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Star Trek

From 8 September 1966

Television and film — American science-fiction franchise created by Gene Roddenberry

An American science-fiction franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, who pitched it to studios as "Wagon Train to the stars". A first pilot, "The Cage", starring Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike, was rejected by NBC; a second, with William Shatner as James T. Kirk, was commissioned, and the series began with "The Man Trap" on 8 September 1966. It ran only three seasons before cancellation in 1969, but syndication turned it into a phenomenon, spawning a dozen further series and more than a dozen films.

How to spot them

▸Space: the final frontier — a five-year mission to boldly go where no man has gone before
▸A saucer and two warp nacelles, hull registry NCC-1701
▸The Prime Directive, General Order 1: no interference in the development of other civilisations
▸Vulcans, Klingons, phasers, transporters and 'Live long and prosper'

Key facts

Pitched to the networks as 'Wagon Train to the stars' (1964)

Gene Roddenberry's shorthand, borrowing the name of a popular Western series

A first pilot with Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike, rejected by NBC as too cerebral (1964)

'The Cage'; unusually, the network paid for a second pilot, and the footage was later reused in 'The Menagerie'

'The Man Trap', the first episode broadcast, on NBC on 8 September 1966 (1966)

It was the sixth episode produced; the series was cancelled after three seasons in 1969

A split-fingered salute Leonard Nimoy adapted from the Hebrew priestly blessing he saw as a boy in synagogue (1967)

The shape of the letter shin; it accompanies 'Live long and prosper'

'Plato's Stepchildren', 1968 — one of American television's first scripted interracial kisses (1968)

William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols; Martin Luther King Jr had earlier persuaded Nichols not to leave the show

Ricardo Montalbán returning in 1982 as a genetically engineered tyrant marooned fifteen years earlier (1982)

The Wrath of Khan, directed by Nicholas Meyer, widely rated the best of the films

A Yorkshireman playing a French captain from 1987, opening with 'where no one has gone before' (1987)

Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in The Next Generation, which ran to 1994

Kate Mulgrew's Captain Janeway, stranded 70,000 light years from home in 1995 (1995)

Voyager — the first series led by a female captain

Quick-fire facts

•Created by Gene Roddenberry; the first episode broadcast was 'The Man Trap' on 8 September 1966
•The rejected first pilot, 'The Cage', starred Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike
•The original series was cancelled after three seasons in 1969; a letter-writing campaign had won it its third
•The Vulcan salute was devised by Leonard Nimoy from the Hebrew priestly blessing
•Nichelle Nichols played Uhura and later recruited astronauts for NASA, among them Sally Ride and Mae Jemison
•The first Space Shuttle orbiter was named Enterprise in 1976 after a write-in campaign by fans
•The Next Generation (1987–94) starred Patrick Stewart; Deep Space Nine followed in 1993 and Voyager, with the first female lead captain, in 1995
•The Wrath of Khan (1982) is the second feature film; the first was The Motion Picture in 1979
•'Beam me up, Scotty' is never said in the original series
•Strange New Worlds, which returned for a fourth season in July 2026, and Starfleet Academy, which began on 15 January 2026, are the current television series

Drill it — 9 cards

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Sources

Variety — Star Trek: Starfleet Academy release date and Strange New Worlds season 4 Consulted for the current television series; cited without URL
Marc Cushman — These Are the Voyages: TOS