STARFLEET BOX

Chris Avilia has made a variety of props for Star Trek shows. Many of the futuristic devices and visuals we see on Star Trek are often very simple items that are still used in other guises today. One example is the small non-descript equipment box seen in [#138 Ashes to Ashes] and [#142 Muse]. In real life, the box is used to protect medical equipment: a manufacturer of heart pacemakers ships its product in this container, and, as with most of the plastic packaging that medical instruments are shipped in, these boxes get recycled. The use of the box in these two [Star Trek Voyager] episodes was, unusually, not the result of a commission from the show.   My wife, Susan, is an R.N. and works in a cardiac unit at a local hospital. She frequently brings home interesting packages and other items that were not used but had to be discarded once the package seal had been broken. At one point, she started bringing home these boxes. When I saw the first one, I immediately visualized the final product: a little white tape and a decal (sign/notice/text/label) on the front, and this would make a neat Star Trek item. Maybe I could keep computer disks or loose change in it or something. I decided to send a finished one to Penny Juday, who does some of the prop buying for feature films; she is always on the lookout for just this type of item. She said she would show it to Alan Sims, property master on [Star Trek Voyager]. I really didn't think anything would come of it, but, to my surprise and nearly a year later, it appeared in the episode [Ashes to Ashes]. It was part of an assortment of personal items that the returning female crew member, Lindsay Ballard, had strewn across her bed. Then the little gray box appeared again, in the episode [#142 Muse] when Harry Kim first stepped into the crashed Delta Flyer and found B'Elanna. It was very amusing for me to see this item in two episodes, especially in the same season. I thought how ironic it was that, after having provided some of the props for the last two Star Trek films, this silly little box is what got the screen time!

==>                <==                     box is between the arrows, at the bottom of the picture [Ashes to Ashes] Kim tells Torres: "I've got some emergency rations left." as he produces the Starfleet box. [#142 Muse]

Thanks to Eos Development for the page background from the set Desert Vellum.