Star Trek - Live long and prosper
In the mid 1960’s Gene Roddenberry created the fascinating fictional universe which was known as Star Trek. Since its debut at that time, it has become one of the most popular names in the history of science fiction entertainment. Even if you’ve never seen an episode, when you hear the words “Star Trek,” you know exactly what is being referred to. There are many sites on the web devoted to this science fiction series with endless information and tributes.
Star Trek had six very unique television series which included the Original series, the Animated series, the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise. It was also made into ten feature films all of which included The Motion Picture, II: Wrath of Khan, III: Search for Spock, IV: Voyage Home, V: Final Frontier, VI: Undiscovered Country, Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, Nemesis and XI.
Star Trek was ahead of its time and depicted a very utopian future in which humanity has overcome things such as poverty, racism, destruction of the environment and it prided itself on uniting other intelligent species in the galaxy. The main characters of Star Trek in the Original series consisted of Captain Christopher Pike, Mr. Spock, Number One, Captain/Admiral James Tiberius Kirk, Doctor Leonard H. “Bones” McCoy, Lieutenant Uhura, Chief “Scotty” Scott, Lieutenant/Captain Hikaru Sulu, Yeoman Janice Rand, Nurse Chapel and Captain Chekov. Actors such as William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan and George Takei made their first feature appearances in Star Trek.
Some of the major planetary nations in Star Trek were the United Federation of Planets, Romulans, Klingons, Tholians, Borg, Cardissians, Bajorans, Hirogen, Kazon, Dominion, Breen, Xindi and the Vulcans.
In 1993-1994 when Star Trek: Deep Space Nine didn’t do as well as it’s preceding film did, the rumors began to infiltrate that this was the end of the franchise. Nemisis also didn’t do that well and the cancelled series of Enterprise in 2005 also made it seem more concrete that the predictions that the franchise was over were true. But, the announcement in April 2006 that an eleventh feature film came as a surprise to many and halted all rumors that the franchise was through. The eleventh film is slated to be released in 2008. It will be produced and directed by J.J. Abrams.
You can watch Star Trek reruns on Spike TV. The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine are aired on a regular basis. Reruns of Voyager will begin in the fall of 2006.