Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek was a 1960s television series about space explorers in the 23rd century. The series was simply called Star Trek when it first aired and is still billed as such onscreen, but is now often referred to as The Original Series when distinguishing it from other Star Trek series produced later.
The series introduced characters that subsequently became household names, such as Captain Kirk (played by William Shatner) and Spock, the half-human half-Vulcan first officer (played by Leonard Nimoy).
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Broadcast
The American-produced series was created by Gene Roddenberry, and premiered in the United States on NBC on September 8, 1966 and ended June 3, 1969.
The show, set in the 23rd century, featured a crew of space explorers traveling around the galaxy in a Constitution-class starship called the USS Enterprise NCC-1701. The show did not immediately catch on with viewers and was cancelled due to low ratings, but soon established a strong following in syndication that saw the show become much more popular than it had ever been in its original run. The original TV show became a franchise. Many different spin-offs of the original program have since been made, one of which, Star Trek: Enterprise, was a prequel with the original Enterprise starship (registered as NX-01).
In September 2006, a digitally remastered high definition version of Star Trek: The Original Series was released in broadcast syndication by CBS Paramount Domestic Television (now CBS Television Distribution). The remastered series includes new CGI visual effects (including new outer space shots with an updated Enterprise, alien planets and spaceships all rendered in CGI), updated visual effects (like the transporter beam and phaser shots) and matte backgrounds, some recomposed scenes with new actors digitally inserted in the background and the show's iconic opening theme re-recorded in digital stereo. In its remastered version, it has aired in syndication in both a standard 4:3 format (which it currently airs in on MeTV) and a high definition 16:9 format (which is the version used on Blu-ray releases of the series, in digital downloads from iTunes and in online streaming from Netflix).
The Original Series
The main characters from the original series were:
- William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
- Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock
- DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy
- James Doohan as Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery "Scotty" Scott
- George Takei as Lt. Hikaru Sulu
- Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov
- Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Nyota Uhura
Movies
The original series spawned six films, as well as a reboot.
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
- Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
- Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
William Shatner, James Doohan, and Walter Koenig would reprise their roles as Kirk, Scott, and Chekov in Star Trek: Generations (1994), the first movie to feature the cast from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Kelvin Timeline Films
- Star Trek (2009)
- Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
- Star Trek Beyond (2016)
- Star Trek XIV (TBA)
See also
Notable episodes from Star Trek: The Original Series:
| Episode name | Original air date |
(TOS) Season Number |
|---|---|---|
| Mudd's Women (TOS) | October 13, 1966 | 1 |
| The Enemy Within (TOS) | October 6, 1966 | 1 |
| Charlie X (TOS) | September 15, 1966 | 1 |
| Amok Time (TOS) | September 15,1967 | 2 |
| The Trouble With Tribbles (TOS) | December 29, 1967 | 2 |
| The Tholian Web (TOS) | November 15, 1968 | 3 |
| The Enterprise Incident (TOS) | September 27, 1968 | 3 |
