The 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' promenade is filled with references to other sci-fi franchises

By: H&I Staff     Posted: June 1, 2017, 3:13PM   

Hollywood is all about big, shared universes. Well, here's something that will blow the minds of studio execs at Paramount — Star Trek shares the same universe as The JetsonsThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Mystery Science Theater 3000

That is, if you accept the Promenade Directory from Deep Space Nine as canon.

Even those not thoroughly versed in Star Trek lore will likely remember that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the third original live-action Trek series, took place aboard a space station. The station was circular. At its core was the ring-shaped Promenade, a mall-like common area where residents could shop, entertain themselves and drink. 

Like any good mall, the Promenade had a big illumated directory smack in the middle in the walkway. You can see it at the top of this post. The production team of Deep Space Nine hid a bunch of easter eggs in that directory. Here is the actual image used in the optical effects, courtesy of yourprops.com.


Some listings should be familiar to any casual viewer — frequently visited areas like Quark's Bar and Dr. Julian Bashir's Infirmary. However, this thing is riddled with references to other beloved properties in geek culture.

Diva Droid Corporation and Jupiter Mining Corporation are enterprises from the cult British show Red Dwarf. This is not the only nod to U.K. sci-fi. Milliways is better known as "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe" in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

Spacely Spockets, of course, is the employer of George Jetson on The Jetsons cartoon. Tom Servo's Used Robots is a tip of the cap to Mystery Science Theater 3000.

It gets deeper. In the 1984 cult flick The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems is a defense contractor that boasts, "The future begins tomorrow." Not long before that, The Right Stuff dazzled audiences with its depiction of the original Mercury astronauts, as chronicled in Tom Wolfe's brilliant book. Pancho's Happy Bottom Riding Club is the desert hangout featured in both.

Del Floria's Taylor [sic] Shop can be found in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The headquarters of U.N.C.L.E. was hidden behind the facade of this tailor shop. Actually, there are other hidden nods to U.N.C.L.E. on DS9. The ATM machine on the space station features symbols for Klingon, Vulcan, Ferengi, Bajoran… and the logo for The Man from U.N.C.L.E


Other places on the directory are charming ways to honor production crew members, like former sound boom operator and sound mixer Bill Gocke. He must be the proprietor of Gocke's House of Mirrors.

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