"Spare me the analysis, Mr. Spock, please? It's enough that it works."
A microscope was a scientific instrument designed to allow the viewing of things too small to be seen by normal Human vision. It used a system of lenses and mirrors to magnify an object many times more than it actually was.
The apothecary Riaan, an Akaali, used two microscopes in her apothecary shop when Jonathan Archer and T'Pol, disguised as Akaali, visited her. (ENT: "Civilization")
Doctor Phlox usually used a microscope on board Enterprise NX-01. (ENT: "Terra Nova", "Silent Enemy", "The Catwalk", "Regeneration", et al.)
When sickbay first appears in ENT: "Demons", a microscope in the room was scripted to be in use by Phlox when Archer, T'Pol, Tucker and Reed arrived. Although a microscope is shown in the final version of that scene, it is not used by Phlox.
A microscope of the same type as seen aboard Enterprise was also in use in the infirmary aboard the Earth Cargo Service freighter ECS Fortunate in 2151. (ENT: "Fortunate Son")
The Arctic Archaeology Team used a microscope where they found nanoprobes. (ENT: "Regeneration")
Dr. Arik Soong used a microscope in a lab aboard Malik's Bird-of-Prey in 2154. (ENT: "The Augments")
Klingon scientist Antaak used a microscope during examinations he conducted. At one point in 2154, Phlox used Antaak's microscope to see Augment DNA was present in a particular Klingon virus. (ENT: "Affliction")
In a laboratory on Miri in 2266, Doctor Leonard McCoy used a microscope to analyze tissue samples from diseased members of a landing party which was visiting the planet and included himself. At one point, Spock, who was also in the landing party, referred to the microscope as "a museum piece" and started to describe its specifications, though McCoy interrupted him with an irritated request to be spared the analysis, simply satisfied that the apparatus worked. (TOS: "Miri")
Doctor Noonien Soong had a microscope in a series of laboratories he used on Omicron Theta, rooms which were visited by an away team from the USS Enterprise-D in 2364. (TNG: "Datalore")
Doctor Katherine Pulaski kept a microscope in her office aboard the Enterprise-D when she signed on her duty. (TNG: "The Child")
The Darwin Genetic Research Station on Gagarin IV, headed by Doctor Kingsley, used microscopes in their investigations. (TNG: "Unnatural Selection")
Science labs aboard Galaxy-class starships had microscopes. Wesley Crusher used one while doing experiments on nanites. (TNG: "Evolution")
Marla Aster kept an old microscope in her house on Earth. (TNG: "The Bonding")
The medical laboratory aboard the Enterprise-D was equipped with a microscope. (TNG: "True Q")
In 2370, Lieutenant Commander Data created a microscope using multiple lenses when he was stranded on Barkon IV, a planet with a pre-warp civilization. Data's impetus for creating the device was to use it to research radiation sickness that was spreading among the planet's inhabitants. (TNG: "Thine Own Self")
Doctor Julian Bashir used a microscope in the infirmary on Deep Space 9 in 2369 when he examined DNA probes he had collected aboard a Bajoran transport. (DS9: "A Man Alone")
Lieutenant Jadzia Dax used a microscope, which was combined with a probe analyzer and a computer display, to search a probe she had taken from under Rao Vantika's fingernails. Dax found a microscopic generator Vantika had used to transfer his consciousness into another person shortly before he died. (DS9: "The Passenger")
Doctor Julian Bashir used a microscope to identify a shapeshifting locket Odo had received from Rakhari individual Croden. (DS9: "Vortex")
Captain Kathryn Janeway kept a six-hundred-year-old microscope among the decoration of her ready room on board the USS Voyager. Her grandfather had gifted it to her during her childhood. (VOY: "Caretaker", "Parallax", "The Cloud", "Eye of the Needle", "Ex Post Facto", "Prime Factors", "Hunters", "Counterpoint")
Exactly the same prop was later seen in Phlox's quarters aboard Enterprise in the episode "The Breach".
See also[]
- Microscope laser
- Nano-imaging camera
- Portable electronic microscope
- Proton microscope
- Scope
- Telescope
Background information[]
In the first draft script of TOS: "Charlie X", a microscope was used by Captain Kirk. However, in a memo from Robert H. Justman to Gene Roddenberry (dated 7 June 1966), Justman suggested omitting the microscope, commenting, "I wish we could […] as I don't want to have to design and construct what would appear to be a microscope of the future."
Senior Illustrator Rick Sternbach made a sketch for an electronic microscope for use by Doctor Bashir in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Vortex". The prop was not built but Sternbach showed the sketch in the DS9 Season 1 DVD special feature "Deep Space Nine Sketchbook".