Crossposted from the Star trek Phase II forums:
We've seen a large gray and orange hand-held device in a few episodes of
Star Trek:
The Original Series. Although it's never been identified exactly what this thing is, we first see it in "The Enemy Within." Mr. Scott uses it to scan Geological Technician Fisher's coveralls after Fisher is beamed up from the planet Alfa 177 with soft, yellowish, magnetic ore contaminating his coveralls. The script for "The Enemy Within" says simply:
ANOTHER ANGLE
As Scott joins Wilson and Fisher--has a scanning
device in his hand--does a quick scan of Fisher.
SCOTT
(reading the scanner)
Magnetic--decontaminate that uniform
So, here's the "scanning device" that Mr. Scott uses to scan Fisher's coveralls:
It was also used in a later scene in that same episode--a scene in Engineering that was shot but ultimately not used:
We see it again--probably most famously--in "The Naked Time." Mister Spock brings the device with him down to the planet Psi 2000:
Here's a montage of shots from that episode:
It shows up two other times in
The Original Series. Lieutenant Elliot (John Copage) has one with him when he beams over to the
U.S.S. Constellation as part of the damage control party. He uses the device and then reports that "radiation levels are normal." Here are two scenes from that episode:
The last time we see this device in
The Original Series, it's used by an Engineering division ensign to scan Ensign David Garrovick's cabin after the Di-Kironium "vampire cloud" creature entered Garrovick's cabin through the air vent in "Obsession:"
Actually, there are a couple of other
Original Series picture of this device: Jimmy Doohan posed with the device in front of the Jefferies Tube in a
Star Trek publicity photo:
And Kelly and Nimoy posed with it early in the First Season:
So what is this device? Well,
Star Trek prop aficionados have taken to calling this thing a "
Spectrum Analyzer." (Mister Spock mentioned in "The Naked Time" that he did a spectral analysis while down on Psi 2000.) Like so many instruments in
Star Trek, it appears to be able to do different things depending upon the needs of the script. It could determine that the ore on Fisher's uniform was magnetic and that it had (as Scotty indicated) "highly unusual properties;" it took some kind of readings on the planet Psi 2000 when Mister Spock used it; it detected that there was no radiation when Elliot used it on the
Constellation; and, well, who knows what the ensign in "Obsession" was attempting to determine when using this device.
Whatever this
Spectrum Analyzer actually did on the show, it was, in real life, a modified Radiation Survey Meter. In particular, this Radiation Survey Meter was a
Model 2586 "Cutie Pie" made in the early 1960s by the Nuclear-Chicago Corporation. Here's a picture of one in its original state:
You can read a bit more about some of the specifications for a Model 2586 "Cutie Pie" here:
http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/surveym...chicago2586.htm[/url]
Of course, it was modified a little for its appearances in
Star Trek. Specifically, the handle and the black Geiger-Mueller Tube (the "barrel" of this gun-like device) as well as one of the two black knobs on the top were all painted bright orange--perfect for color TVs in the 1960s. The metal support legs were removed and the "Nuclear-Chicago" corporate logo was removed from the side of the device, too, of course.
At any rate, here's my prop reproduction of an old "Cutie-Pie" appropriately painted and ready for Starfleet duty as a Spectrum Analyzer capable of scanning for, well, just about anything that needs to be scanned for according to the script:
But the story of this prop doesn't end there, exactly. It had one more appearance in
Star Trek--sort of.
In
Star Trek: The Animated Series, some engineering crewmembers work hard to free Mr. Scott--who had become trapped in the hatch to "the engineering core." An Engineering crewmember identifed in the script simply as "Engineer" used "cutter beams" to cut through the hinges of the hatch to free Mr. Scott. You can see from this image from the episode "Beyond the Farthest Star" that this "cutter beam" tool was drawn based largely on the "Cutie Pie" spectrum analyzer prop--although the details aren't gray and orange; they are a black and a more uniform silver grayish color:
So, here is an additional "Cutie Pie" reproduction that I painted up to resemble the "cutter beam" tool from
Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "Beyond The Farthest Star:"
And here are the two props side by side:
With these two props, our
Star Trek: Phase II production has the ability not only to be consistent with a prop that was seen in
The Original Series, but we also have the ability to incorporate another interesting engineering tool as seen in
The Animated Series in order to fill out and expand the
Star Trek universe a bit. This is a chance to bring some of the elements seen in
The Animated Series "to life"--just as we have been doing with the old, aborted late '70s {i]Star Trek: Phase II [/i] series designs.
Slide show is at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10901121@N06/...910842536/show/[/url]
I've not been up to speed on Phase II. I'll have to start digging. 
