Betazoid gift box

A Betazoid gift box

An opened gift box

The Betazoid gift box was an artifact originating from the planet Betazed that was designed to be given as "bonding gifts" to those who were to be married. The gift box resembled a silver chest, except that it had a seemingly live, humanoid-like face imprinted on its side. This face was capable of speech and movement and could thus be used to convey messages to their recipients.

In 2364, Counselor Deanna Troi received a Betazoid gift box from Steven and Victoria Miller as a wedding gift, as she had been bonded to their son, Wyatt. When the Box was first transported aboard the USS Enterprise-D, it appeared to be in a sleeping state. But when Troi entered the transporter room and spoke, the Box "awakened" and informed Troi that her mother, Lwaxana Troi, and the Millers would soon arrive and that her wedding day was near. With its message delivered, the gift box went back to "sleep". (TNG: "Haven")

The face of the Betazoid gift box was actually Armin Shimerman, who went on to appear as two different Ferengi characters on TNG before playing Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Shimerman later wrote a scene with Quark selling a gift box to a Bolian in his novel The 34th Rule. The Bolian comments that the face on the box looks like Quark, but then decides he must be imagining things.

In a cut scene, it was revealed that Betazoid gift boxes evidently had a variety of "faces" to choose from as Victoria Miller noted that her husband had chosen the "ugliest face imaginable", but Steven defended his decision, believing it to be a face that was "full of character."

External link

• Betazoid gift box at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works