Quick, name a famous “Star Trek” catchphrase.
“May the force be with you?” That’s “Star Wars,” buddy. Go hug a wookie!
“Beam me up, Scotty?” OK, warmer. But that one is less universal.
Try, “Live long and prosper,” the standard blessing of the fictional Vulcan people, who embrace an ethos of infinite diversity in infinite combinations (opens in new tab).
For the next few days at San Francisco’s Pier 39, if you split your fingers in the classic Spockian V shape (🖖) and utter those words at participating shops – and buy $15 worth of goods – you’ll snag some fun “Star Trek” swag.
Paramount is giving away pins and bags to celebrate the new series, “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy”. | Source: Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez
Pier 39 is running a “Star Trek”-themed promo through Feb. 19, while supplies last. | Source: Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez
This week, until Feb. 19, numerous Pier 39 retailers are handing out the aforementioned swag: “Starfleet Academy” pins in various colors shaped like its newest starship, the USS Athena (opens in new tab), and a branded, transparent messenger bag. (We’ll include a full list of participating retailers, restaurants, and even gyms, at the bottom of this page.)
The star of the show, however, is the new Star Trek-centric audio narration aboard Blue & Gold Fleet’s tour of San Francisco Bay (opens in new tab), which will run 14 trips through March 22.
This reporter is a lifelong Trekkie, so I set a course for Pier 41 on Saturday Feb. 14 for the tour’s shakedown cruise aboard the Blue & Gold Fleet’s ferry, Oski (just remember, the tractor beams won’t be installed until Tuesday (opens in new tab)).
“Star Trek” actor Robert Picardo (left) delighted fans while on a Blue & Gold Fleet cruise on Feb. 14, 2026. | Source: Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez
And to the delight of all Trekkies everywhere, actor Robert Picardo was on board. The famed actor is best-known for portraying a sentient hologram named “The Doctor” in both the new series and 1990s-era “Star Trek: Voyager.” The Emergency Medical Hologram came aboard for the tour’s maiden voyage, alongside his wife, Dr. Elizabeth Moore.
Picardo and Moore, who live in nearby Orinda, had a grand time taking selfies as the ferry glided under the Golden Gate Bridge.
Though the show portrays similar views (opens in new tab), Picardo said centering “Starfleet Academy” in San Francisco has a far deeper meaning than featuring city landmarks (opens in new tab).
The show takes place further in Star Trek’s future than any spinoff series before it, during a time after a calamity called “The Burn (opens in new tab),” which robbed the next generation of Starfleet cadets of the glistening utopia of the past.
“We’re relaunching Starfleet Academy, rediscovering all the values that founded it in the first place,” Picardo said, including reveling in people’s differences.
“Star Trek has always been the United Nations in space, the mutual cooperation of spacefaring planets.”
As if it were picking up on the actor’s argument, the audio tour chimed in, pausing our conversation.
“More than that,” the tour’s voice intoned over a loudspeaker, “San Francisco was known for its idealism, progressivism and diversity, which best captured the tone of the show that [creator] Gene [Roddenberry] wanted to create. The United Nations was founded in San Francisco in 1945.”
Picardo’s eyebrows shot up. “Bang! You can say I said that.”
Jay Aguda and Ron Aspiras were proud to show their fandom. | Source: Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez
The ferry tour attracted Trekkies from across the state, like Jay Aguda and Ron Aspiras, who ventured up from Los Angeles, proudly sporting Starfleet uniforms.
“To come to the roots of the movies, San Francisco, from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, it’s an experience in and of itself,” Aspiras said.
Lifelong “Star Trek” fans Megan Flannery and Thaddeus Wuest, both schoolteachers, drove down from Gasquet, Calif., near the Oregon border. They were ecstatic to see Picardo, who stopped to take a selfie with them aboard the Oski.
“We’d been wanting to do a Bay cruise, and on the website it popped up that there’s a Star Trek cruise – I was like, ‘Oh yeah!’” Flannery said.
The promotion is already bringing foot traffic to Pier 39. When I brought my miniature skee-ball toy up to the counter at LOLA (opens in new tab), a gift shop, clerk Pierre Houle said he had run out of most of the multicolored Star Trek pins – he only had gray ones left.
Dalia Garcia, a manager at The Cable Car Store (opens in new tab), told me customers even hit the phones to purchase items, hoping to score their own “Star Trek” goodies. Count me among those who trekked in person, as I purchased a festive water bottle to score my blue Star Trek pin to complete my collection.
She hadn’t seen a single episode of “Star Trek.” But the flocking fans piqued her interest.
“I’m excited to see what it is, I’m curious,” Garcia said.
Here’s the list of participating retailers at Pier 39 (opens in new tab), while other San Francisco “Star Trek”-themed promos and events (opens in new tab) are taking place at locations ranging from the DNA Lounge to Temple Bar.