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TAKE NOTE: The Final Frontier Reaches Middle Age
September 7, 2011  | By Diane Werts  | 1 comment
 
Spock-Vulcan-salute.jpg

Do you know what happened on Sept. 8, 1966? Well, neither do the TV networks. Or cable channels.

Because there's a big anniversary Thursday. And no one on the tube seems to be taking note of it.

Gene Roddenberry's culture-shifting space series Star Trek debuted 45 years ago -- Sept. 8, 1966 -- on NBC.

star-trek-hes-dead-jim.jpg

Before that, there was no Mr. Spock. No warp drive. No beam-me-up-Scotty. No dancing blue slave women. No "He's dead, Jim" or "I'm a doctor, not a [whatever]!" No Scottish-accented ahcahnuddooitcaptinn!

And, it truly seems impossible, NO tribbles!

Never mind not much social/political allegory on network TV anywhere, despite percolating Vietnam war protest, racial conflict, generational gulfs and other swirling controversies of the tumultuous '60s. And we haven't even mentioned how so many of today's sci-tech whizzes took their career cues from the show's visionary engineering.

Okay, so this year isn't yet the big five-0 for the concept, and no Trek TV shows are currently premiering, and even the movie reboot's on hiatus. But c'mon, people -- it's STAR TREK! The show that launched a thousand cultural conversations, series spinoffs, feature films, merchandising motherlodes and, lest we forget, that whole fan convention thing of people wearing pointed ears and speaking Vulcan.

But on TV Land? Nothing. Syfy? Nada. Anybody? Anywhere?

The 1966-69 Star Trek series is MIA on TV, totally. (The '80s Star Trek: The Next Generation is repeating on Syfy, BBC America and local stations. UPN's Enterprise is on Syfy, too.)

trouble-with-tribbles-capt-kirk.jpg

It's left to the Bio channel -- home of the unjustly neglected and no-kidding surprisingly great talk show Shatner's Raw Nerve -- to salute the 45th anniversary of the start of this influential franchise.

Three days late.

Bio's Sunday slate for Sept. 11 includes William Shatner's guide to the original series, Star Trek: Captain's Log (Sunday at 10:28 a.m. ET); Shatner's several-series interview special The Captains of the Final Frontier (11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. ET); 1996's anniversary celebration Star Trek: 30 Years and Beyond (1:30-3:30 p.m. ET); and costar Leonard Nimoy's 2009 sitdown on Shatner's Raw Nerve (3:30 p.m. ET, all on Bio).

At least the '60s Trek is available in other venues. All 79 episodes are streaming from Netflix and on Amazon Instant Video for Prime members. And they're all on disc in various versions, of course, including seasons on DVD and Blu-ray. (I've even got Season 1 on HD-DVD.)

So this Thursday, be sure to give someone the Vulcan salute. You know how.

Live long and prosper.

 

3 Comments

 

Neil said:

The original series was visionary about the future of technology and creative in its use of space travel to stage little morality plays. But ... because it was produced on a tight budget for a network that never really got it, and it was filmed in a time before digital video technology or stereo in the audio track or CGI special effects, the production values look and sound dated and amateurish.

Those of us that grew up with this fine series appreciate it for what it is, but TV is a demos-driven business, and I suspect the TV industry thinks that the demos their advertisers want to reach will get stuck at the comic-book look and feel of the production. I don't know if that's the reality, but, sadly, I think that's the perception.

[Diane here: All good points, Neil. But I'm a tubehead who doesn't mind those "dated" aspects, and in fact really takes to them. I love watching '50s kinescopes from before I was born, in all their scratchy glory, and I love live commercials with mistakes in them, and all other vintage artifacts. That stuff there is how we got here. And fans of any later Trek series/movie who can't find ways to appreciate the original -- it's truly their loss.]

Jill said:

Wouldn't it be great to see some of the classic episodes on TV with commentary from the stars (before they're all gone!) -- like you often get with DVDs. Kind of like some of the "making of Star Trek" books where they talk about the behind-the-scenes stuff that went on, or Shatner (almost typed "Kirk") discussing working with the Tribbles or Nimoy (I did type "Spock") talking about doing a mind-meld with the Horta. :-) Even with the poor production values, it would be fun and...dare I say it...fascinating.

John said:

I worked at the launch pad for all the manned Apollo launches. I remember how we would rush home through that horrible Cape traffic to see Star Trek!

 
 
 
 
 
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1 Comments
 
 
Swifty the Spacebird
Truely the most dangerous good on the USS Enterprise was in Security the Redshirts often died in the most grusome ways it just was'nt so pretty. as for the episodes like CATSPAW where to you suppose Korab and Sylvia came from maybe some still undiscovred galaxy and do you suppose their more of theirs Doomsday Machines floating around though space
Jul 15, 2017   |  Reply
 
 
 
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