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Re-Used Props - Containers

by Jörg Hillebrand and Bernd Schneider

Cargo Containers and TanksOther Boxes and Bottles

Many props of Star Trek were later modified or even recycled without changes to represent equipment for a different purpose or of another civilization. Here are quite a few examples of containers and bottles of various sizes. Please note that every statement made here should be taken with a grain of salt. There is no need to seek for explanations. Certainly we are not supposed to watch closely enough to notice that the same boxes can be seen just everywhere in the galaxy.

Cargo Containers and Tanks

Cylindrical tanks

The tanks were originally seen on the Regula I research station in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan". They appeared again in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" on Vulcan, behind La Forge in the underground Farpoint Station tunnels in TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint" and on Mordan IV in TNG: "Too Short a Season".

Onion-shaped containers

These characteristic spherical containers show up in the Cardassian labor camp in DS9: "The Homecoming". The prop reappears aboard USS Voyager in VOY: "Learning Curve". We can also see the prop in VOY: "Resistance" on the Alsaurian planet and in VOY: "Unity" on the planet of the Cooperative. The Vori use this design for containers as well as for a generator of unknown purpose. The same prop is utilized on Hirogen ships as a sort of control console.

Later, in Voyager's season 6, the onion-like containers appear on the Brunali planet. The prop can also be seen aboard the ECS Fortunate. The containers were modified to act as parts of the Romulans mine in ENT: "Minefield" and of the deuterium headframes in ENT: "Marauders". Finally, the container appears at the entrance of the mine in ENT: "The Xindi" and in the background, beside the spherical container, in ENT: "Anomaly".

The onion-shaped containers even show up in the new continuity in "Star Trek (2009)". Two of them can be seen on the Narada when Spock and Kirk board the ship towards the end of the movie.

A similarly structured but more angular variant of the container appears on the crashed USS Hiawatha in DIS: "Brother".

Outside the Trek Universe one of these containers shows up in the Firefly episode "War Stories".

Spherical containers

The EPS regulators on DS9 can also be seen at the time portal of Golana (DS9: "Time's Orphan"), where they must have been around for many centuries. The prop can be seen in at least eleven more episodes, most often as freight containers. Only in one of its latest known incarnations as flower pots in ENT: "Oasis" the spheres are used in a similar fashion as originally intended. It is a composter named "Bio Orb".

The round compost containers appeared not only in Star Trek but also in "Babylon 5", "Crusade" and "Galaxy Quest".

Self-replicating mine

Speaking of composters, the self-replicating mine from DS9: "A Call to Arms" showed up in at least six other episodes, each time as cargo containers. In VOY: "Memorial" and ENT: "Favorite Son" there was even a combination of this type of composters and the one above. Most remarkably the containers formed a part of the hull of the Tellarite freighter in ENT: "Bounty".

The former self-replicating mine, just like the other types of containers, also shows up in ENT: "Anomaly" (at the very left edge).

Conical containers

The same containers can be seen in the Genesis cave in "Star Trek II", on Gamma Hromi II in TNG: "The Vengeance Factor", on the Zibalian ship Jovis in TNG: "The Most Toys" and in the illusory future created for Riker in TNG: "Future Imperfect", here allegedly of Romulan origin. This prop was originally a Little Tikes Apollo Space Capsule that was painted to appear less toy-like.

Bolian container & mining drill

The Bolian container from DS9: "Who Mourns for Morn?" was only slightly modified to act as the upper part of a drill on the New Sydney colony in DS9: "Prodigal Daughter".

Trolley

The same trolley is used in mines of many civilizations.

Other Boxes and Bottles

Columns with black top

In TOS: "Dagger of the Mind" (as medical containers), TOS: "The Galileo Seven" (as a transporter test container), TOS: "This Side of Paradise" (as a container on Omicron Ceti III), TOS: "I, Mudd" (on the android planet), TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles" (on K-7) and TOS: "The Enterprise Incident" (in the Romulan cloaking room) we can see the same type of cylindrical columns with a black top. On the three latter occasions they may be air conditioning systems.

Octagonal box

The box for the Albeni meditation crystal that Riker gives to Beata in TNG: "Angel One" is the same that O'Brien uses to transport his spider, as seen in "Realm of Fear".

Plastic suitcase

The Acamarian delegation travels with the same type of suitcase in TNG: "The Vengeance Factor" as Vash in "Captain's Holiday" and Wesley in "Ménage à Troi".

Cylindrical container

Cylinders with an octagonal cross-section could be seem in many episodes of Star Trek, most notably as Starfleet sample containers and transporter test cylinders. Overall, these devices appeared in at least 40 episodes or movies! The prop was made from containers for sonobuoys of the U.S. Navy. A separate article shows all appearances of these containers: Re-Uses of Sonobuoy Containers.

Blue bottle

A blue bottle acts as a Zalkonian data storage device in TNG: "Transfigurations". The same bottle appears on a market place on the Mari homeworld in VOY: "Random Thoughts".

Plasma bottle

Since we could previously see it as a plasma bottle in VOY: "Prototype", Janeway's thermos flask in VOY: "Endgame" probably holds the hottest tea ever. The prop looks like it could be a real thermos flask.

Glass jar

The same glass jar can be seen in the Vidiian lab in VOY: "Phage" and in Voyager's sickbay, for instance in VOY: "Parturition".

Three conical bottles

A set of three conical bottles with the Vidiian antidote in VOY: "Resolutions" can be seen again in "Body and Soul", now in the sickbay of the Lokirrim ship. It appears that the yellow liquid is a permanent filling (or just painted on) because it looks identical in both episodes.

Klingon bloodwine bottle

A bottle that was previously used for Klingon bloodwine can be seen as an Eska bottle in ENT: "Rogue Planet".

Spherical bottle

We can see the same type of a small spherical container in very different times, locations and functions. In real life this device is called a LOX (liquid oxygen) bottle or LOX converter, as it is used especially in older military aircraft.

See Also

Re-Used Props - Miscellaneous Equipment - robots, bulky equipment

Re-Uses of Sonobuoy Containers - U.S. Navy containers in more than 40 episodes and movies

Credits

Some screen caps from TrekCore. Thanks go to Philip Bober and Lin Jingqiu for sightings of containers, to Greg McAvoy for information and pictures of the LOX bottle and to Shawn Havery and Michael Minnick for finding several more props.



Houston We Don't Have a Problem @ Third Wave Design

with more information about the cone-shaped containers



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