- yesterday
Because going back to the Grand Canyon really would be crazy.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00How's it going, my dudes? This video's brought to you by Squarespace today.
00:04Sci-fi and fantasy is a bit of a double-edged sword when it comes to showing you these incredible
00:08locations that you just wish you could spend time in. It's a double-edged sword because,
00:14on the one hand, we are so grateful for getting to see them. On the other hand,
00:18it's sci-fi and fantasy. Oh no, they may not be real. That is not the case for this list.
00:25Our wonderful writer Jack has gone ahead and compiled a group of locations where you can
00:30actually visit and pretend that you are there in an episode of Star Trek itself. There may or may
00:38not be a couple of cameos in this video. Who could tell? Who could tell? I'm Sean Ferry for Trek Culture
00:46and here are 10 real-world Star Trek locations you can visit. Number 10, the Santa Monica Pier.
00:54Where to next after you've landed in 20th century Southern California? Why,
00:58the Santa Monica Pier, of course, and risk dermal dysphagia? No thank you.
01:03What Voyager's Debbie Downer I was actually trying to say. Sean, if you're gonna go to Los Angeles,
01:09like, wear sun cream, buddy, wear sun cream. The first shot of the nice clothes, fast car,
01:16lots of money gang, namely Janeway, Chakotay, Paris, Tuvok, and eventually The Doctor,
01:21on Earth in the episode Future's End, sees them perched over the railings of the Santa Monica Pier.
01:27They are directly in front of the Luf Hippodrome, which is, of course, a famous landmark of the region.
01:33Just underneath their feet is the Heal the Bay Aquarium, which is formerly UCLA's Ocean Discovery
01:39Center. Which, funnily enough, only a time traveler would know this because it opened in 1996.
01:45Janeway and Chakotay then take a bit of a stroll down the boardwalk, looking for the temporally
01:51displaced Captain Braxton, who's a little the worse for wear, having spent 30 years in, well, then
01:5820th century Earth. They find him next to the hot dog on a stick stand, which was actually opened
02:03in 1946, which is, of course, very close to a mussel beach as well. It was the very first location of
02:11that now famous fast food chain. Number nine, El Capitan. I mean, there's a very strong chance that
02:19if you climb El Capitan without the proper training, you're going to go straight to Shakari and meet your
02:24maker. Personally, I'm going to be down with bones, looking up through my binoculars and going,
02:30gone crazy. You've just gone crazy. Because I'm not even trying it with hover boots.
02:35That's a bit too high even for me. While the main surface of El Capitan that was shown in Star Trek
02:40Five, The Final Frontier was made from fiberglass, the real El Capitan does indeed exist in Yosemite
02:47National Park. El Capitan is a famous challenge for free climbers because its face is a 900 meter
02:54ascent. You may have seen it most recently in the movie Free Solo, which tells the story of free
03:00climber Alex Honnold. He had shaved for the first time in 2017 what Kirk was attempting to do in Star Trek
03:07Five. Climb El Capitan with just his shoes, the shirt on his back and some chalk. Even though he
03:12may have come up with the idea for the scene in Star Trek Five, Shatner did admit on the behind
03:17the scenes documentary that he was afraid of heights. Therefore, to give the illusion that he
03:22was actually on El Capitan, a 60 foot fiberglass wall was built. While close-ups were shot with
03:29William Shatner, experienced climbers were brought in to do the wide shots of this climb.
03:35Number eight, the one without the whales. In terms of real world locations in Star Trek, San Francisco
03:41has to be one of the most featured. I mean, in Star Trek, you've got both Starfleet Academy and
03:47Starfleet Headquarters, both of which I'll get back to you later on this list, located in San Francisco.
03:53Not to mention the numerous views of the Golden Gate Bridge stretching out as far as the Presidio that
03:58dot the entire franchise. Funnily enough, a lot of the San Francisco we see in Star Trek
04:04wasn't actually filmed there, with one glaring exception to that role, Star Trek IV The Voyage
04:11Home. You certainly can't miss San Francisco in that film's shots in its artwork for the poster,
04:19of course, which was recently recreated for Star Trek Lower Decks' fourth season. Downtown double dumbasses,
04:26bus rides, and exact change only aside, the main plot of Star Trek IV is to find some large cetacea,
04:34namely two whales named George and Gracie. In the film, Kirk and Spock go to Cetacean Institute in
04:39Sausalito, whereas in real world, this was the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Opened in 1984, the Monterey Bay
04:45Aquarium's primary goal is the preservation of ocean life. Its mission is conservation through action
04:52and education. In reality, while the aquarium and Monterey itself is home to plethora of cetacean life,
05:00it has unfortunately never housed the whales that we were all looking for. Number seven, Bloomington,
05:07Indiana. I've always preferred farm country myself is how Janeway describes her upbringing when she's
05:14talking to Seven of Nine in the astrometrics lab in the episode Imperfection. The first mention of
05:19Janeway's home state was in the episode Macrocosm. It would later be referenced again by the con artist
05:25Dala when she talks about summers in Indiana in, of course, the hilarious episode Live Fast and Prosper.
05:31We reckon as well that the birthplace of Captain Janeway can be traced back to the novel Mosaic,
05:36written by then showrunner and show creator Jerry Taylor. Jerry Taylor's own birthplace was,
05:44of course, Bloomington, Indiana. This novel was considered canon at the time by the writers, so
05:50we can only consider it canon ourselves. If you are to pay the city a visit yourself, the first thing
05:55you should do is visit the statue of Captain Janeway that was erected in 2020. Kate Mulgrew herself paid
06:02that statue a visit to honour the, frankly, honour that the city offered toward Janeway. While this says
06:10that the future birthplace of Janeway will be in 2336, in 2022, Mulgrew and a sizeable crowd gathered
06:19together to celebrate this fun little snippet of Trekdom located in the real world.
06:26Number 6. Riverside, Iowa. He was born in a small town in the state of Iowa. The 1968 book The Making
06:35of Star Trek was the first one to mention this fact about Captain James T. Kirk. At that time,
06:39and even later on, they never provided an exact location. Even the aforementioned Star Trek IV
06:44The Voyage Home says, I'm from Iowa, I just work in outer space. This all changed in 1985 when one
06:51member of the city council of Riverside proposed that they officially name themselves as the future
06:57birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk. In a fun twist, the council agreed. The rest, as we say in the
07:03Temporal Mechanics Department, is history. Or will be. Riverside has completely embraced its status.
07:10The city motto is, where the best Trek begins, and its website even announces the future happy
07:16birth of Kirk, as happening in 2228, even though it's 2233 in canon. The Voyage Home Riverside History
07:25Centre is dedicated to all things Star Trek, and the USS Riverside Constitution Class is parked in the car park.
07:32Riverside also has an annual Trek Fest in July, which has seen a parade including guests like Chase
07:40Masterson, Walter Koenig, George Takei, and Nichelle Nichols. The choice of Riverside was accepted by Gene
07:46Roddenberry in 1985, and has popped up in various beta canon appearances since, but it wasn't until the
07:53second season episode, tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow of Strange New Worlds, that Paul Wesley, as Kirk
08:00stated, something was from Riverside, Iowa, same as me. Number five, Toronto and Toronto and Toronto. For the first
08:08time in its history, Star Trek was not being filmed in Los Angeles, when Star Trek Discovery moved to Pinewood,
08:15Toronto Studios. Star Trek Strange New Worlds was also shot in Canada at CBS Studios, while Star Trek
08:21Picard would return to LA for filming. Toronto and its environs have therefore stood in for not Toronto
08:28several times in Star Trek. The city's Aga Khan Museum stood in for Vulcan in the episode of Star
08:34Discovery, Leith. Saru's Home Village was filmed at Scarborough Bluffs Park, which actually borders part of
08:40Lake Ontario. Strange New Worlds has already filmed around Toronto for several episodes, but this was
08:45dialed up a notch in the episode Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. In an interview for Collider,
08:49showrunner Akiva Goldsman stated, we were gonna take the show to New York, and we quickly realised we
08:54could not afford it. We went through the process of, how do we make Toronto look like New York? And then
08:59we sort of thought, huh, why don't we just let Toronto be Toronto? And so they did. During their trip to
09:06the past, La'Anne and Kirk take a walk through Yonge Dundas Street, they steal from the Root Store, they
09:12take a walk along the waterfront, where Kirk is ridiculously good at chess, and they enjoy some hot dogs,
09:18before finishing up with lunch at the Lakeview restaurant, where they find out that poutine has gravy
09:24and aliens are not just from sci-fi. Number four, the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant and
09:30Japanese Garden. As the LA City Sanitation website puts it, the Japanese Garden is irrigated with
09:38effluent from Tillman, and the 2.75 acre lake is filled with the plant's treated water. Oddly,
09:46that sounds almost like Technobabble, and therefore makes it one of the most Star Trek things on this
09:50list. It only makes sense then when you think that the, at least exterior of Starfleet Headquarters
09:57and Starfleet Academy, be filmed at such a sustainable location. The Reclamation Plant
10:02is in the San Fernando Valley in California. It started operation in 1985, and the Japanese
10:06garden beside it, designed by Dr. Kochi Kawana, was dedicated in 1984, and was indeed intended
10:13to be sustained by runoff from the plant. It was conceived to extol the virtues of reclaimed water.
10:21The garden is open and free to visitors, although you need to reserve a slot which only take place
10:26from, as of recording, Monday to Thursday. So maybe that's something to bear in mind when you're
10:31planning your cosplay trip. The first use of the Japanese Garden was, shall I say, a risky episode.
10:38It was the first season episode of The Next Generation, Justice, and it played the homeworld of
10:43the Edo. Yeah, we all remember those costumes. I'm not quite at that cosplay level yet. The garden
10:49wouldn't appear as Starfleet Academy until the fifth season episode, The First Duty, and it would then
10:55be reused footage from that episode that was shown in Time's Arrow Part 1. In DS9's Homefront and
11:00Paradise Lost, the Japanese garden became Starfleet headquarters. Voyager's time and again featured the
11:06Reclamation Plant itself before we went back to the gardens, sort of, for in the flesh.
11:12Number three, the Vasquez Rocks. The Vasquez Rocks have actually only appeared as itself in two episodes
11:22of Star Trek, and both of them were from Star Trek Picard. They stood in for Raffi's hideaway in the
11:29episodes Maps and Legends and The End is the Beginning. Every other time we see the Vasquez
11:34Rocks in Star Trek, they're standing in for an alien world, Gorn in a rubber suit notwithstanding. And of
11:39course, let's not forget myself and Chris and Matt's amazing trip there and my horrific sunburn
11:46that followed. Probably called the Vasquez Rocks National Park area, it's located just north of Los
11:53Angeles and is easily one of Star Trek's most famous and frequent filming locations. From its first use
11:59for fisticuffs with the wonderful Finnegan in the original series Shore Leave, it has then been used
12:07in a further 14 times in Star Trek. Now, probably most immediately recognisable is the Kirk versus
12:15Gorn fight in Arena, but it would also be used in the Alternative Vector and Friday's Child. It's played
12:20Vulcan, or Nivar, three times in Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, in Star Trek 2009, and in Discoveries
12:29All is Possible. It would then stand in for the holographic Xyrillian homeworld in Enterprises
12:34Unexpected. Vasquez was twice a planet in Voyager, in both Initiations and Gravity. It would appear in
12:40Star Trek Into Darkness, and also in The Next Generation's Who Watches the Watchers. Despite the area being used
12:46in so many different films and TV episodes, it's the Star Trek connection that's really stuck, with the Big Rock
12:54effectively being, well, lovingly known as Kirk's Rock. As the Los Angeles Times put it, while it may
13:01provide an excellent off-world aesthetic, there's a really simple reason why it keeps getting used.
13:07It's just inside the 30-mile zone around LA, which means, quite frankly, you don't have to pay the
13:14actor's premium to travel to it. Number two, the Griffith Observatory. So, if you're to believe
13:20Rayne Robinson, it's a left at Mars, right at Halley's Comet, and then just straight ahead to
13:24go to the grooviest place in the galaxy, or at least LA. The Griffith Observatory, built on the
13:30north side of Mount Hollywood, first appeared in Star Trek in the episode Future's End. One of its
13:35astronomers, Rayne Robinson, detects Voyager in orbit, having time-traveled. While Tuvok and Paris would
13:42travel to the observatory to check up on Robinson's checkings, it would then appear in Star Trek Picard's
13:48second season episode, Assimilation, as well, to set up a dreamy establishing shot of LA.
13:55In the real world, the Griffith Observatory was opened by Griffith J. Griffith in 1935,
14:00and it's free to visit by the public. The observatory does have a planetarium, and remember,
14:05the best stars in Hollywood are above us all. Griffith Observatory is also home to Leonard Nimoy
14:10Event Horizon Theatre. This was funded by a contribution from the legendary actor himself,
14:15and his wife, Susan Bay Nimoy. The theatre serves as a presentation space for the observatory's
14:21astronomy, space science, and space exploration programming, as well as a classroom for visiting
14:26students. Number one, Titan Missile Museum, Arizona. Data's historical irony that a weapon of mass
14:34destruction would usher in an era of peace is Star Trek's dream of a brighter future made so tangible
14:39that you could reach out and touch it. In a sense, you can. For Zefram Cochran's pioneering spaceship,
14:45the Phoenix, rising from the ashes of the Third World War, the producers chose to use a Titan II
14:51missile, which once housed the largest bomb that had ever been developed that could be fitted onto an
14:58intercontinental ballistic missile. This would be a real relic from the Civil War, and the theme of
15:04rising from something so dark to produce something so bright was not lost on audiences in 1996. The
15:11Titan II missile complex near Tucson, Arizona, where the scenes in Star Trek Picard were filmed,
15:17was one of 54 such locations on alert from 1963 until 1987 in the United States. It's now a museum-dedicated
15:27National Historic Landmark. You can visit the underground facility yourself, which includes a very
15:32chilling simulated launch, although you won't be able to get as close as Picard and Data did. As
15:39detailed in the making of Star Trek First Contact, to get as close as possible to John Eve's design for
15:45the Phoenix, a nose cone was built, hoisted in the air, and placed atop the Titan II missile 30 meters
15:54tall that was really in place. Now, contrary to Data's analysis, there were no imperfections.
15:59It fitted perfectly.
16:00Dudes, it's your favorite Ryzean meteorologist, Cha Torka, here to tell you about the awesomeness
16:05of Squarespace. They've got the next generation of technology with their Fluid Engine. You know me,
16:12my friends, I'm Salter Ryzea. I don't get that techno bubble. So when I talk about Fluid Engine,
16:18and how awesome Squarespace is to use, even I can use it. If I can, you can. They can even help you make
16:24costume merch. Signed, Cha Torka Neck Brace is coming soon. And you can sell it via the online
16:29store that y'all may offer. And when you're ready to rip some waves like me, go to squarespace.com
16:35forward slash trekculture for a free trial and for 10% off your first website or domain purchase.
16:41You're awesome, my dudes. Do the awesome thing. Cha Torka out.
16:44So that's everything for this list, folks. This is for those, the truly geeky who just like to
16:48reach out and touch what's actually been on film. You can imagine how much I was excited when I saw
16:53this list to come in. So thank you very much, Jack, for writing this for us. Thank you very much,
16:57Eddie, for putting this together and making this a decent video. You're awesome. Thank you all for
17:02following us along. Please make sure to do so over on the socials. We're at Twitter,
17:07sorry, Twitter, Blue Sky and TikTok. We're at Trek Culture. On Instagram, we're at
17:11Trek Culture YT. You can follow myself at Sean Farrick on the various socials
17:14as well. Look after yourselves until I talk to you again. Treat each other with kindness.
17:18Lead with love and put that love out into the world. Our love and support to all of those
17:23going through tough times in the universe. Live long and prosper and I will talk to you soon.
17:28Thanks very much.
Recommended
1:37
|
Up next
1:24
1:50
12:58
13:06
13:38
11:45
2:39
12:20
10:46
10:09