A Trekkie (a portmanteau of "trek" and "junkie") or Trekker is a fan of the Star Trek franchise, or of specific television series or films within that franchise. The show developed a dedicated and enthusiastic following shortly after it premiered, with the first fanzine premiering in 1967. The first fan convention took place the year the original series ended.
101-475: This is a list of characters from the Star Trek franchise and the media in which they appear. It lists both major and minor fictional characters including those not originally created for Star Trek but featured in it, alongside real-life persons appearing in a fictional manner, such as holodeck recreations. Bajoran characters are listed by family name, which is stated first. Joined Trills are listed by
202-618: A Virgil Finlay portrait of the character. Perhaps the first large gathering of fans occurred in April 1967. When actor Leonard Nimoy appeared as Spock as grand marshal of the Medford Pear Blossom Festival parade in Oregon, he hoped to sign hundreds of autographs but thousands of people appeared; after being rescued by police, "I made sure never to appear publicly again in Vulcan guise",
303-553: A cult following among Trekkies greater than during its original run; by 1976, the cast described Star Trek as "the most popular series in the world". One sign of the series' growing popularity was the first Star Trek convention , which occurred on January 21–23, 1972 in New York City. Although the original expectation was that a few hundred fans would attend, several thousand turned up. Fans continue to attend similar conventions worldwide. The series' newfound success led to
404-533: A tent pole for the studio when other projects failed. The Next Generation had the highest ratings of any Star Trek series and became the most syndicated show during the last years of its original seven-season run. In response to the Next Generation 's success, Paramount released a spin-off series, Deep Space Nine , in 1993. While never as popular as the Next Generation , the series had sufficient ratings for it to last seven seasons. In January 1995,
505-474: A 1975 convention According to Michael Jindra of the University of Wisconsin-Madison , the show's fandom "has strong affinities with a religious-type movement", with "an origin myth, a set of beliefs, an organization, and some of the most active and creative members to be found anywhere". While he distinguishes between Star Trek fandom and the traditional definition of religion that requires belief in divinity or
606-550: A big fan wanted to meet her while attending an NAACP dinner party: I thought it was a Trekkie, and so I said, 'Sure.' I looked across the room, and there was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. walking towards me with this big grin on his face. He reached out to me and said, 'Yes, Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan.' He said that Star Trek was the only show that he, and his wife Coretta, would allow their three little children to stay up and watch. [She told King about her plans to leave
707-550: A campaign reminiscent of the one that saved the third season of the Original Series . Paramount renewed Enterprise for a fourth season, but moved it to the Friday night death slot . Like the Original Series , Enterprise ' s ratings dropped during this time slot, and UPN canceled Enterprise at the end of its fourth season. Enterprise aired its final episode on May 13, 2005. A fan group, "Save Enterprise ", attempted to save
808-411: A censor down to the set to measure a woman's cleavage to make sure too much of her breast wasn't showing." Roddenberry intended the show to have a progressive political agenda reflective of the emerging counter-culture of the youth movement, though he was not fully forthcoming to the networks about this. He wanted Star Trek to show what humanity might develop into, if it would learn from the lessons of
909-485: A contest to build a medical tricorder device was announced in 2012. Ten finalists were selected in 2014, and the winner was to be selected in January 2016. However, no team managed to reach the required criteria. Star Trek also brought teleportation to popular attention with its depiction of "matter-energy transport", with the famously misquoted phrase " Beam me up, Scotty " entering the vernacular. The Star Trek replicator
1010-498: A fan panel to discuss 'The Star Trek Phenomenon.'" Some fans were so devoted that they complained to a Canadian TV station when it preempted an episode in July 1969 for coverage of Apollo 11 . Nothing fades faster than a canceled television series they say. So how come Star Trek won't go away? Associated Press, 1972 However, the Trekkie phenomenon did not come to the attention of
1111-525: A fashion that serves different interests." Jenkins' subsequent monograph Textual Poachers (1992), which was written "to participate in the process of redefining the public identity of fandom", also focused at least in part on Star Trek fans. The central trio of Kirk, Spock and McCoy was modeled on classical mythological storytelling. Shatner said: There is a mythological component [to pop culture], especially with science fiction. It's people looking for answers – and science fiction offers to explain
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#17328846187421212-416: A few months after the Next Generation ended, Paramount released a fourth television series, Voyager . Star Trek production reached a peak in the mid-1990s with Deep Space Nine and Voyager airing concurrently and three of the four Next Generation -based feature films released in 1994, 1996, and 1998. By 1998, Star Trek was Paramount's most important property and the profits of "the franchise" funded
1313-590: A fourth is scheduled for July 2020. The first publisher of Star Trek fiction aimed at adult readers was Bantam Books . James Blish wrote adaptations of episodes of the original series in twelve volumes from 1967 to 1977; in 1970, he wrote the first original Star Trek novel published by Bantam, Spock Must Die! . Pocket Books published subsequent Star Trek novels. Prolific Star Trek novelists include Peter David , Diane Carey , Keith DeCandido , J.M. Dillard , Diane Duane , Michael Jan Friedman , and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens . Several actors from
1414-659: A life ". "For crying out loud," Shatner continues, "it's just a TV show!" He asks one Trekkie whether he has "ever kissed a girl". The embarrassed fans ask if, instead of the TV shows, they should focus on the Star Trek films instead. The angry Shatner leaves but because of his contract must return, and tells the Trekkies that they saw a "recreation of the evil Captain Kirk from episode 27, ' The Enemy Within .'" Although many Star Trek fans found
1515-415: A lot of people. For the unusual people at this convention, it's a big part of their lives, a help to them. I'm glad there are people who need something important in their lives and I'm glad they've found it in our shows. I don't want to elaborate on that; there are just some special people here who need the show in a special way. The religious devotion of Star Trek ' s fans began almost immediately after
1616-423: A narrative adventure video game set in the Next Generation era, was released by Dramatic Labs. Star Trek has led directly or indirectly to the creation of a number of magazines which focus either on science fiction or specifically on Star Trek . Starlog was a magazine which was founded in the 1970s. Initially, its focus was on Star Trek actors, but then it expanded its scope. Star Trek: The Magazine
1717-491: A new cast portraying the crew of the original show. Star Trek was a prequel of the original series set in an alternate timeline , later named the Kelvin Timeline. This gave the film and sequels freedom from the need to conform to the franchise's canonical timeline and minimized the impact these films would have on CBS's portion of the franchise. The eleventh Star Trek film's marketing campaign targeted non-fans, stating in
1818-542: A new set of fans to the franchise. CBS eventually sought to capitalize on this trend, and brought the franchise back to the small screen with the series Star Trek: Discovery to help launch and draw subscribers to its streaming service CBS All Access . Discovery's first season premiered on September 24, 2017. While Discovery is shown in the United States exclusively on Paramount+ (formerly CBS All Access), for its first three seasons, Netflix, in exchange for funding
1919-437: A new starship Enterprise a century after the original series; Deep Space Nine and Voyager , set in the same era as the Next Generation ; and Enterprise , set a century before the original series in the early days of human interstellar travel. The adventures of the Next Generation crew continued in four additional feature films. In 2009, the film franchise underwent a reboot , creating an alternate continuity known as
2020-553: A new starship Enterprise with a new crew. Following Star Trek: The Motion Picture , Roddenberry's role was changed from producer to creative consultant, with minimal input to the films, while being heavily involved with the creation of The Next Generation . Roddenberry died on October 24, 1991, giving executive producer Rick Berman control of the franchise. Star Trek had become known to those within Paramount as "the franchise", because of its great success and recurring role as
2121-446: A newborn baby was "baptized" into the "Temple of Trek" amid chanting. Star Trek museum exhibits, film studios, attractions, and other locations such as Vulcan, Alberta offer opportunities to perform pilgrimages to "our Mecca ". A fan astounded Nimoy by asking him to lay his hands on a friend's eyes to heal them . Ethan Peck , a later Spock portrayer, said "When I'm meeting fans, sometimes they're coming to be confirmed , like I'm
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#17328846187422222-489: A pilot, " The Cage ", starring Jeffrey Hunter as Enterprise Captain Christopher Pike . NBC rejected "The Cage", but the executives were still impressed with the concept, and made the unusual decision to commission a second pilot: " Where No Man Has Gone Before ". While the show initially enjoyed high ratings, the average rating of the show at the end of its first season dropped to 52nd out of 94 programs. Unhappy with
2323-486: A prequel to the 2009 film, Star Trek: Countdown . In 2012, IDW published the first volume of Star Trek – The Newspaper Strip , featuring the work of Thomas Warkentin. As of 2020, IDW continues to produce new titles. The Star Trek franchise has numerous games in many formats. Beginning in 1967 with a board game based on the original series and continuing through today with online and DVD games, Star Trek games continue to be popular among fans. Video games based on
2424-555: A priest". Fandom does not necessarily take the place of preexisting faith, with Christian and New Age adherents both finding support for their worldviews. Star Trek writer and director Nicholas Meyer compared the show to the Catholic Mass : Like the mass, there are certain elements of Star Trek that are immutable, unchangeable. The mass has its Kyrie , its Sanctus , Agnus Dei , Dies Irae , and so on... Star Trek has its Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Klingons , Romulans , etc., and
2525-400: A racially diverse crew. In early 1964, Roddenberry presented a brief treatment for a television series to Desilu Productions , calling it "a Wagon Train to the stars". Desilu studio head Lucille Ball was instrumental in approving production of the series. The studio worked with Roddenberry to develop the treatment into a script , which was then pitched to NBC. NBC paid to make
2626-411: A sequel. The studio forced Roddenberry to relinquish creative control of future sequels. The success of the sequel, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan , reversed the fortunes of the franchise. While the sequel grossed less than the first movie, The Wrath of Khan ' s lower production costs made it net more profit. Paramount produced six Star Trek feature films between 1979 and 1991, each featuring
2727-420: A series of standalone mini-episodes which air between Discovery and Picard seasons. A new live-action series, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , a spinoff of the second season of Discovery and prequel to the original series, premiered on May 5, 2022. Lower Decks , an animated adult comedy series, was released on August 6, 2020, on CBS All Access. Another animated series, Star Trek: Prodigy , premiered on
2828-416: A significant portion of the studio's operations. Voyager became the flagship show of the new United Paramount Network (UPN) and thus the first major network Star Trek series since the original. After Voyager ended, UPN produced Enterprise , a prequel series. Enterprise did not enjoy the high ratings of its predecessors and UPN threatened to cancel it after the series' third season. Fans launched
2929-590: A television film every two years starting with Section 31 . Many licensed products are based on the Star Trek franchise. Merchandising is very lucrative for both studio and actors; by 1986 Nimoy had earned more than $ 500,000 from royalties. Products include novels, comic books, video games, and other materials, which are generally considered non-canon . Star Trek merchandise generated $ 4 billion for Paramount by 2002. Since 1967, hundreds of original novels, short stories, and television and movie adaptations have been published. The first original Star Trek novel
3030-481: A thousand people asking questions as if the events in the series actually happened. A Newsweek cover article in December 1986 also cited many such stereotypes, depicting Star Trek fans as overweight and socially maladjusted "kooks" and "crazies". The sketch and articles are representative of many media depictions of Trekkies, with fascination with Star Trek a common metaphor for useless, "fetishistic" obsession with
3131-425: A topic; fans thus often hide their devotion to avoid social stigma . Such depictions have helped popularize a view of devoted fans, not just of Star Trek , as potential fanatics. Reinforced by the well-known acts of violence by John Hinckley Jr. and Mark David Chapman , the sinister, obsessed "fan in the attic" has become a stock character in works such as the films The Fan (1981) and Misery (1990), and
List of Star Trek characters (N–S) - Misplaced Pages Continue
3232-487: A very devoted audience. The first Star Trek fanzine , Spockanalia , appeared in September 1967, including the first published fan fiction based on the show. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry , who was aware of and encouraged such activities, a year later estimated that 10,000 wrote or read fanzines. The mainstream science fiction magazine If published a poem about the Star Trek character Spock , accompanying
3333-452: A wide range of spin-offs including games , figurines, novels , toys, and comics . From 1998 to 2008, there was a Star Trek –themed attraction in Las Vegas . At least two museum exhibits of props travel the world. The constructed language Klingon was created for the franchise. Several Star Trek parodies have been made, and viewers have produced several fan productions . Star Trek
3434-629: Is a multibillion-dollar industry, owned by Paramount Global. Gene Roddenberry sold Star Trek to NBC as a classic adventure drama; he pitched the show as " Wagon Train to the Stars" and as Horatio Hornblower in Space . The opening line, "to boldly go where no man has gone before", was taken almost verbatim from a U.S. White House booklet on space produced after the Sputnik flight in 1957. Star Trek and its spin-offs have proven highly popular in syndication and
3535-443: Is a pleasure to be, in any numbers. Why else would they have been involved in Star Trek , an intelligent, interested, and involved show?" In 1998, the fan studies scholar Henry Jenkins published the journal article "Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten," in which he defended the behavior of Star Trek fans from an academic angle, arguing that they were "'poachers' of textual meanings who appropriate popular texts and reread them in
3636-410: Is credited in the scientific literature with inspiring the field of diatom nanotechnology . In 1976, following a letter-writing campaign, NASA named its prototype Space Shuttle Enterprise , after the fictional starship . Later, the introductory sequence to Star Trek: Enterprise included footage of this shuttle which, along with images of a naval sailing vessel called Enterprise , depicted
3737-525: Is in pre-production to take the place of one of these series. Star Trek: Prodigy was removed from Paramount+ in June 2023. The series was picked up by Netflix, and season 1 was made available on December 25, 2023. A second season aired later in 2024. Paramount is also planning to create television films for Paramount+ every two years. The first of these movies, Section 31 , will star Michelle Yeoh , reprising her role as Empress Georgiou from Discovery . It
3838-448: Is noted for its cultural influence beyond works of science fiction. The franchise is also notable for its progressive stances on civil rights . The Original Series included one of the first multiracial casts on US television. As early as 1964, Gene Roddenberry drafted a proposal for the science fiction series that would become Star Trek . Although he publicly marketed it as a Western in outer space —a so-called " Wagon Train to
3939-491: Is scheduled to be released in early 2025. Twelve television series make up the Star Trek franchise: The Original Series , The Animated Series , The Next Generation , Deep Space Nine , Voyager , Enterprise , Discovery , Short Treks , Picard , Lower Decks , Prodigy , and Strange New Worlds . All series in total amount to 937 episodes across 49 seasons of television. Paramount Pictures has produced thirteen Star Trek feature films. The first six films continue
4040-423: Is that those who did were not treated very well in the end ... I'm just afraid that if it goes too far and it appears that I have created a philosophy to answer all human ills that someone will stand up and cry, 'Fraud!' And with good reason. I'm not a guru and I don't want to be. Gene Roddenberry, 1976 That there are no cries of "Amen, Brother," is simply a matter of style. Calgary Herald , describing
4141-507: The Star Wars franchise being rivals in the science fiction genre with many fans and scholars. The Star Trek franchise inspired some designers of technologies, the Palm PDA and the handheld mobile phone. Michael Jones, Chief technologist of Google Earth , has cited the tricorder 's mapping capability as one inspiration in the development of Keyhole/Google Earth. The Tricorder X Prize ,
List of Star Trek characters (N–S) - Misplaced Pages Continue
4242-472: The Kelvin timeline; three films have been set in this continuity. The newest Star Trek television revival, beginning in 2017, includes the series Discovery , Picard , Short Treks , Lower Decks , Prodigy , and Strange New Worlds , streaming on digital platforms. Star Trek has been a cult phenomenon for decades. Fans of the franchise are called " Trekkies " or "Trekkers". The franchise spans
4343-404: The Original Series cast in their original roles. In 1987, Paramount responded to the popularity of Star Trek feature films by bringing the franchise back to television with Star Trek: The Next Generation . Paramount chose to distribute the new series as a first-run syndication show rather than a network program. The series was set a century after the original, following the adventures of
4444-408: The Original Series , 11 spin-off television series, and a film franchise ; further adaptations also exist in several media. After the conclusion of the Original Series , the adventures of its characters continued in the 22-episode Star Trek: The Animated Series and six feature films. A television revival beginning in the 1980s saw four spinoff series: The Next Generation , following the crew of
4545-543: The Star Trek franchise beyond Discovery to several new series, miniseries, and animated series. Kurtzman wanted to "open this world up" and create multiple series set in the same universe but with their own "unique storytelling and distinct cinematic feel", an approach that he compared to the Marvel Cinematic Universe . However, the franchise would not tell a single story across multiple series, allowing audiences to watch each series without having to see all of
4646-567: The 1970s and 1980s. In what Shatner described as one of "so many instances over the years" of fan excess, police captured a man with a gun at a German event before he could find the actor. The Saturday Night Live segment mentioned many such common stereotypes about Trekkies, including their willingness to buy any Star Trek -related merchandise, obsessive study of trivial details of the show, and inability to have conventional social interactions with others or distinguish between fantasy and reality. Brent Spiner found that some could not accept that
4747-445: The 23rd century, on a mission "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before ". In creating Star Trek , Roddenberry was inspired by C. S. Forester 's Horatio Hornblower series of novels, Jonathan Swift 's 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels , the 1956 film Forbidden Planet , and television westerns such as Wagon Train . The Star Trek canon includes
4848-545: The US space program , working in this quality for NASA from the late 1970s until the late 1980s. In 2020, the US effort to develop a vaccine to protect against COVID-19 was named Operation Warp Speed , which was suggested by a Star Trek fan, Peter Marks. Marks leads the unit at the Food and Drug Administration which approves vaccines and therapies. Trekkie The degree of Trekkies' devotion has produced conflicted feelings among
4949-569: The actor who played Data was human, Nimoy warned a journalist to perform the Vulcan salute correctly because "'Star Trek' fans can be scary. If you don't get this right you're going to hear about it", and Roddenberry stated I have to limit myself to one [convention] in the East and one in the West each year. I'm not a performer and frankly those conventions scare the hell out of me. It is scary to be surrounded by
5050-516: The actor wrote. Another was in January 1968, when more than 200 Caltech students marched to NBC's Burbank, California studio to support Star Trek 's renewal. The first fan convention devoted to the show occurred on 1 March 1969 at the Newark Public Library . Organized by a librarian who was one of the creators of Spockanalia , the "Star Trek Con" did not have celebrity guests but did have "slide shows of 'Trek' aliens, skits and
5151-487: The actualization of Star Trek's holodeck in the future by making extensive use of artificial intelligence and cyborgs. Star Trek -based comics have been issued almost continuously since 1967, published by Marvel , DC , Malibu , Wildstorm , and Gold Key , among others. In 2009, Tokyopop produced an anthology of Next Generation -based stories presented in the style of Japanese manga . In 2006, IDW Publishing secured publishing rights to Star Trek comics and issued
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#17328846187425252-434: The advancement of human transportation technology. Beyond Star Trek 's fictional innovations, its contributions to television history included a multicultural and multiracial cast. While more common in subsequent years, in the 1960s it was controversial to feature an Enterprise crew that included a Japanese helmsman, a Russian navigator, and a black female communications officer. Captain Kirk's and Lt. Uhura's kiss, in
5353-523: The adventures of the cast of the Original Series ; the seventh film, Generations , was intended as a transition from original cast to the cast of the Next Generation ; the next three films focused completely on the Next Generation cast. The eleventh film was widely considered to be a reboot of the franchise, despite being a continuation set in an alternate timeline known as the "Kelvin Timeline". Additionally, streaming service Paramount+ intends to release
5454-400: The audience reaction to Roddenberry's speech at a 1975 convention Religious aspects of Star Trek fandom nonetheless grew, according to Jindra, with the show's popularity. Conventions are an opportunity for fans to visit "another world...very much cut off from the real world...You can easily forget your own troubles as well as those of the world", with one convention holding an event in which
5555-475: The box office. CBS turned down several proposals in the mid-2000s to restart the franchise on the small screen. Proposals included pitches from film director Bryan Singer , Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski , and Trek actors Jonathan Frakes and William Shatner. While CBS was not creating new Star Trek for network television, the ease of access to Star Trek content on new streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video introduced
5656-415: The cast and crew of the show. Creator Gene Roddenberry initially encouraged the fan participation, but over the years became concerned that some fans treated the show with a quasi-religious zeal as though it were "scripture." While some stars have been vocally critical of the franchise's most devoted fans, others including Sir Patrick Stewart have defended Trekkies. There has been some disagreement within
5757-442: The conflicts and political dimensions of Star Trek are allegories of contemporary cultural realities. The Original Series addressed issues of the 1960s, just as later spin-offs have tackled issues of their respective decades. Issues depicted in the various series include war and peace, the value of personal loyalty, authoritarianism , imperialism , class warfare, economics, racism, religion, human rights, sexism , feminism, and
5858-458: The convention into two factions, the "enlightened" who had seen the preview and the "unenlightened" who had not. However, the humanist Roddenberry disliked his role as involuntary prophet of a religion. Although he depended on Trekkies to support future Star Trek projects, Roddenberry stated that It frightens me when I learn of 10,000 people treating a Star Trek script as if it were Scripture. I certainly didn't write Scripture, and my feeling
5959-405: The episode " Plato's Stepchildren ", was also daring, and is often mis-cited as being American television's first scripted, interracial kiss, even though several other interracial kisses ( e.g. on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour ) predated this one. Nichelle Nichols, who played the communications officer, said that the day after she told Roddenberry of her plan to leave the series, she was told
6060-498: The fandom as to the distinction between the terms "Trekker" and "Trekkie." Some characterize Trekkers are "more serious" in comparison to the "bubble-headed" Trekkies, while others have chosen the term Trekker to convey that they are "a rational fan." Leonard Nimoy advocated for the use of "Trekker" over "Trekkie". Overall, the term "Trekkie" is more commonly used. Many early Trekkies were also fans of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964–1968), another show with science fiction elements and
6161-479: The film did not earn as much in the North American box office as its predecessor, internationally, in terms of box office receipts, Into Darkness is the most successful of the franchise. The thirteenth film, Star Trek Beyond , was released on July 22, 2016. The film had many pre-production problems and its script went through several rewrites. While receiving positive reviews, Star Trek Beyond disappointed in
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#17328846187426262-425: The film's advertisements that "this is not your father's Star Trek ". The film earned considerable critical and financial success, grossing (in inflation-adjusted dollars) more box office sales than any previous Star Trek film. The plaudits include the franchise's first Academy Award (for makeup ). Two sequels were released. The first sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness , premiered in the spring of 2013. While
6363-481: The future of the franchise. Paramount relieved Berman, the franchise producer, of control of Star Trek . In 2007, Paramount hired a new creative team to reinvigorate the franchise on the big screen. Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and producer J. J. Abrams had the freedom to reinvent the feel of the franchise. The team created the franchise's eleventh film, Star Trek , releasing it in May 2009. The film featured
6464-633: The general public until after the show was cancelled in 1969 and reruns entered syndication . The first widely publicized fan convention occurred in January 1972 at the Statler Hilton Hotel in New York, featuring Roddenberry, Isaac Asimov , and two tons of NASA memorabilia. The organizers expected 500 attendees at the "First International Star Trek Convention" but more than 3,000 came; attendees later described it as "packed" and like "a rush-hour subway train". By then more than 100 fanzines about
6565-415: The idea of reviving the franchise. Filmation with Paramount Television produced the first post–original series show, Star Trek: The Animated Series , featuring the cast of the original series reprising their roles. It ran on NBC for 22 half-hour episodes over two seasons on Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1974. Although short-lived, typical for animated productions in that time slot during that period,
6666-463: The inexplicable, the same as religion tends to do. Although 99 percent of the people that come to these conventions don’t realize it, they’re going through the rituals that religion and mythology provide. 7,200 of the Elect are there to bear witness, and those 79 episodes are their revealed texts, the scarred tablets by which their lives here and now and beyond are charted. Calgary Herald , describing
6767-427: The look is of people who consume it, habitually and at length; overfed and undernourished, eruptive of skin and flaccid of form, from the merely soft to the grotesquely obese". He noted their fixation on one subject: The facial expression is a near sultry somnolence, except when matters of Star Trek textual minutiae are discussed; then it is as vivid and keen as a Jesuit Inquisitor 's, for these people know more of
6868-409: The media cited Beatlemania and Trudeaumania as examples to describe the emerging "cultural phenomenon". 6,000 attended the 1973 New York convention and 15,000 attended in 1974, much larger figures than at older events like the 4,500 at the 32nd Worldcon in 1974. By then the demand from Trekkies was large enough that rival convention organizers began to sue each other. The first UK convention
6969-413: The mid-1990s Star Trek —now called within Paramount " the franchise " and its "crown jewel" —had become the studio's single most-important property, and Paramount sponsored its first convention in 1996. ) The entire cast reunited for the first time at an August 1975 Chicago convention that 16,000 attended. "Star Trek" Lives! , an early history and exploration of Trekkie culture published that year,
7070-560: The most dedicated constituencies in the country". "Unprecedented" crowds visited a 1992 Star Trek exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution 's National Air and Space Museum , and in 1994, when Star Trek reruns still aired in 94% of the United States, over 400,000 attended 130 conventions. By the late 1990s an estimated two million people in the United States, or about 5% of 35 million weekly Star Trek watchers, were what one author described as "hard-core fans". The Trek fandom
7171-473: The most recognizable and highest-grossing media franchises of all time . The franchise began with Star Trek: The Original Series , which premiered on September 6, 1966, on Canada's CTV network. In the US it debuted on September 8, 1966, on NBC . The series followed the voyages of the crew of the starship USS Enterprise , a space exploration vessel built by the United Federation of Planets in
7272-434: The name of the symbiont , which replaces the family name. Star Trek Star Trek is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry , which began with the series of the same name and became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon . Since its creation, the franchise has expanded into various films , television series , video games , novels , and comic books , and it has become one of
7373-596: The others. CBS and Kurtzman refer to this expanded franchise as the Star Trek Universe . The second series of the expansion of the Star Trek Universe, Star Trek: Picard , features Patrick Stewart reprising the character Jean-Luc Picard from The Next Generation . Picard premiered on CBS All Access on January 23, 2020. Unlike Discovery , Amazon Prime Video streams Picard internationally. CBS has also released two seasons of Star Trek: Short Treks ,
7474-642: The past, most specifically by ending violence. An extreme example is the alien species known as the Vulcans , who had a violent past but learned to control their emotions. Roddenberry also gave Star Trek an anti-war message and depicted the United Federation of Planets as an ideal, optimistic version of the United Nations. His efforts were opposed by the network because of concerns over marketability, e.g., they opposed Roddenberry's insistence that Enterprise have
7575-482: The production costs of the show, owned the international screening rights for the show. This Netflix distribution and production deal ended right before the fourth season premiere of Discovery in November 2021. Discovery has since been exclusive to Paramount Global owned platforms. In June 2018, after becoming sole showrunner of Discovery , Kurtzman signed a five-year overall deal with CBS Television Studios to expand
7676-468: The production details of Star Trek than Roddenberry, who created them, and are a greater authority on the essential mystery of Captain Kirk than [William] Shatner , who fleshed it out. In December 1986, Shatner hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live . In one skit, he played himself as a guest at a Star Trek convention, where the audience focuses on trivial information about the show and Shatner's personal life. The annoyed actor advises them to " get
7777-505: The rebranded service Paramount+ first on October 28, 2021, and on December 17, 2021, on Nickelodeon . Prodigy is the first Star Trek series to specifically target younger audiences, and is the franchise's first fully computer animated series. Star Trek saturation would hit a new peak in 2022, with five Star Trek series airing in the same year. The Star Trek: Picard series finale aired in April 2023. Discovery's series finale aired in May 2024. A Star Trek: Starfleet Academy series
7878-544: The rest of the universe Roddenberry bequeathed us. The words of the mass are carved in stone, as are fundamental elements—the Enterprise , Spock, the transporter beam , and so forth—in Star Trek. Meyer has also said: The words of the Mass remain constant, but heaven knows, the music keeps changing... Its humanism remains a buoyant constant. Religion without theology. The program's karma routinely runs over its dogma. Intolerance in
7979-473: The role of technology. Roddenberry stated: "[By creating] a new world with new rules, I could make statements about sex, religion, Vietnam , politics, and intercontinental missiles. Indeed, we did make them on Star Trek : we were sending messages and fortunately they all got by the network. If you talked about purple people on a far off planet, they (the television network) never really caught on. They were more concerned about cleavage. They actually would send
8080-405: The series and tried to raise $ 30 million to privately finance a fifth season of Enterprise . Though the effort garnered considerable press, the fan drive failed to save the series. The cancellation of Enterprise ended an eighteen-year continuous production run of Star Trek programming on television. The poor box office performance in 2002 of the film Nemesis cast an uncertain light upon
8181-463: The series garnered the franchise's only Emmy Award in a "Best Series" category—specifically Outstanding Entertainment Children's Series ; later Emmy awards for the franchise would be in technical categories. Paramount Pictures and Roddenberry began developing a new series, Star Trek: Phase II , in May 1975 in response to the franchise's newfound popularity. Work on the series ended when the proposed Paramount Television Service folded. Following
8282-435: The series include Star Trek: Legacy and Star Trek: Conquest . An MMORPG based on Star Trek called Star Trek Online was developed by Cryptic Studios and published by Perfect World . It is set during the Next Generation era, about 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis . The most recent video game was set in the alternate timeline from Abrams's Star Trek . On April 23, 2023, Star Trek: Resurgence ,
8383-414: The series.] I never got to tell him why, because he said, 'You can't. You're part of history.' After the show, Nichols used this public standing to speak for women and people of color and against their exclusion from the US human space program; NASA reacted by asking her to find people for its future Space Shuttle program. Nichols proceeded and successfully brought the first non-white people and women into
8484-441: The show existed, its reruns were syndicated to 125 American TV stations and 60 other countries, and news reports on the convention caused other fans, who had believed themselves to be alone, to organize. Some actors, such as Nichelle Nichols , were unaware of the size of the show's fandom until the conventions, but major and minor cast members began attending them around the United States. The conventions became so popular that
8585-452: The show's debut. When Roddenberry previewed the new show at a 1966 science-fiction convention, he and his creation received a rapturous response: After the film was over we were unable to leave our seats. We just nodded at each other and smiled, and began to whisper. We came close to lifting [Roddenberry] upon our shoulders and carrying him out of the room...[H]e smiled, and we returned the smile before we converged on him. The showing divided
8686-506: The show's ratings, NBC threatened to cancel the show during its second season. The show's fan base , led by Bjo Trimble , conducted an unprecedented letter-writing campaign, petitioning the network to keep the show on the air. NBC renewed the show, but moved it from primetime to the " Friday night death slot ", and substantially reduced its budget. In protest, Roddenberry resigned as producer and reduced his direct involvement in Star Trek , which led to Fred Freiberger becoming producer for
8787-475: The show's third and final season. Despite another letter-writing campaign, NBC canceled the series after three seasons and 79 episodes. After the original series was canceled, Desilu, which by then had been renamed Paramount Television , licensed the broadcast syndication rights to help recoup the production losses. Reruns began in late 1969, and by the late 1970s the series aired in over 150 domestic and 60 international markets. This helped Star Trek develop
8888-407: The sketch to be insulting it accurately portrayed Shatner's feelings about Trekkies, which the actor had previously discussed in interviews. He had met overenthusiastic fans as early as March 1968, when a group attempted to rip Shatner's clothes off as the actor left 30 Rockefeller Plaza . He was slower than others to begin attending conventions, and stopped attending for more than a decade during
8989-555: The stars"—he privately told friends that he was modeling it on Jonathan Swift 's Gulliver's Travels , intending each episode to act on two levels: as a suspenseful adventure story and as a morality tale. Most Star Trek stories depict the adventures of humans and aliens who serve in Starfleet , the space-borne humanitarian and peacekeeping armada of the United Federation of Planets . The protagonists have altruistic values, and must apply these ideals to difficult dilemmas. Many of
9090-509: The success of the science fiction movies Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind , Paramount adapted the planned pilot episode of Phase II into the feature film Star Trek: The Motion Picture . The film opened in North America on December 7, 1979, with mixed reviews from critics. The film earned $ 139 million worldwide, below expectations but enough for Paramount to create
9191-413: The supernatural, Jindra compares Star Trek fandom to both "'quasi-religions,' such as Alcoholics Anonymous and New Age groups"—albeit more universal in its appeal and more organized—and civil religion . As with other faiths, Trekkies find comfort in their worship. Star Trek costume designer William Ware Theiss stated at a convention: The show is important psychologically and sociologically to
9292-480: The television series Black Mirror . Patrick Stewart objected when an interviewer described Trekkies as "weird", calling it a "silly thing to say". He added, "How many do you know personally? You couldn't be more wrong." (According to Stewart, however, the actors dislike being called Trekkies and are careful to distinguish between themselves and the Trekkie audience. ) Isaac Asimov said of them, "Trekkies are intelligent, interested, involved people with whom it
9393-507: The television series have also written or co-written books featuring their respective characters: William Shatner , John de Lancie , Andrew J. Robinson , J. G. Hertzler and Armin Shimerman . Voyager producer Jeri Taylor wrote two novels detailing the personal histories of Voyager characters. Screenplay writers David Gerrold , D. C. Fontana , and Melinda Snodgrass have also penned books. A 2014 scholarly work Newton Lee discussed
9494-571: The typical draft , a 64-quarterback draft board transcends "thorough" and reaches "fetishistic". This is the stuff of Star Trek conventions. In a few years, the football equivalent of "Mr. Shatner, why didn't the Enterprise use antimatter to destabilize the alien probe in the Tholian Web ?" will be "Coach Coughlin , what do you think of Scott Buisson?" In 1975, a journalist described Trekkies as "smelling of assembly-line junk food, hugely consumed;
9595-471: Was Mission to Horatius by Mack Reynolds , which was published in hardcover by Whitman Books in 1968. In 1968, Gene Roddenberry cooperated with Stephen Edward Poe, writing as Stephen Whitfield, on the nonfiction book The Making of Star Trek for Ballantine Books . Among the most recent is the Star Trek Collection of Little Golden Books . Three titles were published by Random House in 2019,
9696-566: Was a magazine published in the U.S. that ceased publication in 2003. Star Trek Magazine , originally published as Star Trek Monthly by Titan Magazines for the United Kingdom market, began in February 1995. The magazine has since expanded to worldwide distribution under the name Star Trek Explorer . Other magazines through the years included professional, as well as magazines published by fans, or fanzines . The Star Trek media franchise
9797-433: Was broadcast worldwide. The show's cultural impact goes far beyond its longevity and profitability. Star Trek conventions have become popular among its fans, who call themselves " trekkies " or "trekkers". An entire subculture has grown up around the franchise, which was documented in the film Trekkies . Star Trek was ranked most popular cult show by TV Guide . The franchise has also garnered many comparisons of
9898-402: Was held in 1974 and featured special guests George Takei and James Doohan . After this, there was an official British convention yearly. Turnout and security at the exhibition are unprecedented [with] alarm display cases and two full-time guards on hand to protect the memorabilia from overzealous fans. The New York Times on a Smithsonian Star Trek exhibit, 1992 Because Star Trek
9999-477: Was notably fast to use the World Wide Web . The Guardian ' s Damien Walter joked that "the 50% of the early world wide web that wasn't porn was made up of Star Trek: The Next Generation fansites". There are some fans who have become overzealous. That can become terrible. They leap out of bushes, look in windows and lean against doors and listen. Since only about a dozen quarterbacks are selected during
10100-451: Was set in the future the show did not become dated, and by counterprogramming during the late afternoon or early evening when other stations showed television news it attracted a young audience. The reruns' great popularity—greater than when Star Trek originally aired in prime time—caused Paramount to receive thousands of letters each week demanding the show's return and promising that it would be profitable. (The fans were correct; by
10201-427: Was the first mass-market book to introduce fan fiction and other aspects of fandom to a wide audience. By 1976 there were more than 250 Star Trek clubs, and at least three rival groups organized 25 conventions that attracted thousands to each. While discussing that year whether to name the first Space Shuttle Enterprise , James M. Cannon , Gerald R. Ford 's domestic policy advisor, described Trekkies as "one of
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