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Installation display: Captain Kirk’s command chair and restored navigation console from Star Trek: The Original Series. [credit:
Skirball Center/MoPOP ]
Back in 2016, the Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP) in Seattle unveiled an immersive new exhibit, Star Trek: Exploring New Worlds, in its Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame–a tribute to the hugely influential long-running franchise. The exhibit embarked on a national tour two years later and has been traveling around the country ever since. And now it’s come to the final stop on its journey: the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California, where Gene Roddenberry first created his visionary series, Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS).
“Star Trek’s vision resonates deeply with the Skirball’s commitment to using the power of arts and storytelling to help build a society in which everyone belongs,” museum director Sheri Bernstein said during the press preview last month.
Among the highlights of the exhibit are Captain Kirk’s command chair, and the wooden helm and navigation console from TOS, fully restored. There are plenty of props: different designs of tricorders, communicators, phasers, and P.A.D.Ds; a model of a Borg cube; and lots of weaponry, including a Klingon disruptor pistol.