Star Trek

a US television series first shown on NBC in the 1960s which later became a cult programme (= very fashionable with a particular group). It is about the spacecraft Starship Enterprise whose crew includes Captain James Kirk, Mr Spock, ‘Bones’ McCoy and ‘Scotty’ Scott. They made six Star Trek films between 1979 and 1991. A later television series with different actors, Star Trek: the Next Generation, began in 1988, and there have been three further films and various spin-offs such as Voyager and Deep Space 9.

See also Trekkie.

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▪ American television series [1966–69]

 American television science-fiction series that ran on the National Broadcasting Company (National Broadcasting Co., Inc.) (NBC) network for only three seasons (1966–69) but that became one of the most popular brands in the American entertainment industry.

      Star Trek was created by American writer and producer Gene Roddenberry (Roddenberry, Gene) and chronicled the exploits of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise, whose five-year mission was to explore space and, as stated in the title sequence, “to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.” The series took place in the 23rd century, after a benign and advanced alien people, the Vulcans, had introduced their technologies to Earth, allowing mankind to embark on intergalactic travel at speeds faster than light. Commanded by the blustering Capt. James T. Kirk (played by William Shatner), the Enterprise engaged in an altruistic research mission intended to document and observe the far reaches of space. Its crew encountered various alien life forms, not all of them as friendly as the Vulcans, most notably the Klingons, bellicose adversaries who frequently crossed paths with the Enterprise. Kirk's principal confidante is Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), a Vulcan whose actions were ruled by logic unsullied by emotion. The pointedly multicultural crew also included “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley), the ship's irascible doctor; Lieut. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols); Mr. Sulu (George Takei); Ensign Chekov (Walter Koenig); and Mr. Scott (James Doohan), the engineer who controlled the Enterprise's transporter (not to be confused with the transponder, a homing device), dematerializing and rematerializing his shipmates so that they could travel instantly through space at the utterance of the appropriate command, “Beam me up, Scottie.”

      Although the series gained some critical notice, it was canceled after three seasons because of low ratings. However, Star Trek retained a core following of devoted fans (Trekkies) that multiplied as wildly as tribbles, the furry creatures at the centre of one of the series' most beloved episodes, as reruns continued to air. Eventually, the series snowballed into a phenomenon and became one of the most recognizable science-fiction brands in history, yielding 10 feature films and numerous spin-off series, including Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987–94), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–99), Star Trek: Voyager (1995–2001), and Star Trek: Enterprise (2001–05).

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