How “Star Trek” Helped Make Midcentury-Modern the Signature Sci-Fi Aesthetic

When Star Trek first premiered in the mid-1960s, it was meant to portray a far-off future, with Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock traversing the universe 300 years hence. While the sci-fi television series has come to be recognized for many things in the decades since, like having the first Black female leading character on network TV, a king’s ransom of spin-offs, and an extremely dedicated global fan base, another major aspect of its legacy is its space-age-inspired visual identity that helped shape the intersection of midcentury modernism and what consumers see as "futuristic design," even now.

While the show’s aesthetic choices were partially practical—its Warren Platner arm chairs and Stemlite lamps were the types of pieces set designers could snag from Los Angeles–area stores that looked more futuristic than grandma’s old divan—they also presented a sleek, nontraditional look that encapsulated the spirit of technological innovation and utopian vision that characterized midcentury modernism. By using something like Eero Saarinen’s 1950s Tulip chair (or, more accurately, a Maurice Burke–designed knockoff, which was more cost-effective at the time, and which the Star Trek crew then modified) the set designers could convey an alien future without having to create pieces from scratch.

Fan blogs like Quark’s Qantina, Ex Astris Scientia, and Film And Furniture have long tracked Star Trek’s design elements, and in the last few years the deep dives into the franchise’s shoppable pieces have continued: There’s a 2021 book titled Star Trek: Designing the Final Frontier, and the dedicated Star Trek + Design website and Instagram helmed by self-proclaimed "Trekkie and collector of design objects used in Star Trek" Eno Farley.

Star Trek + Design focuses on pieces from across the show’s extended universe, spanning the original TV series and the 1987 through 1994 follow-up, Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG), as well as Star Trek canon films like the 1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Farley has identified everything from American ceramicist Peter Saenger’s bulbous porcelain Design II tea set, which appeared in several TNG episodes, to C. Jeré skyscraper lamps used in episodes of the original and TNG series, as well as in Captain Kirk’s apartment in the 1982 movie, Star Trek: The Wrath Of Khan. He’s spotted a seemingly inconspicuous Fratelli Mannelli giraffe bookend on a back shelf and French industrial designer Max Sauze’s 1960s Ribbon chandelier in a set background. He’s also posted about Arthur Umanoff’s 1950s Dimension 2400 lounge chair, which, Farley wrote on Instagram, Star Trek set designer Matt Jefferies and his crew modified with leather upholstery and bulky console arms decked out with switches and lights to create the original series’s captain’s chair. 

Farley says the show sometimes repurposed futuristic-looking modern designs for completely different purposes, like stainless-steel salt and pepper shakers by Danish homeware brand Stelton, which Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry decided to use for Dr. McCoy’s surgical instruments in the premiere episode, simply because they looked so otherworldly.

Other lovingly identified and much-coveted items from the Star Trek universe run include terra-cotta stoneware vessels and stackable ovoid lamps from the midcentury ceramics company Architectural Pottery, and a bevy of seating spanning from the midcentury-modern period to the postmodern era. There’s the 1959 Origami chair and 1966 Sculpta "Unicorn" chair by American designers Paul McCobb and Vladimir Kagan, respectively, Danish furniture designer Hans Wegner’s 1960 Ox chair (which also appeared in the Austin Powers franchise), and Norwegian interior designer Terje Ekstrøm’s pipe-like Ekstrem chair from 1984. A number of Pierre Paulin pieces have also graced the screens of Star Trek, including the French designer’s 1960s Ribbon and Mushroom chairs. 

The fan-favorite Star Trek design object, however, seems to be Bodum’s Bistro glass tea cups, devised by Danish industrial designer Carsten Jørgensen for the European kitchenware brand in 1974, and which Captains Jean-Luc Picard and Kathryn Janeway use throughout TNG and the late ’90s Voyager series, respectively. Though the "Picard cups," as they’re known to Trekkies, went out of production in 2016, fans were still so hungry for them that merch manufacturer Master Replicas recently teamed with Bodum to produce a limited run of the cups (currently available for preorder).

While the Star Trek franchise has evolved over the years, expanding into various TV series, films, video games, comic books, and more, its overall look has endured. Though TNG pulled in some postmodern elements from the series’s era and the early aughts’ Enterprise series went for a more austere vibe, given that it was set more than 100 years before the original in the mid-22nd century, the (now) retro-futuristic aesthetic Star Trek helped cultivate through its use of midcentury-modern designs still pops up in 21st-century sci-fi depictions, from Blade Runner: 2049 to episodes of Black Mirror. But while some sci-fi has veered toward postapocalyptic hellscapes and steely and/or dusty outposts built in the wake of economic, social, and climate-based collapse, the Star Trek universe has always been based on idealism, and maybe even a bit of luxury. 

As Farley explained to Metropolis earlier this year, Star Trek shows a world where somehow, we’ve managed to pull it together and get everything right, moving beyond racism and sexism as a society, ending scarcity, and creating an interplanetary democracy that includes hundreds of alien species. And even then, we’ll all still want somewhere to sit, a bed where we can relax, and a well-crafted set of dinnerware. By linking the fictional future with midcentury modernity, Star Trek’s creators crafted a universe that’s simultaneously attainable and beyond belief. It’s somewhere we all want to live, and luckily, in some ways, we still can.  

Top photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images

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