New Space Force Seal Boldly Goes Where 'Star Trek' Has Gone Before!
Make it so!
The just-unveiled seal for America’s new Space Force looks eerily familiar to the “Starfleet” badge that “Star Trek” watchers know so well. Some fans were over the moon — but most were in fusion-reactor meltdown.
The Space Force emblem is decidedly out of this world after the new military division got dinged last week for coming up with woodland camouflage uniforms, which will almost certainly clash with extraterrestrial environments. The logo was unveiled Friday by President Donald Trump — on Twitter — after his consultation with “our Great Military Leaders.” The great minds came up with something strikingly familiar:
After consultation with our Great Military Leaders, designers, and others, I am pleased to present the new logo for the United States Space Force, the Sixth Branch of our Magnificent Military! pic.twitter.com/TC8pT4yHFT
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 24, 2020
Maj. William Russell, a Space Force spokesperson, told CNN that Trump was the one who chose the new logo from options presented by the Department of the Air Force.
The seal is déjà vu all over again. It features the same main “arrowhead” symbol, a swoop of an orbit and a galaxy of small stars of the fictional Starfleet Command badge of the fictional United Federation of Planets of the sci-fi TV series that premiered in 1966.
The new #SpaceForce logo sure looks familiar... pic.twitter.com/ImpGtjo1Aj
— Ben Warwick (@BenCBS4) January 24, 2020
George Takei, who played Sulu in the original “Star Trek,” which launched decades of spinoffs, lamented that “there is nothing sacred any more” — and quipped that royalties are expected.
There is nothing sacred any more. pic.twitter.com/ubyy4OIZrp
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) January 24, 2020
Ahem. We are expecting some royalties from this... https://t.co/msYcJMlqjh
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) January 24, 2020
Space Force logo and its two main influences. pic.twitter.com/rDBXXzeIdA
— Eric Roston (@eroston) January 24, 2020
The similarities infuriated former White House ethics chief Walter Shaub, who complained that the new Space Force seal “rips off a TV show” and is just one more example of the Trump administration’s “incompetence.”
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It's a seal, not a logo. And the Space Force seal rips off a TV show. Are there studies showing a correlation between a regime's corruption and its incompetence? It seems like corruption could breed the sort of disinterest in public service that leads to performance issues.
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 24, 2020
The seal is similar to one designed for the Air Force Space Command, which existed from 1982 to 2019 before it was folded into the U.S. Space Force. It also featured the arrowhead at the center of a field of stars.
The Starfleet fascination among space types in the military isn't new; this was Space Command's logo, which immediately preceeded Space Force pic.twitter.com/Ap3y5gHEWD
— Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) January 24, 2020
As for “Star Trek,” it apparently drew inspiration for its badge from NASA to begin with. The stars in the Starfleet badge echo those in the NASA logo, which are identical to the ones in the new Space Force logo. The “Star Trek” website calls the Starfleet emblem a “descendant” of earlier NASA logos.
1959: Origins of NASA seal and meatball logohttps://t.co/1Wm2QqYbAT
1964: Star Trek's Starfleet delta insignia first designed by William Ware Theiss and Gene Roddenberryhttps://t.co/8OMhjcMlpY
1982: Air Force Space Command
2020: U.S. Space Force pic.twitter.com/Kr97zQzL8g— Ferris Jabr (@ferrisjabr) January 24, 2020
None of that history stopped “Star Trek” fans from blasting off on the clone.
Talk about an insult! Star Trek, in all of its iterations, was about transcending divisions between races, genders, nationality, and every other perceived difference that is used to divide humanity. Anything coming out of this administration is the total opposite of that.
— M Λ Υ Λ David Garcia, Agender is real, and valid (@ladygrinning) January 24, 2020
I'm pretty sure Starfleet would let transgender people join, though.
— Brynn Tannehill (@BrynnTannehill) January 24, 2020
Trump heads the Federation of Plagiarists.https://t.co/eDAupiWxsK
— Tea Pain (@TeaPainUSA) January 24, 2020
lol did you just rip off Star Trek?
— Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) January 24, 2020
Looks familiar pic.twitter.com/qmWa21Ztp3
— Mia Farrow (@MiaFarrow) January 24, 2020
Either this is a joke or you're about to be the first president to get sued by Jean Luc Picard
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) January 24, 2020
I guess, they couldn’t come up with an appropriate Imperial badge from Star Wars...so they had to copy Starfleet
— Marc McG. (@The_Batslayer) January 24, 2020
Borrowed pic.twitter.com/MmUZBgG6QJ
— Tanis42 (@Tanis42) January 24, 2020
Also on HuffPost
This article originally appeared on HuffPost.
