The first thing that popped into my head when I recognized it for what it was was that someone had found it in a box of paraphernalia! Either from one of the failed shows or a box of Gene Roddenberry's effects, I am assume this happened after his death but I could be wrong!
Someone probably had the idea of throwing a piece of Roddenberry history into an episode, Voyager as it happened, and see who notices!
I would hope that they copied the original and re-dressed it! After all Star Trek is famous for reusing any prop any where! A great example of that is ENTERPRISE which had several props from TNG, DS9 & VOY appear with new paint jobs, different details or other, more drastic, modifications!
Who nows for sure how many other items made it to a ST stage from a failed show! The only thing that gets me now is every time I watch any episode I will be looking for that next piece!
Later all, Petseal
