Star Trek

The longest running science fiction programme on American television.

Star Trek is an American science fiction television programme created by Gene Roddenberry. The first series, called Star Trek, and now known as “The Original Series”, aired for three seasons between 1966 and 1969. It followed the voyages of the starship USS Enterprise on its five-year mission, the purpose of which was “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no man has gone before”. The USS Enterprise was a space exploration vessel built by the United Federation of Planets in the 23rd century, commanded by Captain James T Kirk – played by William Shatner.

The popularity of the show increased through syndication and fans around the world tried for years to get the series re-instated. In 1973, Filmation produced Star Trek: The Animated series, with the Enterprise crew voiced by the original actors. in 1975, Gene Roddenberry began developing Star Trek: Phase II but the project collapsed. However, the arrival of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind led to Paramount Studios deciding to put Star Trek on the big screen. In 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released to mixed reviews. Despite this, the cast of the original series starred in five more cinema outings.

Roddenberry would bring the franchise back to television in 1987 with Star Trek: The Next Generation, with a new Enterprise and a new crew – led by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart), now set in the 24th century. The new crew would appear in their own series of films between 1994 and 2002, with a handover between Kirk and Picard in the first of these: Generations (1994).

After Roddenberry’s death in 1991, executive producer Rick Berman gained control of the franchise, In response to The Next Generation’s success, Berman developed the spin-off Deep Space Nine, which first aired in 1993. After the Next Generation television series ended in 1994, Voyager emerged the following year featuring a new starship commanded by a woman, Captain Katheryn Janeway, played by Kate Mulgrew. The Voyager crew join up with terrorists when they are trapped in the unexplored Delta Quadrant.

After Voyager ended a prequel series, Enterprise, set in the 22nd century just prior to the formation of the United Federation of Planets. It was cancelled in 2005, and the poor reception for Nemesis in 2002 had effectively brought a halt to the Star Trek movies.

In 2009, a movie reboot, Star Trek, was released in 2009, under producer J J Abrams. It featured a new cast portraying the original series crew. However, the film was in fact a prequel to the original series set in an alternative timeline (known as the Kelvin Timeline), giving freedom from the established canon. It was an instant success and has so far led to two sequels.

Star Trek: Discovery launched in 2017 and Star Trek: Picard in 2020. Look out for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Lower Decks…

All sourced from Wikipedia: Star Trek except:

Related TV Shows and Films

Star Trek
(1965, 1966-69)
After a pilot episode, “The Cage in 1965, a second pilot was commissioned, this time with a new crew commanded by Captain Kirk. This lead to three seasons featuring the voyages of the starship Enterprise, its five-year mission…

Star Trek: The Animated Series
(1973-74)
After its cancellation, Star Trek’s fanbase grew in syndication. Gene Roddenberry developed a continuation of the show in animated form.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture
(1979)
After an aborted attempt to produce a new live-action show in Star Trek: Phase II, which would have followed the Enterprise crew on a second five-year mission, Paramount decided to bring Star Trek to the big screen in answer to the enormous success of Star Wars.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
(1982)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture had been an expensive disappointment to the studio but the franchise was allowed a lower-budget second bite with this sequel that featured Khan Noonian Singh, a genetically enhanced man Kirk et al met during the first season episode “Space Seed”. Its success allowed the film series to continue.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
(1984)
At the end of the second film, Spock had died saving the ship. Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock had wanted to cut ties with Star Trek but was enticed back on the condition he could direct.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
(1986)
At the end of the third film, the Enterprise had been destroyed in attempt to rid themselves of some Klingons, leaving them with a Bird of Prey and a long trip home. On the way back, an alien probe is seemingly attacking the Earth but it is seeking to communicate with humpback whales that had been hunted to extinction. Kirk and crew have to travel back in time to 20th century Earth to bring back a pair of whales and to save the planet in the 23rd century. Nimoy directed again, and this became the most successful of the series.

Star Trek: The Next Generation
(1987-94)
With the success of the movies, it was felt Star Trek could return to the small screen. Roddenberry developed this new series, now set in the 24th century, and with a new crew on a new Enterprise, commanded by Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
(1989)
Upset that Leonard Nimoy had been able to direct two movies, he wanted his go in the director’s chair. He helped write it too. The Enterprise is sent after renegade Vulcan Sybok – who turns out to be Spock’s half-brother who seeks a starship on which to travel to the mythical Sha Ka Ree where creation began. The “god-like” creature they encounter wants to escape the planet. It was not a success and is constantly ridiculed for its representation of “God”.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
(1991)
Originally pitched as a sequel depicting the Enterprise crew while they were at Star fleet Academy, Nicholas Meyer – who directed Star Trek II – took on a story suggested by Leonard Nimoy about a potential truce between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingons after a moon of the Klingon homeworld explodes removing the ozone layer and the protection it offered. It was a success but saw the original series cast literally signing off at the end.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
(1993-99)
The success of the Next Generation led to the commissioning of a new series set in the same universe. Set on a Bajoran space station commandeered from the Cardassians by the Federation Commander Benjamin Sisko has to protect a nearby wormhole and access to the Gamma Quadrant.

Star Trek: Generations
(1994)
Now that the cast of the original series had retired from making Star Trek movies, the baton was passed to the Next Generation crew as Captain Kirk is pulled into the mysterious Nexus and Captain Picard joins forces with him to stop Dr Soran from re-entering the Nexus through the energy ribbon he created. to do so, Soran intends to destroy a star that will kill millions of people on a nearby planet.

Star Trek: Voyager
(1995-2001)
When the Voyager, commanded by Captain Kathryn Janeway, seeks out a missing ship piloted by Maquis rebels, it is enveloped by a powerful energy that strands it in the Delta Quadrant. Its crew and the rebels join forces to find their way back to the Alpha Quadrant.

Star Trek: First Contact
(1996)
Jonathan Frakes, who plays Commander Riker in the Next Generation directs his shipmates in a story concerning the Borg travelling back in time to alter the future. The Enterprise follows them into the vortex – into their past – before humanity’s first encounter with alien life after Zefram Cochrane’s historic warp drive flight.

Star Trek: Insurrection
(1998)
Frakes returned to the director’s chair for this disappointing instalment in which the Enterprise is drawn into a Federation conspiracy in which Picard is ordered to break the Prime Directive which rules that Star Fleet cannot interfere in the development of other civilisations.

Enterprise
(2001-05)
Serving as a prequel to the original series, Scott Bakula is Captain Jonathan Archer commanding the first starship Enterprise on a mission of exploration in a time prior to the formation of the United Federation of Planets.

Star Trek: Nemesis
(2002)
The Enterprise faces the threat to the United Federation of Planets when a Romulan clone of Jean-Luc Picard takes over the Romulan Star Empire. It was a box office failure and ended the run of Next Generation films.

Star Trek
(2009)
A reboot featuring the characters of the Original Series but set in an alternate universe.

Star Trek: Into Darkness
(2013)
The second film in the Star Trek reboot in which Kirk and Spock meet genetically enhanced superhuman Khan Noonian Singh.

Star Trek: Beyond
(2016)
In the third film of the reboot, the Enterprise is sent on a rescue mission but is ambushed and have to stop the detonation of a bioweapon and an attack on the Federation.

Star Trek: Discovery
(2017-)
Taking place a decade before the events of the Original Series, this series follows the crew of the USS Discovery on its adventures,

Star Trek: Picard
(2020-)
20 years after the events in Nemesis (2002), Jean-Luc Picard is deeply affected by the death of Data in that film and the destruction of the Romulan homeworld in Star Trek (2009).