This is a perfect companion piece to my Mark VII science tricorder, and brings me one step closer to finishing my collection of all of the tricorders used throughout the entire run of post TOS trek.
A few interesting things to note about this piece. The graphics are brown! That’s right, the main color of the background on the graphics is a fairly bright brown. Very interesting. I had always thought that the graphics were always gray, but it appears that I was wrong. I’m still researching the origins of this exact piece, so more information may be available soon.
This tricorder seems to have seen a bit more action than my Mark VII. The main body is a tiny bit separated at the top, by the scanner. There’s also a booger at the bottom of the main face, in between the hinges. Looks like this is just a place where the two pieces came in contact once too often.
Also of interest is the wire running from the main body to the lid. I didn’t notice any such wire on the Mark VII, but it looks like they powered the ID light by running a line straight out of the upper body. The bottom of the lid and body are painted black, which is different from my Mark VII which has two vinyl pieces covering the hinge works.
As each tricorder was hand made, it is no wonder that there is variation between the various pieces. I’m confident that techniques and materials changed and improved over time, resulting in quite different renderings of the prop.
I have not yet isolated which episode this was used in, but there are some notable tells that might help me out. The only thing I’m lacking is good screen grabs. I actually have a suspicion that this very tricorder is shown on Ed Maireki’s website, the man who built many (if not all) of the early tricorders for post TOS trek shows.
Download a windows mpg movie of my tricorder in action.
And for the morbidly curious, here's a nice pic of the guts of my Mark VI, and another.
