Star Trek has been around for most of eternity, it seems. Everyone and their dog knows who Captain Kirk is, can at least attempt a Vulcan Mind Meld, and speak fluent Klingon. The question isn't whether Star Trek has fans now. It's not even whether it'll have fans in a few years. The question is why has Star Trek survived so long. After all, the original show only lasted 3 seasons. In the world of TV, a three season run is nothing to sneer at, and most shows with that many episodes go into syndication.
But Star Trek, alone of all of them, not only refused to die by going into syndication, it grew. It took on a life of it's own, took over the world and spun off multiple other shows and movies. It has such a firm grip on the sci-fi community that it's original actors, men and women who have reached normal retirement age, are forced to keep reprising their role. Star Trek truly is The Show That Would Not Die.
And in this, we see the dramatic power of FANDOM!
That's right. Fans. The fans are the ones that kept star trek alive after it was canceled. The fans forced it to start growing again. The Fans grew up, and started writing new TV shows and movies. The Fans are it's life blood and life force. And as long as those fans exist, Star Trek will continue, vibrant, glowing and getting stronger every day.
Other TV shows, Movies and even authors of small square things known as books would do well to pay attention to this lesson. Fans are not only important, they're critical.
So for all of those Trekkies, we present some trivia. Most of these little bits of trivia are probably well known to the hard-core fans. But even a die-hard fan might find a few holes in their knowledge base. With that said, here we go:
In the Star Trek pilot, the Starship was named Yorktown.
Mark Lenard was the first actor to play a Vulcan, a Romulan, and a Klingon.
Walter Koenig, who played Checkov, also wrote the episode "The Infinite Vulcan,"
Gene Roddenberry modeled Star Trek after Swift's story, Gulliver's Travels, though he pitched it as "Wagon Train to the stars," because that was popular in Hollywood at the time.
Star Trek debuted in the United States on NBC on September 8, 1966.
Mr. Sulu's first name is Hikaru.
Filmation produced an animated Star Trek which ran for 2 seasons, from 1973 to 1974, but Gene Roddenberry was unhappy with it and forced Paramount to remove it from the Star Trek cannon.
Everyone knows that the T. in James T. Kirk stands for Tiberius, but did you know that it wasn't official until Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country?
Some great resources for anyone that enjoys Star Trek are:
http://www.st-intelligence.com/
http://www.starshipmodeler.com/trek/trekship.htm
http://startrek.playmatestoys.com/
and some great Star Trke... er Trek bloopers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZAkGfJY05k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYt44fvt3Hk
3 comments:
Hello. Star Trek will probably never die, unless, like I said earlier, we (mankind) do something stupid in the realm of international political relationships or, even worse, nothing at all to stop the trashing of the planet Earth.
Perhaps the main driving force of Star Trek's durability is the hope the original show so long ago gave us (in a politically troubled time) that we will do the right thing. So far, so good.
For now I'm just looking forward to more of the ongoing missions of the Starship Enterprise.
I think Trek was successful because of the positive outlook. It wasn't a galaxy far, far way. It was us, humans, in the future. And I loved the cartoons.
That is it exactly... as it was said earlier....with Star Trek - each week the point was that things will get better! Good times were just around the corner so to speak! lol
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