While researching the not-to-be-viewed Starfleet Heavy Shuttle I found a link to an even more enigmatic trio of photographs to churn my imagination since. I can't locate the hosting site anymore (not to mention the photographer) so I have no way of following up on them. If you can identify this object please help with a contact.

The pictures show a wood packing crate about three feet square and two feet high, lid lifted by a broom-handle wide enough to peer inside. The crate is unmarked except for a simple "STAR TREK" hand-marked on the front, and contains a starship bridge in miniature resembling a child's playset. But this bridge has never been seen! The model is "complete" in that it contains a full circle of stations, two side-mounted double-panel red doors, and a bright lime-colored viewscreen. The consoles are tinted blue-green overall, and two similarly colored handrails mount the deck in front of the doors.

In layout and shape it strongly suggests the NCC-1701-A bridge as seen in Star Trek:VI. (The helm console sits on shaped, stepped platforms that make overhead identification easy.) Beyond that however the bridge consoles bear graphics that look nothing like TUC. The viewscreen frame does not have an obnoxious LED clock and changes color gradually in height until it's completely white at the top just like the decks. There is no captain's chair in the model (nor forward stairs) and only one crew chair, one that has fallen over. There also aren't any stairs or forward railing where one would expect them. With no obvious LEDs the model does not appear to be "electrified" at all.

In construction I'm told it looks like a movie production tool used for staging shots. Though it resembles a toy it wouldn't be fun since the steep inside would be like playing in a cramped bowl. Having said that, around the outside of the bridge yet inside the crate are several brightly colored, bubble-packed containers highly suggestive of action figure packaging.

My first thought after the recent toy shows was this might be a new bridge for the upcoming movie. I didn't hear about any bridge set though, only a transporter room with a distinctive red floor. Lacking a better explanation it seems to be a relic then, tucked in a box for some strange reason (Christies?) and photographed in an inexplicably furtive manner. I can't yet answer this mystery, except that it makes me sad such a tiny triumph of caring work lies unseen in a crate.