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Specifically, in the first shot of the star field that has the Enterprise, there is a very dense cluster of stars near the center of the screen that, when viewed at a certain speed, seem to look like some kind of slowly rotating wire-frame object. Now maybe I've just stayed up too late, and my eyes are playing tricks, but it seems to be arranged possibly in the shape of the Enterprise itself.. or maybe it's something else?

Does anyone else see that, or know what it is?

EDIT: Using DVK's graphic (thanks, DVK), here's the orientation I think I see ..

enter image description here

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    Interesting. If you can find a still, or better, video, of it, I'd love to see it. – Kevin♦ Nov 27 '11 at 4:03
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    @Kevin - yeah, I paused it on my DVR, but it's one of those visual things where you can't see it except when the member points are moving relative to the non-member points. The overall field translates left, but there's also a bit of rotation to it as the Enterprise appears from the left edge and the view rotates slowly right a few degrees to track the ship. It's during this slight bit of rotation that some of the stars in the cluster look a bit funny to me, as though they comprise an object in the relative foreground. – JustJeff Nov 27 '11 at 12:29
  • Lots of starfields have easter eggs in them, for example: flickr.com/photos/38908546@N00/1764885977 – Paul D. Waite Sep 6 '15 at 16:40
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It is probably just a coincidence.

  • I wasn't able to find any reference to this being by design

  • TOS remastering was done under VERY VERY compressed schedule:

    The first few episodes were rushed, as CBS only gave its team "one month to deliver the first two episodes with over 120 new effects shots."

  • The proportions are all wrong (the stars that look like nacelles were way too far away from the axis compared to Enterprise itself).

    It DOES look roughly similar if you try to match the pattern hard enough (see below), but is not really unambiguous - JustJeff's perception ended up 180 degrees off from mine, literally (compare sketch in my answer to the one he later added to his question):

enter image description here

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    Well, the fact that we both saw it in different orientation likely means it wasn't designed as an easter egg :) Plus, nacelle distance is still too wide. – DVK-on-Ahch-To Nov 27 '11 at 13:46
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    Yea, it just seems like a big blob of nothing to me. I think this can be attributed to the psychological phenomenon called Pareidolia. It's a quirk of human perception that causes us to see faces or other pictures/patterns in random noise (burnt toast, stucco walls, popcorn ceilings, tortilla chips, etc.). For me, usually after I "recognize" an image in a random pattern, I'll continue to see it again and again, with each viewing reinforcing that image in my mind. So to JustJeff the pattern probably seems quite obvious at this point. – Lèse majesté Nov 27 '11 at 16:33
  • @Lèsemajesté - actually, I still think it's a bit iffy, in this case, but of course I have no objective way to evaluate how much I might have succumbed. – JustJeff Nov 27 '11 at 22:11
  • @JustJeff: Ah, I assumed this was something that jumped out at you every time you watched the intro. It sounds like the effect isn't too pronounced in this case. – Lèse majesté Nov 28 '11 at 15:42
  • "I think this can be attributed to the psychological phenomenon called Pareidolia. It's a quirk of human perception". Yes, we do it constantly as a subconscious way of identifying patterns. In the same way you will dwell on items of interest subconsciously - try it for yourself. Consider buying a new car, a white Fiat 500 Abarth. Look at some pictures of the car, read up about it. You will suddenly start seeing them all around you through the day. Its not magic, they were there all the time. Your brain is now looking for the pattern so you now see them consciously. – Applefanboy Oct 4 '16 at 10:54
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One of the planets that is rotating has a map of New Zealand on it.

UPDATE WITH DETAILS:

This may not actually be the case. From the comments on this website:

I think the submitter is stretching this. The only planets shown during the introduction are Earth, Saturn, and Jupiter. There are no lava planets. If the submitter is talking about the image of Jupiter (a gas giant), the part that loosely resembles New Zealand is the giant red spot, a storm that has been raging on the surface of Jupiter for a very long time. No planets outside our own solar system are shown.

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    Earth, Saturn, and Jupiter appear in the opening credits of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The question is about the opening credits of the remastered original series (the 1966-1969 episodes with modern special effects). – Keith Thompson Oct 8 '12 at 18:29
  • This answer refers to The Next Generation. Different seasons, different opening credits. The lava planet with the map of NZ is not Jupiter, which was in earlier seasons. Besides, the question is about The Original Series. – nmit026 Apr 5 '19 at 6:45
  • Oh yes, so it is! – Stefan Apr 6 '19 at 8:15

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