September 8, 1966: "Star Trek" Premieres

Back row, left to right: James Doohan as Scotty, Walter Koenig as Chekov,

Majel Barrett as Nurse Chapel, Nichelle Nichols as Uhura,

and George Takei as Sulu. Front row: DeForest Kelley as McCoy,

William Shatner as Kirk, and Leonard Nimoy as Spock.

September 8, 1966, 60 years ago: The TV series Star Trek first airs on NBC, with the episode "The Man Trap" -- a.k.a. "The Space Vampire."

NOTE: This is an adaptation of a post I wrote for the 50th Anniversary, in 2016.

The show was created by Gene Roddenberry (1921-1991), who had previously been a combat pilot in World War II and a Los Angeles police officer. He pitched it to the network as "Wagon Train to the stars," in essence a Western in space. But with his ship's Captain, he was inspired by C.S. Forester's novels about Captain Horatio Hornblower, and he liked to call his adventures "Hornblower in space."

The show had a pilot filmed in December 1964, titled "The Cage." NBC passed on the story, but approved the concept, and asked for a 2nd pilot. Except for Leonard Nimoy as Spock, it was a completely new cast that filmed "Where No Man Has Gone Before" in July 1965. The show was picked up, although that 2nd pilot didn't air until September 22, 1966, the 3rd episode to air.

As for the pilot, here's the affiliates you could have watched it on, if you were in what would now be considered a "major league" city (note that not all of these are still NBC affiliates, or operating under the same call letters as there were using in 1966):

* Channel 2: WGRZ, Buffalo; WSB, Atlanta; KPRC, Houston; KUTV, Salt Lake City.

* Channel 3: KYW, Philadelphia; WKYC, Cleveland; KSNV, Las Vegas; KCRA, Sacramento.

* Channel 4: WNBC, New York; WRC, Washington; WBZ, Boston; WDIV, Detroit; WTMJ, Milwaukee; WSMV, Nashville; WDAF, Kansas City, KFOR, Oklahoma City; WOAI, San Antonio; KCNC, Denver; KNBC, Los Angeles; KRON, San Francisco.

* Channel 5: WLTW, Cincinnati; WMC, Memphis; WMAQ, Chicago; KSDK, St. Louis; KXAS, Dallas; KING, Seattle.

* Channel 6: WFBM, Indianapolis; WDSU, New Orleans.

* Channel 7: WSVN, Miami.

* Channel 8: WFLA, Tampa; KGW, Portland, Oregon.

* Channel 9: WSOC, Charlotte.

* Channel 10: KGTV, San Diego.

* Channel 11: WBAL, Baltimore; WIIC, Pittsburgh, WTVD, Raleigh.

* Channel 12: WTLV, Jacksonville; KPNX, Phoenix.

The series depicted the USS Enterprise, a starship with a crew of 430, representing the Starfleet (one word) of the United Federation of Planets, a galactic version of the United Nations, headquartered on Earth, at some unspecified point in the future.

Since they didn't want to be locked into an exact time, they obscured this with the clever use of "Stardates." Despite at least 2 episodes suggesting that the series took place around 200 years later, later series would definitively place it 300 years in the future -- i.e., the 1st episode took place in the year 2266.

The ship's mission, partly invoking the late President John F. Kennedy's "New Frontier," was written by  Roddenberry, and recited near the start of each episode by William Shatner:

Space: The final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: To explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before!

The show ran for 3 years, and led to a brief animated series and 6 movies. It has spun off several connected TV series.

Of the main cast, pictured above:

* DeForest Kelley, who played the Chief Medical Officer, Lieutenant Commander Leonard H. McCoy, a.k.a. "Bones," died on June 11, 1999, at the age of 79.

* James Doohan, who played the Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott, a.k.a. "Scotty," died on July 20, 2005, at 85.

* Majel Barrett, Roddenberry's wife, who played Nurse Christine Chapel (her rank was never stated on the original series), and also voiced the computers on every starship in every show for as long as she lived, died on December 18, 2008, at 76.

* Leonard Nimoy, who played the ship's half-human and half-Vulcan First Officer and Science Officer, Commander Spock, died on February 27, 2015, at 83.

* Nichelle Nichols, who played the Communications Officer, Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, died on July 30, 2022, at 90.

* George Takei, who played the Chief Helmsman, Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu, is 89.

* Walter Koenig, who played a navigator, Ensign Pavel Chekov, turns 90 next week. His character was created when the Soviet Union objected to the fact that, despite their pioneering status in spaceflight, there were no Russians in the Enterprise crew, and Roddenberry admitted they had a point. Koenig said, "When they thought I was Russian, 22 and single, I got more mail than anybody except Leonard (Nimoy). When they found out I was American, 31 and married, the mail dried up."

* And William Shatner, who played Captain James T. Kirk, is 95, and, by all appearances, still going strong.

(By the end of their movies' run in 1994, Kirk had been promoted to Admiral, and demoted back down to Captain; Spock, Scotty and Sulu had been promoted to Captain; and McCoy, Uhura, Chekov and Chapel to Commander.)

In a 2011 episode of the YouTube series Epic Rap Battles of History, "Epic" Lloyd Ahlquist played Captain Kirk, although his impersonation sounded more like one of Shatner's exaggerated acting. In non-speaking guest roles, Omar Garaibeh played Spock, and Jon Na played Sulu. Both were ERB crew members. Kirk's opponent was Christopher Columbus, played by "Nice" Peter Shukoff.

September 8, 1966 was a Thursday. The next day, the science fiction series The Time Tunnel and the superhero show The Green Hornet debuted.

*

The show had a cult following. Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Michael Jackson were all known to be fans of what's now come to be known to fans of "The Original Series" or "TOS." (There is no account of any of the individual Beatles being Trek fans. Nor is it known if President Lyndon B. Johnson, despite his strong support of the real-life space program, ever watched the show.) Sinatra later admitted to preferring The Next Generation. His cognitive decline was already underway when James Darren began playing holodeck-inspired Las Vegas lounge singer Vic Fontaine, practically an homage to Sinatra, on Deep Space Nine, so his thoughts on that are unknown.

The most famous story of a celebrity connection with the show came in early 1967, although it wasn't revealed for many years thereafter: Nichelle Nichols didn't like the shooting schedule, or the way she was being treated, and thought she could be treated better and make more money with her nightclub singing act, which was ongoing. At one point, she met Dr. Martin Luther King, and told her she was thinking of quitting the show.

He told her she couldn't quit. He admitted that he and his family were fans of the show, and that her presence, as both a black person and a woman on the command level of such a vessel, was of great symbolic value, and that she should stay because of that. She did.

But the show didn't get past its core support, and the ratings were never good. NBC was ready to cancel it after 2 seasons, but a fans' write-in campaign saved it. For its 3rd season, the show's budget was slashed, and it was put in a bad time slot. The ratings got worse, and nothing could save it to allow it to complete the ship's "five-year mission."

"We all thought it was over," Shatner said. And while Nimoy immediately went to another Paramount Pictures show, Mission: Impossible -- taking the master-of-disguise role played by Martin Landau, who was allegedly the studio's first choice to play Spock, but Roddenberry put his foot down and wanted Nimoy -- the other castmembers weren't so lucky. They were typecast. With his Southern accent, Kelley was often cast in Westerns, but that genre was in decline by 1969. Doohan got roles in 2 1970s Saturday-morning-kid-show sci-fi adventures. Nichols went on singing.

Everybody else got whatever they could get. Shatner, at one point, was so broke, he was homeless, living out of his car. He and Nimoy both played killers caught by the title character on Columbo.

But the fans wouldn't give up. Star Trek fan conventions began in 1972. And the show caught on in syndicated reruns. In 1973, Filmation decided to do an animated Star Trek series. They were going to pay Shatner and Nimoy starring amounts, but not the others. Nimoy put his foot down, and said he wouldn't do it unless the others got the same pay. They did, with the exception of Koenig, although he did write an episode. Star Trek: The Animated Series (TAS) ran on NBC for 22 episodes in 1973 and '74.

Paramount decided there was enough demand to form a 4th major TV network, and they wanted its flagship show to be a sequel series, titled Star Trek: Phase II. But the network fell apart, and they shifted to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Premiering in 1979, it was directed by Roddenberry himself, and that was a bad choice: All the criticisms leveled at "The Cage" back in 1965 came back: It was long, too cerebral, not enough action.

It became known as "The Motionless Picture." It was compared to another dragged-out 1979 film, and was nicknamed "A Spock-alypse Now." And the story's similarity to the episode "The Changeling" got it nicknamed "Where Nomad Has Gone Before." While it was visually spectacular, it was a very expensive flop. And it almost killed the franchise.

In 1982, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan premiered. Nicholas Meyer directed, and it saved the franchise. It was a sequel to the TOS episode "Space Seed," with Ricardo Montalban, returning as Khan Noonien Singh. While Trek has had villainous species, including the Klingons, the Romulans, the Borg, the Dominion, and the Xindi, Khan remains the greatest single villain in its history.

Nimoy was tired of playing Spock, so the character was killed. This was a terrible shock to Trek fans, including myself, 12 years old at the time. And yet, in hindsight, it is one of the greatest sacrifices, one of the greatest death scenes, and is followed by one of the greatest funerals in film history.

What Nimoy really wanted to do was direct, and so, when TWOK was a hit, they let him direct Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. As traumatic as Spock's death was, and as weird as it was to see the opening credits go directly from Shatner to Kelley without mentioning Nimoy (except as director), deep down, we all knew he would be restored to life.

Except... we didn't know that the Enterprise was going to be destroyed. And by Christopher Lloyd? Reverend Jim from Taxi? Are you kidding? Well, Lloyd put on a spectacular performance as Klingon Commander Kruge, and it probably got him the role of Doc Brown in Back to the Future, which is how he's now remembered.

The trilogy was completed with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Nimoy directed again, and the Enterprise Seven (or "The Magnificent Seven") are forced to travel back to the present day, 1986, to save Earth in their time. It's not the best Trek film, but it is the most fun, and the funniest. My grandmother, 62 years old when it was released, was not a science fiction fan, but even she liked "the one with the whales."

After 2 Nimoy-directed films, Shatner, who had done some directing, wanted to direct one. The result was Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, where the crew met Spock's brother, and "God." It tanked, and Shatner never directed within Trek again, although many other Trek actors and Trek-connected people have directed episodes, including Leonard's son, Adam Nimoy.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, reflecting the end of the Cold War by showing the beginning of peace with the Klingons, may have been the best overall film in the franchise, and it was a fitting sendoff for the original crew -- or so we thought. Indeed, it was the last Trek film appearance for Kelley, Nichols and Takei.

*

The success of ST IV led to Paramount launching Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987, taking place 100 years after TOS, in the 24th Century. This would result in the 1994 film Star Trek: Generations, where Shatner, Doohan and Koenig were on hand to "pass the torch" to the TNG crew, although it was only Shatner's Kirk who was transported to the time of the USS Enterprise-D, resulting in a death that should have been more heroic.

TNG ran until 1994, and produced 4 movies from 1994 to 2002; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine from 1993 to 1999; Star Trek: Voyager, 1995 to 2001; the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise from 2001 to 2005. Then came the 3 horrible J.J. Abrams "Bad Reboot" movies from 2009 to 2016. And "legit Trek" didn't to much better. The prequel series Star Trek: Discovery (2017-24) and its sequel series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (starting this year and getting cut off next year) were ripped by fans. And it wasn't just because it wasn't "their Trek": They were genuinely bad.

Star Trek: Picard had 2 bad seasons, starting in 2020, though the 3rd, in 2023, gave enough fan service" to make most TNG fans think that the crew of Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) had a proper conclusion to their stories.

The franchise won a lot of fans back with the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020-24) and Star Trek: Prodigy (2021-24), and the prequel series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (starting in 2022 and set to conclude as planned in 2027, showing the Enterprise under Anson Mount's Captain Christopher Pike as it transitions to Kirk, now played by Paul Wesley).

On its 60th Anniversary, Star Trek remains as popular as ever. As Gene Roddenberry liked to say, "The human adventure is just beginning."

But as David Gerrold, who's written for Star Trek and other science fiction, has said, "The final frontier is not space. The final frontier is the human soul. Space is merely the place where we are most likely to meet the challenge."