Although this TV series had the title of Star Trek, it has acquired the retronym of Star Trek: The Original Series to distinguish it from the numerous sequels that have followed it, and also from the fictional universe that it created. Its time setting is roughly the 23rd century.[3] The original Star Trek series follows the adventures of the starship Enterprise and its crew, led by Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), first officer Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and chief medical officer Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley). William Shatner's voice-over introduction during each episode's opening credits stated the starship's purpose:
“
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.
”
When Star Trek premiered on NBC-TV in 1966, it was not an immediate hit. Initially, its Nielsen ratings were low, and its advertising revenue was modest. Before the end of the first season of Star Trek, some executives at NBC wanted to cancel the series because of its low ratings.[4] The chief of the Desilu Productions company, Lucille Ball, reportedly "single-handedly kept Star Trek from being dumped from the NBC-TV lineup."[5]
Toward the end of the second season, Star Trek was again in
danger of cancellation. The lobbying by its fans gained it a third
season, but NBC also moved its broadcast time to the Friday night "death slot", at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (9:00 p.m. Central Time).[6]Star Trek was cancelled at the end of the third season, after 79 episodes were produced.[7][8][9][10] However, this was enough for the show to be "stripped" in TV syndication,
allowing it to become extremely popular and gather a large cult
following during the 1970s. The success of the program was followed by
five additional television series and eleven theatrical films. The Guinness World Records lists the original Star Trek as having the largest number of spin-offs among all TV series in history.
In 1964, Gene Roddenberry, a longtime fan of science fiction, drafted a proposal for a science-fiction TV series that he called Star Trek. This was to be set on board a large interstellar spaceship whose crew was dedicated to exploring a relatively small portion of our Milky Way Galaxy.
Some of the influences on his idea that Roddenberry noted included A. E. van Vogt's tales of the spaceship Space Beagle, Eric Frank Russell's Marathon series of stories, and the film Forbidden Planet (1956). Other people have also drawn parallels with the TV series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (1954), a less-sophisticated space opera
that still included many of the elements — the organization, crew
relationships, missions, part of the bridge layout, and even some
technology — that were part of Star Trek.[11]
Roddenberry also drew heavily from C.S. Forrester's Horatio Hornblower
novels that depict a daring sea captain who exercises broad
discretionary authority on distant sea missions of noble purpose.
Roddenberry often humorously referred to Captain Kirk as "Horatio
Hornblower in Space".[12]
Roddenberry had extensive experience in writing for series about the Old West that had been popular television fare earlier in the 1960s and the 1950s, and he pitched his new show to the networks as "Wagon Train to the stars."[13]
In 1964, Roddenberry signed a three-year program-development contract with a leading independent TV-production company, Desilu Productions. In Roddenberry's original concept, the protagonist was Captain Robert April of the starship S.S. Yorktown. This character was developed into Captain Christopher Pike.
The concept of Star Trek was first presented to the CBS-TV network, which turned it down in favor of the Irwin Allen creation Lost in Space. Roddenberry next presented his concept Star Trek to the head of Desilu Studio--Herb Solow--who
eventually accepted it. Solow then successfully sold Gene's vision of
Star Trek to NBC, which paid for but turned down the first pilot "The Cage", stating that it was "too cerebral".[12]
However, the NBC executives had still been impressed with the concept,
and they understood that its perceived faults had been partly because
of the script that they had selected themselves.[12] The NBC executives then made the unusual decision to pay for a second pilot, using the script called "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Only the character of Mr. Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, was kept from the first pilot, and only two cast members, Majel Barrett and Nimoy, were carried forward into the second pilot. This pilot proved to be satisfactory to NBC, and the network selected Star Trek to be in its upcoming TV schedule for the fall of 1966.
The second pilot introduced the rest of the main characters: Captain Kirk (William Shatner), chief engineer Lt. Commander Scott (James Doohan) and Lt. Sulu (George Takei). Paul Fix played "Dr. Mark Piper" in the second pilot; ship's doctor Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley)
joined the cast when filming began for the first season, and he
remained for the rest of the series, achieving billing as the third
star of the series. Also joining the ship's permanent crew then was the
communications officer, Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), the first African-American woman to hold such an important role in an American TV series. Walter Koenig joined the cast as Ensign Pavel Chekov in the series' second season.
The show's production staff included art director Matt Jefferies. Jefferies designed the starship Enterprise and most of its interiors. His contributions to the series were honored in the name of the "Jefferies tube",
an equipment shaft depicted in various Star Trek series. In addition to
working with his brother, John Jefferies, to create the hand-held
phaser weapons of Star Trek, Jefferies also developed the set design for the bridge of the Enterprise (which was based on an earlier design by Pato Guzman). Jeffries used his practical experience as an airman during World War II and his knowledge of aircraft design to devise a sleek, functional, ergonomic bridge layout.
The costume designer for Star Trek, Bill Theiss, created the striking look of the Starfleet uniforms for the Enterprise, and the then risqué costumes for female guest stars, and for various aliens, including the Klingons, Vulcans, Romulans, Tellarites, Andorians, Gideonites & many others.
Artist and sculptor Wah Chang, who had worked for the Walt Disney Corporation,
was hired to design and manufacture props: he created the flip-open
communicator, often credited as having influenced the configuration of
the portable version of the cellular telephone.[14]
Chang also designed the portable sensing-recording-computing
"tricorder" device, and various fictitious devices for the starship's
engineering crew and its sick bay. Later into the series, he helped to
create various memorable aliens, such as the Gorn and the Horta.
The first regular episode of Star Trek aired on Thursday,
September 8, 1966 from 8:30-9:30 as part of an NBC "sneak preview"
block. Debuting against mostly reruns, it easily won its time slot with
a 40.6 share.[15]
The following week against all-new programming, however, it fell to
second (29.4 share) behind CBS. It ranked 33rd (out of 94 programs)
over the next two weeks, before the following two episodes tumbled all
the way to 51st in the ratings.[16][17]
The threat of cancellation loomed, as Star Trek had an
average ratings position of 52nd during the entire first season. But it
was still outperforming most new shows, ranking higher than all but
eight other new programs in 1966-67. NBC finally ordered a second
season in March, 1967.[18]
It was originally announced that the show would fill a 7:30-8:30 PM
Tuesday time slot, but it was instead given an 8:30-9:30 PM Friday slot
when the 1967-68 NBC schedule was released.[19]
Rumors of cancellation surfaced again during the show's second season.[20]Star Trek was ranking ahead of ABC's Hondo, but was getting trounced by CBS programs (Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and the first half-hour of the CBS Friday Night Movie). When it became apparent that a third season was in jeopardy, the show's devoted fanbase conducted a letter-writing campaign, petitioning NBC to keep Star Trek on next year's schedule.[21]Star Trek was saved by the unprecedented write-in campaign to NBC, spearheaded by a collection of fans, notably Bjo Trimble,
who succeeded in getting tens of thousands of viewers to write letters
of support to save the program. These letters were written in such a
way that workers at NBC, not at a fan service, had to open them all,
and this seriously challenged NBC's mail department. According to the Hartford Courant, the network received close to 115,000 letters between December, 1967 and March, 1968, including over 52,000 in February alone.[22]
NBC actually made a televised announcement after a March, 1968 episode of Star Trek,
stating that the series had been renewed and to please stop writing to
them. This prompted letters of thanks in similar numbers.[23] According to Dorothy C. Fontana, this was followed immediately by Lyndon B. Johnson's
televised announcement that he would not seek, and would not accept,
the nomination of his political party for another term as the President of the United States.
“
While NBC paid lip service to expanding Star Trek's
audience, it [now] slashed our production budget until it was actually
ten percent lower than it had been in our first season....This is why
in the third season you saw fewer outdoor location shots, for example.
Top writers, top guest stars, top anything you needed was harder to
come by. Thus, Star Trek's demise became a self-fulfilling prophecy. And I can assure you, that is exactly as it was meant to be.
”
—Nichelle Nichols, Beyond Uhura, p.189
Although the program was renewed, it was also placed into the 10:00 PM Friday night death slot,
an hour undesirable for its audience, which usually consisted of
younger people who would be out and about on Friday evenings. NBC had
originally announced that the show would be moving to Mondays for the
third season, but eventually chose not to do so, so as not to conflict
with the highly successful Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In on Monday evenings.[24] In addition to the dismal time slot, Star Trek was now being seen on only 181 of NBC's 210 affiliates.[25]
Roddenberry attempted to persuade NBC to give Star Trek a
better day and hour, but he was not successful. As a result of this, he
chose to withdraw from the stress of the daily production of Star Trek, though he remained nominally in charge as its "executive producer."[26] Roddenberry reduced his direct involvement in Star Trek before the start of the 1968-69 TV season, and was replaced by Fred Freiberger as the producer of the TV series. NBC next reduced Star Trek's
budget by a significant amount per episode, as the per-minute
commercial price had dropped from $39,000 to $36,000 compared to the
Season 2 time slot.[27] This caused a marked decline in the quality of many episodes for the 1968-69 season.[28]Nichelle Nichols has described these budget cuts as an intentional effort to kill off Star Trek.[29]
Star Trek was canceled at the end of its third season,
despite the attempt of another letter-writing campaign. NBC's marketing
staff later complained to senior management that this cancellation was
premature, as new techniques for demographic profiling of the viewing audience showed that the audience for Star Trek, even in the 10 PM Friday time slot, was a highly desirable one for certain advertisers.
After its cancellation, Star Trek went on to a new life in
local syndication, where it found an even larger audience than it had
ever enjoyed before. Based on this success, it quickly became a
phenomenon within popular culture.
Beginning with a network of memorabilia collectors, fans of the show
became increasingly organized, gathering at Star Trek conventions to
trade merchandise, meet stars from the show, and watch screenings of
old episodes. Such fans came to be known as "trekkies",
who were noted (and often ridiculed) for their extreme devotion to the
show and their encyclopedic knowledge of every episode.[30]
Sulu and Uhura were not given first names in this series. Sulu's first name, Hikaru, was revealed non-canonically in Vonda N. McIntyre's Pocket Books novel The Entropy Effect. The name was "officially" put into the canon by George Takei in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Uhura's first name was never mentioned on screen, but the name Nyota
was used in fandom and in Pocket Book novels. It was finally put to
canon in the 2009 movie chronicling the origins of the crew. Kirk's middle name was never used in the series until the Animated Series episode "Bem". Due to internal disagreements on the status of The Animated Series as official Star Trek canon, Kirk's middle name ('Tiberius') would not become canon until the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
A tombstone in the second pilot intended for Kirk reads "James R.
Kirk". However, this is often explained by Gary Mitchell, the person
who created the tombstone, not knowing Kirk's actual name.
Majel Barrett also provided the voice of the computer in TOS and many other Star Trek series and movies. She also played (as a brunette) the part of Captain Pike's First Officer in the pilot episode "The Cage". Barrett and Roddenberry married each other in 1969.
It was intended that Sulu's role be expanded in the second season, but due to Takei's part in John Wayne's The Green Berets, he only appeared in half the season, with his role being filled by Walter Koenig as the relatively young, mop-topped Russian navigator Ensign Pavel Chekov. When Takei returned, the two had to share a dressing room and a single episode script.[31] There may be some truth to the unofficial story that the Soviet Union's newspaperPravda
complained that there were no Soviets among the culturally diverse
characters. This was seen as a personal slight to that country since
the Soviet RussianYuri Gagarin had been the first man to make a spaceflight.[12] However, documentation from Desilu suggests that the intention was to introduce a character into Star Trek with more sex appeal to teenagers, especially teen girls.[12] Walter Koenig noted in the 2006 40th anniversary special of Star Trek: The Original Series that he doubted the rumor about Pravda, since Star Trek had never been shown on Soviet television. It has also been claimed that the former member of The Monkees, Davy Jones, could have been the model for Mr. Chekov.[32]
In addition, the series frequently included characters (usually
security personnel wearing red uniforms) who are killed or injured soon
after their introduction. So prevalent was this plot device that it inspired the term "redshirt" to denote a stock character whose sole purpose is to die violently in order to demonstrate the dangerous circumstances facing the main characters.
Star Trek made celebrities of its cast of largely unknown
actors. Kelley had appeared in many films and TV shows, but mostly in
smaller roles that showcased him as a villain. Nimoy also had previous
TV and film experience but was also not well known. Nimoy had partnered
previously with William Shatner in a 1964 episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,
"The Project Strigas Affair", a full two years before Star Trek aired
for the first time. Prior to Star Trek, William Shatner was well known
in the trade, having appeared in several notable films, played Cyrano de Bergerac
on Broadway, and even turned down the part of Dr. Kildare. However,
when roles became sparse he took the regular job after Jeffrey Hunter's
contract wasn't renewed. After the episodes aired, many performers
found themselves typecast due to their defining roles in the show.
The three main characters were Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, with writers
often playing the different personalities off each other: Kirk was
passionate and often aggressive, but with a sly sense of humor; Spock
was coolly logical; and McCoy was sardonic but always compassionate. In
many stories the three clashed, with Kirk forced to make a tough
decision while Spock advocated the logical but sometimes callous path
and McCoy (or "Bones," as Kirk nicknamed him, short for "sawbones," a
traditional, slightly pejorative nickname for a surgeon) insisted on
doing whatever would cause the least harm. McCoy and Spock had a
sparring relationship that masked their true affection and respect for
each other, and their constant arguments became very popular with
viewers.
The character Spock was at first rejected by network officials who
feared his vaguely "Satanic" appearance (with pointed ears and
eyebrows) might prove upsetting to some viewers. The network had even
airbrushed out Spock's pointed ears and eyebrows from publicity
materials sent to network affiliates. Spock, however, went on to become
one of the most popular characters on the show, as did McCoy's
impassioned country-doctor personality. Spock, in fact, became a sex symbol of sorts[33] –
something no one connected with the show had expected. Leonard Nimoy
notes that the question of Spock's extraordinary sex appeal emerged
"almost any time I talked to someone in the press...I never give it a
thought....to try to deal with the question of Mr. Spock as a sex
symbol is silly."[34]
The sequel to the original series, Star Trek: The Next Generation,
which premiered in 1987, was set approximately 100 years after the
events of TOS. As that show and its spin-offs progressed, several TOS
characters made appearances:
Scotty, now chronologically 147 years old, but still only
physically 72 years old due to spending 75 years trapped in suspended
animation, is rescued by the Enterprise-D crew and resumes his life in "Relics". Working along with Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge, Scotty uses some creative engineering to save the Enterprise. A grateful Captain Picard indefinitely lends him a shuttlecraft.
Spock, now a Vulcan ambassador, goes underground in the Romulan
Empire in hopes of fostering peaceful coexistence with the Federation
and reunification with Vulcan society ("Unification, Parts I and II"). Eventually, the Romulan homeworld, Romulus, and the United Federation of Planets are threatened with destruction by a supernova,
but Spock proposed a solution to deal with the potential catastrophe.
Unfortunately, Spock is unable to prevent Romulus from being destroyed.
The Romulan Nero,
who observes the tragedy, blames Spock for the loss of his planet and
family. Enraged, Nero pursues Spock but is caught in the artificial black hole created by the "red matter" and the supernova. As a result, Nero's ship is sent 154 years into the past, where it encounters the USS Kelvin
in the year 2233 and destroys it, thereby altering history to create an
alternate timeline. Ambassador Spock also enters the black hole, but
only travels 129 years back in time. This results in a timeline with
two Spocks, the "original" young Spock, and the older Ambassador Spock
from the future. (Star Trek)
Sarek (portrayed by Mark Lenard),
Spock's father, continues to be an ambassador for the next century,
finally retiring to Vulcan where he dies during the events of
"Unification". Mark Lenard also appears as Sarek in several of the
movies, as well as playing the Romulan commander in the ST:TOS episode "Balance of Terror", and as a Klingon in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
James Kirk disappears in 2293 during the maiden voyage of the Enterprise-B but 78 years later Kirk is recovered from The Nexus, an alternate plane of existence, by Enterprise-D Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Kirk's time in the 24th century is short however; he is killed by Dr. Soran in Star Trek Generations.
Walter Koenig returned to the role of Pavel Chekov in the second episode of the fan series Star Trek: New Voyages, "To Serve All My Days", an episode written by D. C. Fontana.
Pavel saves Scotty from a plasma eruption in engineering and this
affects a dormant virus (contracted in the original series episode "The Deadly Years")
which causes him to age considerably faster. Chekov dies in the closing
minutes of this episode, as this was intended to Koenig's "on-screen"
death of him portraying the character. However, many fans of the New Voyages series responded negatively to both the death of Chekov and Fontana's dismissive attitude towards the complaints. New Voyages producer James Cawley was nevertheless urged by the sheer number of complaints to add a post-credit scene where it is revealed that the events of To Serve All My Days was merely a nightmare brought on by Chekov having imbibed with a bit too much vodka the night before.
Arne Darvin, the Klingon disguised as a human in "The Trouble With Tribbles", appears in "Trials and Tribble-ations"
with the intent to return to Deep Space Station K7 in 2267 and
assassinate Kirk, whom Darvin blamed for his disgrace within the
Klingon Empire.
Besides the above examples, there have been numerous non-canon novels and comic books published over the years in which TOS-era crew are depicted in the TNG era, either through time-travel or other means. In addition, many actors who appeared on TOS later made guest appearances as different characters in later series, most notably Majel Barrett,
who not only provided the voice for most Starfleet computers in
episodes of every spin-off series (including a single appearance on Enterprise, where the computers normally did not speak at all), but also had the recurring role of Lwaxana Troi in TNG and DS9. Diana Muldaur played Dr. Katherine Pulaski in the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Muldaur was also a guest star in the episodes "Return to Tomorrow" and "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" of the original Star Trek series.
William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, and Walter Koenig all played themselves in an episode of Futurama called "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", a parody of the extensive fanbase and devotion to the series.
In terms of its writing, Star Trek is notable as one of the
earliest science-fiction TV series to utilize the services of leading
contemporary science fiction writers, such as Robert Bloch, Norman Spinrad, Harlan Ellison, and Theodore Sturgeon, as well as established TV writers. Series script editorDorothy C. Fontana (originally Roddenberry's secretary) was also a vital part of the success of Star Trek--
she edited most of the series' scripts and wrote several episodes. Her
credits read D.C. Fontana at the suggestion of Gene Roddenberry since
he felt a woman might not be taken seriously because the majority of
science fiction writers were men.
Several notable themes were tackled throughout the entire series
which involved the exploration of major issues of 1960s USA, including
sexism, racism, nationalism, and global war. Roddenberry utilized the allegory of a space vessel set many years in the future to explore these issues. Although Sammy Davis, Jr. and Nancy Sinatra had briefly kissed on the December 1967 musical-variety special Movin' With Nancy,[35]Star Trek was the first American television show to feature an interracial kiss between fictional characters (between Capt. Kirk and Lt. Uhura in the episode "Plato's Stepchildren") although the kiss was only mimed (obscured by the back of a character's head) and depicted as involuntary.[36]
Roddenberry also wanted to use the series as a 'Trojan Horse'
to push back the envelope of NBC's censorship restrictions by
disguising potentially controversial themes with a science fiction
setting. Network and/or sponsor interference, up to and including
wholesale censorship of scripts and film footage, was a regular
occurrence in the 1960s and Star Trek suffered from its fair
share of tampering. Scripts were routinely vetted and censored by the
staff of NBC's Broadcast Standards Department, who copiously annotated
every script with demands for cuts or changes (e.g. "Page 4: Please
delete McCoy's expletive, 'Good Lord'" or "Page 43: Caution on the
embrace; avoid open-mouthed kiss").[37]
The Original Series was also noted for its sense of humor, such as Spock and McCoy's pointed, yet friendly, bickering. Episodes like "The Trouble with Tribbles", "I, Mudd", and "A Piece of the Action",
however, were all written and staged as comedies. "Star Trek"'s humor
is generally much more subdued in the spin-offs and movies, with
notable exceptions such as Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Several episodes used the concept of duplicate Earths, allowing re-use of stock props and sets. "Bread and Circuses," "Miri" and "The Omega Glory" depict such worlds, and three episodes, "A Piece Of The Action", "Patterns Of Force",
and "Plato's Stepchildren" are based on alien planets that have adopted
period Earth cultures (Prohibition-era Chicago, Nazi Germany, and
ancient Greece, respectively). However, "A Piece Of The Action" and
"Patterns Of Force" show this as having resulted from contaminations of
the native cultures of those planets, either before the imposition of
the Prime Directive or by violations of it.
All 79 episodes of the series have been digitally remastered by CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) and have since been released on DVD. (Note: this is not to be confused with the Star Trek Remastered
project, discussed below.) Paramount released Season One of The
Original Series on Blu-Ray on April 29, 2009. The Blu-ray release
contains both Original and Remastered episodes via seamless branching.
In 1983, Leonard Nimoy hosted a one-hour special as a promotional tie-in with the film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, in which he recounted his memories of working on The Original Series and explained the origins of things such as the Vulcan nerve pinch and the Vulcan salute.[58]
The show's theme tune, immediately recognizable by many, was written by Alexander Courage, and has been featured in a number of Star Trek
spin-off episodes and motion pictures. Gene Roddenberry subsequently
wrote a set of accompanying lyrics, even though the lyrics were never
used in the series, nor did Roddenberry ever intend them to be; this
allowed him to claim co-composer credit and hence 50% of the theme's
performance royalties. Courage considered Roddenberry's actions, while
entirely legal, to be unethical.[59] Series producer Robert Justman noted in the book Inside Star Trek The Real Story,
that work on the film Doctor Doolittle kept Courage from working on
more than two episodes of the first season. However, Justman was unable
to convince Courage to return for the second season and believed that
Courage lost enthusiasm for the series due to the "royalty" issue.[60] Courage did return to score two episodes of the third season.
Later episodes used stock recordings from Courage's earlier work. Jazz trumpeter Maynard Ferguson recorded a jazz fusion version of the tune with his big band during the late 1970s, and Nichelle Nichols performed the song live complete with lyrics.
For budgetary reasons, this series made significant use of "tracked"
music, or music written for other episodes that was re-used in later
episodes. Of the 79 episodes that were broadcast, only 31 had complete
or partial original dramatic underscores created specifically for them.
The remainder of the music in any episode was tracked from a different
episode. Which episodes would have new music was mostly the decision of
Robert H. Justman, the Associate Producer during the first two seasons.
Screen credits for the composers were given based on the amount of
music composed for, or composed and re-used in, the episode. Some of
these final music credits were occasionally incorrect.
Beyond the short works of "source" music (music whose source is seen
or acknowledged onscreen) created for specific episodes, eight
composers were contracted to create original dramatic underscore during
the series run: Alexander Courage, George Duning, Jerry Fielding, Gerald Fried, Sol Kaplan, Samuel Matlovsky, Joseph Mullendore, and Fred Steiner.
The composers conducted their own music. Of these composers, Steiner
composed the original music for thirteen episodes and it is his
instrumental arrangement of Alexander Courage's main theme that is
heard over many of the end title credits of the series.
The tracked musical underscores were chosen and edited to the
episode by the music editors, principal of whom were Robert Raff (most
of Season One), Jim Henrikson (Season One and Two), and Richard Lapham
(Season Three).[61]
The original recordings of the music of some episodes were released in the United States commercially on the GNP Crescendo Record Co. label. Music for a number of the episodes was re-recorded by the Varèse Sarabande label, with Fred Steiner conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; and on the Label X label, with Tony Bremner conducting the Royal Philharmonic.
Although this series never won any Emmys, Star Trek was nominated for the following Emmy awards:
Outstanding Dramatic Series (Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon), 1967
Outstanding Dramatic Series (Gene Roddenberry), 1968
Outstanding Supporting Actor (Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock), 1967, 1968, 1969
Outstanding Guest Appearance (Frank Gorshin as Commissioner Bele), 1969
Individual Achievement in Art Direction and Allied Crafts (Jim Rugg), 1967
Individual Achievement in Cinematography (Darrell Anderson, Linwood G. Dunn, and Joseph Westheimer), 1967
Individual Achievement in Film and Sound Editing (Douglas Grindstaff), 1967
Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing (Donald R. Rode), 1968
Special Classification of Individual Achievement for Photographic Effects (The Westheimer Company), 1968
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Scenic Design (John Dwyer and Walter M. Jeffries), 1969
Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing (Donald R. Rode), 1969
Special Classification Achievements for Photographic Effects (The
Howard A. Anderson Company, The Westheimer Company, Van der Veer Photo
Effects, Cinema Research), 1969.
In 1967, Star Trek was also one of the first television programs to receive an NAACP Image Award.
In 1968, Star Trek's most critically acclaimed episode, "The City on the Edge of Forever," written by Harlan Ellison, won the prestigious Writers Guild of America Award
for Best Original Teleplay, although this was for Ellison's original
draft script, and not for the screenplay of the episode as it aired.
Episodes of the Original Series were among the first television series to be released on the VHS and laserdisc
formats in North America in the 1980s, with all episodes eventually
being released on both formats. With the advent of DVD in the late
1990s, single DVDs featuring two episodes each in production order were
released. In the early 2000s, Paramount Home Video reissued the series
to DVD in a series of three deluxe season boxes with added featurettes
and documentaries. In February 2009 Paramount announced that they would
release the Original Series on Blu-ray. Season one, two, and three were
released on August 28, September 22, and December 15, respectively. The
Blu-ray releases let the user choose between "Enhanced Effects" or
"Original Effects" via technique called multi-angle.[62]
In September 2006, CBS Paramount Domestic Television (now known as CBS Television Distribution, the current rights holders for the Star Trek television franchises) began syndication of an enhanced version of Star Trek: The Original Series in high definition with new CGI visual effects.[63] These were done under the supervision of Mike Okuda, technical consultant to several of the later series. The restoring and updating of the visual effects was performed by CBS Digital.
All live-action footage was scanned in high definition from its first
generation 35 mm film elements, while visual effects shots have been
digitally reproduced. As noted in the "making of" DVD feature, first
generation "original camera negatives" were used for all live-action
footage but not for external shots of the ship and planets, etc.
Notable changes include new space shots with a CGI Enterprise, and other new models (for example, a Gorn ship is shown in Arena), redone matte
background shots, and other minor touches such as tidying up
viewscreens. A small number of scenes have also been recomposed, and in
some cases new actors have been placed into the background of some
shots.[64] In addition, the opening theme music has been re-recorded in digital stereo.
The first episode to be released to syndication was "Balance of Terror"
on the weekend of September 16, 2006. Episodes were released at the
rate of about one a week and broadcast in a 4:3 aspect ratio. Despite
the HD remastering, CBS chose to deliver the broadcast syndication package in Standard Definition (SD TV). The HD format is currently commercially available via Blu-ray, or by download such as iTunes and Xbox Live.[65]
While the CGI shots have already been mastered in a 16:9 aspect
ratio for future applications, they are currently broadcast in the US –
along with the live-action footage – in the original 4:3 aspect ratio
TV format to respect the show's original composition. If the producers
chose to reformat the entire show for the 16:9 ratio, live-action
footage would have to be recropped, widening the frame to the full
width of the 35 mm negatives while reducing its height. Although this
would add a marginal amount of imagery on the sides, much more would
need to be eliminated from the tops and bottoms of the frames to fit.
On July 26, 2007, CBS Home Entertainment (with distribution by Paramount Home Entertainment) announced that the remastered episodes of TOS would be released on a HD DVD/DVD
hybrid format. Season 1 was released on November 20, 2007. Season 2 had
been scheduled for release in the summer of 2008, but it was cancelled
when Toshiba (which had been helping finance the remastering of the show) pulled out of the HD DVD business.[66] On August 5, 2008, the remastered Season 2 was released on DVD only.[67]
For this release, CBS and Paramount used discs without any disc art,
making them look like the "Season 1 Remastered" HD DVD/DVD combo discs,
despite having content only on one side.[68] Season 3 was released on DVD only on November 18, 2008.[69] On February 17, 2009 – Paramount announced the Season 1 of TOS on Blu-ray Disc for a May release to coincide with the new feature film coming from Paramount.[70] The second season was released in a seven disc set on Blu-ray in the U.S. on September 22, 2009[71] The third season was released on Blu-ray in the U.S. on December 15.[72] With the release of the "Alternate Realities" box set, remastered Original Series
episodes were included in a multi-series compilation for the first
time. It is unknown if future compilation releases will exclusively use
the remastered episodes or not.[73]
In region 2 and region 4, all three seasons of the remastered Original Series
became available on DVD in the slimline edition (in the UK and Germany
in steelbook editions) on April 27, 2009 as well as the first season in
Blu-ray.[citation needed]
On April 10, 2006, an interactive version of TOS, known as Star Trek 2.0, began broadcast on the television channel G4,
where members could participate in an online chat while watching the
show. Messages from the online chat were sometimes shown during the
broadcast along with trivia provided by the G4 staff. G4 also offered a
"Spock Market" online game where participants could trade 24 stocks.
Sometime in 2007, G4 stopped airing the show in its 2.0 format.
As a promotion for Star Trek 2.0, advertising agency 72andSunny created four 30-second stop-motion commercials using detailed Mego
action figures of the Enterprise crew, which became enormously popular
on video sites such as YouTube as well as G4TV.com's "Streaming Pile"
site. Spock was voiced by Charlie Murphy (brother of Eddie Murphy). They also released a minute-long "Director's Cut" of the Cribs clip.[74][not in citation given]
On January 15, 2007, G4 launched Star Trek: The Next Generation 2.0 at 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. ST:TNG 2.0 featured TNG trivia along with 32 (up from 24) new stocks for the Spock Market game.
An "urgent subspace message" on the Star Trek 2.0 Hailing Frequencies e-newsletter stated that Star Trek: The Next Generation 2.0 was scheduled for a "refit". It no longer featured live chat, stats, or facts on screen.
The Original Series has been parodied many times in other television series: Saturday Night Live produced two famous sketches parodying the Original Series, "The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise" in 1976[75] and William Shatner's own "Get a life"
sketch in 1986 (which parodied the show's "trekkie" followers). "The
Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise" is a twelve-minute sketch,
written by Michael O'Donoghue. It was described by TrekMovie.com as "one of the best Star Trek parody sketches of all time".[75]TVSquad ranked Shatner's "Get a life" sketch alongside "The Last Voyage..." as one of the most famous parodies of the show.[76]
The series has also been parodied on The Simpsons[76] and notably in the Futurama episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", which was described by Wired magazine as a "touchstone" for fans.[77] The 1999 film Galaxy Quest
portrays the lives of a once-popular television space-drama crew who
are kidnapped by real aliens who have mistaken the fictional series as
reality.[78][79]
The main characters are parodies of Star Trek characters, and many of
the plot elements refer to or parody popular 1960s TV-series customs.[80][81]
Star Trek has inspired many fans to produce stories for free
internet distribution. Many of these are set in the time of The
Original Series, including Star Trek: Phase II which was nominated for a Hugo Award and received support from actors and writers who were involved with The Original Series.
CBS Interactive is presenting all 3 seasons of the series online via Adobe Flash
streaming media. They are full-length episodes available to users in
the USA free of charge, but with ads embedded into the stream of each
episode. They are viewable at http://www.cbs.com/classics/star_trek.[82]
In January 2007, the first season of Star Trek became available for download from Apple's iTunes Store.
Although consumer reviews indicate that some of the episodes on iTunes
are the newly "remastered" editions, iTunes editors had not indicated
such, and if so, which are which. All first season episodes that had
been remastered and aired were available from iTunes, except "Where No Man Has Gone Before",
which remains in its original form. On March 20, 2007, the first season
was again added to the iTunes Store, with separate downloads for the
original and remastered versions of the show, though according to the
customer reviews, the original version contains minor revisions such as
special effect enhancements.[citation needed] CBS also uploaded all three seasons of the show on their Veoh account.[83]
^Steiner, Fred (1985). "Music for Star Trek: Scoring a Television Show in the Sixties". In Newsom, Iris. Wonderful inventions: motion pictures, broadcasting, and recorded sound at the Library of Congress. Washington: Library of Congress. OCLC10374960.
