Star Trek: Difference between revisions

Star Trek is an American science-fiction franchise spanning six television series, ten feature films, hundreds of novels, computer and video games, and other fan stories. All are set within the same fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry. On Friday 8th September 2006, the Star Trek franchise celebrated its 40th anniversary of the first Star Trek television broadcast.

It depicts a post World War III future in which human beings have united with other sentient species of the galaxy to form the United Federation of Planets. As a result of alien intervention and science, humanity has largely overcome many Earth-bound frailties and vices.

The protagonists are essentially altruistic, however, they are sometimes called on to leverage their position when needed. The conflicts and political dimensions of the stories allegorize contemporary cultural realities; The Original Series addresses issues of the 1960's just as more recent spin-offs reflect more modern topics. Issues depicted in the series, such as imperialism, class warfare, racism, human rights, and the role of technology resonate as much now as they did when first broadcast.

For a complete list of episodes, see List of Star Trek episodes

Star Trek originated as a television series in 1966, although it had been in the planning stages for at least six years prior to that.^[1] Although The Original Series was cancelled in its third season due to low ratings,^[2] it served as the groundwork for five additional Star Trek television series. Altogether, the six series comprise a total of 726 episodes or thirty seasons or 735 professional hours or 550.75 literal hours^[3] of programming.

Star Trek debuted in the United States on NBC on September 8, 1966.^[4] The show, starring William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk, told the tale of the crew of the starship Enterprise and that crew's five-year mission "to boldly go where no man has gone before." After only three seasons, the show was cancelled and the last episode aired on June 3, 1969.^[5] The series subsequently became popular in reruns, and a cult following developed, complete with fan conventions.^[4] Originally aired as simply Star Trek, it has in recent years become known as Star Trek: The Original Series or as "Classic Trek" – retronyms that distinguish it from its sequels and the franchise. All subsequent films and television series, except the animated series of the 1970s, have had secondary titles included as part of their official names. The original series currently airs on G4 and will debut on TV Land in September 2006.^[6] The series is being rereleased in September 2006 with CGI enhancements as a high-definition "Re-mastered" edition. ^[7]

Star Trek: The Animated Series was produced by Filmation and ran for two seasons. It featured most of the original cast performing the voices for their characters from The Original Series with the exception of Walter Koenig, who was not asked to return due to budgetary limitations. While the freedom of animation afforded large alien landscapes and exotic life forms, budget constraints were a major concern and animation was of moderate quality. Although originally sanctioned by Paramount (the current owners of the Star Trek franchise since its aquisition of Desilu Productions), the series is no longer considered to be canon, which has caused controversy among some fans. Even so, elements of the animated series have worked their way into official canon, such as Kirk's middle name, Tiberius, first revealed in TAS and made official in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Star Trek: Enterprise also incorporates several TAS concepts into canon. TAS came back to television in the mid 1980s on the children's cable network Nickelodeon, and in the early 1990s on cable network Sci-Fi Channel.^[8]

Star Trek: Phase II was set to air in 1978 as the flagship series of a proposed Paramount television network, and 12 episode scripts were written before production was due to begin.^[9] The series would have put most of the original crew back aboard the Enterprise for a second five-year mission, except for Leonard Nimoy as Spock, who did not agree to return. A younger, full-blooded Vulcan named Xon was planned as a replacement, although it was still hoped that Nimoy would make guest appearances.^[9] Sets were constructed and several minutes of test footage were filmed. However, the risks of launching a fourth network and the popularity of the then-recently released film Star Wars led Paramount to make a Star Trek film instead of a weekly television series. The first script of this aborted series formed the basis of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, while three others were eventually adapted as episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation.^[10]

Star Trek: The Next Generation is set nearly a century after The Original Series and features a new starship, the Enterprise-D, and a new crew led by Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Patrick Stewart. The show premiered on September 28, 1987 and ran for seven seasons, ending on May 23, 1994.^[11] The Next Generation had the highest ratings of all the Star Trek series and was the #1 syndicated show during the last few years of its original run.^[12] It was the only Star Trek series to ever be nominated for an Emmy for Best Dramatic Series, which came during its final season in 1994. It also received a Peabody Award for Outstanding Television Programming.^[13] The series currently airs on Sky One and BBC Two in the UK, as well as G4, Space: The Imagination Station and Spike TV.^[14][15]

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is set during the same timeframe as The Next Generation and ran for seven seasons, debuting in 1993.^[16] It is the only Star Trek series to take place primarily on a space station, rather than aboard a starship. The show chronicles the events of a Starfleet crew, led by Commander (later Captain) Benjamin Sisko, played by Avery Brooks, living on the Bajoran spacestation Deep Space Nine, which is next to a newly-discovered, uniquely stable wormhole that provides immediate access to the distant Gamma Quadrant.^[17] Story plots include the repercussions of the lengthy and brutal occupation of the nearby planet Bajor by the Cardassians, Sisko's unique spiritual role for the Bajorans as the Emissary of the Prophets, and a major war with the Dominion of the Gamma Quadrant. Deep Space Nine stands apart from other Trek series for its lengthy serialized storytelling and conflict within the crew – things that Roddenberry had forbidden in earlier Trek series ^[18].

Star Trek: Voyager was produced for seven seasons, and is the only Star Trek series to feature a woman as the commanding officer, Captain Kathryn Janeway, played by Kate Mulgrew.^[19] The series plot' shows the USS Voyager and its crew stranded in the Delta Quadrant, 70,000 light years from Earth.^[20] Given a 70-year voyage back to Earth, the crew must avoid conflict and defeat challenges on its long and perilous journey home. While Voyager was originally isolated from many of the familiar aspects of the Star Trek franchise, later seasons saw an influx of concepts such as the Borg and Q.^[21][22]

Star Trek: Enterprise (originally aired simply as "Enterprise") is a prequel to the other Star Trek series. The pilot episode takes place ten years before the founding of the Federation, about halfway between the "historic" events shown in the movie Star Trek: First Contact and the original Star Trek series.^[23] The series depicts the exploration of space by the crew of the Earth starship Enterprise. Commanded by Captain Jonathan Archer, played by Scott Bakula, Enterprise is able to go further and faster than any human vessal had previously gone. Ratings for Enterprise started strong, but declined rapidly; as happened during the initial airing of The Original Series, fan support during Enterprise's second and third seasons helped keep the series on the air. The show continued to lose ratings during the fourth season, and Paramount cancelled the show in early 2005.^[24]

Paramount Pictures has produced ten Star Trek feature films. The first six continue the adventures of the The Original Series cast, while the next four feature The Next Generation's cast. Although North American and UK releases of the films were no longer numbered following the sixth film, European releases continued numbering the films. A common and fondly-held superstition among fans is that the even-numbered Star Trek films are superior to the odd-numbered Star Trek films. The second, fourth, sixth, and eighth films are usually considered the fan favorites, while Star Treks I and V are usually at the bottom^[25]. An eleventh (as-yet-untitled) Star Trek film has been announced for release in 2008^[26].

The Star Trek canon comprises the five live-action television series and ten motion pictures. The animated series, novels, comic books, video games, and other materials based on Star Trek, though licensed by Paramount Pictures, are generally considered non-canon, as are fan-made (or "fanon") productions set within the Star Trek universe.^[27]

The Star Trek novels typically fill "holes" in the Star Trek story and timeline, with explanations of events that have never been thoroughly explained through live action productions. Many have been accepted by Trek fans as part of the Star Trek canon, even though Paramount Pictures, owners of the Star Trek franchise, say otherwise^[27]. Several authors have created spin-off series that are self-contained within their novels.^[28]

Outside of the television series and motion pictures produced by Paramount pictures, the Star Trek franchise has been officially expanded and elaborated by various authors and artists in the so-called "Star Trek Expanded Universe," despite the fact that Paramount does not consider these derivative works canon. These works' creators are generally free to tell their own stories set in the Star Trek universe, and are free either to keep an existing continuity, or to use their own. (Similarly, writers for TV and film are under no obligation to pay heed to any of the derivative works.) These works often expand the back stories of characters, species, planets, etc., already seen in the official live-action productions. For example, the Voyager novels Mosaic and Pathways give background information for characters in the Voyager live-action series.

The Star Trek series have also inspired many unofficial fan-made productions. For example, in recent years, Star Trek fan films have been created for distribution over the Internet.^[29][30] Currently, Star Trek: Hidden Frontier, which is a continuation of the timeline after the Dominion War from the perspective of a station and fleet in the Briar Patch, and Star Trek: New Voyages, a "continuation" of the original Star Trek, are prominent fan series. While none of these projects are licensed by Paramount, some have attracted participation from television and film series' cast and crew.^[31]

The actual phrase "star trek" has been used only once in the on-screen canon of the franchise; the words are uttered by James Cromwell (playing warp drive inventor Zephram Cochrane) in Star Trek: First Contact. Earlier, in the TNG finale episode "All Good Things ...", the character of Q refers to Picard being on a "trek through the stars". The theme music for the original series was originally written with lyrics which also include the phrase "star trek" although these lyrics have never been heard in any canonical Star Trek production.

The Star Trek franchise is a multi-billion dollar industry, currently owned by Paramount.^[32] Gene Roddenberry sold The Original Series to NBC as a classic adventure drama; he pitched the show as "Wagon Train to the stars." Though set on a fictional starship, Roddenberry wanted to tell more sophisticated stories using futuristic situations as analogies to current problems on Earth and rectifying them through humanism and optimism^[33]. The opening line, "to boldly go where no man has gone before", was taken almost verbatim from a US White House booklet on space produced after the Sputnik flight in 1957.^[34] The central trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy was modeled on classical mythological storytelling. Harking of human diversity and contemporaneous political circumstances, Roddenberry included a multi-ethnic crew.^[33]

Star Trek and its spin-offs have proved highly popular in television repeats, and are currently shown on TV stations worldwide.^[35] The show’s cultural impact goes far beyond its longevity and profitability. Star Trek conventions have become popular, though now are often merged with conventions of other genres and series, and fans have coined the term "Trekkies" (or "Trekkers") to describe themselves. An entire subculture has grown up around the show.^[36]

The Star Trek franchise is believed to have motivated the design of many current technologies, including the Tablet PC, the PDA, and mobile phones.^[37] It has also brought to popular attention the concept of teleportation with its classic depiction of "matter-energy transport". Phrases such as "Beam me up, Scotty" have entered the public vernacular.^[38] In 1976, following a letter-writing campaign, NASA named its first space shuttle, Enterprise, after the fictional starship.^[39]

Parodies of Star Trek include the internet-based cartoon series Stone Trek and the song Star Trekkin'.

After Enterprise was cancelled in 2005, the Star Trek franchise found itself for the first time in over 25 years without a series or film in production or development. Though some assumed that the franchise was essentially dead, predictions of its demise are nothing new. As early as 1993–1994, when Star Trek: Deep Space Nine failed to generate the high ratings of its predecessor, magazines such as Entertainment Weekly predicted the end of the franchise. The rumored near-cancellation of Star Trek: Voyager in the mid-1990s led to more such predictions, as did the poor box-office performance of Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002 and the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005. However, in April 2006, the official announcement of an eleventh feature film made it probable that the franchise has not yet ended.

• Showings of The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine regularly air on Spike TV in the United States. Spike TV will also begin airing reruns of Enterprise in the fall of 2006, as part of its original deal for all three series.^[15]
• In December 2005, Comcast's G4 network announced it had obtained the syndication rights for both TNG and The Original Series. G4 has been airing TNG since early 2006 and currently airs Star Trek 2.0 (featuring the original Star Trek accompanied by various interactive features), while Spike will continue to broadcast TNG as well.^[14]
• TOS, TNG, and Voyager air daily in Canada on Space: The Imagination Station, which also purchased Enterprise for daily rebroadcasts starting in the fall of 2005.
• In the UK, reruns of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise air regularly on Sky One and Sky Two, and the terrestrial network five recently began showing Voyager on weekday afternoons. A Digitally Remastered run of The Original Series is shown on Sci-Fi Channel UK weekdays at 7pm. The BBC have also started showing "The Next Generation" and "TOS" on Saturday afternoons.
• In Ireland, Sky One and Sky Two, (channels shared with the UK), air the previously mentioned series. Channel 6 also air TNG.
• In Australia, reruns of TOS, TNG, DS9, Voyager and Enterprise air regularly on Foxtel/Austar's TV1 and TV1 +2 during the late Sunday night "Sci-Fi Sector".
• In Sweden, reruns of TNG air weekdays on TV6.
• In Mexico, reruns of Deep Space Nine and Voyager air every saturday on Universal Channel and Canal 4 (Mexico) (Channel 4).
• Paramount is working on an enhanced version of the original 79 Star Trek episodes that it plans to sell as a syndication package to broadcast stations. State-of-the-art visual effects will replace those in the series (created in-house by CBS), new music will be added to the soundtrack, and the show will be offered in high definition. Presumably, the new series will also be packaged for sale on high-definition DVD after the syndication package airs.^[40]
• TV Land will begin airing TOS in November 2006.

It has been suggested that this section be split out into another article titled Star Trek parodies. (Discuss)

Star Trek has held the record of the most parodies of a franchise.^{[citation needed]} Starting with Mad Magazine, a whole genre of parody has followed, for example:

• Saturday Night Live:
  • A skit entitled, "The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise" explains why Star Trek was really cancelled. John Belushi as Captain Kirk, Chevy Chase as Mr. Spock, and Dan Aykroyd as Dr. McCoy, along with two extras portraying Sulu and Uhura, encounter an intruder who came out of nowhere. The intruder, played by Elliot Gould, happens to be an executive from NBC explaining that Star Trek was immediately cancelled, and all the props were slowly being dismantled. All but Kirk leave, leaving him to enter his final "Captain's Log".
  • Years later, Shatner hosted SNL and played Kirk as captain of an Enterprise that had been purchased by Marriott International and transformed into a revolving restaurant. Khan (played by Dana Carvey) arrives to menace Kirk with a dreaded health inspector (played by Jon Lovitz).
• In Living Color:
  • In one skit entitled, "The Wrath of Farrakhan", a parody of The Wrath of Khan, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farakhan, played by Damon Wayans, convinces crewmembers to rebel against Captain Kirk, played by Jim Carrey.
  • Another skit, entitled, "Star Trek VII: The REALLY Last Voyage", shows the final voyage of an aging Enterprise Crew, including Captain Kirk losing his toupee, Mr. Spock (played by David Alan Grier), having drooping ears, explaining that his Pon Farr is days away and was starting to find Kirk attractive.
• In an episode of The Simpsons, Homer Simpson is competing against Barney Gumble to be the next civilian into outer space. One of the competitions was to have a brawl in a ring. During this event, the competitors are dressed in Star Trek-like outfits and the infamous track, better known as the "Fight Song," from Amok Time is played.
• In another episode of The Simpsons, Grandpa Simpson, Bart Simpson and Lisa Simpson are watching TV when a commercial for "Star Trek XII: So Very Tired" comes on. Featuring an exaggerated original crew, the parody-Kirk complains of his Hiatal Hernia, that the ship is "drafty and damp" and notes how he complains, "but nobody listens." An aged parody-Sulu then reports Klingons off the starboard bow, to which parody-Kirk responds with a sigh of frustration "again with the Klingons" before calling for "Full Power" from Mister Scott. The scene then changes to an over-exaggerated overweight parody-Scotty, who is so large his girth prevents him from reaching the control panel, which he informs parody-Kirk in reply to his request.
• In 2005, shortly after its return to the FOX network, Family Guy paid tribute to Star Trek: The Next Generation with a parody skit featuring the voices of Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes and Michael Dorn as their famed characters. In the parody, Picard asks Riker if he would join him in a laugh if he whispered in his ear that "Commander Worf's head looks like a fanny" to which Riker replies in the affirmative. When Picard does say such, rather than whisper it, he shouts it, causing the animated bridge crew to laugh, and irriating Worf who tells them both to "suck my ridges" to which Picard replies, "Oh get a sense of humor, Rocky Dennis."
• Boston Legal: William Shatner's character, Denny Crane, makes occasional Star Trek references.
• Several characters in the comic strip Bloom County use the wheelchair of Cutter John as the starship "Enterpoop" during Star Trek roleplaying.
• On an episode of Drake and Josh, they get the geek boys, Craig and Aaron to stay with their Papa Nickels by giving them the first season of "Space Trek", an obvious reference to Star Trek.
• The film Galaxy Quest parodies the original Star Trek series and elements of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Major reference works related to the production and influence of the franchise include:

• The Making of Star Trek by Gene Roddenberry and Stephen PE. Whitfield (Ballantine Books, 1968)
• The Trouble with Tribbles by David Gerrold (Ballantine, 1973)
• The World of Star Trek by David Gerrold (Ballantine Books, 1973; revised edition, Bluejay Books, 1984)
• Star Trek Lives! by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, Sondra Marshak, and Joan Winston (Bantam Books, 1975)
• The Making of the Trek Conventions by Joan Winston (Doubleday Books/Playboy Press, 1977)
• A Star Trek Catalog edited by Gerry Turnbull (Grosset & Dunlap, 1979)
• On the Good Ship Enterprise: My 15 Years with Star Trek by Bjo Trimble (Donning Starblaze, 1983)
• Star Trek Memories by William Shatner and Chris Kreski (HarperCollins, 1993)
• Star Trek Movie Memories by William Shatner and Chris Kreski (HarperCollins, 1994)
• Beyond Uhura by Nichelle Nichols (Putnam, 1994)
• The Physics of Star Trek by Lawrence M. Krauss (Basic Books, 1995)
• City on the Edge of Forever by Harlan Ellison (White Wolf Publishing, 1996)
• Enterprise Zones: Critical Positions on Star Trek, edited by Taylor Harrison, Sarah Projansky, Kent A. Ono, Elyce Rae Helford (Westview Press, 1996)
• Inside Star Trek: The Real Story by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman (Pocket Books, 1996)
• Future Perfect: How Star Trek Conquered Planet Earth by Jeff Greenwald (Viking Press, 1998)
• Get a Life! by William Shatner and Chris Kreski (Pocket Books, 1999)
• The Ethics of Star Trek by Judith Barad Ph.D. with Ed Robertson (HarperCollins, 2000)
• I'm Working on That: A Trek from Science Fiction to Science Fact by William Shatner and Chip Walter (Pocket Books, 2002)
• Inside Trek: My Secret Life with Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry by Susan Sackett (Hawk Publishing Group, 2002)
• Picard: The Academy Years by M.N.Lake (Dragon Publishing, 2005)

Wikiquote has quotations related to Star Trek.

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Look up star trek in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• StarTrek.com - The Official Star Trek website
• Memory Alpha - Star Trek Wiki Encyclopedia.
• TrekCore.com - Largest Star Trek Multimedia Outlet

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