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99-797: Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry that follows the adventures of the starship USS  Enterprise  (NCC-1701) and its crew. It acquired the retronym of Star Trek: The Original Series ( TOS ) to distinguish the show within the media franchise that it began . The show is set in the Milky Way galaxy , c. 2266–2269. The ship and crew are led by Captain James T. Kirk ( William Shatner ), First Officer and Science Officer Spock ( Leonard Nimoy ), and Chief Medical Officer Leonard H. "Bones" McCoy ( DeForest Kelley ). Shatner's voice-over introduction during each episode's opening credits stated

198-443: A "quality audience" including "upper-income, better-educated males", however, and other NBC shows had lower overall ratings. Look! Look! It doesn't stop! They're lined up all the way down the street! —Norman Lunenfeld, NBC executive, on the mail trucks delivering Star Trek fans' letters The enthusiasm of Star Trek ' s viewers surprised NBC. The show was unusual in its serious discussion of contemporary societal issues in

297-407: A 24-hour period when the original program, one of the original episodes, wasn't being aired somewhere. — Chicago Tribune , 1987 Fans of the show became increasingly organized, gathering at conventions to trade merchandise, meet actors from the show, and watch screenings of old episodes. Such fans came to be known as " trekkies ", who were noted (and often ridiculed) for their extreme devotion to

396-634: A 40.6 share. The following week against new programming, however, the show fell to second (29.4 share) behind CBS. It ranked 33rd (out of 94 programs) over the next two weeks, then the following two episodes ranked 51st in the ratings. I am an avid fan of Star Trek , and would simply die if it was taken off the air. In my opinion it is the best show on television. —M.P., Oswego, New York, February 20, 1967 Frederik Pohl , editor of Galaxy Science Fiction , wrote in February 1967 of his amazement that Star Trek ' s "regular shows were just as good" as

495-465: A better day and hour, but was not successful. As a result of this and his own growing exhaustion, he chose to withdraw from the stress of the daily production of Star Trek , though he remained nominally in charge as its "executive producer". Roddenberry reduced his direct involvement in Star Trek before the start of the 1968–69 television season, and was replaced by Fred Freiberger as the producer of

594-528: A female superhero, wears traditional folkloric clothes and tries to save traditional elements of Dutch society against the factory owners. Italian TV shows include A come Andromeda (1972) which was a remake of 1962 BBC serial, A for Andromeda (from the novels of Hoyle and Elliott), Geminus (1968), Il segno del comando (1971), Gamma (1974) and La traccia verde (1975). French series are Highlander: The Series , French science-fiction/fantasy television series (both co-produced with Canada) and

693-571: A functional, and ergonomic bridge layout. The costume designer for Star Trek , Bill Theiss , created the look of the Starfleet uniforms for the Enterprise , the costumes for female guest stars, and for various aliens , including the Klingons , Vulcans , Romulans , Tellarites , Andorians , and Gideonites. Artist and sculptor Wah Chang , who had worked for Walt Disney Productions ,

792-525: A futuristic context, unlike Lost in Space , which was more campy in nature. The network had already received 29,000 fan letters for the show during its first season, more than for any other except The Monkees . When rumors spread in late 1967 that Star Trek was at risk of cancellation, Roddenberry secretly began and funded an effort by Bjo Trimble , her husband John, and other fans to persuade tens of thousands of viewers to write letters of support to save

891-453: A group of Dutch space explorers and their adventures, De duivelsgrot (The devil's cave), broadcast from 1963 to 1964, about a scientist who finds the map of a cave that leads to the center of the Earth and Treinreis naar de Toekomst (Train journey to the future) about two young children who are taken to the future by robots who try to recreate humanity, but are unable to give the cloned humans

990-630: A man who becomes trapped in a telephone booth, while passersby seem unable to help him, won the 1973 International Emmy Award for Fiction. The series Plutón B.R.B. Nero (2008) was a brutal SF comedy by Álex de la Iglesia , in the line of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy , Red Dwarf , or Doctor Who , with 26 episodes of 35 minutes. Other series of the 2010s were Los protegidos (2010-2012), El barco (2011-2013), and El internado (2007-2010), all three inspired by North American productions, with minor SF elements. The latest success

1089-411: A new source of income for actors, who began to charge money for autographs that they had previously been doing for free. This became significant enough that lesser-known actors would come to conventions without requesting any appearance fee, simply to be allowed to sell their own autographs (commonly on publicity photos). Today most events with actor appearances are organized by commercial promoters, though

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1188-469: A number of fan-run conventions still exist, such as Toronto Trek and Shore Leave . The 1985 series Robotech is most often credited as the catalyst for the Western interest in anime. The series inspired a few fanzines such as Protoculture Addicts and Animag both of which in turn promoted interest in the wide world of anime in general. Anime's first notable appearance at SF or comic book conventions

1287-428: A number of smaller fiction/fantasy television series, including Tang in 1971, about a secret organization that attempts to control the world with a new super weapon, "Les atomistes" and 1970 miniseries "La brigade des maléfices". Another French-produced science fiction series was the new age animated series Il était une fois... l'espace (English: Once upon a time...space ). Anime-influenced animation includes

1386-487: A protesting viewer: You Star Trek fans have fought the "good fight", but the show has been cancelled and there's nothing to be done now. In 2011, the decision to cancel Star Trek by NBC was ranked number four on the TV Guide Network special, 25 Biggest TV Blunders 2 . Surprisingly, one show no longer programmed by a network but syndicated to local television stations ( Star Trek ) sometimes appeared among

1485-634: A science fiction television series based upon Zoran Živković's story, winner of a World Fantasy Award . Návštěvníci (The Visitors) was a Czechoslovak (and Federal German, Swiss and French) TV series produced in 1981 to 1983. The family show aired in a larger number of European countries. For a list of notable science fiction series and programs on television, see: List of science fiction television programs . People who have influenced science fiction on television include: [REDACTED] Media related to Science fiction television programmes at Wikimedia Commons Robert April Robert April

1584-449: A second pilot, using the script called " Where No Man Has Gone Before ". Only the character of Spock , played by Leonard Nimoy , was retained from the first pilot, and only two cast members, Majel Barrett and Nimoy, were carried forward into the series. This second pilot proved to be satisfactory to NBC, and the network selected Star Trek to be in its upcoming television schedule for the fall of 1966. The second pilot introduced most of

1683-425: A second run from December 28, 1998, to March 24, 1999, but not all the episodes were broadcast because the show was abruptly canceled before completion. Science fiction on television The need to portray imaginary settings or characters with properties and abilities beyond the reach of current reality obliges producers to make extensive use of specialized techniques of television production. Through most of

1782-407: A sense, virtually all animated series allow characters and objects to perform in unrealistic ways, so they are almost all considered to fit within the broadest category of speculative fiction (in the context of awards, criticism, marketing, etc.) The artistic affinity of animation to comic books has led to a large amount of superhero -themed animation, much of this adapted from comics series, while

1881-400: A series of French-Japanese cartoons / anime , including such titles as Ulysses 31 (1981), The Mysterious Cities of Gold (1982), and Ōban Star-Racers (2006). The first Spanish SF series was Diego Valor , a 22 episode TV adaption of a radio show hero of the same name based on Dan Dare , aired weekly between 1958 and 1959. Nothing was survived of this series, not a single still; it

1980-436: A short treatment for a science-fiction television series that he called Star Trek . This was to be set on board a large starship named S.S. Yorktown in the 23rd century bearing a crew dedicated to exploring the Milky Way galaxy . Roddenberry noted a number of influences on his idea, some of which includes A. E. van Vogt 's tales of the spaceship Space Beagle , Eric Frank Russell 's Marathon series of stories, and

2079-462: A soul. All three of these television series were aimed mostly at children. Later television series were Professor Vreemdeling (1977) about a strange professor who wants to make plants speak and Zeeuws Meisje  [ nl ] (1997) a nationalistic post-apocalyptic series where the Netherlands has been built full of housing and the highways are filled with traffic jams. The protagonist,

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2178-469: A wide array of software. Models have been an essential tool in science fiction television since the beginning, when Buck Rogers took flight in spark-scattering spaceships wheeling across a matte backdrop sky. The original Star Trek required a staggering array of models; the USS Enterprise had to be built in several different scales for different needs. Models fell out of use in filming in

2277-505: Is El ministerio del tiempo ( The ministry of time ), premiered on February 24, 2015 on TVE 's main channel La 1 . The series follows the exploits of a patrol of the fictional Ministry of Time, which deals with incidents caused by time travel. It has garnered several national prizes in 2015, like the Ondas Prize , and has a thick following on-line, called los ministéricos . Serbia produced The Collector ( Sakupljač ),

2376-517: Is "mythic" by virtue of being the first captain of the Enterprise . In "The Counter-Clock Incident", the Enterprise crew begins to rapidly age in reverse. The old age of Commodore April and his wife Sarah (voiced by Nichelle Nichols ) affords them more time at maturity, allowing them to save the crew and undo the reverse aging process. In the pilot episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , April (now an Admiral) orders Captain Pike, in command of

2475-647: Is a fictional character in the Star Trek media franchise. April was the USS Enterprise 's first commanding officer, preceding Captain Christopher Pike . The character first appeared in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode " The Counter-Clock Incident " (1974), in which he is voiced by James Doohan . April's first live-action appearance was in the pilot episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022), in which he

2574-438: Is not known if the show was even recorded or just a live broadcast. The 60s were dominated by Chicho Ibáñez Serrador and Narciso Ibáñez Menta , who adapted SF works from Golden Age authors and others to a series titled Mañana puede ser verdad . Only 11 episodes were filmed. The 70s saw three important television films, Los pajaritos (1974), La Gioconda está triste (1977), and La cabina (1972), this last one, about

2673-455: Is portrayed by Adrian Holmes . Lloyd Bridges was offered a starring role on what became Star Trek . Bridges declined, saying he got along well with Roddenberry on a personal level but had no desire to work in science fiction. In April 1964, Roddenberry presented the Star Trek draft to Desilu Productions, a leading independent television production company. He met with Herbert F. Solow , Desilu's director of production. Solow saw promise in

2772-494: Is portrayed by Adrian Holmes . A prison chaplain named "Robert April" appears in two episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel (1957–63), for which Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry wrote. The name stuck with Roddenberry, and "Robert M. April" commanded the starship Yorktown in his 1964 Star Trek proposal to CBS. The captain's name was changed to "Christopher Pike" when NBC accepted the Star Trek project later that year. Fred Bronson (writing as John Culver) came up with

2871-485: Is why in the third season you saw fewer outdoor location shots, for example. Top writers, top guest stars, top anything you needed was harder to come by. Thus, Star Trek's demise became a self-fulfilling prophecy. And I can assure you, that is exactly as it was meant to be. The last day of filming for Star Trek was January 9, 1969, and after 79 episodes NBC canceled the show in February despite fans' attempt at another letter-writing campaign. One newspaper columnist advised

2970-512: The Asgard characters are puppets in scenes where they are sitting, standing, or lying down. In Mystery Science Theater 3000 , the characters of Crow T. Robot and Tom Servo , two of the show's main (and most iconic) characters, are puppets constructed from random household items. As animation is completely free of the constraints of gravity, momentum, and physical reality, it is an ideal technique for science fiction and fantasy on television. In

3069-527: The Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Later series made in the 1960s included The Interpretaris (1966) Vega 4 (1967), and Phoenix Five (1970). The country's best known Science Fiction series was Farscape ; an American co-production, it ran from 1999 to 2003. A significant proportion of Australian produced Science Fiction programmes are made for the teens/young Adults market, including The Girl from Tomorrow ,

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3168-498: The Enterprise , on a rescue mission. Although Pike violates General Order 1 on the mission, April uses his influence with Starfleet Command to keep Pike from being charged. April is listed as one of Starfleet's most decorated officers in the Star Trek: Discovery episode "Choose Your Pain" (2017), along with Jonathan Archer , Matthew Decker (" The Doomsday Machine "), Philippa Georgiou , and Christopher Pike . In

3267-740: The Gorn and the Horta . NBC ordered 16 episodes of Star Trek , besides "Where No Man Has Gone Before". The first regular episode of Star Trek , " The Man Trap ", aired on Thursday, September 8, 1966, from 8:30 to 9:30 as part of an NBC "sneak preview" block. Reviews were mixed; while The Philadelphia Inquirer and San Francisco Chronicle liked the new show, The New York Times and The Boston Globe were less favorable, and Variety predicted that it "won't work", calling it "an incredible and dreary mess of confusion and complexities". Debuting against mostly reruns, Star Trek easily won its time slot with

3366-729: The Super Robots such as Mitsuteru Yokoyama 's Tetsujin 28-go ( Gigantor ) and Go Nagai 's Mazinger Z , and the Real Robots such as Yoshiyuki Tomino 's Gundam series and Shōji Kawamori 's Macross series. Other primary aspects of Japanese science fiction television are the superhero tokusatsu (a term literally meaning special effects ) series, pioneered by programs such as Moonlight Mask and Planet Prince . The suitmation technique has been used in long running franchises include Eiji Tsuburaya 's Ultra Series , Shotaro Ishinomori 's Kamen Rider Series , and

3465-619: The Super Sentai Series. In addition, several dramas utilize science fiction elements as framing devices, but are not labeled as "tokusatsu" as they do not utilize actors in full body suits and other special effects. Among the notable German language productions are: Danish television broadcast the children's TV-series Crash in 1984 about a boy who finds out that his room is a space ship. Early Dutch television series were Morgen gebeurt het  [ nl ] (Tomorrow it will happen), broadcast from 1957 to 1959, about

3564-475: The " stardate " concept. Desilu Productions had a first-look deal with CBS . Oscar Katz, Desilu's Vice President of Production, went with Roddenberry to pitch the series to the network. They refused to purchase the show, as they already had a similar program in development, the 1965 Irwin Allen series Lost in Space . In May 1964, Solow, who had previously worked at NBC , met with Grant Tinker , then head of

3663-767: The 116,000 figure. Newspaper columnists encouraged readers to write letters to help save what one called "the best science-fiction show on the air". More than 200 Caltech students marched to NBC's Burbank, California studio to support Star Trek in January 1968, carrying signs such as " Draft Spock" and " Vulcan Power ". Berkeley and MIT students organized similar protests in San Francisco and New York City. The letters supporting Star Trek , whose authors included New York State Governor Nelson Rockefeller , were different in both quantity and quality from most mail that television networks receive: The show, according to

3762-594: The 1950s". Doctor Who , which launched in 1963 and ran until 1989, then was revived in 2005, was listed in the Guinness World Records in 2006 as the longest-running science fiction television show in the world and as the "most successful" science fiction series of all time. Other cult British series in the science fiction genre include The Tomorrow People , Space: 1999 , Blake's 7 , Star Cops and Red Dwarf . Science fiction in Canada

3861-420: The 1970s, achieving cult classic status and a developing influence on popular culture . Star Trek eventually spawned a media franchise consisting of 11 television series, 13 feature films, and numerous books, games, and toys, and is now widely considered one of the most popular and influential television series of all time. On March 11, 1964, Gene Roddenberry , a long-time fan of science fiction , drafted

3960-453: The 1970s. No other show attracted a large organized following until the 1990s, when Babylon 5 attracted both Star Trek fans and a large number of literary SF fans who previously had not been involved in media fandom. Other series began to attract a growing number of followers. The British series, Doctor Who , has similarly attracted a devoted following. In the late 1990s, a market for celebrity autographs emerged on eBay , which created

4059-472: The 1990s as CGI became more affordable and practical, but even today, designers sometimes construct scale models which are then digitized for use in animation software. Models of characters are puppets . Gerry Anderson created a series of shows using puppets living in a universe of models and miniature sets, notably Thunderbirds . ALF depicted an alien living in a family, while Farscape included two puppets as regular characters. In Stargate SG-1 ,

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4158-418: The 20th century, many of these techniques were expensive and involved a small number of dedicated craft practitioners, while the reusability of props, models, effects, or animation techniques made it easier to keep using them. The combination of high initial cost and lower maintenance cost pushed producers into building these techniques into the basic concept of a series, influencing all the artistic choices. By

4257-402: The 6,000 letters it draws a week (more than any other in television), is watched by scientists, museum curators, psychiatrists, doctors, university professors, and other highbrows. The Smithsonian Institution asked for a print of the show for its archives, the only show so honored. In addition: Much of the mail came from doctors, scientists, teachers, and other professional people, and was for

4356-539: The Old West that had been popular television fare in the 1950s and 1960s. Armed with this background, he characterized the new show in his first draft as " Wagon Train to the stars". Like the familiar Wagon Train , each episode was to be a self-contained adventure story, set within the structure of a continuing voyage through space. In Roddenberry's original concept, the protagonist was Captain Robert April of

4455-465: The campaign cost the network millions of dollars—but instead caused fans to send letters of thanks in similar numbers. NBC at first planned to move Star Trek to Mondays for the show's third season, likely in hopes of increasing its audience after the enormous letter campaign that surprised the network. In March 1968; however, NBC instead moved the show to 10:00 pm Friday night , an hour undesirable for its younger audience, so as not to conflict with

4554-470: The competing CBS programs (number-three Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. and the first half-hour of the number-12 CBS Friday Night Movie ) were in the top 15 in the Nielsen ratings. Again, demographics helped Star Trek survive. Contrary to popular belief among its fans, the show did not have a larger audience of young viewers than its competition while on NBC. The network's research did indicate that Star Trek had

4653-541: The development of the Massive software application permits producers to include hordes of non-human characters to storm a city or space station. The robotic Cylons in the new version of Battlestar Galactica are usually animated characters, while the Asgard in Stargate SG-1 are animated when they are shown walking around or more than one is on screen at once. In general, science fiction series are subject to

4752-533: The domestic television market, most Canadian productions involve partnerships with production studios based in the United States and Europe. However, in recent years, new partnership arrangements are allowing Canadian investors a growing share of control of projects produced in Canada and elsewhere. Australia's first locally produced Science Fiction series was The Stranger (1964–65) produced and screened by

4851-559: The earliest forms of media fandom was Star Trek fandom . Fans of the series became known to each other through the science fiction fandom . In 1968, NBC decided to cancel Star Trek . Bjo Trimble wrote letters to contacts in the National Fantasy Fan Foundation, asking people to organize their local friends to write to the network to demand the show remain on the air. Network executives were overwhelmed by an unprecedented wave of correspondence, and they kept

4950-414: The early 1960s, however, and by 1967, it and other networks increasingly considered such data when making decisions; for example, CBS temporarily canceled Gunsmoke that year because it had too many older and too few younger viewers. Although Roddenberry later claimed that NBC was unaware of Star Trek ' s favorable demographics, awareness of Star Trek ' s "quality" audience is what likely caused

5049-517: The early episodes that won an award at Tricon in September. Believing that the show would soon be canceled because of low ratings, he lamented that it "made the mistake of appealing to a comparatively literate group", and urged readers to write letters to help save the show. Star Trek ' s first-season ratings would in earlier years likely have caused NBC to cancel the show. The network had pioneered research into viewers' demographic profiles in

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5148-404: The effects of various rayguns , squibs of blood and gruesome prosthetics to simulate the monsters and victims in horror series, and the wire-flying entrances and exits of George Reeves as Superman . The broad term "special effects" includes all the techniques here, but more commonly there are two categories of effects. Visual effects ("VFX") involve photographic or digital manipulation of

5247-507: The episodes for similar counterprogramming. Through syndication, Star Trek found a larger audience than it had on NBC, becoming a cult classic. Airing the show in the late afternoon or early evening attracted many new viewers, often young. By 1970, Paramount's trade advertisements claimed that the show had significantly improved its stations' ratings, and the Los Angeles Times commented on Star Trek ' s ability to "acquire

5346-703: The film Forbidden Planet (1956). Some have also drawn parallels with the television series Rocky Jones, Space Ranger (1954), a space opera that included many of the elements integral to Star Trek —the organization, crew relationships, missions, part of the bridge layout, and some technology. Roddenberry also drew heavily from C. S. Forester 's Horatio Hornblower novels that depict a daring sea captain who exercises broad discretionary authority on distant sea missions of noble purpose. He often humorously referred to Captain Kirk as "Horatio Hornblower in Space". Roddenberry had extensive experience in writing for series about

5445-456: The first decade of the 21st century, changes in provincial tax legislation prompted many production companies to move from Toronto to Vancouver . Recent popular series produced in Vancouver include The Dead Zone , Smallville , Andromeda , Stargate Atlantis , Stargate Universe , The 4400 , Sanctuary and the reimagined Battlestar Galactica . Because of the small size of

5544-639: The first season for its stations in several large cities. The company arranged the unusual deal because it saw the show as effective counterprogramming against the Big Three networks ' 6 pm evening news programs. Paramount began advertising the reruns in trade press in March 1969; as Kaiser's ratings were good, other stations, such as WPIX in New York City and WKBS in Philadelphia, also purchased

5643-435: The first season, and he remained for the rest of the series, achieving billing as the third star of the series. Also joining the ship's permanent crew during the first season were the communications officer, Lt. Nyota Uhura ( Nichelle Nichols ), the first African-American woman to hold such an important role in an American television series; the captain's yeoman , Janice Rand ( Grace Lee Whitney ), who departed midway through

5742-480: The first season; and Christine Chapel (Majel Barrett), the ship's nurse and assistant to McCoy. Walter Koenig joined the cast as Ensign Pavel Chekov in the series' second season. In February 1966, before the first episode was aired, Star Trek was nearly canceled by Desilu Productions. Desilu had gone from making just one half-hour show ( The Lucy Show ) to deficit-financing a portion of two expensive hour-long shows, Mission: Impossible and Star Trek . Solow

5841-450: The highly successful Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In on Monday evenings, from whose time slot Laugh-In producer George Schlatter had angrily demanded it not be rescheduled. In addition to the undesirable time slot, Star Trek was now being seen on only 181 of NBC's 210 affiliates. Roddenberry was frustrated, and complained, "If the network wants to kill us, it couldn't make a better move." He attempted to persuade NBC to give Star Trek

5940-408: The idea and signed a three-year program-development contract with Roddenberry. Lucille Ball , head of Desilu, was not familiar with the nature of the project, but she was instrumental in getting the pilot produced. The concept was extensively revised and fleshed out during this time—" The Cage " pilot filmed in late 1964 differs in many respects from the March 1964 treatment. Solow, for example, added

6039-405: The idea of the Enterprise having a captain who preceded Pike for "The Counter-Clock Incident". He selected the name "Robert April" from Roddenberry's original list of possible Enterprise captain names. During the development of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , Adrian Holmes submitted two taped auditions for the role. Producer Henry Alonso Myers said Holmes had the gravitas to play April, who

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6138-516: The impossible characters and settings allowed in animation made this a preferred medium for both fantasy and for series aimed at young audiences. Originally, animation was all hand-drawn by artists, though in the 1980s, beginning with Captain Power , computers began to automate the task of creating repeated images; by the 1990s, hand-drawn animation became defunct. In recent years as technology has improved, this has become more common, notably since

6237-449: The late 1990s, improved technology and more training and cross-training within the industry made all of these techniques easier to use, so that directors of individual episodes could make decisions to use one or more methods, so such artistic choices no longer needed to be baked into the series concept. Special effects (or "SPFX") have been an essential tool throughout the history of science fiction on television: small explosives to simulate

6336-505: The long-running Mr. Squiggle , Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left , Ocean Girl , Crash Zone , Watch This Space and Spellbinder . Other series like Time Trax , Roar , and Space: Above and Beyond were filmed in Australia, but used mostly US crew and actors. Japan has a long history of producing science fiction series for television. Some of the most famous are anime such as Osamu Tezuka 's Astro Boy ,

6435-413: The majority of science fiction media fandom has been represented by males of all ages and for most of its modern existence, a fairly diverse racial demographic. The most highly publicized demographic for science fiction fans is the male adolescent; roughly the same demographic for American comic books . Female fans, while always present, were far fewer in number and less conspicuously present in fandom. With

6534-477: The most enviable ratings in the syndication field". By 1972, what the Associated Press described as "the show that won't die" aired in more than 100 American cities and 60 other countries; and more than 3,000 fans attended the first Star Trek convention in New York City in January 1972. Since that dark day in 1969 when NBC brought the programming hammer down on Star Trek , there probably hasn't been

6633-432: The most part literate–and written on good stationery. And if there is anything a network wants almost as much as a high Nielsen ratings, it is the prestige of a show that appeals to the upper middle class and high-brow audiences. And now an announcement of interest to all viewers of Star Trek . We are pleased to tell you that Star Trek will continue to be seen on NBC Television. We know you will be looking forward to seeing

6732-514: The most popular syndicated series; by 1987, Paramount made $ 1 million from each episode; and by 1994, the reruns still aired in 94% of the United States. From September 1 to December 24, 1998, the Sci-Fi Channel broadcast a "Special Edition" of all the original series episodes in an expanded 90-minute format hosted by William Shatner. Now titled Star Trek: The Original Series , these broadcasts restored scenes that had been edited out of

6831-478: The network to retain the show after the first and second seasons. NBC instead decided to order 10 more new episodes for the first season, and order a second season in March 1967. The network originally announced that the show would air at 7:30–8:30 pm Tuesday, but it was instead given an 8:30–9:30 pm Friday slot when the 1967–68 NBC schedule was released, making it less appealing to young adult viewers. Star Trek ' s ratings continued to decline during

6930-456: The network's West Coast programming department. Tinker commissioned the first pilot—which became "The Cage". NBC turned down the resulting pilot, stating that it was "too cerebral". However, the NBC executives were still impressed with the concept, and they understood that its perceived faults had been partly due to the script that they had selected themselves. NBC made the unusual decision to pay for

7029-536: The onscreen image, usually done in post-production . Mechanical or physical effects involve props, pyrotechnics, and other physical methods used during principal photography itself. Some effects involved a combination of techniques; a ray gun might require a pyrotechnic during filming, and then an optical glowing line added to the film image in post-production. Stunts are another important category of physical effects. In general, all kinds of special effects must be carefully planned during pre-production . Babylon 5

7128-421: The other main characters : Captain Kirk ( William Shatner ), Chief Engineer Lt. Commander Scott ( James Doohan ) and Lt. Sulu ( George Takei ), who served as a physicist on the ship in the second pilot, but subsequently became a helmsman throughout the rest of the series. Paul Fix played Dr. Mark Piper in the second pilot; ship's doctor Leonard McCoy ( DeForest Kelley ) joined the cast when filming began for

7227-404: The photo-collage depiction of April for The Star Trek Encyclopedia , also commended Holmes's casting. Keith DeCandido said outcry over casting a dark-skinned actor as April, having been previously depicted with light skin in animation and print, "has served as a nice way of revealing the racists among Trek fans". Screen Rant said April's re-envisioning "does not disappoint" and is "part of

7326-456: The program. Using the 4,000 names on a mailing list for a science-fiction convention, the Trimbles asked fans to write to NBC and ask 10 others to also do so. NBC received almost 116,000 letters for the show between December 1967 and March 1968, including more than 52,000 in February alone; according to an NBC executive, the network received more than one million pieces of mail but only disclosed

7425-404: The rising popularity of fanfiction , a large majority of which is categorized as slash fanfiction . Female fans comprise the majority of fanfiction writers. U.S. television science fiction has produced Lost In Space , Star Trek , The Twilight Zone , and The X-Files , among others. British television science fiction began in 1938 when the broadcast medium was in its infancy with

7524-424: The rising popularity of fanzines, female fans became increasingly vocal. Starting in the 2000s (decade), genre series began to offer more prominent female characters. Many series featured women as the main characters with males as supporting characters. True Blood is an example. Also, such shows premises moved away from heroic action-adventure and focused more on characters and their relationships. This has caused

7623-403: The same financial constraints as other television shows. However, high production costs increase the financial risk, while limited audiences further complicate the business case for continuing production. Star Trek was the first television series to cost more than $ 100,000 per episode, while Star Trek: The Next Generation was the first to cost more than $ 1 million per episode. One of

7722-411: The second season's "Brother" (2019), Pike states that he was April's first officer aboard the Enterprise . April appears in the novels Final Frontier (1988) and Best Destiny (1992) by Diane Carey as the captain of the Enterprise . Carey's version of April comes from Coventry , and he wears cardigan sweaters over his uniform due to a blood disorder that causes him to feel slightly chilly most of

7821-469: The second season. Although Shatner expected the show to end after two seasons and began to prepare for other projects, NBC nonetheless may have never seriously considered canceling the show. As early as January 1968, the Associated Press reported that Star Trek ' s chances for renewal for a third season were "excellent". The show had better ratings for NBC than ABC's competing Hondo , and

7920-399: The show and their encyclopedic knowledge of every episode. Because fans enjoyed re-watching each episode many times, prices for Star Trek rose over time, instead of falling like other syndicated reruns. People magazine commented in 1977 that the show "threatens to rerun until the universe crawls back into its little black hole". By 1986, 17 years after entering syndication, Star Trek was

8019-487: The show on the air. Although the series continued to receive low ratings and was canceled a year later, the enduring popularity of the series resulted in Paramount creating a set of movies, and then a new series Star Trek: The Next Generation , which by the early 1990s had become one of the most popular dramas on American television. Star Trek fans continued to grow in number, and first began organizing conventions in

8118-561: The starship Enterprise and most of its interiors. His contributions to the series were honored in the name of the " Jefferies tube ", an equipment shaft depicted in various Star Trek series. In addition to working with his brother, John Jefferies, to create the hand-held phaser weapons of Star Trek , Jefferies also developed the set design for the bridge of the Enterprise (which was based on an earlier design by Pato Guzman ). Jefferies used his practical experience as an airman during World War II and his knowledge of aircraft design to devise

8217-628: The starship S.S. Yorktown . This character was developed into Captain Christopher Pike , first portrayed by Jeffrey Hunter . April is listed in the Star Trek Chronology , The Star Trek Encyclopedia , and at startrek.com as the Enterprise ' s first commanding officer, preceding Captain Pike. The character's only television/movie appearance was in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode " The Counter-Clock Incident ", until Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , where he

8316-494: The starship's purpose: Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise . Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before. Norway Productions and Desilu Productions produced the series from September 1966 to December 1967. Paramount Television produced the show from January 1968 to June 1969. Star Trek aired on NBC from September 8, 1966, to June 3, 1969. It

8415-513: The syndicated episodes. In addition to introductory and post-episode commentary by Shatner, the episodes included interviews with members of the regular production team and cast, writers, guest stars, and critics (titled as " Star Trek Insights"). The episodes were broadcast in the original broadcast sequence, followed by "The Cage", to which a full 105-minute segment was devoted. (For details on each episode's original airdate, see List of Star Trek: The Original Series episodes .) Leonard Nimoy hosted

8514-424: The television series. Arthur H. Singer served as story editor. NBC next reduced Star Trek's budget from $ 185,000 per episode in season 2 (it was $ 190,000 per episode in season 1) to $ 175,000 per episode in season 3 (as the per-minute commercial price had dropped from $ 39,000 to $ 36,000 compared to the season-two time slot). This caused what some perceive as a decline in quality for the 1968–69 season, although there

8613-689: The time. Lacking a "live action" image of April, designer and author Michael Okuda created a collage of Roddenberry's head on William Shatner 's body to illustrate April in The Star Trek Encyclopedia (1994). April is militaristic in the Star Trek: Early Voyages comics (1997–1998), and another timeline's version of April appears in a comic prologue to Star Trek Into Darkness , "Countdown to Darkness" (2013). Timothy Donohoo, writing for CBR.com, said Robert April "had elements of both Kirk and Pike", noting that he

8712-465: The top-five favorites in areas where the show is carried. —"Students rate television", 1971 Although some of the third season's episodes were considered of poorer quality, it gave Star Trek enough episodes for television syndication . Most shows require at least four seasons for syndication, because otherwise not enough episodes are available for daily stripping . Kaiser Broadcasting , however, purchased syndication rights for Star Trek during

8811-503: The transmission of a partial adaptation of Karel Čapek 's play R.U.R. . Despite an occasionally chequered history, programmes in the genre have been produced by both the BBC and the largest commercial channel, ITV . Nigel Kneale 's The Quatermass Experiment (1953) and its sequels have been called "one of BBC Television's earliest audience successes" and Kneale became "one of the most influential television and film writers to emerge in

8910-446: The type of filming that could be done, such as outdoor work, with only one episode, "The Paradise Syndrome", shot largely outdoors. Nichelle Nichols described the budget-cutting during the final year as an intentional effort to kill off Star Trek : While NBC paid lip service to expanding Star Trek 's audience, it [now] slashed our production budget until it was actually 10% lower than it had been in our first season   ... This

9009-401: The weekly adventure in space on Star Trek . —NBC announcer, March 1, 1968 NBC—which used such anecdotes in much of its publicity for the show—made the unusual decision to announce on television, after the episode " The Omega Glory " on March 1, 1968, that the series had been renewed. The announcement implied a request to stop writing—NBC's policy of replying to each viewer mail meant that

9108-431: Was a trade off in some lower production costs since the special effects technology had improved over time. By season 3 William Shatner felt that the main characters had become more compromised or exaggerated and the story lines more improbable. Leonard Nimoy felt that financial concerns dominated. Associate Producer Bob Justman, who left during the third season, said budget cuts caused the crew to become necessarily limited in

9207-507: Was able to convince Lucille Ball that both shows should continue. Once the series had been picked up by NBC, the production moved to what was then Desilu Productions' Gower Street location. It had previously been the main studio complex used by RKO Pictures and is now part of the Paramount Pictures lot. The series used what are now stages 31 and 32. The show's production staff included art director Matt Jefferies , who designed

9306-582: Was first broadcast on September 6, 1966, on Canada's CTV network. While on NBC, Star Trek ' s Nielsen ratings were low and the network canceled it after three seasons and 79 episodes. In the United Kingdom the series was not broadcast until July 12, 1969, coinciding with the Apollo 11 mission to land the first humans on the Moon. Through broadcast syndication it became an international success in

9405-485: Was heroic but also faced with self-doubt about his leadership. He said the character concept was "revolutionary in many ways" because "the idea of the hero doubting himself and questioning his own actions" was rare in that era's movie and television scripts. "The Counter-Clock Incident" writer Fred Bronson thanked Adrian Holmes for "bring[ing April] to life" in Strange New Worlds . Michael Okuda, who created

9504-434: Was hired to design and manufacture props: he created the flip-open communicator, often credited as having influenced the configuration of the portable version of the cellular telephone . Chang also designed the portable sensing-recording-computing "tricorder" device, and various fictitious devices for the starship's engineering crew and its sick bay. As the series progressed, he helped to create various memorable aliens, such as

9603-588: Was in the form of video showings of popular anime, untranslated and often low quality VHS bootlegs. Starting in the 1990s, anime fans began organizing conventions. These quickly grew to sizes much larger than other science fiction and media conventions in the same communities; many cities now have anime conventions attracting five to ten thousand attendees. Many anime conventions are a hybrid between non-profit and commercial events, with volunteer organizers handling large revenue streams and dealing with commercial suppliers and professional marketing campaigns. For decades,

9702-611: Was produced by the CBC as early as the 1950s. In the 1970s, CTV produced The Starlost . In the 1980s, Canadian animation studios including Nelvana , began producing a growing proportion of the world market in animation. In the 1990s, Canada became an important player in live action speculative fiction on television, with dozens of series like Forever Knight , Robocop , and most notably The X-Files and Stargate SG-1 . Many series have been produced for youth and children's markets, including Deepwater Black and MythQuest . In

9801-401: Was the first series to use computer-generated imagery , or "CGI", for all exterior space scenes, even those with characters in space suits. The technology has made this more practical, so that today models are rarely used. In the 1990s, CGI required expensive processors and customized applications, but by the 2000s (decade), computing power has pushed capabilities down to personal laptops running

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