Captain's...Log
Stardate...Sep...tember 8...196...6
(read in Kirk rhythmic voice)
Star Trek premiered 40 years ago tomorrow on NBC.
However, the genesis of the show dates to March 11, 1964, when Roddenberry wrote a 16-page draft pilot for a show he told network executives would be a "Wagon train to the stars,'' Later that year, shooting began on the first "Star Trek" pilot episode, "The Cage.''
In interviews and memoirs written before he died, Roddenberry said NBC executives rejected the pilot as "too cerebral'' but were impressed enough to green-light a second pilot.
Despite its intensely loyal following (read: geeks), Star Trek was canceled by NBC after only 3 seasons, and the last first-run episode aired in June 1969, a little more than a month before the Apollo 11 crew landed on the moon. 40 years of spin-offs followed with good and bad moments. Good = "Resistance is Futile", Bad = Kirk meets God, Iffy = Whoopi as Dr. Phil.
Plans are under way for another "Trek" film in 2008, with J.J. Abrams at the helm. Lost fans rejoice! Matthew Fox as Kirk! Locke as Spock!
From CNN, Shatner has something to say about why we love the Trek:
"SHATNER: It's the characters, it's the uniqueness. [It's] Mr. Spock. It is the relationship between Spock and Kirk. It is the relationship that the three of us had, the compadres, the family. The levels of meaning of the show. The uniqueness of the science fiction at that time. It was all that and many other things, but the curious thing is, nobody really knows. So anything you say is as valid as anything we could say. 'Cause if we knew what it was --
NIMOY: We'd do it again.
SHATNER: And again. And to keep trying. And I haven't got it yet."
And here comes the cliche...you knew I had to say it. May Star Trek live long and prosper.
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