How many of the US TV audience would recognise those structures?
Presidents of the Federation Are Based in France—Why?
- Thread starter Rrune
- Start date
How many of the US TV audience would recognise those structures?
I can't imagine many Americans not recognizing the Sydney Opera House, the Elizabeth Tower (even though most of us think it's named "Big Ben"), or the Taj Mahal -- and obviously we'd recognize the Statue of Liberty, the Washington Monument, and the White House. We'd probably recognize St. Basil's as part of the Kremlin even if we didn't know the name (I didn't). After all, these structures are routinely used in US shows and movies as location signifiers for foreign settings, every bit as much as the Eiffel Tower. As for Tokyo Tower, most Americans would probably mistake it for the Eiffel Tower unless they were Godzilla fans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Tower
It's a broadcasting tower and tourist site that's one of the key landmarks in Tokyo that giant monsters always have to destroy. In the original Godzilla, there was a harrowing scene of a self-sacrificing radio newscaster staying to broadcast from his observation post on the Tower up until the moment Godzilla destroyed it. Since then, it's become much more of a cliche.
If Paris was one of the cities that survived intact after WW3 and Eugenics Wars, it would begin to make sense, as a capital for United Earth. The European Hedgemony was one of the stepping stones towards the United Earth government, so Paris may have already been something of a defacto capital.
Not necessarily it does not take that long to rebuild a city, in TNG First Contact Deanna states humans get their shit together in 60 years or did she say 40, poverty etc is eliminated. So its possible Paris was bombed to nothing and manages to rebuild by the time the 23rd century comes along. Either that or humans drew straws for capital city and Paris won it.
I don't agree....it takes long enough to build just one building, and that's in a world where technology, resources and infrastructure are completely intact. An entire CITY, on the other hand...we're talking hundreds, if not thousands, of buildings. It would take at least a hundred years to rebuild a city completely from scratch, even WITHOUT a WW III to consider.
But in a world ground into dust by a global nuclear war, what could there possibly be left to rebuild with?
This is why I'm convinced that the Vulcans must have helped in the cleanup and rebuilding after WW III. Without that, I don't see any other way that Earth could have possibly recovered so quickly. They'd have access to the kind of technology and resources that Earth would need to recover and rebuild.
And it would also help explain why the Vulcans (as seen in ENT) held Earth back for so long, and restricted its expansion into space...they'd consider it payback for services rendered, as it were.
It's easier to eliminate poverty when a good chunk of your population is missing, not to sound like Kodos or anything. It also means less infrastructure to rebuild and repair, especially if you're doing technological leapfrogs. Wages boomed after the Black Death. It kind of helped create the middle class and it forced rules to enact equivalents of maximum wage laws.
Rebuilding a giant wrought iron tower would not be an early priority. But who knows. Seeing that Conestoga already launched in 2069 (without vulcan help before or after) and moon and mars colonies were getting established early, it seemed like a not-insignificant part of the population was ready to leave the rock altogether. Trek doesn't like to go dark but at its heart or genesis, it is a post-apocalyptic show.
I guess it depends on where most of the devastation took place, lets assume most of the present day nuclear nations were blown to bits, according to TNG 600 million died in the war, according to real world stats the Earth is meant to have a population of 10 billion by the mid century, would losing 6% of the population drive humanity to make major changes to its social outlook? I doubt it, I think the Star Trek franchise set the bar too low, to really hit the human psyche I think billions would need to perish plus First Contact for humanity to get its act together.
Is there a novel that tells the story why the Vulcans decided Earth was not too primitive after all for their reason for stopping by? Was it a case of lets tame these savages before we have another war on our hands re Andoria?
Paris hosted the Federation President.
San Francisco hosted Starfleet HQ.
Lisbon hosted the Division of Planetary Operations (global power grid).
Berlin and Canberra hosted Vulcan compounds.
Dakar, Senegal was a center of Earth's nanite production.
Indiana hosted the Millennium Gate.
Seems pretty de-centralized to me.
San Francisco hosted Starfleet HQ.
Lisbon hosted the Division of Planetary Operations (global power grid).
Berlin and Canberra hosted Vulcan compounds.
Dakar, Senegal was a center of Earth's nanite production.
Indiana hosted the Millennium Gate.
Seems pretty de-centralized to me.
I don't know, but there is a story that has that Vulcan that stayed behind in Carbon Creek helping out Lily and Zephram build the warp drive.
Maybe they're guarding other things....
It all makes perfect sense now.
It seems unlikely considering its symbolic significance in the setting.
They were worried that the franchise would not recover from the disappointment of TFF, which is why the original ST6 script, titled The Academy Years, was rejected. That sounds like they were motivated to think things through.
It has not been retconned after being reinforced by DS9 either.
There is something peculiar that is worth noting: "Francisco" in San Francisco translates as "the Frenchman"; the only lead captain who was not American was French; the Maquis in Star Trek were named after the French resistance group during WWII. It seems to have developed into a theme, which suggests that a careful consideration was given to Paris, France as well.
None of them had a ready made matte painting ready to be used.
Much of TUC was all about penny pinching though. Many TNG sets were reused in the movie, hell the Federation President's office is Ten-Forward. I really do believe they just chose an Earth city they had a matte painting for and that was the end of any thought on the matter.
That's ok, most of us Brits think that too - or at least, a lot of us know it's the bell that's called Big Ben, but don't know the name of the actual tower. It's one of the ultimate pub trivia bore questions.
Wait, wasn't that a 21st century shopping mall? I haven't seen the episode for a long time.
You are correct.
That's technically correct, but San Francisco is named for St. Francis of Assisi, who was Italian. He got his name because his father was fond of the French.
Worrying about the long-term health of a profitable franchise is one thing. Fretting about an arbitrary bit of trivia that doesn't really matter is something else.
Killing Spock is something that might come back to bite you later on. Blowing up Vulcan is a big deal that could determine what kind of stories you can tell down the road. Marrying Riker and Deanna would have to be dealt with in any future TNG movies. But putting the President's office in Paris instead of, say, New Delhi is not going to have any impact in terms of the big picture. No future STAR TREK production is likely to struggle because "Damn it, why did it have to be France?!"
And, honestly, it it seriously proved to be an issue down the road, you just throw in a line to the effect that the President's Office moved to Vancouver on such-and-such a date. Problem solved!
"Great! We can shoot in Vancouver now!"
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