Watch: Starfleet Logo Flies Above London For Earth Hour [UPDATED]

Tonight in London Paramount partnered up with the WWF to participate in their "Earth Hour" event with a special Star Trek Into Darkness lightshow featuring the Starfleet Logo  hovering and rotating in the London night sky. See pictures and video from London below. [UPDATE: Official Paramount Event Video Added] 

 

Star Trek Flies Over London

On Saturday night at 8:30 PM the UK went "into darkness" for the WWF’s Earth Hour, an annual event that encourages people to "switch off" for one hour to help raise awareness of conservation. This year in London Paramount Pictures joined in with a special Star Trek light display. With the help of Ars Electronica Futurelab & Ascending Technologies, Paramount sent a fleet of quadrocopters into the skies above London’s tower bridge, and they formed a floating (and rotating) version of Star Trek’s Starfleet logo in the sky.

[UPDATE] Here is a video from Paramount showing the event and how they did it…

The logo formation hovered about 118ft above the ground at the lowest point and the highest point (the tip of the logo) was approximately 426ft above ground. The total height of the logo was 308ft. In keeping with Earth Hour’s initiative, the quadrocopters utilized batteries that were charged in Austria using green energy from the Austrian renewable energy grid specifically for this event.


Star Trek light show made up of a fleet of quadrocopters

As Earth Hour approached, the Starfleet light show dimmed along with the lights on key landmarks such as Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and The London Eye. At the end of Earth Hour at 9:30 pm the quadrocopters reformed the Star Trek logo above London’s skyline.


Paramount promotes "Star Trek Into Darkness" on Earth Day with Star Trek light show

In a statement before the event, John Fletcher, Director of Marketing for Paramount Pictures UK said "We are very pleased to go ‘into darkness’ with the rest of the world in support of Earth Hour. It seems fitting to be associated with such a global cause."

In the same release, Kellie Rollings from WWF said "WWF is delighted that Paramount is supporting this year’s Earth Hour event. Millions of people around the world take part in Earth Hour year on year and we’re always looking for innovative ways to get our message out there. It’s fantastic that Paramount has chosen to mark the hour by dimming their lights at this unusual light display."


Starfleet logo flies over London

Photos and Video provided by Paramount Pictures UK

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The invasion has begun!!!

There are four lights

Presentation wise…that’s downright lame.

A mix of different lasers and colors with

some money and forethought and a universal

message should of been put forth instead.

#2, LOL :)

#3, What message could be any more universal than that of Gene Roddenberry’s vision? Humans and aliens in a United Federation of Planets collaborating for the greater good of all races and cultures. Seems like a legit way to display that message to me. Just so happens to promote the new movie at the same time…

I did not know that the WWF. World Werstling Federation Would ever do that.
I Keeds I Keeds.
Pretty Cool though. Look’s like Darkness is Coming.

I guess they failed to mention to Boris Johnson that London gets attacked in the new film!

WWF doesn’t represent World Wrestling Federation anymore.

Kinda surprised it’s the Trek delta shield and not an enormous blue police box hovering over their heads.

Nice!!

Dayum! Friggin nice!

#6
WWF stands for World Wildlife Fund
Please, educate yourself.

And on May 17th, ‘Star Trek’ will celebrate the environment by crashing two ships with massive active matter/anti-matter warp cores into the Earth, and Chris Pine will surf off the end of one onto the ground holding a can of Pepsi Max.

To which Spock will opine, “That only counts as one!”

12. keeper, it was a joke. I have friends who work for the WWF and they get that constantly (but from people who aren’t joking).

When I first read about this, my thought was “a light show for Earth hour?” But apparently they were magic eco lights.

I vented my 1976 Ford’s A/C for 5 seconds on Earth Day!! I got my Fre-on!! WOOHOO!!

BTW, the shield looked cool in the stills… pretty lame in the video.

@12. Lighten up. Some of us with grey hair remember the World Wrestling FEDERATION well.

Cool!

Emperor Mike and Phil,

Haha, that’s what I thought WWF stood for at first too, then it finally occurred to me that with the ecological concerns perhaps it was another organization … : )

[showing my age]

@3 Should of? That’s almost as bad as it’s when you mean its.

Would have loved to have seen it in person. It warms my old trekkie heart.

@17. Yep, and here we are on ‘Earth Hour’ on out computers, taalking about wrestlers and panda bears.

Did anyone even know what Earth Hour was prior to this?

@20. Phil

Umm – in our neck of the woods, my family missed it. We were in a restaurant celebrating a birthday at the time. In my defence (squirm…) it had been publicised more in previous years (still squirming…). Our city’s major public buildings still participated apparently.

I was in London yesterday, and saw absolutely squat in the way of advertising for this. Could have gone to see it ‘live’ if only I’d known!

If anyone calculated the resources involved in flying all the people and gear out there, they’d see this was a fail for the Wicked Wildlife Fund, and the biosphere. http://www.wickedwildlifefund.com

It was a win for JJ Abrams’ bastard incarnation of Star Trek, and for Paramount. Symbolism that consumes resources while pretending to be pro-ecology is good marketing!

That has unreleased music from the next movie

I was brought up on Next Generation. That said, i seriously grow tired of cynical aged Star Trek fans who essentially grumble and wave their fists at the sky whenever something Trek related happens.

They are people who would be only happy to see an 80 year old Shatner sit in a captains chair pretending to act out something he passed on the reigns to, long ago.

Seriously, i know TV and Film have changed since Trek started but just be happy it still exists, be safe in the knowledge that viewing habits will again change in 10 or 20 years time and finally, grow the hell up.

#8 and #12. I was joking when I said that about the WWF.
Next time please look at the I Keeds part and have at least a little sense of Humer. That is unless you are a Vulcan.

Two new pictures from empire magazine
http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=36902

Did anyone else notice that one of the quadracopters hits another and falls to the ground at 1:25? That’s probably why there is a gap on the left side of the delta later on. Watch the bottom of the screen.

I’d like to think that was done after the events of Into Darkness where much like the towers of light in NYC it commorate the lives lost in the London attacks.

25.

Lol yes in twenty years time someone else will reboot trek totally different and people here will be complaining and wanting JJ to come back and make things like the 2009 reboot whilst the original TOS purists will either be senile or have passed away ;)

Oh and it will be holographic 3D by then without the glasses.

Cool, but where is the epic trailer? We have yet to see an epic trailer for “Into Darkness”. An epic trailer would be like the final trailer for “Star Trek” (2009) where it had great editing and music from Two Steps from Hell. Some of the “Into Darkness” trailers don’t even have music…but thumping electronic noises. Where’s the epic trailer!?!?!?!

#31.

Dude, come on, we’ve had three or four trailers already, plus the nine-minute preview. Where the hell have you been?

Sheesh!

And oh, yeah, Earth Day is a sham!

“In keeping with Earth Hour’s initiative, the quadrocopters utilized batteries that were charged in Austria using green energy from the Austrian renewable energy grid specifically for this event.”

…and hauled all the way to Britain in a car, or even better, by a plane.

I also hope it’s the same Austrian renewable energy grid that uses solar panels (which cost twice as much power to manufacture compared to the amount of power they produce, and are imported all the way from China). You know, the very same Austrian renewable energy grid that shut off their nuclear power plants and has to import the power from other countries. Earth hour, indeed.

By the way: they use the sky for advertising. Does nobody find this at least a bit unsettling?

his can only be good for the foreign market..as ST09 didn’t do as well ouside the domestic market..though having an actor as popular as Cumby, outside of the US, can only help!

Trek 09 did well in the UK though, better than Iron Man.

So very cool! Wish I had been there.

Why is “Earth Hour” not on “Earth Day” (April 22)?

pretty cool! =)

Is it my imagination, or was that actually hovering over the area that gets blown-up in the film?? :-/

@39: :O I think you’re right!

I’m getting sick of people not using Cumberbatch’s name. Such rude people on this site.

#32 – I have been on Earth….where most of this “STAR TREK” film will be taking place. Lame. Anyways, I’m talking about a GOOD trailer, not the quantity of lame trailers that could be made for any film.

Thats cool

Yay for the Federation! That was a really cool idea. What a technological feat! :) And yay for conservation.

Para should have done something like this during the blackout of the Superbowl.

45. Nice. ;).