Star Trek, The Original Series

An old VHS Star Trek ad.

Star Wars and Star Trek, two space operas that changed the world of Science Fiction forever. One would do it in the late 60's via TV, and the other,  in the late 70's via the big screen. Millions of fans rejoice today for each, or both and it's been a fifty some years journey that doesn't seem to have a final mission. To be fair, Star Trek came first but, before it there were many serials attempting to captivate audiences with adventures in worlds far away. 

My family is mostly the Star Wars kind, but I have a profound nostalgia bond with Star Trek also. Having watched the original series on re runs, made my childhood a lot happier. To this day I remember asking my dad to build me a wooden U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701. I also remember making my own battles with homemade cardboard spaceships. When the movies came out I wasn't old enough for the theater but my dad would rent them for me as soon as they became available in the unforgettable VHS format. With all these fond memories I couldn't possibly  forget to mention the magnificent Star Trek The 25th Anniversary Edition Nintendo (NES) game! hours of playing it! magnificent action and astonishing graphics for an 8 bit console! The game was so well developed that you actually felt you were inside an episode of the series instead of playing a video game. Luckily for me, and for many, I can still play that sweet game through a fantastic NES emulator, oh boy, just typing these words have me craving for the game again.
 

The magnificent crew.

The legendary bridge.

Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner in perhaps his larger than life role) is the audacious, impulsive, and womanizing Enterprise commander. In almost every episode he has some gorgeous new love interest, seldom exhibiting much restraint! Kirk frequently engages in physical hand to hand combat with his opponents, torn shirt & sweat being common. Yet he does manage to come up with some bold and brilliant moves such as his legendary ruse, the Corbomite Manouever. Perhaps his primary task is serving as referee between the constantly sparring First Officer Spock and ship's doctor, Bones McCoy.

The heart of the series is Mr. Spock(Leonard Nimoy), the half Vulcan First Officer and ship's Science Officer. Actually however, Spock would maintain that he is the HEAD of the series, since he prides himself on his unfailing logic and lack of emotion. The inner conflict between his logic driven paternal Vulcan half and his emotional maternal human half form an ongoing theme. Spock possesses two useful Vulcan abilities, the neck pinch and the mind meld. The most engaging character interaction is between the logic motivated Spock versus the highly emotional ship's physician, Dr. Leonard (Bones) McCoy, who is basically a country doctor in space, a humanitarian leery of all this newfangled gadgetry. McCoy is famous in the Trek world for his expression, 'I'm a doctor, not a ----' (many phrases have been used here).

Black beauty and girl power all in one stunning character.

Live long and prosper.

Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott is a hot tempered Scotsman with a fondness for his native country's whiskey. Scotty constantly bemoans that he 'cannae change the laws of physics' all the while working assorted engineering miracles with the warp core and anti matter this or that. As for Communications Officer Uhura, she is most notable for her regular phrase, 'Hailing frequencies open, Sir.'

To be sure, some of the episodes have less than brilliant plots, notably Spock's Brain, though the character interactions always compensate for any inadequacies. However, some ideas were masterful, including The Enterprise Incident, The Menagerie, and City on the Edge of Forever. The series took on issues of overpopulation (The Mark of Gideon), social class disparity (The Cloud Minders, with its clever cloud city, Stratos), and racism (Let That Be Your Last Battlefield), which involves laughable hatred between two races, one black on the left side & white on the right, the other race vice versa. I personally enjoyed The Naked Time (Nurse Chappel admits her love for Spock), A Taste of Armageddon (computer war), This Side of Paradise (Spock frolics), and Is There in Truth No Beauty? (the Medusan ambassador's incredible ugliness causes madness in the hapless onlooker). However, my absolute favorite is unquestionably the absurd Amok Time, with Spock's ridiculous pon farr mating strife.

The unforgettable original Enterprise!

Laser Beam!

The Enterprise crew consists of a racially diverse group, with its black Communications Officer Uhura and Oriental helmsman Sulu. The ship's navigator, Chekov, is Russian...quite a revolutionary idea for that Cold War era. The cast are perfect in their roles, including William Shatner (Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Spock), and all the others. Special tribute to the late Deforest Kelly (McCoy) and James Doohan (Scotty), who are sadly missed.

This is the series that gave us such technologies as the transporter, tricorder, and cloaking device...high tech weaponry including phasers and photon torpedoes...futuristic games like three dimensional chess...miracle drugs such as cordrazine...and gourmet delicacies like Saurian brandy & Romulan ale. Some of the gadgetry gave a sneak preview of such later real life technology as computer floppy discs. 

Hands up Star Wars fan!

Dressed for the occasion.

In addition to the highly logical Vulcans, Star Trek gave us glimpses of such alien species as the honour driven Klingons and the sneaky Romulans (the Federation's two primary enemies), also the xenophobic Tholians, the reptilian Gorn, and many others. It treated us to the endearing rock like, silicon based Horta and the cute & fuzzy but all too prolific Tribbles (which caused no end of Trouble). And it acquainted us with such planets as Sarpeidon, Eminiar & Vendikar.

In the episode Metamorphosis, we were all introduced to the heroic Zephram Cochrane who invented the warp drive way back in 2063. In constant demand is the dilithium vital to the warp engine's functioning. Star Trek also acquainted us with the United Federation of Planets, Starfleet & Starfleet Academy, and the Federation's much vaunted strict rule called the Prime Directive, which is frequently mentioned but universally ignored! 

Wish I had this Entreprise in my collection.

Star Trek is simply an incredibly fun and entertaining science fiction series, though it was hardly appreciated back in the 1960's when it originally aired. Fortunately, it lives on today in re runs (DVDs, Blu Ray and on demand also), giving Trekkies the ongoing excitement of regularly 'boldly going where no man has gone before'. Live long and prosper, everyone! 

Here's the Season 1 intro:

Here's season 2 intro:

And the ending:

Plus the Pilot episode (The Cage) with very different actors in key roles:

The Classic Nintendo (NES) Star Trek: The 25th Anniversary Edition game: