markv@dartvax.UUCP (Mark Vita) (05/15/84)
I think I have the final word on the Salt Shaker Controversy.
Here's a quote from the Great Bird himself, which can be found
on page 176 of "The Making of Star Trek" by Stephen Whitfield
and Gene Roddenberry:
"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 their 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."
Gene Roddenberry
--
Mark Vita
Dartmouth College
{decvax,cornell,linus}!dartvax!markv