Friday, September 08, 2006

40 Years Of Trek

The first episode of Star Trek was broadcast on NBC on Thursday, September 8th 1966 at 20:30 EST, that's exactly 40 years ago today.

(Left: Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner)

It's doubtful that anyone working on the show at the time would realise that they created an iconic science-fiction series that would redefine the genre for almost a generation.

Many have tried to define the reasons for Trek's pheonomenal success, most say "It's an optimistic vision of the future" In contrast to most visions of the future lately being somewhat "dystopian" or "Orwellian", Trek paints a somewhat more realistic vision of our future. As Mark said here "Things are getting better not worse", so Star Trek, while Utopian in nature can be achieved if we work at it.

I was not "into" Star Trek long before the extraordinary events of the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek in 1991. That was a great time for Trek fans: Star Trek VI was released, Star Trek: The Next Generation was at the peak of its popularity and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was in the conceptual stages. Fans of Star Trek were charged like batteries and even in as remote places as Macroom and Buttevant in Co. Cork here in Ireland, they had visions of creating Star Trek clubs in the "big city"- and they did.

While in the present day, there's less of a physical gathering of fans- their presence on the internet has never been stronger. While there's no new Star Trek episodes broadcast on television, the future of Trek is bright- with a whole new vision being concieved for Star Trek XI, The original series going to be broadcast again over the next year with all its SFX shots been revamped with new CGI effects and Fan-Films are actually gaining prestiege and notariety as producers have nabbed real Trek writers and actors to assist in their own vision of Gene Roddenberry's universe.

Will there be a 50th Anniversary of Trek? Yes. But for now, enjoy 40 years of something that has enriched all our lives. Happy Birthday Star Trek!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

The world was so much larger back then, and new episodes of Trek could have been months if not years away.

Now we can have the latest episode of anything within hours of it airing in the US. I saw the first episode of Next Gen on RTE, DSN, Generations, and Voyager on various quality of VHS tapes in a dark and crowded room, and Enterprise on a computer screen.

It was a great time but I'm glad it's over, and yes things continue to get better.

(Who'd have thought I'd be such a fucking optimist?)

Anonymous said...

@ Mark: Not one person who knew you in college, maybe? :)

Colonel, I had to rerain myself (again) from sending you a message on thursday, telling you what thursday was. If you've forogtten, I'll be ... suprised?

Major General Creedon said...

@ Mark: It's more socially acceptable than being a paranoid delusional :)

@ Sith: Be surprised!

Anonymous said...

*sigh*
07-09 ... Seven of Nine
(Us British/Irish use dd/mm/yy)

Of course, people here will now look down on me even more than usual :(

Anonymous said...

Hmm, 7 of 9.
The seventh goddess in the Ancient Egyptian pantheon of gods was Isis, a female goddess, associated with the star Sirius.
SiriusA, which is visible to the naked eye has two partners, B and C.
Sirius B was discovered in the 1960s, and Sirius C was discovered in the 1990s. Speculation concerning these stars,B and C, comprised of degenerate matter, has been present for many years because of the peturbations that their massive gravity fields cause in the orbit of siriusA.
The author Robert Temple (Prof) has written several learned books on this subject, and knowledge concerning these stars, known in 1930 by certain pre-literate tribes in Africa.Indeed part of his literary work is based on his writings for a masters at ucla. The conclusions he drew from indepth research for the origins of this knowledge attracted the attentions of US gov covert operatives for several decades, resulting in him being blackballed from many learned societies. He went out and became qualified in several other related fields to beat the vetoes.
His theories may be validated by the unwanted attention of covert bodies, however, in the light of recent discoveries, I beleive his theories, and presumable those of the covert bodies, to be incorrect. There is an alternate and more logical explanation.

Major General Creedon said...

No he won't. Rear-Admiral Creedon was presumed killed in Star Trek: Time Rogue, the VerTecX21 modification for Interplay's Starfleet Command PC Game in 2000. Only the true hero Captain Dutton survived...

Anonymous said...

Was the Late-unlamented Rear Admiral Creedon a distant descendant of the Colonel, is the Colonel descended from the Civil War Southern General BullRoarer Creedon?

What killed the Rear-Admiral in the end?

Major General Creedon said...

Yeah I guess so. The Admiral wasn't much of a peace-loving explorer. He was demoted from Fleet Admiral after passing the torch of the Carlow RTC Star Trek society to a complete muppet and he declared Martial Law at the Cork Sci-Fi society some months later. It was disbanded soon after.

As he was demoted towards Captain, he naturally became more competent and less insane and was given command of a Task Force of 1500 Federation Starships which he further augmented with a similar armada commanded by a version of himself from an alternate future dimension or something. He attempted to take on the Borg but it appears "resistance was futile".

The Admiral's apparent demise was presented with TIME ROGUE PC Game modification project I began in 1999 and completed in late 2000. It was a 30 min video sequence shot using a standard webcam and intercut with scenes of almost every Star Trek battle from Star Trek VI to the middle of Voyager's run. It starred me (obviously) and a friend of mine from England who only took the job under the impression he was going to have a sex-scene with 7of9. Although badly dubbed in places it was successful in so far as it was completed successfully. It was the highlight the Octocon '03 Dublin SF convention after which the rabid fans begged for Time Rogue II every year since...

Anonymous said...

I can understand anytime a Creedon passes any in extremely violent circumstances is a cause of intense celebration!

Major General Creedon said...

Only by the bad guys!

Anonymous said...

Prepare the celebration feast...

Major General Creedon said...

Do. We'll serve your head.

Anonymous said...

Colonel, always suspected those rumours of cannibalism where true.