Here's a "logic module" from ST:Enterprise - http://www.startrekpropauthority.com/2011/10/star-trek-enterprise-logic-module.html http://www.startrekpropauthorit

Here's a "logic module" from ST:Enterprise - http://www.startrekpropauthority.com/2011/10/star-trek-enterprise-logic-module.html http://www.startrekpropauthority.com/2011/10/star-trek-enter... . It's apparently from "In A Mirror, Darkly", where the Terrans from the mirror universe acquired the Constitution-class Federation starship USS Defiant. So it's definitely an homage to the 1960s series. At some point it's hard to know the specific lineage. Consider "Land of the Lost" from the 1970s, which had a control panel of colored crystals: http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20150109000245/villains/images/f/fe/Cryst2.png http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20150109000245/villains/i... They are colored crystals in an array, though unlike the scene from 2001 and the Babylon 5 images you found, these are not slotted. I'm pretty certain there's a book or web site somewhere which goes into the details of the design sense of at Star Trek.