Star Trek: The Next Generation, Captain Picard's Desk Isolinear Circuits

replica movie prop

Along with his desk crystal, Picard’s Isolinear Circuits are the second installment in the Picard Desk Set, a collection of objects that appear in countless episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation in the Captain’s Ready Room. Nobody quite knows precisely what purpose these circuits served for Picard, but he often handles them while talking and examines them while thinking, and they could often be seen spread out with a large number of PADDs and desk tools when he was deep into work on a research project—making them one of the most recognizable and frequently seen elements of the Ready Room.

This meticulously accurate Roddenberry.com Legacy Series prop re-creation consists of three pieces of machined acrylic: the two circuits themselves and a holding rack. The circuits are made using the same studio graphics and screen-printing process as the originals, but have an enhanced production method that employes a special solvent-based ink that fuses directly into the plastic, making these graphics more resistant to abrasion than the original props (the graphics were prone to scratching off easily). The edges of the circuits are radiused like the originals, using a delicate vapor-polishing process to render the edges clear after machining. The same vapor polishing process is used to make the outer surfaces of the display rack optically clear.

Contrary to common misconception, the original acrylic circuits were neon pink rather than orange. It is only under bright lights with dark backgrounds that this material appears orange. Similarly, this prop replica appears variously neon pink or neon orange in different lighting environments.