed bulb-like thing and a single toggle switch. There's a raised rib-thing that runs down the back of the thing--a little off center. Overall, it's grayish in color with two dark (black?) panels on the sides.

Here are a few shots of my cardiostimulator/physiostimulator. I tried to grab shots of it in the same positions as the screen shots:











Slide show is here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/10901121@N06/sets/72157601926658542/show/

 

I continue to be amazed and delighted by your posts. Though I've watched TOS for 30 years and have even gotten into the tech stuff to some extent, you're able to keep bringing up items that are "new" to me (they've certainly passed in front of my eyes multiple times on screen, but I've never seen them). I feel like a raw cadet on his first day aboard with these things, and I love it! Thank you.

 

Well, my screen grabs are a little temporally deceiving. I grab a screen shot and you can sit and study it for several minutes--or hours even. In truth, the actual shot in the episode might last just a second or two. Or, heck, maybe even just a frame or two--so fractions of a second. People can be forgiven for not noticing them. In fact, the props are designed to further the story, not draw attention to themselves. If you had noticed them, then they were a distraction that pulled you out of the narrative and didn't do their job. They are designed not to be cool; they are designed to be almost subliminal.

 

I find it interesting that many of the background items saw reuse in many episodes and had a function beyond just being there.

 

Well, my sense is that after they went through the trouble of making a prop for some particular script need, they'd keep the thing around and try to reuse it--if only to save on the cost of having to make another prop. So Eminiar disruptors became Klingon pistols. A laser beacon became a soldering gun. Salt shakers became scalpels. "Cage" communicators became Spock's Brain controllers. It was all done on the cheap buy a bunch of geniuses who got every dime's worth out of a prop by recycling it.

 

...and raiding the dumpster behind the Mission Impossible set.

 

That's actually par for the course for TV series production. Why spend money building when you can re-purpose?

 

Of course, dumpster diving worked both ways. Here's a shot from the fifth season Mission: Impossible episode "The Field:"



And here's a shot from the fifth season Mission: Impossible episode "The Missile:"

 

Whoa, they found Leonard Nimoy in the dumpster?!?

That bottle looks familiar, too.

 

Greg, thanks again for the fascinating info, and all the effort you put into these "minutiae." I've been re-watching some S1 episodes (Dagger of the Mind, Enemy Within, Devil in the Dark) since getting the BD set, and the info you've provided enriches the experience that much more.

Doug

 

Well, I accept your thanks--with one important comment: the real credit for all this interesting detail doesn't really go to me, of course. It goes to a real fascinating team of people from four decades ago who layered in all this interesting detail on a shoestring budget for our enjoyment. I don't know if in the year 2049 people will still be dissecting the choice of color used on the sets or the cut and bias of the fabric used in the costumes of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movie. They might be. We'll see. (Well, someone will see; I don't know that I will be one of them.)

 

MI found that bottle in the dumpster?????

 

"Humor, it is a difficult concept."

 

True, but it was not intended to be humorous, for that would be illogical.

 

I took it as a joke. Am I wrong?

 

My intent was to find out whether someone from Trek, now working on MI, found the bottle and used reused it.

 

It was probably in the Prop warehouse at the studio.

 

The set decorator from Mission: Impossible (Lucien Hafley) was not a hold-over from Star Trek. Hafley worked on all 142 M:I episodes and never worked on Star Trek. Nevertheless, all the property masters and set decorators (and costumers for that matter) for all the Desilu shows all pulled from the same common inventory in the prop/set decoration wearhouse on the Desilu lot. So, the same items all end up being seen in M:I, Trek, I Spy, and Mannix. (I'm sure the three 20th century spy shows ended up using a lot of the same stuff more than the 23rd century science fiction show did.) After the studio changed hands to Paramount, you would see old Trek stuff on Paramount productions--like the "Tholian Web" spacesuits on The Lucy Show and Spock's Vulcan Harp on Mork and Mindy.

 

That is a good detail to know, Greg.