New Delhi: Sixty years ago, on 8 September 1966, viewers were introduced to a new kind of television series—Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry. The legendary sci-fi franchise is celebrating its 60th anniversary—from the Hollywood Walk of Fame to New York Comic Con to the International Space Station, where an astronaut will be wearing Star Trek’s badge.
The first episode, “The Man Trap”, starred William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Spock, DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy, George Takei as Sulu, Nichelle Nichols as Uhura and Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman Janice Rand.
“You could characterise Star Trek as being outlined in Greek drama: A hero’s got to solve a problem and get back home,” Shanter told NPR.
While no new Star Trek TV shows are currently in production, a movie is in the works which will be directed and written by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. At Comic-Con in San Diego, Daley said the script is in progress, and they were very excited about it.
Goldstein, on the other hand, clarified that the reboot will not have any previous characters.
“I think it will probably be a little further into the future than we’ve been before. Our hope with this is to satisfy the fans, but also bring people in who may not consider themselves lovers of Star Trek,” he said.
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The expansion Star Trek
At the Science Museum in London, fans gathered to set a Guinness World Record for the most people performing the Vulcan salute, a greeting made famous by Spock, or Nimoy. Meanwhile, at the Writers Guild Foundation in Los Angeles, ThePitt’s cast held a fundraising show, where Actor Noah Wyle performed as Captain Kirk and read the script of the first episode of the series.
The series was set in the 23rd century and followed the crew as they explored planets, encountered alien species and came into contact with different civilisations.
Although the original series was cancelled after the third season, Shanter said that fans rallied for the show to return to the air. This eventually took Star Trek beyond television. In 1979, the original cast returned for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. More films followed, including The Wrath of Khan (1982), The Search for Spock (1984) and The Voyage Home (1986).
On Wednesday, NBC aired the first episode of Star Trek. Shanter said that he admires all 79 episodes of the original, including another one about race that featured two aliens who were half white and half black.
“They hated each other. It was great prejudice. But looking at two guys, black and white, it seemed idiotic. And so it didn’t take any much of a stretch to say how idiotic racism is,” he said.
In 2021, Shanter travelled into space aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft. At 90, he became the oldest person to travel to space at that time.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)