Factory Entertainment Star Trek: The Original Series Catspaw Enterprise Prop Replica Review
There isn’t much to review with this prop replica. Anyone who loves the original Star Trek series will know this beautiful block of acrylic from the spooky Halloween episode “Catspaw” anywhere (more here on Memory Alpha for those who need it). And they will just say, “Thank you” to Factory Entertainment for recreating an item their childhood selves could never imagine owning.
As the intrepid crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise descends on Phyris VII, a ghastly death before the first break portends more than the demise of another red-shirted day player. Phyris VII, it turns out, is the domain of Korob and Sylvia, two seemingly human residents who sport spooky wardrobes that lean purposefully into Halloween.
Captain Kirk, attempting to rescue crewmen who have turned into enraptured avatars, projects his full swagger as he threatens an invasion of landing parties. How does one get Kirk to stand down? Put his ship in danger. Sylvia enshrines the Enterprise in a force field of a kind never encountered. A physical manifestation appears in Sylvia’s hand. A tiny Enterprise sits inert in a block of mysterious transparent material, dangling from a chain, precariously close to a candle flame.
And that is what Factory Entertainment has delivered: arguably an aluminum U.S.S. Enterprise in a block of plastic, but it is so much more. The company that makes screen-quality starship models and world-class props from across science fiction and horror genres encapsulates that iconic moment where the Enterprise and her crew seem threatened, not just by technology, but by supernatural powers.
The 4.25″ x 2″ x 1.5” 2024 Comic-Con premiered prop replica comes in a display box that includes an image of Enterprise pendulously suspended above a candle flame while Sylvia gloats over her power and entreats Captain Kirk to acquiesce to her demands. The 1:1 scale prop replica features a screen-accurate aluminum Enterprise miniature sealed in a clear acrylic block from which a metal chain protrudes. Simple and elegant, like all magic should be.
Top of the Factory Entertainment Catspaw Enterprise (courtesy of Factory Entertainment) 
The Factory Entertainment Catspaw Enterprise (courtesy of Factory Entertainment) 
Bottom of the Factory Entertainment Catspaw Enterprise (courtesy of Factory Entertainment) 
Front of the Factory Entertainment Catspaw Enterprise (courtesy of Factory Entertainment) 
Factory Entertainment Catspaw Enterprise Collector’s Box (courtesy of Factory Entertainment)
The 9.8 ounce captured Enterprise is a collector’s item that evokes personal memories. In this age of AI, where content often arrives via an amorphous amalgamation of all things that can be explicitly known, items like the “Catspaw” Enterprise remind us that humans feel, that we connect memories not just to knowledge but to moments, and those moments can be made visceral through physical objects. Something today’s AIs will never experience, a construct they cannot fathom except through the imprecision of verbal recollections. Though I have watched “Catspaw” dozens of times, I only imagined that I could hold that iconic version of the Enterprise in my hands. Even now that I can hold it in my hands and experience the touch and feel, the weight and the movement of this artfully engineered Star Trek replica, the wonder remains.
The Science of Science Fiction: Magic and Force Fields
Even in his most disastrous scripts, Gene Roddenberry and company attempted to render magic a manifestation of technology beyond understanding. Mr. Chekov started poking at the mystical force field, proving that while not well understood, that it was indeed not really magic.
Force fields, unlike magic, straddle a fascinating line between scientific plausibility and imaginative folly. While the idea of an energy-based barrier has roots in real physics—drawing on concepts like electromagnetic fields and plasma confinement—actual implementation remains far beyond current technology (keep in mind that Star Trek had force fields and related technology like tractor beams; they just didn’t have the power to encase a starship, especially when no source of the field was ascertainable).
Force fields often serve as a dramatic plot device, offering instantaneous protection against physical threats, from laser blasts to meteoroids―or as weapons designed to restrict or confine. The technical challenges of generating, sustaining, and controlling such a barrier, especially one impervious to diverse forms of energy or matter, expose its fantastical nature. This duality—grounded in theoretical physics yet unconstrained by it—makes force fields a quintessential science fiction trope, both awe-inspiring and charmingly improbable.
Factory Entertainment provided the Catspaw Enterprise for review. Images courtesy of Factory Entertainment unless otherwise noted.
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