San Francisco: Never the same twice

So... why does San Francisco look different in virtually every iteration of Star Trek, and it gets a pass from fans when changing the angle of the nacelle pylons on a starship brings ultimate wrath? Vulcan and Kronos massively change between appearances too. Even Picard's mansion isn't what it was in Next Generation.

Is it just a starship/tech obsession where nothing else changing registers the same, or what?

 

San Francisco is not important in Star Trek. Only starships, uniforms, and alien appearances are important. See, San Francisco is from boring real life and we don't like boring real life. So, what does it matter if it changes? Better than boring real life!


*tongue planted firmly in cheek.

 

Examples for San Francisco please..





As for Picard's home, there was a fire, surely there was renovations and stuff was moved around, etc. It looked different in 2024, especially from the outside.

Really, with the complaints about one look for all planets in Star Wars, you complain that scenery, cities changes on Vulcan and the Klingon homeworld vary wildly....like Earth

 

Artistic License goes to the current Artist on a project, but the similarities show the studio doesn't give carte blanche.

 

Imagine the furor if a new artist (or whatever) is asked to depict a Vulcan home, without doing their homework, and they make it set in a thick, misty and warm jungle like in the Amazon.

Hey, artistic license....

 

San Francisco: never the same twice. That sounds just like real life.

And I'm speaking as one who vacations there nearly every Spring, and knows the city well enough to treat it as a real city, rather than as some theme park version of a city. Beloved restaurants close up shop, or change both location and ownership. Even the MUNI occasionally makes noticeable changes.

 

Me thinks the OP is talking about something more jarring than those.

 

https://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/starfleet_buildings.htm

Not quite San Fran, but you can see it in the background of a lot of the shots.

 

Yeah, ex-astris-scientia.org is an interesting website. I've read their articles sometimes.

But this thread is worthless without pictures attached

 

When do we see the same building in the same year and they look very different?

 

Honestly, not many people would know what differences there are....even in Star Trek World. As long as you show the Golden Gate Bridge and some future looking buildings on the Presidio(Starfleet) then you're set.

I think, someone please correct me, that we get to see what the streets are like, from that level, in STID....complete with R2-D2 building. LOL!!! Otherwise it's mostly a quick aerial shot of the aforementioned GGB and Starfleet.

There's really not much to complain/grumble about with so little shown and, as mentioned elsewhere, it's not important to the show. It's just background.

 

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/star-trek-prodigy-1x20-supernova-part-2.312937/page-11#post-14351183

 

Because it's different mat paintings/cgi renders/sets?
Paris also looks different each time we see it, iirc.

It happens with tv shows/movies

 

We don't know that the chateau we see in PIC is supposed to be the same house we see Robert's family living in in TNG: "Family". The Picard estate seems to be quite large and includes multiple buildings, and orchards as well as vineyards. Robert Picard may have had a family home separate from the main chateau elsewhere on the estate, especially given the troubled Picard family history there.

 

Some ideas for the many changing faces of San Francisco, Paris, London and the Moon:

— Starfleet and the Federation have alternating "Naturalist Days" where grids of the cities or the Moon are temporarily presented in their pre-civilization natural state from the perspective of other areas of the city (or from Earth and space in the case of the Moon) through the use of forcefields, holograms, and replicated / particle-synthesized matter. People working inside these zones on the days in question are unaffected and their view appears as normal.

The Moon alternates between the city and domed (or forcefield-held atmo) lake covered appearance described by Riker and the natural appearance shown in several movies and TV episodes. Giant starbases and orbital elevators and artificial rings may also have mandatory holographic screening systems to allow the Earth and Moon to maintain their pristine paradise image when viewed by incoming ships, with structures only showing for collision avoidance or docking / landing.

— Ever since WWIII destroyed most of the world's major cities (not to mention the Breen attack, or in the Kelvinverse Narada drilling deep into Earth's mantle or outer core in SF Bay which should create a nasty super-volcano —thank goodness for Abramscience "Cold Fusion" devices to flash-freeze that puppy up— or Vengeance taking out half the city, or climate change sea level rising and one or more huge earthquakes and tsunamis), and the Vulcans assisted with rebuilding, various rapid construction and repair techniques have been employed. 3D printed buildings, industrial replicators, mass cargo transporters, giant automated construction crane robots, nano-assemblers, anti-grav lifts, forcefields, tractor beams, etc. are constantly shifting things around and rebuilding the cities on an as-needed basis. Starfleet HQ can literally grow a new hangar on-campus if need-be in a matter of hours.

If anyone has seen the excellent SF series 'The Peripheral' on Amazon Prime based on the William Gibson novel and made by the 'Person of Interest' / 'Westworld' team, it would be similar to the augmented reality of London (though not requiring the body implanted tech or being in a robot avatar) and the nano-assemblers rapidly constructing a building.

— San Francisco has very strong historical and cultural preservation, environmental protection, building height (though obviously less so in the future), earthquake, fair housing, and other rules and restrictions, as well as a thriving counter-culture, that might require more changes than most cities. Entire historical buildings or structures (like the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Transamerica Building in SF) may be moved intact with tractor beam tugs and anti-grav platforms to make way for new developments. Historical areas like the SF Sanctuary District may be preserved in their original form under a transparent roof. Former industrial areas are returned to their natural state as those processes are moved underground, as per the TMP novelization.

 

Just get rid of those stupid solar panels on the Golden Gate bridge and give me back my TMP travel tubes (or whatever they were). Big dumb red thing. Heck, they're even in Voyager!

 

Back in the 50s or 60s there was briefly a plan to convert the Golden Gate Bridge into a double-decker to accommodate increased traffic demands:



So I say revive that idea and move the transport tubes underneath the bridge and then covert the entire upper level (except for the sidewalks) into a wildlife crossing connecting the Marin Highlands and Golden Gate National Recreation Area with a continuous wildlife greenspace leading from the Presidio to Lincoln Park to Golden Gate Park. Most of the existing buildings can remain, just create some space for wildlife to move through.



Like a longer version of this but with opening and closing greenhouse panels over the top of it to protect the wildlife and pristine environment inside, which pedestrians can view from the safety of the enclosed sidewalk or if they decide to take a hike through the central concourse.



It never made much sense why they would need solar panels in an age of ubiquitous safe and clean fusion energy (maybe it's a historical restoration, or SF has one of those back to basics New Essentialist groups that only allow old style technology) so it makes more sense to have it be a greenhouse protecting the interior.

And, if you would prefer to have the tubes back on top, you could just say the panels are a new cover, since the tubes did have a squarish cover on them before.

 

You know how they always have those impossible views of the Golden Gate Bridge from every window in San Francisco or the Eiffel Tower from every window in Paris? Tractor Beam.