Ran across this old commercial from 1985 for a Hyatt Space Hotel...

[Dukhat]

...and the model they used for the hotel looks uncannily like the Regula 1/Orbital office complex from TMP. Sorry, the quality of the video is really poor, but you can definitely make out what I'm talking about:

https://adage.com/videos/hyatt-hotels-hotel-in-space/1162

I wonder what other pseudo-Trek ships were used in random old commercials/movies/tv shows in the '80's?

 

[JoseNoodles]

I have to know the story of that model. I mean it really does seem like it made out of parts of the orbital office complex. Its almost like they took the stuff that remained when office complex was changed to Regula One, and then made a new station out of it. However, it still has the massive tubes and ring structure that Regula One also has. I can't believe someone would build a station like this from scratch. That's too obscure a design to ape for a commercial as some sort of Easter Egg or callback.

 

[David cgc]

I think it's more likely that the ad agency (or the effects company they contracted with) picked out a sci-fi design and made their own ersatz version of it. The relative obscurity probably counted in its favor; who'd remember a model that was only seen for a few minutes in that first Star Trek movie everybody slept through?

 

[Dukhat]

I think it's more likely that the ad agency (or the effects company they contracted with) picked out a sci-fi design and made their own ersatz version of it. The relative obscurity probably counted in its favor; who'd remember a model that was only seen for a few minutes in that first Star Trek movie everybody slept through?

The Hyatt commercial was from 1985. That's three years after The Wrath of Khan, in which "Regula One" became a household name in every Trekkie's abode. And while this model was most likely a newbuild, it was obviously heavily inspired by the station in TWOK, and probably intentionally. I just wish there were photos of the actual model, but I'm sure they don't exist.

 

[Redshirt214]

That add feels like it's from an alternate universe where there was an actual Space Hyatt. And it's a DY-100 short of just being canonically Trek's view of 1985...

 

[David cgc]

The Hyatt commercial was from 1985. That's three years after The Wrath of Khan, in which "Regula One" became a household name in every Trekkie's abode. And while this model was most likely a newbuild, it was obviously heavily inspired by the station in TWOK, and probably intentionally. I just wish there were photos of the actual model, but I'm sure they don't exist.

The long tubes on top, the long chain of smaller discs extending off the side, even the angle of the shot all seem more consistent with them modeling it off the Orbital Office version of the model.

 

[Dukhat]

The long tubes on top, the long chain of smaller discs extending off the side, even the angle of the shot all seem more consistent with them modeling it off the Orbital Office version of the model.

Yes, but the office complex was just Regula One upside down.

 

[JoseNoodles]

Regula One was the Orbital Office Complex upside down

And several of the those disk sections were removed, save four.

Since the ad is from 1985, could Paramount (or the company that made the model) have loaned it out? It wouldn't be without precedent. A lot of Buck Rogers props ended being reused on TNG, and even DS9.

 

[Dukhat]

Regula One was the Orbital Office Complex upside down

And several of the those disk sections were removed, save four.

Since the ad is from 1985, could Paramount (or the company that made the model) have loaned it out? It wouldn't be without precedent. A lot of Buck Rogers props ended being reused on TNG, and even DS9.

We see the Regula One station again in TNG, but it was mainly just stock footage. The model itself wasn't newly filmed again until the latter half of DS9, and it was intact except for the bottom tubes.

I actually think this was a completely different model, built solely for the commercial (it was a Super Bowl ad, so they had the dough to build it.) Whoever built it definitely took design cues from Regula One, but did their own thing.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The long tubes on top, the long chain of smaller discs extending off the side, even the angle of the shot all seem more consistent with them modeling it off the Orbital Office version of the model.

That's what I see, as well.

Regula One was the Orbital Office Complex upside down

Right.

 

[publiusr]

I love obscure stuff like this. We saw a more believable External Tank station early in Lois & Clark (thank you Gene Myers of Space Island Group.)

Hilton kept flirting with the concept—but they’all always have Paris.

Now there was a more recent cable commercial on—pro cable—that had a run down satellite ship with two huge dishes—anyone have that? Looked like a physical model.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Hilton kept flirting with the concept—but they’all always have Paris.

There was a Hilton aboard the space station in 2001.

 

[David Hanley]

Rewatching enterprise at the moment and the show is really dated by in ship communications being done by flip communicator. Here we are in just 2021 and I am writing this to you guys from a smart phone. Don’t tell me we are going to revert back to flip phones in the next hundred years or so

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

It goes back and forth. The gang on the Cerritos are definitely using PADDs as phones, complete with Facetime, and no one was doing that through almost ANY of Star Trek 1987-2004.

 

[David cgc]

Also, a lot of tech companies are trying to develop flexible, foldable displays so you can have something phone-sized in your pocket that opens up into a tablet. Flip-phones may, in fact, come back, in a fashion.

 

[David Hanley]

Also, a lot of tech companies are trying to develop flexible, foldable displays so you can have something phone-sized in your pocket that opens up into a tablet. Flip-phones may, in fact, come back, in a fashion.

who is working on a comms badge? We need comms badges.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

who is working on a comms badge? We need comms badges

The comm's badge is literally a glorified BlueTooth speaker / Mic / Translator with GPS style transponder built in.

I'm sure our US military has something equivalent to it.

 

[fireproof78]

Also, a lot of tech companies are trying to develop flexible, foldable displays so you can have something phone-sized in your pocket that opens up into a tablet. Flip-phones may, in fact, come back, in a fashion.

Good. I still laugh because people use to complain about how big cell phones were and they went smaller and smaller and then they became bigger and that was supposed to be a good thing. It still makes me laugh at how cell phones evolved. My wife still uses her flip phone.

 

[David Hanley]

The comm's badge is literally a glorified BlueTooth speaker / Mic / Translator with GPS style transponder built in.

I'm sure our US military has something equivalent to it.

You mean the SpaceForce?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

The comm's badge is literally a glorified BlueTooth speaker / Mic / Translator with GPS style transponder built in.

I'm sure our US military has something equivalent to it.

It's literally more than that.

Call me when the US military has one with an FTL transceiver and onboard universal translator, which can be cannibalized and combined with telegraph parts to make a personal forcefield capable of protecting someone from bullets fired from a gun.