Communicator A communicator was a communications device used by many species for person - to - person , inter - ship communications . A communicator could be either an intercom or a hand - held device , the latter of which was also known as a personal receiver and could be used for person - to - ship comunications . Communicators usually transmitted on subspace frequencies . Specifications . Portable communicators were used by Starfleet landing parties and away team s ; occasionally , communicators were used in situations where normal intra - ship communications were inaccessible ( or inadvisable ) , during the 22nd and 23rd centuries . ( , " et al . " ) Employing a flip - top design , a member of Starfleet spoke directly into the device to give commands and speak with other personnel . ( , " et al . " ) Once it was flipped open , it locked onto the originating ship ' s communications system . ( ) The communicator also had a gain control . ( ) " In the alternate reality , Starfleet communicators could also receive text message s . " ( ) In some cases , communicators served purposes beyond basic communication . By 2152 , for instance , the power signature of a Starfleet communicator could be amplified by an inverse carrier wave , making the communicator detectable by sensor s . ( ) For another example , when accessing a computer , the communicator of the person at the terminal logged in the user information , thereby making it possible to trace back who accessed the computer . ( ) Communicators were also often used to allow transporter lock s for beam ing , thus acting as homing transponder s . When used in tandem , two communicators could produce a sonic disruption by using sound beams to create a sympathetic vibration in an unstable object , such as a cliff face . ( ) Usage of a communicator , while receiving and outputting a signal , could be hidden from sensors by triaxilating the signal . ( ) Communicators could be jammed by a security screen , the like of which was employed at the Tantalus Colony . When the screen was deactivated , the communicator signal was enabled . ( ) By the 24th century , these communication devices were integrated into the standard uniform badges and became known as combadge s . Users no longer had to speak directly into the communicator , but rather could activate and deactivate them with the touch of a finger . ( , " et al . " ) Other species also possessed similar communicator devices . ( ; , , , , , , , , , , ; ) An Enolian communicator , for instance , could double as a remote control for handcuffs . ( ) History . The Vulcan s had communicators as early as 1957 . Some of these early Vulcan communicators were among equipment owned by the crew of a . After the vessel crash landed on Earth , the surviving members of the crew secretly used the Vulcan communicators in Carbon Creek , Pennsylvania , a nearby small mining town in the United States of America . ( ) While Andorian Commander Shran was holding personnel from the starship hostage in 2151 , Captain Archer ' s communicator was , after being used by Shran to threaten " Enterprise " , crushed by him , using the Stone of J ' Kah to smash the device to pieces . The destruction of the communicator caused " Enterprise " to lose the signal connecting them . The ship then tried to make contact with Sub - Commander T ' Pol and Commander Charles Tucker , the only other crew members from " Enterprise " who were being held captive along with Archer . However , their communicators were likewise immediately crushed by Shran . ( ) When Captain Archer and Ensign Travis Mayweather were enduring imprisonment at Tandaran Detention Complex 26 in about late 2151 , a communicator was secretly beamed into their cell from " Enterprise " . The device ' s usage was masked , due to " Enterprise " Communications Officer Hoshi Sato triaxilating the signal between the communicator and the ship , though the Tandaran guard s subsequently discovered the device in Mayweather ' s pocket . The Tandarans confiscated the communicator , and because both Mayweather and Archer were resistant to questioning about where they had obtained the device , they were brutalized by the Tandarans . ( ) In 2152 , fears among the " Enterprise " crew arose regarding how a communicator that Lieutenant Malcolm Reed had accidentally left behind on an inhabited planet might affect the evolution of a pre - warp culture on that planet . In an effort to find the device , the communicator ' s power signature was boosted by " Enterprise " . The communicator was finally retrieved , but not without avoiding cultural contamination partly caused by the device . ( ) Kirk and Spock used the communicators ' technique of producing sympathetic vibrations in a cliff face to ward off a party of angry Capellan s on Capella IV in 2267 . ( ) In Starfleet , the flip - top communicators were essentially replaced by 2344 , when combadges instead came into general use . ( ) Background information . Origins . The communicator has shared roots with the universal translator . The " telecommunicator " , the genesis of both these technologies , was originally proposed in the series outline " Star Trek is . . . " and additionally appeared in the story outline for ( both of which are reprinted in " The Making of Star Trek " ) . Although the device was planned to be used for translating all languages into English , the initial draft of " Star Trek is . . . " also described the telecommunicator as " " little more complicated than a small transistor radio carried in a pocket , " " matching a description of Spock ' s communicator from the script of " The Cage " as " transistor radio - size . " Furthermore , the story outline for " The Cage " regarded the telecommunicator as having some of the later - established capabilities of communicators , such as producing " a maximum radio signal " – which is of insufficient strength to completely cut through " a half - mile of solid balsite rock , " but allows a bearing to be obtained ( much like how later communicators enabled transporter locks ) . Communicators aboard the " Enterprise " were also once mentioned in the story outline , though their specifics weren ' t made clear . ( " The Making of Star Trek " , pp . 52 & 60 ) According to the book " " ( p . 147 ) , Gene Roddenberry knew – at the time " Star Trek " s first communicators were designed – that they were too large to be realistic for the future setting of the series , since miniaturization was common at the time and micro - miniaturization was certainly foreseeable for the near future . Since this was not a reality in those days , however , Roddenberry believed the general public would have a better comprehension of communicators that could be more easily seen . The original look of the communicator , as featured in " The Cage " , was designed by Wah Chang . ( " The Art of Star Trek " , p . 13 ) Dave Rossi commented , " " Inside , all you see are these transistors , but the top of the communicator is very reminiscent of the Captain Kirk style communicator . So , they kept some of that and refined it . " " Rossi also described a close - up view showing one of the early communicators as " a great shot . " ( Starfleet Access , TOS Season 1 Blu - ray ) A communicator prop from " The Cage " was subsequently modified to become the neural stimulator ' s remote control from . ( " The Art of Star Trek " , p . 13 ) Wah Chang additionally created the first working model of communicator for the regular episodes of . To achieve the spinning moire effect of this style of communicator in operation , Chang positioned a clear moire transparency atop another moire pattern , the latter of which was powered by a wind - up stopwatch ( no batteries ) . Chang constructed two operational models and eight " dummy " communicators . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 11 / 12 , p . 79 ) He charged Desilu a mere US $ 1 , 019 . 20 for designing and producing these props . ( " " , p . 239 ) The sound produced by the TOS style of communicator was a part of the device ' s success , as Ben Burtt , who designed the sound effects for ' s , explained ; " " The fact that the communicator made a cute little chirping sound , as if it were a little animal talking to you , made it all the more interesting and it sold the idea to the audience that it ' s really a piece of functioning technology . " " ( " Ben Burtt and the Sounds of Star Trek " , BD ) The communicator ' s sound effects were redone by sound editor Douglas Grindstaff in the second season of TOS . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 27 , No . 11 / 12 , p . 85 ) As written in the final draft script of , the Metron communicator that the Metrons provide to Kirk in that episode was to have instead been from his own possession . The script referred to this type of tool as a " transicator device " that was electronic in nature ( as well as using more generic terms for it , such as a " translator - recorder " and a " communicator device " ) , and described the device as " a small box , with dials and gauges . " In common with the Metron communicators of the final episode , these devices were to have been carried in their respective user ' s belt , when not in use . Developments for " Phase II " and early films . The communicator was planned to be slightly revised for the ultimately abandoned series " " . In a memo dated , producer Robert Goodwin proposed that the device still be a " hand communicator , " but updated with several new functions . One of these suggested capabilities was essentially as a conduit of information between a generic tricorder and the " Enterprise " s computer banks , enabling landing parties to remotely utilize the ship ' s profuse analytical equipment . ( " " , pp . 29 & 30 ) Both the idea that the communicator remain as a portable hand tool and its capacity to be operated in conjunction with a tricorder – so that the communicator could transmit information directly into the " Enterprise " computer banks – were adopted into the series ' writers / directors guide . ( " " , p . 96 ) With miniaturization in vogue in the 1970s ( by which point communicators had shrunk to the size of credit cards ) , it was readily apparent that the new communicators could not continue to be as large as they had been in the original series . Gene Roddenberry had various ideas for how to miniaturize the devices . One concept was having them become implants , though someone noted it would look funny to see one of the 23rd century people talking to one of their own elbows . ( " " , p . 147 ) The invention of the wrist communicator was made either shortly before or during the writing of the first - draft script for " In Thy Image " ( which was conceived as the pilot episode of " Phase II " but gradually developed into ) ; that script includes not only a wrist communicator that was said to be flipped open and manually closed but also a hand communicator which was referred to as being " old - style . " ( " " , pp . 126 & 218 ) Wrist communicators were included in " Phase II " on the condition that they looked completely different from ones that Dick Tracy had been using for decades , in comics . Thus , it was decided to keep all the workings of the new communicator on the inside of the wrist , varying from the Dick Tracy device . ( " The Making of Star Trek : The Motion Picture " , p . 147 ) The design for the wrist communicators of " The Motion Picture " was created by Andrew Probert . ( " The Art of Star Trek " , p . 182 ) According to the book " The Making of Star Trek : The Motion Picture " ( p . 147 ) , the film ' s wrist communicators could be used to directly contact the " Enterprise " s main computer , a capacity that is not shown in the movie . These communicators were built by Brick Price Movie Miniatures , to be worn not only by the principal actors but also by dozens of fans who served as extras in a crowded scene on the " Enterprise " s recreation deck . ( " Enterprise Incidents " # 11 , p . 5 ; " " , p . 230 ) Each of the units built for the main characters had four different - colored functioning lights on the faceplate , but these were not built into the props worn by the extras . ( ) Indeed , the units fitting the latter style were only " Cheap $ 1 . 98 Specials . " ( " Enterprise Incidents " # 11 , p . 5 ) The reasoning for these much flimsier and less expensive copies was to avoid overspending the prop budget , since it was inevitable that some of the fan - exclusive props would be lost to seekers of souvenirs . ( " " , p . 230 ) The prototype of the wrist communicator cost US $ 3 , 500 , was battery - operated so it could light up and was used for " insert " , close - up shots . ( " The Making of Star Trek : The Motion Picture " , p . 147 ) 250 communicator props were built , though most of these were the dummy communicators used by extras ; only ten units had functioning lights . ( ) The first time William Shatner used his wrist communicator , he wore the prop backward . Luckily , property master Dick Rubin was on the set at the time and explained the prop to Shatner . ( " The Making of Star Trek : The Motion Picture " , pp . 144 & 145 ) The wrist communicator was replaced by an updating of the TOS design for . ( " The Art of Star Trek " , p . 204 ) " " It ' s an understandable decision , " " commented Michael Okuda , regarding the choice to return to the flip - top style . " " You want to do something that ' s more advanced , and then after you ' ve done it , you realize , ' Oh – we ' ve lost one of our icons . " " ( audio commentary , ) The communicators in " Star Trek II " were overseen by prop master Joe Longo . ( text commentary , " " DVD ) These were essentially recycled walkie - talkie units , stripped of paint and coated with chrome . " " It was what Paramount wanted , " " stated John Zabrucky , whose Modern Props facility created the communicators . " " We had a really great design that we wanted to build , but they were fixed on those things . " " ( " The Making of the Trek Films " , 3rd ed . , p . 29 ) TOS era produced after " Star Trek II " have remained with the flip - top design aspect . For , there was some initial discussion about the possibility of replacing the standard Starfleet communicators with watch - televisions that were available from companies such as Sony Corp . of America . " " But it proved too expensive , " " concluded associate producer Ralph Winter . ( " The Making of the Trek Films " , 3rd ed . , p . 53 ) The Starfleet communicator that was ultimately developed for " Star Trek III " was essentially a sleeker version of the TOS communicator and was designed by Bill George of Industrial Light & Magic . ( text commentary , " " DVD ) The Klingon communicator of the same film was also designed by ILM . ( " The Art of Star Trek " , p . 218 ) The prop for the Klingon variant had a small round feature that , although clearly intended to resemble a tiny microphone , was actually the cutting head of a rotary electric razor . ( text commentary , " Star Trek III : The Search for Spock ( Special Edition ) " DVD ) The prop for the Starfleet communicator from " Star Trek III " was revamped for use in , wherein it was modified to include a large light that could illuminate the communicator grill as well as the face of the actor handling the prop . These communicators were one style of numerous props for Starfleet equipment that , during filming of " Star Trek V " ( or at least amid the shooting of the film ' s interior bar scenes on Nimbus III ) , were supervised by prop masters Don and Kurt Hulett , who kept track of the incoming and outgoing props . ( " " , p . 154 ) TNG redesigns . The Starfleet communicator underwent more changes , in conversion between the original " Star Trek " series and , than either the tricorder or phaser . The design team of TNG initially returned to the idea of wrist communicators and Rick Sternbach drew a number of concept illustrations like that , several of which included a digital watch area . A similar concept ( labeled an " Archer " Com ) was a metallic gray device that covered much of the back of the wearer ' s hand and was attached around both the wrist and middle finger . ( " " , p . 39 ) The first two writers ' bibles for TNG outlined the communicator as being of the wrist design . ( " " 3rd ed . , p . 11 ) Props master Alan Sims commented , " " The earliest idea in TNG was to drop the wrist communicator [ . . . ] because it just didn ' t work for television . " " ( " " , p . 98 ) Next , the producers of TNG considered that the characters of the upcoming series wear an unusually large - scale model of communicator . " " They said that they should hang a communicator right on the uniform just like the police wear today , " " reflected Alan Sims . ( " " , p . 98 ) In accordance with this request , Sternbach created a concept drawing of a large - scale " communications pack " , which was intended to contain multiple wrist communicators . ( " " , p . 40 ) " " That turned out to be too big and not futuristic - looking , " " said Alan Sims . " " You could see police on the street with shoulder communicators so why should that remain the same for three centuries ? They went round and round with the communicator . " " ( " " , p . 98 ) Sternbach recalled , " " At one early production meeting in , we discussed many possible communicator designs , mostly handheld widgets with Starfleet emblems . " " Gene Roddenberry looked at these and , moments later , suggested the conceptual breakthrough of combining the communicator with the Starfleet insignia as a badge . ( ) When John Eaves was assigned the task of updating the communicator for , he – never having seen an episode of TNG but being a loyal fan of the original series – at first mistakenly based the look of the revised configuration on the flip - top communicator of TOS , before he found out that the device ' s appearance had developed since then . ( " " , p . 34 ) Retro designs . For , " Star Trek " fan Steve Horch produced re - creations of TOS - era communicator props . At least three such replicas were built by him . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 29 , Nos . 6 / 7 , p . 77 ; ) During the episode ' s production , Miles O ' Brien actor Colm Meaney had some difficulty with opening his TOS - style communicator prop . " " It kept flipping open and then bouncing closed , " " recalled Walter Koenig , who was on the set at the time . He asked Meaney for the prop , planning to open it for him and hoping that it would stay open thereafter . " " I took it from him , " " continued Koenig , " " and I flipped it open and it stayed open . " " ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 29 , Nos . 6 / 7 , p . 81 ) The same organization was also responsible for creating the communicators of . Owing to the setting of " Enterprise " being around a century earlier than that of TOS , regular usage of flip - top communicators was reintroduced on the later - produced series . ( text commentary , " " DVD ) As nobody wanted the communicators of ENT to be clunkier than a modern cell phone , however , the newly created devices were designed to be more streamlined than their equivalents from TOS . ( text commentary , ENT Season 1 DVD ) Explained executive producer Rick Berman , " " The communicators of Captain Kirk [ . . . ] a hundred years later , were more clumsy than a cell phone is today . So , we had to , sort of , split the difference . " " ( " Broken Bow " audio commentary , ENT Season 1 DVD ) Property master Craig Binkley related , " " Rick and Brannon [ Braga ] wanted [ the new style of communicator ] to flip up , but they wanted it to be very modernistic . " " ( ) The hand - held ENT communicators were Craig Binkley ' s responsibility and were designed by illustrator Jim Martin . ( " Broken Bow " text commentary , ENT Season 1 DVD ) Once Binkley had questioned Rick Berman and Brannon Braga about how they thought the new retro communicators should look different from contemporary cell phones , Martin and Binkley began to conceive of the workings of the futuristic communicators . Binkley recalled , " " There were a lot of concept ideas : Jim would do a lot of illustrations , I ' d throw my two cents in , and Rick and Brannon would zero in on what they ' d like – ' Well , I like this part of the communicator in this sketch , I don ' t like that . " " ( ) Jim Martin ' s work on the updating of the communicator impressed John Eaves , who remarked , " " I so loved [ . . . ] the work he did with the reworking of the communicator and translator props . " " The series ' art department supplied drawings of the communicators to HMS Creative Productions . These illustrations had been repeatedly revised , many times , before Michael Moore – a member of the latter team , who created the Starfleet communicators – viewed them . Besides some " hero " props ( specifically , numerous working models as well as a range of rubber ones ) , several wax communicators were additionally built , early in the series . These were made to break apart easily , to portray Shran smashing them to pieces in . All of the hero communicators had spring - loaded self - opening antenna grids , and each of the working ones had a light - up graphic . These displays were drawn by Robert Mannion and were inspired by on - screen graphics from his own cell phone . In one scene from , the episode ' s final draft script described a Starfleet landing party as using , for ship - to - ship communication , the " suit coms " built into their EV suits , while wearing the lower parts of the suits but not their helmets . However , one of the hand - held communicators are instead used in the final version of that scene . Although one particular writer who was hired onto ENT Season 2 by Brannon Braga tried to fake a foreknowledge of " Star Trek " , a description which the person gave about communicators made it clear they had lied . " " [ It ] was so wrong . It was . . . they put it up to their ear , you know , like a phone or something like that , " " Brannon Braga recalled , laughing . ( " Part One : Call to Arms " , ENT Season 3 Blu - ray special features ) The design of the alternate reality communicator , which debuted in the film , was impacted by the fact that – although the TOS - era communicator had elements that seemed futuristic when the device was initially designed – those same elements had become outdated by the time the film was in pre - production . Prop master Russell Bobbitt recalled , " " I connected with Nokia , their engineers and we asked ourselves , ' What will it be 400 years in the future ? ' We did some conceptual drawings . " " In fact , at least seven different communicator designs were sketched for the film , before the final one was selected . " " We kept bits from the original , like the lid that flips up , " " commented Bobbitt . Although many of the potential designs proposed the inclusion of a glass sphere that would provide a holographic display , this element did not make it into the final design . ( " Star Trek - The Art of the Film " , p . 108 ) Bobbitt and his team went on to build a prototype model that cost US $ 50 , 000 . The " Star Trek " crew also made a communicator prop for scenes set aboard the in 2233 . The " Kelvin " - era communicator had an orange flip - top branded with the ship ' s assignment patch , and a bronze interior resembling its prime reality successors . Props Master Andrew Siegel , who was assigned to work on , considered it fortunate that the previous " Star Trek " movie had redesigned the communicator . As such , this reduced the amount of work that the props department for the new film had to do to update the device . During production on " Star Trek Into Darkness " , though , the communicator props did not escape the danger of breakage . " " There was a dicey moment with a communicator where an actor chose to use it in a way that definitely endangered its longevity , " " remembered Siegel . " " I sweated on that one a little bit , but it all worked out . It actually looks great in the finished scene . " " ( ) As regards the design of Starfleet communicator in , Aaron Harberts described communicators as " super - important [ . . . ] key props " that " nobody wanted to really change . " Cultural impact . The way in which both the TOS - era communicator and its TNG equivalent were operated became pop culture icons , as noted by Alan Sims ; " " The single chest tap became the signature motion of TNG the way the wrist flip became the signature motion of the original series . " " ( " " , p . 98 ) The notes that , when the communicator was first invented in , it appeared to be incredibly advanced and compact , with few believing that " Star Trek " would still be airing when portable cellular phones were invented . Dr . , the inventor of the modern mobile phone , credits the TOS communicator as being his inspiration for coming up with the invention in the 1970s ( when he was a General Manager of Systems at Motorola ) . Stated André Bormanis , " " Some engineer at Motorola thought , ' Hey it ’ d be cool to make this look like the communicator , but we need to make it smaller . Or fold it . You can flip it open like Kirk and Spock did , because that was so cool . " " ( " " , p . 32 ) An exhibit that encompassed information on how the portable phone originated from " Star Trek " was included in " " when it moved to London in October . ( ) An actual TOS - era communicator was also included in the exhibition but was a part of the touring collection from its beginnings in Edinburgh . ( ) Since the 1970s , the influence of the communicator on the mobile phone has continued to become increasingly apparent . For instance , in a interview , Robert Picardo – actor of The Doctor – commented , " " The Motorola flip - phone is simply a communicator turned upside down . " " ( ) In an interview from later that year , Rick Sternbach concurred , " " We ' ve done a number of interviews where the typical comparison is made between the communicator and the pocket flip - phone . They ' re getting very , very close . " " ( ) The text commentary for " " ( written by Michael Okuda in the early 2000s ) comments that the TOS - era communicators " looked a little like present - day cellphones . " In the book " Star Trek - The Art of the Film " ( p . 108 ) , Russell Bobbitt notes , " " Today , everyone has a communicator – it ' s called a cell phone . " " Throughout the 1990s and 2000s , TOS - era communicators were sold by numerous major auction houses , including " Sotheby ' s " , " Butterfield and Butterfield " , " Profiles In History " and " Christies " . Among the items which were sold off on the " It ' s A Wrap ! " sale and auction on eBay was a 22nd century communicator circuit board from the episode , and a Klingon communicator , used in . According to the , in the 24th century , the Klingon communicator had been incorporated into small decorative pins which were worn on a warrior ' s uniform . They were two styles of pins , with the early versions designed by Rick Sternback and the later versions by John Eaves . Steve Horch and others from HMS Creative Productions recreated some of the communicators for display ( such as at " " ) . These included the metallic Starfleet communicators from " Star Trek II " , which incorporated interactive lights and were nickel - plated , and " Star Trek III " , which featured working LED lights as well as sound effects . To recreate the latter style , Steve Horch used a polished brass midplate .