Star Trek, “Where No Man Has Gone Before” – 43 years later.
That’s right folks: This week in 1966 – 43 years ago, Star Trek warped across the nation’s television screens and into our living rooms. Or as NBC put it back then, “rocketed” in.
It lasted 79 episodes despite the questionable ratings and in its third season was moved to Friday nights, where all good shows go to get put out to pasture (does that sound familiar?).
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Gene Roddenberry’s vision gripped our imagination and the fans have kept the dream alive in additional TV series, movies, comic books and other venues. The series has even inspired names of real ships.
It has turned names like William Shatner (Captain James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), James Doohan (Scotty), George Takei (Mr. Sulu) & Walter Koenig (Chekov) into household names. On both fronts – the actors and their characters.
How many times has someone (or yourself) thrown out a humorous quote from the show like: “Dammit Jim, I’m a Doctor, not a ???” Or “Keptin, she cannut ta’ke animoore!!”
Thank you Eugene Wesley “Gene” Roddenberry. You have truly immortalized yourself and at the same time, lived the American dream. R.I.P.
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I found a few YouTube clips just for the fun of it. Thought you’d enjoy seeing them.
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Inspiring Source: TV By The Numbers, Wikipedia
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10 Comments
Good god man! 43??
All I can say is the POV back then for science fiction was decidedly more optimistic in outlook than it appears to be today.
Trek turns 43 and I turn 42 sheeessttttkabob!
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Good POV Piratedan and very true. Funny how back then, the show was highly controversial and challenged by the NBC suits almost every week…
I think if some of those NBC suits could see the Tv shows of today they would vapour lock into a coma. Lol,,,
I was there when Star Trek reran back in the 70′z. I would hear the theme song every weekend around 5 pm and know that Star Trek was on and it was time for dinner,,, (cause Mom hated Star Trek). Dinner was the Star Trek distraction,,, lol. Dad still let the tv run so we could hear it,,,
Great photo of Gene btw,,,
Star Trek is one of those great shows, that defines our nation and grounds are foundation into space, and the future,,,
I only hope we can keep it going,,,
Thanks Gene!!!!!!!!
Yep… Star Trek means memories of a fond TV past and many seasons of the franchise carried on.
PIRATEDAN: Don’t worry… Once everyone gets off the Ronald D. Moore kick (Or the formula that made BSG a great hit), we’ll get back to something not so dark… it’s the trend right now.
@790…42? Really? Sometimes your posts make you seem, um, more mature than that.
I agree with piratedan. Alot of the newer SciFi is way too dark for me. I couldn’t get into BSG. Star Trek, in any incarnation, was always one of my favorite shows. Probably why I really like shows like Eureka and Warehouse 13. Good sci-fi doesn’t have to be dark.
Thank goodness Berman and Braga didn’t succeed in killing a great franchise. I got into Trek when I started college in 1981. I was hooked from the start. Roddenberry had a habit of putting real science into his science fiction and that was one of the things that drew me in; and, of course, the character interactions. When some think of science fiction, they think of Jules Verne but not me, I think of Gene Roddenberry. He will always be the grandfather of sci-fi to me. RIP Mr. Roddenberry. qaPlaq!!
well don’t get me wrong, a good story is still a good story, of course ymmv, but the overall tone of things is simply different. It’s just as cutting my teeth on Trek, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, The Time Tunnel, and The Invaders while there was some dark stuff there, but the message was that people or man will overcome. The 80’s still held on to that feeling with shows like Quark, Buck Rogers, the original BSG and Quantum Leap. Times change is all, just continue to hope that we get good stuff, fresh ideas and crisp storytelling.
I think one of the most interesting stories came out of the Vietnam war, when a creative soldier kept his troop from getting slaughtered by faking a call in to the starship Enterprise for support. Just think if they had the footage from “Watchman” back then, or you could have handed Justman 20 of the best scripts written during the NG, DS9, Voyager era?
Don’t sugar coat it Andy S,,,
Old Man, curious, so the VC heard a distress call to the Enterprise and they ran like girls into the fields???
I remember Shatner told a story about some POW’s that got through the time remembering the plots of all the Star Trek episodes.
@790 Yep that’s what happened. Awesome huh!
In “Beyond Thunderdome” where the feral children had taken in Mel. Much of that idiosyncratic behavior was what native pacific islanders did after WW2. Keep runways cleaned and lit, maned the control towers and kept look out thinking these actions in and of themselves would bring back 20Th century western goods and services. It was called “Cargo Cults” behavior.
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