Part 1

 The Southern California locations where
the Star Trek: Voyager two-part episode
(Season 3, Episodes 8 & 9)
 "Future's End"
was filmed.

It's usually impossible to do filming locations for the Star Trek series, because 99% of their scenes are
set either aboard a starship, a space station, or on some alien planet, shot almost exclusively inside
sound stages at Paramount Studio.  While there is an occasional on-location scene, it's very unusual
to find an entire Star Trek episode filmed mostly out at regular, literally down-to-earth locations.

Hence, the 3rd season Voyager two-part episode about time travel, Future's End,
gives us a rare chance to examine the filming locations of a Star Trek episode,
where most of its locations are places you can visit right here in Southern California.

9:00: When the Voyager landing party first beams down (Captain Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok & Paris),
they wind up in Southern California, in 1996, at what is supposed to be the Venice Boardwalk.

As they follow the bum, they pass another local landmark: a bright, red Hot Dog on a Stick stand.

This is the original - the world's very first Hot Dog on a Stick, built in 1946, and located
just below where the crew was standing at the pier (and a short walk to the southeast),
near what is known as Muscle Beach. The chain grew to have over 100 locations, in 14 states.

[In the screencap above, the camera is looking southeast.]

The official address for the stand is 1633 Ocean Front, Santa Monica.

Here is a Google StreetView of the stand (as seen from Appian Way).

11:00: We then meet a young woman named "Rain" (Sarah Silverman), who works at an
observatory, and has an interest in meeting visitors from outer space.  She's about to do just that.

This scene was shot at the famous Griffith Park Observatory, in the hills above east Hollywood.

The address is 2800 E. Observatory Ave, Los Angeles, but you get there by taking Vermont Ave.

[In the screencap above, the camera is looking south/southwest.]

The Observatory is one of Hollywood's favorite filming locations, and you've
seen it in everything from "The Terminator" to "Rebel Without a Cause".

Here is a Bing StreetSide View of the landmark.

         

13:00: When Rain discovers a UFO in orbit (Voyager) , she phones her boss, "Mr. Starling" (Ed Begley Jr),
a Bill Gates-style computer magnate whose company, ChronoWerx, has led the 20th century computer revolution.

Little does Rain know that Starling cheated - that he has stolen 29th century technology (from that crashed
time-ship), and has been slowly introducing the advanced technology as new products from his company.

We see him inside his office, located on a high floor of the ChronoWerx skyscraper.

The office itself (the interior) was filmed inside the south tower at the
Wells Fargo Center, located at 333 S. Grand Ave, in downtown Los Angeles.

(This building is used a lot in filming, because of the great city views seen out its windows,
and it was that view that allowed me to identify its location.)

(Here is a Google StreetView panorama of the Wells Fargo tower.)

But the exterior of ChronoWerx (seen below) is not the Wells Fargo center.

It is the Metro Building (the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority or MTA)
located right behind (east of) Union Station, at One Gateway Plaza, in downtown Los Angeles.

(That's about a mile east/northeast of the interior location, the Wells Fargo tower.)

Here is a Google StreetView panorama of the building.

[ Thanks to Kymberleigh Richards for tipping me to this location, and inspiring this page. ]

16:00: As they follow the bum (Braxton), we see the crew walk through a park.

         
This scene was shot at Palisades Cliffside Park, located just north of the pier,
near a spot where you'll spot a large cannon on display.

As its name implies, the narrow park runs along the edge of the cliff that overlooks the ocean
(and pier) below, on the west side of Ocean Avenue, extending for over a mile and a half,
from the pier north to past San Vicente Blvd, offering spectacular coastal views.

[In the screencap above, the camera is looking west.]

( Speaking of bums, although Santa Monica is an upscale beach city, it does have a
homeless problem, and many of them tend to congregate at the this south end of the park.
  So if you visit, you'd probably be better off sticking to the north half of the park. )

Here is a Bing StreetSide View of the park.

         

In the screencap below, Janeway  & Chakotay walk through the park.  The street
you see ahead is Ocean Avenue (just north of Colorado Ave) in Santa Monica

[In the screencap above, the camera is looking northeast.]

25:00: The next scene opens with a shot of a familiar landmark, the Hollywood Sign.

The Sign is located atop Mount Lee, in the Hollywood Hills.

But when the camera pulls back, to show Tuvok and Paris pulling up in their (stolen) truck, it becomes
apparent that we were looking at the Sign from the parking lot of the Griffith Park Observatory,
which is southeast of the Sign's location (which sits atop Mount Hollywood).

(In the screencap above, the camera is looking northwest.)

Paris & Tuvok go into the Observatory and talk to Rain...

...but when they come back out, they are attacked by one of Starling's henchmen, who is armed
with a phaser. A phaser battle ensues in the parking lot.  Their truck is vaporized.

(In the screencap above, the camera is looking southwest.)

The henchman takes cover behind the large obelisk that stands outside the Observatory:

That towering obelisk is a monument to astronomers, with statues of
Galileo, Copernicus,  Isaac Newton, Kepler, and others.

(In the screencap above, the camera is looking north.)

Paris and Rain duck, as Tuvok returns fire from the Observatory's parking lot:

More "Star Trek Voyager" locations!

The photos on this page are stills from "Star Trek Voyager"
(which you can buy by clicking here) and are copyright Paramount.

The rest of the page is Copyright © 1999-2024-Gary Wayne / Seeing-Stars.com