10 Background Star Trek Items More Important Than You Think

You may be surprised to learn that dozens of the real-life people who worked on Star Trek have characters in the fictional universe named after them.

Every Starfleet ship has a dedication plaque in its interior which usually details the ship's name, class, registry, and important Starfleet personnel who helped design and launch it.

It's difficult to notice, but many of the people listed on the plaques had the names of prominent members of the Trek production crew, including Brannon Braga, Rick Berman, Matt Jefferies, and Denise Okuda. Gene Roddenberry also frequently appeared, listed as the Starfleet Chief of Staff

The dedication plaques were hardly ever clearly visible, and when they were (like the USS Franklin's plaque in Star Trek Beyond), the production crew's names were usually not present. Still, it's fun to imagine that Matt Jefferies designed Federation starships both in real-life and in the Trek universe.