The series of Star Trek has been so influential for so long that it only makes sense for their larger than life characters to get their own monuments.
Star Trek alum Kate Mulgrew and William Shatner have been immortalized forever thanks to fans who were dedicated enough to create monuments in the hometowns of their respective characters. For Shatner, that meant James T. Kirk’s birth home of Riverside, Iowa. For Mulgrew’s Kathryn Janeway, that meant Bloomington, Indiana.
So why not get monuments erected for the other Starfleet captains that made this television universe so beloved? That’s something Bleeding Cool asked, and something we agree with, but we have our own reasons.
That means Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and of course Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) should all have their own monuments on the sites of their future homes. For Picard, that might be difficult as his birthplace is (or will be) La Barre, France. France isn’t known for its hospitality or it’s love of American properties, so that may be hard. Plus, how many French Star Trek fans are there really?
Sisko’s is pretty easy to do, he was (will be) born in New Orleans, Louisana. So that seems like a done deal. Plus, fans are always looking to commemorate iconic moments in the show’s history, and having a black captain seems like something fans would want to see live on forever in a monument of sorts.
The third cite, for Archer, will be a bit harder. Archer is vaguely referred to as being born in “upstate New York”. Up-state New York is huge. Yet, Archer always claims to be from San Francisco, having grown up there during his most formative years. So it makes sense to put the monument in San Francisco, California then.
Having these monuments isn’t just good for Star Trek fans, the actors that portrayed them, or even just the fandom. No, it’s good for the cities as well. As someone who travels on occasion, the thought of getting a coffee and sitting down on the bench across from the Kirk monument is something that will happen very soon. It’s a nice way to have a small, yet steady, stream of tourism. Plus if you find a way to integrate all the monuments with one another, then it becomes almost like a science fiction pilgrimage. Something only true Trek fans can say they’ve done, visit all five monuments.
It’d be one hell of a vacation idea. Start in San Francisco and end in France?
Sounds like fun.