Star Trek logo formed by lighted drones flying in formation over London’s Tower Bridge.
Drones often make the news when used in warfare, or to stalk reclusive celebrities. Now they have reached the literal nadir of civilized existence — as self-propelled advertising material.
Londoners watching the night sky on Saturday, March 23 saw a fleet of 30 illuminated drones flying in formation as the Star Trek logo. Paramount Pictures staged the demonstration to coincide with Earth Hour.
Did anybody recognize it? How many of you, if you saw that without anyone around to explain it, would say, “Oh, that’s the Star Trek logo!”
Even now when I look at it my first thought is, “Oh, that’s the shape of a typical ATom cartoon character! Who else has legs like that?”
To show you what I’m talking about, compare the drone formation with this illo ATom sent to Avedon Carol. Avedon herself remarked the character’s idiocyncratic anatomy when she posted it in 2004, telling readers “And no, I’m not actually shaped like that. Atom’s characters were, though.”
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Or, if you’re a programmer of a certain background, it’s clearly a Java endorsement.
If I had seen it faced to me, as it appears in this photograph, yes, I would have immediately recognized it as the Starfleet arrowhead.
I once had a non-fan roommate who was watching t.v. in the common living area while I was in my room. I could hear music, but not dialog. I recognized that he was watching “The Menagerie, Part I” by a sound effect followed by a music cue, because that particular sound effect followed by that particular music cue does not exist in any other episode of Star Trek!
I confirmed it by walking into the living room. He was in fact watching “The Menagerie, Part I”.