What I’m talking about, or for the uninitiated – Star Trek

I “promised” in a previous post that I would eventually get to this.  The actual concept of a communication device that would fit in the palm of your hand was seen in Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS).  The series ran from 1966-1969.  What took place in this series and the impact of it was well, monumental and has been the subject of many, many different scholarly and fan treatises.

The object – an “Original” Communicator

Why

Many years ago, my wife and I purchased the thing that, at the time, my son wanted most – a replica of the Star Trek TOS communicator.  He was literally fascinated with it.  He was going to be a Klingon (Worf) for holloween.  He had gone as far as to learn Klingon to the extent he could speak it.  We had gone out to Ruby’s in Queens to purchase the appropriate costume.  He even had a headmask to complete  the outfit.  This was the “pièce de résistance,” the communicator.

The Communicator itself

The communicator is, at least in my eyes, a thing of beauty.  I found it lying in a drawer some years ago with the batteries still in it leaking battery acid and the leads slightly corroded.  My inner geek jumped out and I found myself carefully cleaning the communicator.  I disposed of the batteries in the proper way (a quick trip to Home Depot).  Then there was the matter of cleaning the entire battery department.  With a lot of Q-Tips and rubbing alcohol, I went to work.  It took nearly an entire weekend, but in the end the 20 year old device was working again.

A setback

There was a small snag.   When the Communicator was in full working condition, it had a working calculator and a working clock in it.  I have, so far, been unable to get these to work again.  At this writing, I believe these items are using a different battery, or different batteries.  I am a little leery of seeing if I can fix this, because I am afraid of completely breaking the item.

There are images and videos of this particular item all over the web.  But to be clear, this is not the Bluetooth version, it is the 1998 paramount version.Below and in the featured image are pictures I took of this item.

The first video I found about this particular item is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jyYivxM3GU.