Normally I don’t do TV shows on this blog, but since I love the original Star Trek and there were these nice old machines to identify, I made an exception...
The basic premise of the episode is that Captain Kirk and the gang go to a planet and discover a culture who have adopted a way of life based on a book on gangsters of the 1920s, accidentally left behind by previous visitors from Earth.
At one point, Kirk and the gang are captured and put “on ice” in a warehouse under guard, amongst some dusty pinball and slot machines.
These tables are from 1941 and 1952... talk about major pinball anachronism! Pinball as we know it didn’t quite exist yet in the 20s... they were still bagatelles with no flippers, and weren’t even coin-operated until the early 30s, let alone electric.
Anyway, this is not the place to get into a detailed history of pinball or be overly critical, since this is after all a science fiction story set not in the 1920s, but in 2268!
What we spot here on the left are a couple of Majors - 1941 (Chicago Coin, 1941), one of them very dusty, as well as a Twenty Grand (Williams, 1952) closest to the crew...
Kirk about to create a diversion, with the Twenty Grand visible over his shoulder... BTW, it had flippers, which only started appearing on pinball tables in 1947 :-)...
After a brief explanation of the game of “Fizzbin”, a fight breaks out. In the wider shot, we can see a third Majors - 1941 machine on the right...
As Spock and ‘Bones exit, we get a closer look at the flipperless Majors - 1941...
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