You rate the TOS props

[velour]

Dr. McCoy's hypo was cool. I liked the air pressure sound that was made whenever he injected someone.

By the way, it seemed like, more times than not, McCoy was injecting a "stimulant". I don't know what kind of stimulant he was using, but his hypo kit seemed to be preloaded with that stimulant.

 

[telerites]

Dr. McCoy's hypo was cool. I liked the air pressure sound that was made whenever he injected someone.

By the way, it seemed like, more times than not, McCoy was injecting a "stimulant". I don't know what kind of stimulant he was using, but his hypo kit seemed to be preloaded with that stimulant.

A lot of those medical devices were salt and pepper shakers weren't they?

 

[scotpens]

A lot of those medical devices were salt and pepper shakers weren't they?

Yep. From Gene Roddenberry as quoted in TMOST:

In the very first show of our first season ("The Man Trap" by George C. Johnson), we needed some salt shakers because we had a creature that craved salt. We had a story point which required the creature (disguised in human form) to give himself away when someone passed with a salt shaker on a tray. This posed a problem. What will a salt shaker look like three hundred years from now? Our property master, Irving Feinberg, went out and bought a selection of very exotic-looking salt shakers. It was not until after he brought them in and showed them to me that I realized they were so beautifully shaped and futuristic that the audience would never recognize them as salt shakers. I would either have to use 20th-century salt shakers or else I would have to have a character say, "See, this is a salt shaker." So I told Irving to go down to the studio commissary and bring me several of their salt shakers, and as he turned to go, I said, "However, those eight devices you have there will become Dr. McCoy's operating instruments."

For two years now, the majority of McCoy's instruments in Sickbay have been a selection of exotic salt shakers, and we know they work because we've seen them work. Not only has he saved many a life with them, but it's helped keep hand prop budget costs low.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Has anyone ever seen these salt shakers prior to being refurbished into medical devices? The closest thing I can remember is from (I think) The Making of Star Trek, or one of those books of the time, referencing 'painting them silver and changing them a little'. I've always been curious to see how their life started!

 

[GSchnitzer]

I don't know that "a lot" of them were salt and pepper shakers. I think there was just one of each.

More information about the Stelton shakers is here:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showpost.php?p=2656589&postcount=167

Find an ebay auction here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Stelton-Dan...pt=UK_Kitchen_Accessories&hash=item2c8eb70d14

 

[Hatshepsut]

There's something to be said for that 3-D chess set, as if regular chess isn't difficult enough. In "By Any Other Name," one or two idle boards are visible in scenes where nobody is playing, in addition to the match between Rojan and Spock. I've always wondered how the pieces move in this game, and why the board is comprised of disconnected segments. (It has small "attack" boards about the perimeter in the background literature.) You might imagine a Queen that can choose any of 26 directions corresponding to the corners, edges, and faces of the cube that replaces the ordinary chess square. However, Memory Alpha and other sources indicate no such extrapolation was used to formulate the rules.

Then there's the notation: "Queen to Queen's level 3." Even though there are three dimensions, only two coordinates call out a destination for the piece. Must just be style in the script: "Queen to Queen's level, Bishop's file, rank 4" sounds awkward.

 

[Warped9]

I liked the electric shaver universal translator that was shown in Metamorphosis. That should have been standard equipment on the belts of all landing party members.

I believe the original concept of the communicator was that incorporated a translating capability. We might assume that's what they usually went with rather than having the larger unit in hand.

And the UT was actually introduced in "Arena," but the impression there is that it was something provided by the Metrons.

 

[Wingsley]

The TOS-era Starfleet-issue flip-top communicator was my favorite as well, but it was almost tied by the standard-issue phasers, I and II. I liked the Saturday-night special nature of the Phaser I.

The tricorder looked cheesy to me from the beginning, but I interpreted it as Leonard Nimoy being told to display the device with its baby-CRT so folks would catch on that it's like an ultra-compact, ultra-portable version of his bridge science station.

McCoy's/Chapel's portable medi-kits, especially the one seen on McCoy's hip and the one seen in "The Paradise Syndrome", always intrigued me. First-aid kits intrigued me as a kid.

And the ultimate "prop" was actually a set: the Jefferies tube. As a kid, I wanted to climb up in there and mess with the ship's innards.

And the ship's computer was also a prop, in both embedded and table-top form.

 

[Warped9]

Kirk's command chair.

Phaser II.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Kirk's command chair.

The captain's chair is like the Lost in Space robot, in that men from all over have built their own full-scale copies of it. The inside part, with the cushioned seat and back, was from a commercially available chair at the time. The arms and pedestal were custom-made for the show.

 

[Kor]

Klingon disruptor pistols

Kor

 

[Albertese]

Kirk's command chair.

The captain's chair is like the Lost in Space robot, in that men from all over have built their own full-scale copies of it. The inside part, with the cushioned seat and back, was from a commercially available chair at the time. The arms and pedestal were custom-made for the show.

Indeed, it was a barber's chair.

--Alex

 

[22 Stars]

Kirk's command chair.

The captain's chair is like the Lost in Space robot, in that men from all over have built their own full-scale copies of it. The inside part, with the cushioned seat and back, was from a commercially available chair at the time. The arms and pedestal were custom-made for the show.

Indeed, it was a barber's chair.

--Alex

No, I believe it was an executive chair, not a barber chair? Madison model I believe...

 

[GSchnitzer]

Kirk's command chair.

The captain's chair is like the Lost in Space robot, in that men from all over have built their own full-scale copies of it. The inside part, with the cushioned seat and back, was from a commercially available chair at the time. The arms and pedestal were custom-made for the show.

Indeed, it was a barber's chair.

--Alex

Well, I think it was s "barber's chair" in the sense that you might find them in a barber shop for customers to sit in while they wait for their turn to have their hair cut on the *real* barber's chair.

Here's a shot of the appropriate chair from the"Mission: Impossible" pilot episode. In fact, with all the M:I and and Trek crossovers, this might be the very chair they used for Kirk's command chair.

 

[Maurice]

I thought someone had identified that is was like office seating like in a waiting room, and that there's a matching sofa.

 

[GNDN18]

This is what Google found:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?p=3916727&highlight=3916408#post3916727

Very nice catch, GSchnitzer!

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I liked the Phaser (or Laser) cannon in The Cage. That was some heavy machinery that was wheeled out. I liked the effect as it blew away the rock face and turned the door white hot. I wish they used it in the regular series on occasion when they needed a high powered precision blast rather than shooting from orbit. I also liked those leaves that hummed on Talos IV - the only time Spock smiled when not under an influence.

The laser / phaser cannon was a solid design, but by the time of the regular series, I feel it was "old fashioned" -- too much a product / swipe of its Forbidden Planet roots, and not in keeping with the design of most series props.

I feel the same way about the Phaser rifle: great, sensible design & believable working parts, but it clashes with the regular field equipment so much that it would be an oddity if used regularly.

Rating...

Tricorder: 10. Intelligent, practical construction, and a very big forecast with the data disks. If only they were used on screen.

 

[Green Shirt]

The captain's chair is like the Lost in Space robot, in that men from all over have built their own full-scale copies of it. The inside part, with the cushioned seat and back, was from a commercially available chair at the time. The arms and pedestal were custom-made for the show.

Indeed, it was a barber's chair.

--Alex

Well, I think it was s "barber's chair" in the sense that you might find them in a barber shop for customers to sit in while they wait for their turn to have their hair cut on the *real* barber's chair.

Here's a shot of the appropriate chair from the"Mission: Impossible" pilot episode. With all the M:I and and Trek crossovers, this might be the very chair they used for Kirk's co and chair.

Its a fun exercise to locate Trek-used props on the other Desilu shows of that era. Those Burke chairs sure got a lot of use.

 

[GSchnitzer]

Its a fun exercise to locate Trek-used props on the other Desilu shows of that era. Those Burke chairs sure got a lot of use.

Here's another one from "Mission: Impossible:"

 

[Albertese]

Indeed, it was a barber's chair.

--Alex

Well, I think it was s "barber's chair" in the sense that you might find them in a barber shop for customers to sit in while they wait for their turn to have their hair cut on the *real* barber's chair.

Here's a shot of the appropriate chair from the"Mission: Impossible" pilot episode. With all the M:I and and Trek crossovers, this might be the very chair they used for Kirk's co and chair.

Its a fun exercise to locate Trek-used props on the other Desilu shows of that era. Those Burke chairs sure got a lot of use.

Hey, I learned something new today. I love that.

--Alex