Why Star Trek Made San Francisco the Center of Its Futuristic Utopia

[yuiyoshida]

IT GOES WITHOUT saying that Star Trek and Silicon Valley share a special bond: one is a fictional world full of technological wonders; the other is the nerve center of the industry actively making those futuristic technologies real. Smartphones and tablets and voice search all entered the national imagination through Star Trek, not to mention the wearable devices and driverless vehicles we can look forward to in the coming months and years. But the affinity between these two institutions runs much deeper than mere gadgets. Both have deep Bay Area roots, for overlapping reasons.

San Francisco serves, in Star Trek’s fictional universe, as the site of Starfleet Command – the headquarters of the good guys – and despite all the time they spend boldly going where no one has gone before, the Enterprise and its sister ships make it back home surprisingly often. (In Star Trek Into Darkness, the franchise’s latest outing, the crew spends nearly half the film in the city). The Golden Gate Bridge is a valuable asset in a sci fi series like Star Trek, since it signals to the audience that our heroes are conducting business on Earth and not some alien world. The Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower could serve this function just as well, but San Francisco has a few additional winning qualities that other cities lack.

Perhaps the most attractive thing about San Francisco from Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s point of view was its significance to the U.S. Navy. Roddenberry himself was a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and was ferried from California to the Pacific theater by Navy vessels, so he was well aware of San Francisco’s shipyards.

“The reason the Enterprise looks so realistic, even though it’s futuristic, is that there’s certainly these trappings of the Navy,” said John Tenuto, a sociology professor at Illinois’ College of Lake County who studies the production of Star Trek. “Although Roddenberry has a sort of progressive view of the future, those military experiences certainly appeared in Star Trek and shaped it.” Indeed, naval traditions permeate the show, from Starfleet’s ranking system to the boatswain’s whistle ahead of ship-wide announcements to burying lost crewmen at space.

Matt Jefferies, the legendary art director who designed the original Enterprise and many of its iconic sets (and the inspiration for Jefferies Tubes), was an Air Corps veteran like Roddenberry and together they drew inspiration from the Navy in establishing the new show’s design aesthetic.It’s not surprising, then, that the city’s very first mention in the Trek universe, spotted by eagle-eyed fans of The Original Series, was on a dedication plaque which says that the Starship Enterprise was constructed in a San Francisco shipyard just like its nautical predecessors.

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https://www.wired.com/2013/05/star-trek-san-francisco/

[MicaelS]

1. That point about Starfleet being

The Federation's "Coast Guard" is rubbish. Always has been, no matter how Roddenberry tried to twist it. You don't give your Coast Guard weapons capable of devastating a planet's surface. Starfleet is The Federation's military plain and simple. That was proven in Deep Space Nine.

[yuiyoshida]

2. Captain Jonathan Archer realized space was dangerous

and had to arm his ship better, than what they had at the time, when they first embarked. But yes, I agree the "Coast Guard" comment was bizarre when I read it. This is an entirely new thing.. to go out and explore, and meet enemies on the way. Those who want what you have or don't like you for some reason because of protocol. First contacts were always tricky, even for Picard.