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Memory Alpha
Multiple realities
(covers information from several alternate timelines)
Arik Soong in restraints

Magnetized restraints in 2154

"Cuff him!"
– James T. Kirk, 2259 (Star Trek Into Darkness)

Handcuffs, manacles, or shackles – known colloquially as irons or cuffs – were a type of restraint that limited an individual's wrist movement. Occasionally, they were additionally used to secure the person's ankles.

In 1944 of an alternate timeline, Jonathan Archer wore handcuffs while being transferred by Nazis through a wooded area in Nazi-occupied New York, in a truck. Later, handcuffs were used to imprison Charles Tucker III and Travis Mayweather, shortly after they were captured by the Nazis. (ENT: "Storm Front")

After imprisonment in 2144 and following several escape attempts, Doctor Arik Soong was made to wear magnetized restraints to restrict his movement. (ENT: "Borderland")

In script sources, this pair of handcuffs was established as electromagnetic.

When Captain Jonathan Archer and Sub-commander T'Pol were discussing the proper handling of relocating the Novans, Archer asked T'Pol ironically if he should put them in chains to which T'Pol replied, that she was sure, Mister Reed could provide appropriate restraints. (ENT: "Terra Nova")

Archer shackled to the wall

Captain Archer in Ferengi shackles

In 2151, a team of Ferengi successfully subdued the crew of Enterprise NX-01 and boarded the ship with the intent of stealing anything of value. After they were unable to locate a vault aboard the craft, they revived Captain Jonathan Archer to question him, but not before handcuffing him to a hand hold in one of Enterprise's launch bays, to prevent his escape. Thereafter, one of the Ferengi, Krem, uncuffed Archer so he could carry goods from Enterprise onto the Ferengi ship but later shackled him to another hand hold in a corridor aboard Enterprise in order to bring him some food and a drink from the vessel's mess hall. While Krem was gone, Commander Tucker covertly tried to release Archer's bonds with a small lock pick but doing so proved too difficult and Krem soon returned. He again took the shackles off Archer, so he could continue the manual labor. When Archer refused to do any more work, Krem once again handcuffed him to a hand-hold. Sub-Commander T'Pol thereafter stole the key to the shackles from Krem and eventually freed Archer, him ordering her to "open these things." Except for Krem, all the Ferengi were subsequently shackled aboard their own ship as it departed from Enterprise. (ENT: "Acquisition")

In the final draft script of "Acquisition", the Ferengi handcuffs were consistently referred to as "shackles". Also, T'Pol was scripted, after freeing Archer from them, to use Krem's shackles to secure an unconscious Krem to a hand hold, she having applied a Vulcan nerve pinch to him.

After Menos was finally captured, he was shackled, in an outpost on a moon of Pernaia Prime, by his captors: Captain Archer, Sub-Commander T'Pol, and Ensign Travis Mayweather. When Menos started a fire inside the outpost, T'Pol took off his manacles. She was about to refasten them round his wrists when he managed to escape. (ENT: "The Seventh")

Enolian handcuffs - 2152

Enolian handcuffs in 2152

Enolian handcuffs had built-in pain receptors which could be activated by remote control. In 2152, Captain Archer was captured by the Enolians and placed in handcuffs of this kind. (ENT: "Canamar")

The glowing-when-active style of these high-tech shackles was referred to in the script for "Canamar", which also specified it was to be depicted with "a practical effect" rather than using, for example, CGI. The script also stated about the restraints, "They afford the prisoner some arm movement, but not much." In the same script, the Enolian restraints were initially described as being secured around the ankles as well as the wrists. However, this isn't the case in the final version of the episode.
Similarly, Klingon shackles were scripted to appear in ENT: "Judgment" (as evidenced by a single reference in that episode's final draft script), though they are not depicted in the final version of that installment. [1]

In 2153, Archer admitted to Phlox that he himself hadn't been "looking forward to throwing [Phlox] in irons," after he and the physician were in dispute over the medical care of Hudak. (ENT: "The Breach")

In 2155 of the mirror universe, T'Pol wore metallic-looking handcuffs while being interrogated by Jonathan Archer in the briefing room onboard the USS Defiant. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II")

In a scene description from the final draft script of "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II", these handcuffs were said to be magnetic.

In 2256, prisoners Psycho, Cold, Stone, and Michael Burnham wore handcuffs between their ankles and wrists while aboard prison shuttle SPT 21. When their pilot was accidentally killed, the four prisoners struggled to remove their shackles, and by the time they were led off the shuttle into the shuttlebay of the USS Discovery by that ship's crew, the prisoners were no longer wearing their handcuffs. (DIS: "Context Is for Kings")

In 2257 of the mirror universe, Gabriel Lorca wore a set of handcuffs while Burnham couriered him, via shuttlecraft, to the ISS Charon and presented him, aboard that ship, to Emperor Georgiou. He continued to wear the handcuffs as a pair of the emperor's guards carried him to Brig C aboard the Charon, where the guards released him from the cuffs as they loaded him into an agonizer. (DIS: "Vaulting Ambition")

Shortly thereafter, Burnham herself wore a pair of handcuffs when Emperor Georgiou's guards brought her to stand before the emperor in her throne room, as the emperor planned to execute Burnham for treason but decided against this, assassinating multiple lords of the Terran Empire. Burnham was freed from her handcuffs shortly thereafter. (DIS: "Vaulting Ambition")

Khan in handcuffs

Khan Noonien Singh in handcuffs

In 2259 of the alternate reality, Khan Noonien Singh was handcuffed after surrendering to Captain Kirk and party on Qo'noS and was placed in the USS Enterprise's brig. Afterwards, he was moved to sickbay still handcuffed. (Star Trek Into Darkness)

In 2268, Captain James T. Kirk threatened to hold Federation Undersecretary in Charge of Agricultural Affairs Nilz Baris "in irons" if he did not shut up and cease his complaints about Kirk's actions at Deep Space Station K-7. (TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles")

A gag scene was filmed during the production of TOS: "Spock's Brain", showing Leonard Nimoy in handcuffs, with a prop gun pointed at him, holding a newspaper with the headline, "Spock gets 2-year prison term". Psychologist Benjamin Spock was sentenced to prison after encouraging draft evaders and claiming the Vietnam War to be anti-constitutional on 11 July 1968, during the filming of the episode. [2]
Kirk and McCoy are placed in Klingon handcuffs, 2293

Kirk and McCoy are placed in Klingon handcuffs

In 2293, Klingon General Chang ordered the arrest of Captain Kirk and Doctor Leonard McCoy for the assassination of Chancellor Gorkon. They were subsequently placed in handcuffs until their trial. However, it was later revealed that Chang had orchestrated the whole event, and they were released, cleared of all charges. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)

Turkana IV Alliance handcuffs

Turkana IV Alliance handcuffs being removed using a phaser

In 2367, Tan Tsu and the pilot of the Federation freighter Arcos was captured by the Turkana IV Alliance, following the destruction of their ship over the planet. The Alliance placed them in handcuffs incorporating a solid metal bar in between each cuff, until they were removed by an away team from the USS Enterprise-D. (TNG: "Legacy")

Tahna Los was handcuffed to the front by a Bajoran deputy, following his attempt to destroy the entrance to the Bajoran wormhole, in 2369. (DS9: "Past Prologue")

Later that year, Constable Odo handcuffed his Rakhari prisoner Croden to the rear for transport to his homeworld in the Gamma Quadrant, aboard the runabout USS Ganges. Odo later released the cuffs in order to elicit Croden's help in escaping a pursuing Miradorn raider piloted by Ah-Kel. (DS9: "Vortex")

In 2372, during the Julian Bashir, Secret Agent holoprogram, Doctor Bashir, as Patrick Merriweather, used his charm to convince Doctor Honey Bare, who was imbued with the body of Jadzia Dax due to a transporter accident, to give him her hairpin. He then used it to undo handcuffs binding him and Elim Garak at the time. (DS9: "Our Man Bashir")

In 2373, Captain Benjamin Sisko forced Maquis leader Michael Eddington to accompany him in a Danube-class runabout to stop several missiles that were supposedly heading for Cardassian space. During their time on the runabout, the captain ensured Eddington remained in his handcuffs, though later took them off him during a firefight with Jem'Hadar forces. (DS9: "Blaze of Glory")

In 2374, following Ishka's capture by Dominion forces, Starfleet handed over the Vorta Keevan to a Ferengi rescue team comprising Quark, Rom, Nog, Brunt, and Leck in order to exchange him for Ishka. During the journey from Deep Space 9 to the site of the exchange on Empok Nor, Keevan remained firmly handcuffed to the front. Similarly, Ishka was also restrained in irons prior to the exchange. (DS9: "The Magnificent Ferengi")

Bashir in handcuffs

Bashir is released from his restraints before being placed in a holding cell

Later that year, Doctor Julian Bashir was handcuffed and paraded down the Promenade of Deep Space 9 to the security office, during Luther Sloan's holographic recreation of the station. The holographic representation of Captain Sisko protested, claiming a Starfleet officer shouldn't be dragged across the Promenade in irons. (DS9: "Inquisition")

B'Elanna Torres was put into manacles by the Mari Constabulary when she was brought into a reorientation facility to receive an engramatic purge. (VOY: "Random Thoughts")

In 2375, Ezri Dax had a nightmare about Hector Ilario, who had recently been murdered, being led down a corridor on Deep Space 9 in handcuffs by Odo. (DS9: "Field of Fire")

In 2376, following the apprehension of Crewman Noah Lessing for his participation in a scheme to use nucleogenic lifeforms as fuel for the USS Equinox, Captain Kathryn Janeway had him placed in handcuffs and held in the USS Voyager's cargo bay, where he was subject to interrogation. (VOY: "Equinox, Part II")

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