Star Trek Celebrates 42nd Anniversary

by Jason Sanders | September 8, 2008 at 09:09 am

1337 views | 26 Recommendations | 20 comments

42 years ago today, ‘Star Trek’ debuted with shape-shifting, salt-licking creatures, and Crewman Darnell's unfortunate shirt colour choice. 'The Man Trap' aired on stardate 1513.1–or September 8, 1966–introducing audiences to Kirk, McCoy, Spock, Sulu, and Uhura.

As this is an anniversary of the sci-fi giant, readers will be bombarded with punny headlines:

Liftoff for the Starship Enterprise

News about the next Star Trek movie in production:

Rachel Nichols. According to the article, Nichols plays a cadet at Starfleet Academy in J.J. Abrams upcoming Star Trek movie. Here is an excerpt of the article.

"I was a redhead for 'Star Trek' and 'G.I. Joe.' For the first time in my life I had to dye my hair," she said. "In all my years of modeling I never had to dye my hair. I worked with J.J. before in 'Alias,' and he asked really nicely if I would dye my hair.

How 'Star Trek' technology is not that far fetched:

According to experts, the sci-fi scenarios depicted in The Matrix, and Star Trek's 'Holodeck' are now comprehendible realities in the future.

What's happening with the new Trek game (including annoying questions):

One inherited flaw that I have found in current Star Trek games is that the ships are not in scale with one another. For example, in Bridge Commander, the Defiant was as large as a Galaxy class saucer section, which is not canon. What will Cryptic's plans be with scaling of the ships?

We have been working on that recently, and we are in the process of defining ship scale and size ratios. Most of the time it is not a problem. But there are a few exceptionally small ships, such as shuttlecrafts, that become problematic. At true scale, they become nearly unperceivable when you are flying a ship the size of a Galaxy class, and that's simply not fun.

And when the next double dips are available:

The new Season 3 DVD set acheives standard orbit here at Earth on November 18th

Happy Birthday Star Trek!

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monikalel42

at 11:29 on September 8th, 2008

Happy 42nd anniversary Star Trek! I'm looking forward to the next film!

thadgann

at 11:43 on September 8th, 2008

The week before The Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas shuttered the doors forever, I went to pay my last respects. This photo is from the exhibit. I one day hope to see the Enterprise again flying overhead.

thadgann has contributed a photo to this story.

Jason Sanders

at 11:46 on September 8th, 2008

I never got to see STE but would've love to. It's too bad that they shut it down. Thanks for letting us use your photo!

sobca

at 12:05 on September 8th, 2008

What can i say, I have a habit!

sobca has contributed a photo to this story.

Karen Hatter

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 12:18 on September 8th, 2008

Another evolving technological Star Trek concept, the cloaking device!

Jason Sanders

at 15:40 on September 8th, 2008

That's pretty cool! Unfortunately, like everything I saw in Popular Science as a kid, it'll be a long time before we actually get to use it.

Terri Potratz

at 12:37 on September 8th, 2008

Good call on the ship scales, I never noticed that before but it must be a problem for all those sci-fi shows.

Quelyn

at 12:46 on September 8th, 2008

My photo is from Star Trek: The Experience which closed its doors for the last time on September 1, 2008. I was there before it closed and got to see the Experience one last time. It was really sad because Star Trek is such a part of our culture, and there's really no good reason for this attraction to have closed down. From what I heard, the company that acquired it just didn't want to have Star Trek related attractions. So it's the end of an era. I wonder if the Star Trek conventions will still bother with Las Vegas anymore?

Quelyn has contributed a photo to this story.

dtd_dynamite

at 14:00 on September 8th, 2008

I'm currently going through and watching all the original series episodes in the order they were made. I find it weird that they were aired in a different order.

I am definitely getting the Alternate Realities Star Trek DVD set when it comes out.

dtd_dynamite has contributed a photo to this story.

C. E. Beavers

at 14:18 on September 8th, 2008

A model of the Enterprise-D 'flies' over your heads at the recently decommissioned Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas, NV.

C. E. Beavers has contributed a photo to this story.

Vinny

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:27 on September 8th, 2008

Vulcan and Klingon Greeting, originally uploaded by Ursula and Olive.

Tomitheos Linardos

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:32 on September 8th, 2008

Jason Sanders, I really like all the Start Treks and their message of inter-space culture to humankind, thanks for keeping us up to date

I also like your intro to this story, it's good stuff!

Lricecsp

at 15:00 on September 8th, 2008

Live long and prosper, everyone!

itsZero

at 16:28 on September 8th, 2008

I did not realize Star Trek has already been on air for 42 years until now. but I do love this TV show, it's soooo great!

itsZero has contributed a photo to this story.

dunkelberg

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 18:18 on September 8th, 2008

She canna take anymore!
She's dead, Jim.
Fascinating.
Bones!

night_eagle_warrior1

at 06:15 on September 9th, 2008

Well out of all the star trek series and movies, I would rate the deep space nine series one of the best cause of all the action parts and I also like the star ship defiant.

night_eagle_warrior1 has contributed a photo to this story.

night_eagle_warrior1

at 06:19 on September 9th, 2008

Out of all the star trek series and movies, I like this one cause of all the action in it and the crew had there ups and downs and at first didn't trust each other but they grew to become a close family even the ones that you thought would not like the characters Quark and Odo. I also like the starship Defiant and how it had all that power and being so small compare of all the other star trek ships.

night_eagle_warrior1 has contributed a photo to this story.

zebha

at 01:37 on September 13th, 2008

With this picture I'd like to render the still Alive Star Trek Spririt. It has been not only a sci-fi story, but a way of looking to life. It represents our hope in the future needed to improve ourselves day by day. May it live forever..."to get there, where no man has gone before".

zebha has contributed a photo to this story.

zebha

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 01:42 on September 13th, 2008

Jason Sanders, I like this story. It's good stuff. I was very proud and happy to be chosen to report the italian fans' love for Star Trek with my simple picture. Thank You. Good Luck for your good job.