In one of the last episodes of season one of Star Trek: The Original Series, the Enterprise arrives at Janus VI, where an unknown monster is destroying machinery and killing the miners, threatening the entire mining operation. The monster turns out to be a Horta and after his mind meld with the creature, Spock discovers that every 50,000 years the entire race of Horta dies, except for one creature who remains to protect the eggs and act as their mother. When the miners broke into the hatchery, it just fought back the only way it knew.
On the ornament, press the button to hear dialogue from the episode featuring voice clips of Leonard Nimoy as Spock and William Shatner as Kirk.
William Shatner wrote in his memoirs that "The Devil in the Dark" was his favorite original Star Trek episode. He thought it was "exciting, thought-provoking and intelligent, it contained all of the ingredients that made up our very best Star Treks." Shatner's father died during its filming, but he insisted on going through with production, and felt closer to the cast and crew for helping him through the difficult time.