Star Trek TOS Phaser-Controlled Rock Mood Light

Let’s chat about “The Enemy Within” from Star Trek: The Original Series. Everybody focuses on the dog. Or how Other Kirk treats Yeoman Rand. But we’re here to remember Mister Sulu’s situation: with Alfa 177 headed for 120° below zero, he and the landing party are stuck on the planet with nothing but blankets, phasers, and rocks. So you know what we’re in for: huddling under blankets next to rocks superheated by phasers.

And while rocks can hold heat for a while which is what makes hot stone massage so relaxing, in our own attempts we haven’t managed to make one hot enough to glow. But we do have the next best thing: a “rock” that glows when you point a “phaser” at it.

It’s a rock-shaped shell with an LED inside that comes with an I/R remote shaped like a Type-1 phaser. What that means is that in Survival mode, you can fire your phaser at this rock and it will glow red. Not hot. You’ll have to use your imagination there. And as soon as you stop firing, it dims. Just like on the show.

But wait. There’s more. We predict the Atmosphere mode will make you say, “Oh my!” With five different settings, you can choose to have your rock glow one color, cycle through colors, glow with maximum brightness, or dim over a period of ten minutes to allow you to drift peacefully off to sleep and have sweet dreams of boldly going where no one has gone before.