This is why the greatest Hollywood sci-fi universes look eerily similar

If you’ve ever wondered why the arid planet where Star Trek’s Captain Kirk pushes a boulder onto the alien creature Gorn looks strangely like the place where the Power Rangers command centre is located, YouTuber Tom Scott has the answer.

In the video above, Scott explains something called the thirty-mile zone (the TMZ). This “studio zone”, which encompasses all the areas within a thirty-mile radius from the centre of downtown Los Angeles, is a significantly cheaper place to film — because actors and crew don’t have to be paid for their time and mileage if a location is within the TMZ.

“This border is why sometimes, it looks like the crew of the Enterprise are boldly going where quite a lot of people have gone before,” explains Scott.

If all these films and television shows could meet on the same set, it would be an epic mashup for the ages.