The real James T. Kirk built the bridge of the Enterprise — in the Sunset District

The real James T. Kirk relaxes at home on the bridge of the Enterprise, which he built as an addition to his Sunset District home. The real James T. Kirk relaxes at home on the bridge of the Enterprise, which he built as an addition to his Sunset District home. Photo: Mike Moffitt, SFGATE Photo: Mike Moffitt, SFGATE Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close The real James T. Kirk built the bridge of the Enterprise — in the Sunset District 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

Captain's log, Stardate 21153.7: After straying into a wormhole, the Enterprise has somehow crash-landed on Earth in early 21st-century San Francisco. We are attempting to effect repairs from a location in the city's Sunset District.

James T. Kirk commands the Starship Enterprise from the captain's chair of the ship's bridge, conveniently located in the back of his house in San Francisco's Outer Sunset.

The bridge is equipped with a wall of computers blinking with colorful lights, a transporter room and the main viewer, which would toggle to show flickering stars, sensor data or the occasional Romulan or Klingon message demanding the Enterprise's immediate withdrawal from the Neutral Zone.

There is even an "elevator" in the back that makes a "whoosh" just like the one on the classic 1960s show "Star Trek." Of course, the bridge is not an exact duplicate of the show's — it's a smaller area, so the key fixtures are a bit crammed and the helmsmen seats are missing altogether. But the overall impression is clearly Mid-century Modern Starship.

James T. Kirk of San Francisco was born a month before the first episode of "Star Trek" aired in 1966, so he was not named for its captain, played by William Shatner. His middle initial stands for Theodore, not Tiberius.

Kirk watched Trek reruns as a kid and became a fan, but it's only been the last five years or so that he has gone full Trekkie. He says he was inspired by his name.

In 2014, dressed as the captain's gladiatorial adversary, the reptilian Gorn, Kirk won a costume contest at a Trek convention and met Shatner. He didn't get the chance to tell him that they "shared" the same name.

"To him, I was just a guy in a lizard suit," Kirk says. "I was on stage and a lot of the audience wanted me to fight William Shatner because in the series the Gorn fought Shatner, but he wasn't there for that ... that was not part of the deal."

A handyman by trade, Kirk had some space in the back of his house, so he decided to re-create the Enterprise bridge as a backdrop for a film he was making.

He built the set out of "foam core and Christmas lights basically." It took about a week in "man hours" for the original construction, but he's refined the space over the last two or three years.

With his shaggy hair, Kirk bears little resemblance to the captain of the Enterprise, but his name is rarely overlooked.

"It's been just a total blessing. I go to pay a water bill or something at the water department and I got the whole crowd there wanting to talk to me," Kirk says. "It's definitely a good thing."

Kirk has happily shown the Enterprise bridge to many Trek fans. He's especially proud to open his home to neighborhood kids, which he says recalls his childhood in the Sunset when there was more sense of community and people didn't hide behind iron gates.

Fifty years after the first airing of "Star Trek," its message of hope and human progress remains relevant in these days of political extremism and divisiveness.

"What I've always liked about 'Star Trek' is how it portrays a very positive outlook on our future, how in Star Trek we've come together has a people and we work together as a people and we've gotten past our differences," says Kirk.

This article originally ran in October 2016.