10 Origins Of Star Trek Props You Won't Believe
5. Horta Eggs
The iconic silicon-based lifeform, the Horta was introduced in the Original Series episode, The Devil In The Dark. The costume for the creature was made without a clear purpose but, according to The World Of Star Trek, producer Gene Coons loved the design of it so much that he decided to base an entire episode around this weird, rocky monster.
In the episode a Federation mining colony requests help from the Enterprise to deal with the Horta, which has been killing dozens of miners. Eventually we learn that the Horta was actually defending itself against the miners who were destroying its eggs, mistaking them for rocks.
After creating the Horta costume and the cave set, the budget must have been pretty low, so when it came time for the prop department to design the Horta's eggs, they decided to make them out of a bunch of plastic children's bouncing balls covered in gold paint. The spherical shape of the eggs is interesting but makes one wonder how the miners could ever mistake them for normal rocks.