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On September 8, 1966, the first regular series episode of "Star Trek" premiered. The story featured an alien creature that could appear as any other person, but survived by extracting the salt from other creatures. The original series lasted three seasons, ending in 1969, and at the time didn't garner the kind of following it needed to continue beyond those three seasons. In the years since, however, it went from an average-rated television series to a cult phenomenon, inspiring hundreds (perhaps thousands) of published books in the Star Trek universe, and countless thousands more fan fiction stories that never made it to publication. There have been four more television series, and eleven movies. There are comic book series, cartoons, numerous video games, and countless tributes and parodies, along with Trek-based colloquialisms that have become firmly entrenched in the lexicon.
Realistically, the original series was only average science fiction. This is not a criticism, but rather an acknowledgement of the limitations that television imposed on the writers and performers. It did not present a radical concept in sci-fi, as previous stories in both text and video form offered the scenario of routine space travel between developed, inhabited worlds, with alien races mixed in. As one studio executive described it, Star Trek was "Wagon Train in space" (Wagon Train was a western series, based on the wagon trains that crossed the country in the 1800s, that ran from 1957 - 1965). The Trek special effects were low-budget (the transporter beam was less of a high tech idea for the story, as it was a cheap way for the film crew to transition between shipboard scenes and planet-based scenes). The bridge set was little better than many people could have built in their own basement, and the alien landscapes were likewise simple and (by today's standards at least) inexpensive. Were the series to premiere today with the production standards it had then, it would be laughed off the air.
So, what was it about Star Trek that catapulted it to such a following?
Part of it, I believe, was the time. The 60s were a time of tremendous change in American culture, along with being a time of great stresses. Women and minorities were struggling for equal status in society. The United States and the Soviet Union were at the height of the Cold War, and many still believed a nuclear war between the two superpowers was inevitable. In addition, we were embroiled in a "Police Action" (a nice euphemism for an undeclared war) in Viet Nam, while still maintaining an active military presence in Korea.
The 70s brought an end to the Viet Nam conflict, but at the expense of looking like America's first real military defeat. On the tail end of the Viet Nam withdrawal, the Watergate Scandal brought down the Nixon Administration. Oil embargos led to skyrocketing gasoline prices and rationing, and after Gerald Ford's short term as President, Jimmy Carter took the White House. The economy was in lousy shape, the military at what was arguably its lowest morale and readiness ever, and National Pride in a serious slump.
In these years, the eighty episodes of the original Star Trek series went from a cancelled television series in rerun syndication to the cult phenomenon we know today. Whatever else one might say about it, it took the viewer to worlds of imagination and hope. The Cold War was not ignored, nor was Soviet Russia portrayed as the "loser." The character of Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig), while perhaps a bit too cliché of a Russian, sat on the Bridge of the Enterprise to indicate that - whatever insane tensions had once existed on Earth - humanity had survived the Cold War with both sides intact. Lt. Nyota Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) was herself a radical concept on television at the time of the original airing. Not only did they have a woman as a Bridge Officer on a Ship of the Line - itself unheard of in American culture at the time - she was a minority woman. Some may have decried her part as "token," but I believe audiences saw her instead as an ideal. She symbolized that the equality struggles of the 60s would not be in vain. She was a main character, and a good one. She was portrayed as smart, wise (not always the same thing as smart), vital to the mission, and an equal member of the crew.
The setting of the show gave it a freedom that other sci-fi series have often missed. While Lost in Space (1965 - 1968) was limited by the idea that the Jupiter II had to remain lost for the series to maintain its drama, the Enterprise was part of a fleet, dispatched where it was needed. They could go anywhere in the universe, including Earth or established human colony worlds. They could rendezvous with other Star Fleet vessels, and ships from other fleets, both friendly and hostile (and get repairs as needed from Star Bases). The stories on Star Trek ranged from the socially conscious, such as "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" (January 1969), offering an allegoric twist on racism and race-motivated violence, to the humorous "The Trouble with Tribbles" (December 1967), to the positively bizarre Halloween themed "Catspaw" (October 1967). The audience wasn't always left with a "message" episode, keeping the show from coming across as preachy, but the serious stories were ample enough to keep the show from feeling like a campy parody of sci-fi.
The concept of Star Fleet and the Federation left the audience with wide-open reaches for the imagination. New Trek stories didn't have to center around Captain Kirk's crew on the Enterprise, nor did new stories need to ignore the characters of the original series. Other ships and other destinations served important missions as well, and could cross-over with the Enterprise at the whim of the imagination. It wasn't just one ship and one crew, with one crisis that was resolved by the end of the series, it was an entire universe opened up and revealed by that one ship and crew. They took us where no man had gone before, and we had the choice of going on with them, or diverting off to explorations of our own. Roddenberry created a playground, and whether he ever intended it that way at the start, he threw open the gates and invited us all to play there to our heart's desire.
Star Trek Series:
Star Trek - 1966 - 1969 (80 Episodes)
Star Trek: The Next Generation - 1987 - 1994 (176 Episodes)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - 1993 - 1999 (173 Episodes)
Star Trek: Voyager - 1995 - 2001 (170 Episodes)
Enterprise - 2001 - 2005 (98 Episodes)
Star Trek Movies:
Star Trek The Motion Picture - 1979
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - 1982
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock - 1984
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - 1986
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier - 1989
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country - 1991
Star Trek: Generations - 1994
Star Trek: First Contact - 1996
Star Trek: Insurrection - 1998
Star Trek: Nemesis - 2002
Star Trek - 2009
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