HoodaThunk?

They’ve had bumps along the way but the Star Trek phenomenon is, indisputably, incorporated into the culture of the world. It was 40 years ago this week (yesterday, as I write this) that Gene Roddenberry’s “wagon train to the stars” launched on its mission to strange, new worlds. Born in a vision of a brighter future, Star Trek has sought to show that not every road Man travels will ultimately lead to disaster; that people are inherently good when taken as a whole. If Roddenberry’s creation meant to give anything, that thing was hope.

Since that 3 year run there have been a total of 6 movies featuring the original series’ cast and timeline, 4 spinoff series, an animated cartoon, and 4 movies featuring the cast and timeline of the most successful of those spinoffs, Star Trek: The Next Generation. As a franchise, Star Trek has been enormously successful and, 40 years on, incredibly long-lived.

Several years back I made a habit of attending conventions featuring the actors of the original series (TOS) and Next Generation (TNG). I had the pleasure of seeing and listening to every one of the TOS main cast, including DeForest Kelly (Dr. McCoy) and James Doohan (Montgomery Scott), both now passed away. While the attendees of such conventions were routinely made fun of in the press and sometimes even by themselves, the fact is that these are the people who choose to believe in the hope that Roddenberry had in mind when he pitched the story to those studio execs over 4 decades ago. We’re a richer society because of it.

So, happy 40th, Star Trek. Qapla!