The Basics-Part 3


The Making of a Communicator (continued)... The Hero Treatment
This category is last because it pertain to only two: Alpha and Beta. For close-up shots, it is customary to have some props made with extra-fine detail. In today's sci fi productions, that means lights, and lots of them, plus some manner of whirly-gig if needed. However, back in 1966, things were a little more modest. In those two comms, Wah created motion in the moiré field whereby the bottom paper #4 pattern is rotated against a stationary transparent #4 above it. He accomplished this rotation via the only way that was available to him in 1966 - a stopwatch. With the wonderful discovery of Alpha, we now have a thorough understanding of exactly Wah used to make this work. Hero Parts Simply, the second-hand axle of a 1-15/16" diameter 30 second stopwatch (front crystal and back cover plate removed) was fastened to the bottom paper moiré pattern. A 7/32" diameter brass tube was attached to the start-stop-rewind knob with a length of brown rubber hose to control the stopwatch. That brass tube extended beyond the shell through a hole cut in the bottom's front edge, just under the midplate. The tube needed to be just long enough to get your fingertip on to push it in to start (pulling out is not needed, since a second push stops and the third push - needlessly - resets it). Since there is, however, not enough exposed shaft to grab and rewind, the tube also functioned as a guide for likely a flat head screwdriver to catch a tiny brass peg soldered inside the tube near the front opening. The entire stopwatch/rod assembly was then simply hot- glued into place to the upper shell. It has been reported that Wah was never happy with the brass rod sticking out of the bottom - that is was a necessary evil - but then that dissatisfaction would be consistent with his true artistic sensibilities. Myth: The heroes used 30-second stopwatches. Truth: Yes, they did. How do we know it wasn't, say, a 60-second watch when the clips are so brief? There are several methods, but the most assured is through knowing that a 30-second mechanical stopwatch moves (ratchets) at 1/10 second intervals, whereas a 60-second stopwatch ratchets at 5 per second. Since a DVD displays 24 frames per second, the moiré pattern would move or change every 2 to 3 frames if driven by a 30-second, but only change every 5 frames if driven by a 60-second. In both heroes, we clearly see the pattern change every 2 to 3 frames, indicating with absolute certainty a 30-second stopwatch. How the two moiré layers got cut and installed made a big difference in how they appeared in operation. When the bottom spinning layer is off-center against a top transparent layer that is centered, the whole pattern rotates along with the little "spider" arcs growing and shrinking. Basically, you get two motions for the price of one! This was seen in Alpha. If the bottom layer is centered, as in Beta, the whole pattern remains in the same orientation - only one motion. Also, the spacing of the centers effects how many arcs are made and how fast they move. The farther apart (Alpha at 0.107") the more and thinner the arcs, plus the slower they grow/shrink. The closer (Beta at 0.035") the fewer and wider the arcs, plus they grow/shrink quickly:
		0 Seconds	7.5 Seconds	15 Seconds	22.5 Seconds
	Alpha
	Beta
Myth: The heroes had lights under the jewels. Truth: Though not a common misconception, it has been raised before. No, none of the comms had any lights inside. A battery and switch would have been impossible to fit in the heroes with the space requirements of the stop watch, and also rendered dismal results given the brightness of an old-fashion wheat grain bulb vs. studio lights. Any flash of light or color seen from a jewel is just that, momentary brightness from a mirror-backed rhinestone facet. Two other challenges would arise in using the parts Wah had. First is that the tiny hole through the hub on which the stone is glued is too small to allow any light through and would have to be drilled out larger. Second, he would have to rub the mirror coating off the back of the rhinestones, which while not difficult, also renders the stones pale in color (red becomes pink) and without any sparkle (since that comes from internal reflection through the stone, off the mirror, and back out through another facet). Plus then, the de-mirrored glass jewel would be sitting on top of a hole, and thus would look blackened. We imagine this effect would easily be seen in screen caps had it actually occurred. Lastly, the glue to stick down the jewel, even the clear stuff, would further block light transmission. All told, it is hard to imagine the film-savvy Wah taking on these challenges for such minimal gain. Curiously, though, there is evidence to suggest Wah considered lighting the middle red jewel in Zeta, given some of the odd features there, but did not carry through (perhaps because of his realization of the problems mentioned above). All told, we see a hero open up close exactly seven times, and only three have the moiré pattern easily visible at standard DVD resolution. They are shown here in sequential order of filming: (1-Dagger of the Mind, 2-Friday's Child, 3-Patterns of Force, 4-The Omega Glory, 5-Elaan of Troyius, 6-For the World is Hollow...Sky, 7-Day of the Dove) And speaking of moirés in motion, that segues nicely into...
"Action!"
For the next three years, all the various communicator props were constantly flipped open, roughhoused, dropped, thrown, and generally abused; surely off-camera as well as on. Jim Rugg maintained them as best he could (according to John Dwyer, Property Master Irving Feinberg had no taste for the show's unique nature and items): gluing back twisted-off knobs, rejoining shells separated from their midplates, putting back in stop pins, and straightening out the occasional bent antenna... Other than these routine tasks, no appreciable fix jobs look to have been made, except for a likely swap of Alpha's middle jewel in Season 3. After all, especially as the money disappeared from the budget, if one prop broke, there was always another in the box to replace it for free. Myth: A few extra communicators were made by the Desilu prop department during the show's production. The studio made some tricorders and phasers, so why not comms? Truth: No evidence whatsoever even remotely suggests additional comm props were made. After all, as was just written, none extra were needed. More than enough of Wah's ten communicators made it to all the way through to the end of the show, and with their ridiculously tight budget, it is hard to imagine anything being done that absolutely didn't need to be. Also, the studio's prop staff did not know about Kydex plastic, Aurora wheel hubs, Edmund moiré patterns, Swarovski rhinestones, or transistor radio grills, as witnessed in their tricorder copies, so any comms they made would stand out like a sore thumb. So until never-before-seen concrete evidence can be produced from who-knows-what credible first-hand source, it is our demonstrable, inarguable position that ten communicator props, all made by Wah in the late spring of 1966, were used in Star Trek.
Postscript: From Garbage to Gold
The story of the communicator after the series ended in 1969 is one first of disrespect and later redemption. On page 415 of Inside Star Trek - The Real Story by Herb Solow and Bob Justman wrote, "Props and set dressings were stored in the old RKO construction mill on the 'Desilu side' of Paramount. Months later, unknown individuals broke into the 'mill' and illegally removed many of the props, including hundreds of furry tribbles, as well as set dressings. The mill door was left open and people came from all over the studio to scavenge what remained." This account tells us these things got scattered to the four winds, but not before likely baking under the hot southern California sun for a few months. The heat distortion that shows up today in the comm's Kydex shells is strong evidence of this make-shift non-air-conditioned storage. By the time it was all said and done, John Dwyer and Jim Rugg ended up with a couple boxes of prop each (Mr. Dwyer informed us his were retrieved from the dumpster). Irving Feinberg dropped off an unknown quantity of material at the rental company Ellis Mercantile. Two other boxes filled with phasers and Klingon items humbly served as a "door stop" in the office of Paramount Back Lot Manager Russ Brown until Henry Renshaw, a company financial representative, took them home. Gene Roddenberry left with a few props that over time got handed over to various people. No doubt other items took still-unknown routes off the studio grounds too. Some of these objects were used as toys and destroyed, and those that survived quickly sank into obscurity. Star Trek was nearly relaunched in the late 1970s as a TV series called Phase II, and had reached a point in pre-production where some sets and props were already built, including a reported ten - does that number sound familiar - communicators based on Wah Chang's originals. We offer a page on this proto-prop. Work on the series was discontinued after the success of Star Wars revealed to Paramount the greater gains to be made by turning their sci fi property into a motion picture, with the ensuing next generations of Trek props. A large part of the post-show saga has been of various replicas, as hobbyists started to fill the void left in their playful hearts with works of their own. This basement-based business was eventually shut down in the late 1990s by Paramount legal department as the company started instead to officially license the mass production of replicas. It is around this time, after countless conventions, spin-off series and movies, that a few of the original props also started to resurface, spawning new interest and renewed study, culminating with among other things this website. Today, those props that receive provenance, whether they be real or fake, now auction off for big bucks. It is not known with any certainty how many communicator props are still around today and which ones have disappeared into the bottom of history's waste bin. We hope to find out. We hope for the best. Return to Part 1 Return to Part 2