42 Years Ago Today Captain James Kirk . . .

And thank goodness he did. Where would some of us sci-fi heads be if it wasn't for Star Trek?

Jesus...........I’m getting old.

Vat ees dees 'Star Trek' you shpeek ov?

Nichelle Nichols tells the story that when she wanted to quit her role as Lt. Uhura, feeling it wasn't big enough, Dr. Martin Luther King persuaded her to remain, saying she was a positive role model for African American women.

Of course, Star Trek also featured the first inter-racial kiss on US television ( no, not between Kirk and the green-skinned dancing girl :) but between Nichols and Shatner.

Such a fantastic program!

Even the corniest episodes had gems . . . and there was always Shatner's delivery like. there. was. a full. stop. after. every. word.

Thank God, Shaun, finally a candidate we can all believe in!

.... except... there are those Klingons lurking.

oh my.

T-Steel, jwest, pattonguy, marlowecan, I laughed and laughed over your sweet takes this morning. Thank you

dr.e

I remember as a kid I was scared to turn out the light after the episode with that green thing with the tentacles. It was in disguise as McCoy's former girlfriend, Nancy, in order to sabotage its victims and I couldn't get that horrible image out of my head. Star Trek has been a catalyst for so many sci-fi shows, it isn't funny. I think my favorite episodes are the Gangster one with Vic Tayback, The Library one, "All Our Yesterdays" with Mariette Hartley, and my all time favorite is the Joan Collins one, "The City on the Edge of Forever", where Spock and Kirk have to go back in time to save McCoy and end up in a soup kitchen run by her.

Excellent post, a day that shouldn't be forgotten.

Excellent work, Shaun. [whew]

I liked the political aspects, too, the federation as the United Nations of the Free World versus the red-wearing militaristic, empire-and-conquest-driven Klingons.

(DA!)

(I think the Romulans were meant to personify the Imperial Japanese warriors.)

Since nobody said it -- and these days, you know which side would be the Dems and which (hint again: color) would be the neocons ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H GOP.

Put it in context. In the mid-Sixties, the middle of the Cold War, Star Trek was saying we would survive and even thrive with our ideals intact. That we would move past the endemic racism of the time and the politics that looked all too likely to kill us. I didn't even get to see the first run ( I was only six and my parents watched other stuff.) but it still had that appeal when syndication first started.

You really owe it to yourselves to read the WikiPedia entry on City on the Edge of Forever. I can tell you that Ellison has a reputation of being chronically late on projects and from personal experience that it's very, very believable that it would start out that way.