So I'm watching an old episode of Star Trek (yes, that's redundant) on PBS the other night, and up pops the UCLA's Schoenberg Hall. Just for a second, after Captain Kirk points and says, "My brother works over there."
And suddenly, there's a pale color still of Schoenberg, with all those mosaics at top. I blogged about them (the mosaics) last April. The mosaic "The History of Music," by Richard Haines, is quite clear. Got too admit, it took me awhile to figure this out--but I'm pretty sure that the still used in Star Trek is a reversed or mirror image. Strange, huh?
Anyway, back to Star Trek. The episode was from the first season and is titled "Operation: Annihilate!" Here's a link to it on Youtube--the building shows up between 7:55 and 8 minutes in.
Most of that scene had been filmed at TRW's Space Park in Redondo Beach, which is now owned by Northrup Grumman. That's not the only time Space Park was used in a Star Trek storyline. Remember tribbles? Part of that episode was filmed at TRW's employee cafeteria.
The 110 acres of land for Space Park was purchased from the Santa Fe RR in 1960 by STL (Space Technology Labs--a division of TRW), and ground was broken for the office complex in December. It still exists, but I heard that the cafeteria and other buildings featured in Star Trek have been replaced by newer structures. If anyone knows more, I'd like to hear about it. Because people who watch Star Trek on PBS thrive on trivia.
3 comments:
I was there today (TRW.) The buildings are amazingly unchanged.
The exteriors of the TRW (now Northrop) buildings at Space Park in Redondo Beach haven't changed noticeably since the taping. Greenery is of course changed. The interior of the cafe has had some remodeling over the years.
31+ years for me in Space Park, and counting. A former co-worker of mine actually has some 8x10 stills of the big names taken at the filming of Operation: Annihilate.
Thank you both for letting us know that. If the buildings hold up much longer Trekkies should petition for historical monument status, at least for the cafeteria.
Hard to believe it hasn't changed. As an Aerospace Corp alumni, I would have bet that the signature building on El Segundo Blvd would stand as long as the company . . . and I would have lost that bet!
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