HISTORY OF STAR TREK

	It was 30 years ago today
	Roddenberry taught the band to play
	They've been going in and out of style
	But they're guaranteed to raise a smile...

It was 30 years ago today that cameras began to roll for the first time
on Star Trek.  It was the first pilot, on December 12, 1964, that began
at the Desilu Studios.  The pilot, "The Cage" starring Jeffrey Hunter
as Captain Pike was seen 2 years later inside a later, 2-part episode
called "Menagerie".  The pilot also featured a female "Number One" and an
excitable pointed-ear "Martian" named Mr. Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy.

The NBC executives asked for some changes and called for a second pilot.
This second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", starred William
Shatner as Captain Kirk.  The network said, "Get rid of the woman and
the guy with the pointed ears".  So he married the woman, Majel Barret,
and kept the guy with the pointed ears.  Leonard Nimoy would not have
had it the other way around.  The woman dyed her hair blond and waited in
her husband's reception office so that when he walked in even he didn't
recognize her.  She became Nurse Chappel.  The guy with the pointed ears,
this "Martian", became less emotional, more logical, and Vulcan green
rather than Martian red (which wouldn't photograph correctly).

The series lasted for 3 of the "5 year mission" of the Starship
Enterprise, a victim of poor ratings.  Ironically, the following year,
demographics were used and it was discovered that Star Trek was appealing
to exactly the kind of audience that advertisers wanted!

The show remained incredibly popular in syndication, spawning 19 years
later another TV series, "Star Trek: The Next Generation", and later
"ST: Deep Space Nine".  Another series, "ST: Voyager" is expected next
month.

There are Trekkies, Trekkers, and Trek junkies.  I belong to the later.
I remember watching the previews in the summer of 1966, "A starship the
size of a city!"  I've personally seen or met all of the cast of 
"Star Trek Classic", and half of the cast of "Star Trek: The Pepsi Generation".

I've always been there the first day of the movie premiers.  On December
7, 1979, a day that will live in infamy, the first full length movie
opened, "Star Trek: The Motionless Picture".  Despite a plodding plot,
the movie did amazing well, and led to 6 more films.  The second, "Star
Trek II" The Wrath of Kahn" was considered the best by the faithful,
featuring a return engagement of a popular opponent from Kirk's past.
When it was leaked that Spock would die, a futile boycott was called.
A hasty tag-on was filmed an put on the end of the movie.  (Trivia
Question: what was written on the photon torpedo tube casket, and why
is it significant?  I stumped 'em at the Star Trek Convention in San
Francisco with this one :-)

This movie was followed by the Leonard Nimoy directed "ST III: the
Search for Spock", which was followed by "ST IV: Still Looking for Spock".
Just kidding.  "ST IV: The Search For Whales", I mean, "The Voyage
Home", was considered the most generally popular and successful of
the movies, with plenty of jokes and a modern-day San Francisco as 
a back drop.

Now that Leonard Nimoy had directed his second film, William Shatner
wanted a turn.  "ST V: What a Mistake" came out, as his first and last
excursion.  The backdrop of Yosemite couldn't pull this one out of the
fire.  

"ST VI: Quoting Lines From Hamlet" was the last of the Classic-era
movies, and featured Kirk's last heard line as Captain of the
Enterprise, a line I've been waiting for him to say for years...
It's a line quoted by another fly-boy hero of mine:
"Second star to the right and straight on til morning."

The most recent movie is "Star Trek Generations" a mixture of the old
Classic-era generation and an extended Pepsi-Generation episode.  Here
we see the changing of the guard as Scotty, Checkov, and Kirk (Trivia
Question: who was the 4th Classic-era character featured?) inaugurate
the Enterprise NCC 1701-B.  At the same time, or rather some 70 or so
years later we see the Enterprise-D.  I won't say anything else about 
the movie, lest I spoil the plot, except to say that everyone dies 
in the end.  Perhaps I shouldn't have mentioned that little thing :-)

Seriously, it was an immensely satisfying movie (I was actually at the
sneak preview :-) with incredible special effects, heavier on the model
side than on computer graphics.  I cheered from nearly the end of the
credits to the end.  Go see it.

Bill Petro, rock@warp, my machine name says it all

P.S.  Mandatory Trivia Question:
	   The premier of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was 
	   "Encounter at Farpoint".  Farpoint is on Deneb IV, 
	   where have we heard that before?

      Answer:
     	   In the second pilot for the original Star Trek series,
           "Where No Man Has Gone Before", Gary Mitchell and Kirk spent a
           wild, memorable shore leave there.