You’ve seen it in Star Trek II. You’ve seen it in Airplane 2 and The Last Starfighter. You’ve seen it in countless Star Trek TV episodes from The Next Generation’s first season onward, V, the early ’90s iteration of The Flash, Alien Nation, Buck Rogers, Babylon 5, Knight Rider, The X-Files, MacGyver, and dozens of others. Since it’s a rented prop piece, it’s never foregrounded in the story (except in Airplane 2, in which William Shatner’s character has an entire scene in which he wonders what the hell the thing does), but frequently makes a great thing for the camera to pan past whenever it shows up. It had two transparent tubes full of red neon lights, turning on and off in sequence, powered by a lowly 555 timer. It’s the Most Important Device In The Universe. And now it sits on my desk, something which almost certainly requires some explanation.
The original prop was a massive original piece designed in-house at Modern Props, a massive piece of construction built on top of a cabinet with casters; in the Modern Props catalog, it was item #195-290-1, described as “a dual medical / lab / control room generator with rotating neon lights inside an acrylic tube; light-controlled panel with knobs and buttons.” There were actually two tubes. I’ve tried repeatedly to track down when the thing was built and its first chronological on-screen use, even to the point of trying to contact Modern Props founder John Zabrucky himself, to no avail. Part of the reason behind Modern Props’ closure in 2019 was because he wanted to retire; in hindsight, the timing was probably fortuitous, as the lengthy shutdown of production in Hollywood through much of 2020 probably would have killed Modern Props, just a year later – and probably without the advance warning that clients and employees got from the 2019 closure.
Oh… yeah. That thing.
But that’s the real thing. The 3-D printed version of the “generator with rotating neon lights” is a sturdy prop that’s scaled, ideally, for the 4-inch Playmates Star Trek figures of the 1990s. Props and set pieces for that figure range are a big part of what Triple-Fiction Productions offers, with items ranging from handheld props and small to medium sized set pieces to complete diorama sets. Triple-Fiction is very much a fannish endeavor, with the availability of items fluctuating depending on how recently they’ve done a production run of a certain piece. (At the time of this writing, the Most Important Device In The Universe is not currently available, though quite a few items make a comeback after being “out of print” for a while; others are labeled up front as strictly limited editions. The Device was last available in February 2022.)
As an action-figure-scaled item goes, it’s solid and a bit heavy. It displays the striations that give away its 3-D printed nature, but for the most part, the eye is going to be drawn to the fact that it actually works. Red LEDs at either end of the two tubes flash in a random pattern, giving a nice approximation of what the original prop is famous for. The battery compartment that powers the lights is connected by a wire, all of which tucks up into the base; the on/off switch is on the battery compartment. As if the scaling to a long-discontinued range of figures wasn’t enough of a clue, the delicate nature of the battery system should be a big one: this sits on the high shelf, not where the kids can grab it.
And while it’s great for those Playmates Star Trek figures, it’s acceptable alongside 3.75″ figures. The original prop was not a small piece of furniture; it’s fine (maybe just a tiny bit oversized) with smaller figures.
With larger figures – using the 5.5″ Character Options Doctor Who action figures as an example here – it begins to look decidedly undersized. For 6″ figures (think Black Series) or larger, it begins to look a bit silly. It might be a good “forced perspective” background item behind larger scale figures, but putting them right next to it will kind of overpower what is otherwise a really nice little prop.
The Most Important Device In The Universe is a delightful little piece to have on hand for one’s figures to have something to interact with; any criticism of Triple-Fiction Production’s output should probably be mitigated by the fact that they’re producing items that Playmates never got around to making or wouldn’t have made. The price tags frequently reflect the custom-made, non-mass-produced nature of the items, some of which are quite affordable and others of which are outside my price range by a pretty good margin. They make something for just about everybody… and this is one of those things. Smart money says that the best chance the Device has of resurfacing in their lineup will be somewhere between Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2022 (apologies to anyone who’s reading this years after the fact).
It wouldn’t offend me in the slightest if further tributes to the Modern Props catalog were in the works – that also-used-in-many-productions giant green radar screen? I would be so in on that.