NewsT. Rick Jones

Star Trek fan recreates holodeck controls in North Hollywood, CA park, gets the internet saying “Computer, end program”

NewsT. Rick Jones
Star Trek fan recreates holodeck controls in North Hollywood, CA park, gets the internet saying “Computer, end program”
Jeremy Yoder (@JBYoder) on Twitter posted pictures of holodeck controls in the park

Jeremy Yoder (@JBYoder) on Twitter posted pictures of holodeck controls in the park

A set of holodeck controls has popped up in a California park. Spoiler alert: the controls aren’t real, but they did have Star Trek fans over the weekend asking the computer to “end program”.

On Saturday, Twitter user Jeremy Yoder (@JBYoder) posted a series of pictures of a metal pylon with what appeared to be an LCARS holodeck control panel on the top. He captioned the photos, “Spotted something odd on my run through the park tonight and ... I guess I have good news and bad news”

24 hours later, the tweet had racked up thousands of retweets and comments, many of them expressing the hope that perhaps 2020 is just a holodeck program gone rogue. Sadly, the holodeck controls were instead the work of set designer Arthur Chadwick, who designed the LCARS interface from canon references and had them printed onto vinyl stickers by Los Angeles-based printers Dangling Carrot Creative.

On Sunday, Chadwick took credit for the job and posted some hi-res pictures of the finished pieces on Twitter, saying, “i fixed these pylons last week. apparently it’s making people happy.” He included a Google Maps link, in case you’d like to go and find them for yourself.

Reacting to another fan’s response to Yoder’s original viral post, Chadwick expressed his love and appreciation to Star Trek fans. He said, “i’m delighted how much joy they have brought people, and it keeps branching out in the most wonderful way! (and everyone is so kind! star trek fans are the greatest people on earth.)” Well, you can’t disagree with him there.

If you’re in the L.A. area and you’d like to see the controls for yourself, then you can do so in North Hollywood at Chadwick’s coordinates. Of course, if you do venture out, please remember to wear a mask, wash your hands, and practice social distancing. It’s more than acceptable to use the Vulcan salute when greeting fellow Trekkies.