60 years later, 'Star Trek' continues to 'live long and prosper'

0:0060 years ago today, NBC aired the first episode of Star Trek, a TV show that became a pop culture phenomenon. Space, the final frontier. The original series starred William Schadener as the captain who led his diverse crew on adventures in space. Over the decades, the show and its spin-offs have created generations of devoted fans and their commemorating Star Trek's 60th anniversary as NPR's Mandelite Del Barco reports. There are many Star Trek celebrations happening around the world from the Hollywood Walk of Fame to New York Comic Con to the International Space Station. In London, fans hope to set a Guinness World Record for the most people performing the Vulcan salute, a greeting made famous by Star Trek's beloved half-human half-alien character Spock. In Los Angeles, recently, the show was honored at a fundraiser for the Writers Guild Foundation by the cast of the hit TV series The Pit. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise.

1:01It's five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations. Actor No Wiley, a Star Trek fan, performed as Captain James T. Kirk, reading the script of the show's first episode, The Man Trap, joining Wiley on stage where other castmates as the ship's Dr. Leonard McCoy and a villainous salt vampire disguised as his ex. Leonard, no, Leonard, please. McCoy levels the gun with a look of sick despair. He fires. Lord, forgive me. NBC aired that first episode on September 8, 1966. It featured actors DeForest Kelly as McCoy, she's dead, Gemini. Leonard Nimoy as Spock, all I know is Logic, and William Shatner as Kirk. Scotty, beam was up fast. You know, you could characterize Star Trek as being outlined in Greek drama. Hero has a problem, it's got to solve a problem and get back home. Shatner is now 95 years old, one of the last living main cast members

2:03from the original series. He told NPR last month the show's creator, Gene Roddenberry, had been inspired by a TV show about a wagon train going west. Only his show would be set in space. Roddenberry attempted to sell a series called Star Trek, which was wagon train to the Stars. They made a pilot. And then NBC saw it and said, we don't like the script, we don't like the cast, but we like the idea. Comic actress Lucille Ball insisted her desi-lu studios tape a second pilot with Nimoy returning as Spock and introducing Captain Kirk. Risk is our business. That's what the Starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her. Speaking in dramatic pauses, and with the twinkle in his eye, Shatner was a charming hero. But after its third season, the network canceled the series. Shatner says Star Trek fans rally to bring it back on the air. In syndication, the show soared in popularity,

3:04leading to prequels and sequels on TV and in film, all transporting the legacy forward. The original series from the 60s had introduced technological concepts such as a handheld communicator, like a flip phone. The show also posed sci-fi ideas such as the potential dilemmas of time travel and encountering new and strange life forms and progressive conversations relevant to the 20th century. One episode in 1968 is credited with showing the first interracial kiss on television between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant O'Hara played by Michelle Nichols. I am not afraid. And it was a thrilling way to make history. Shatner says he admires all 79 episodes of the original Star Trek, including another one about race that featured two aliens that were mirror images of each other, half white and half black. And they hated each other. It was great prejudice, but we looking at two guys black and white,

4:07it seemed idiotic. And so it didn't take much of a stretch to say how idiotic racism is. I had walked back to Tumas Sulu, or back to Tusser. George Takede, now 89 years old, played Sulu, a helmsman of Japanese ancestry. At the San Diego Comic Con this year, Takede talked to NPR about the diversity of Star Trek's cast, including a black woman as the communications officer, a Scottish chief engineer, and a Russian navigator, in addition to assorted aliens. We have a lot of phrases from Star Trek, live long and prosper, boldly go or no one has gone before. But of them all, the one that I think is the most significant is idk, idk, idk, infinite diversity in infinite combinations. Takede notes the original series aired at a time when Americans protested the Vietnam War, suffered through political assassinations,

5:07and demonstrated for civil rights. Jean Roddenberry thought that we would learn from the turbulence of our times back into the 60s and build a better future. 60 years later, Takede says society still has much to learn from the Star Trek philosophy, which Roddenberry often talked about. Here he is in a recording from 1976. The whole show was an attempt to say that humanity will reach maturity and wisdom, on the day that it begins not just to tolerate, but to take a specialty light. In differences, in ideas, and differences in life forms. That philosophy is appreciated by Star Trek fans, Trekkies, who've been meeting up in cosplay at conventions for decades, meeting up to celebrate their love of it all. Michael Nguyen, who's in his 40s, says he has more than 50 Star Trek costumes. He's part of a group of Trekkies who do volunteer work in New York City. The ethics of Star Trek, and that concept of a hopeful future,

6:08being respectful of other cultures, all of those things have stayed constant. To boldly go where no man has gone before. Gene Roddenberry died in 1991. His son Rod is a TV producer and CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment. He talked to NPR recently about his father's legacy. I think he'd be very proud of the fact that Star Trek has tried new things. Some have been successful. Some maybe not. And so the only thing I think he could say is, is thank you to everyone who's worked on it. And seriously, all the fans. Captain's Log star 843-687.7. There are no new Star Trek TV shows currently in production, but there is another movie in the works. At Comic Con in San Diego, writer, director duo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daily, talked about how they plan to reboot the franchise. The script is in progress, and we're very excited about it. It won't be the characters that you've seen previously.

7:11And I think it'll probably be a little further into the future than we've been before. Our hope with this is to satisfy the fans, but also bring people in who may not consider themselves lovers of Star Trek and surprise them. Star Trek has been more than just a classic TV show. With its optimistic vision of the future, it's inspired generations of astronauts, engineers, and fans who've let the franchise continue to live long and prosper. Mandelita Lvarco and PR News.