Sixty years ago today, at 8:30 PM EST on a Thursday, Star Trek: The Original Series (then known only as Star Trek) had its premiere on NBC. And it bowed not with the original pilot—where Jeffrey Hunter’s Captain Christopher Pike commanded the U.S.S. Enterprise—nor the second pilot—when William Shatner took over as Captain James T. Kirk—but with the Dr. McCoy-focused installment “The Man Trap” (the sixth ep in production order). NBC wanted an episode with a monster in it to lead off the show, and since Trek was not serialized and the intro established its premise pretty well, that worked out okay as the show’s premiere.
The network had rejected the original pilot “The Cage” because executives thought it was too intellectual, though they liked the basic premise and gave the green light for a second pilot (something that is rare on television). By that time, Jeffrey Hunter was no longer available, and William Shatner stepped into the lead role. Both of the pilots had more of a low-tech look to them, and viewers were likely somewhat confused when “Where No Man Has Gone Before” aired as the third installment of the series. But “The Cage” was later reworked into the two-part episode “The Menagerie,” and that could be seen as establishing that both took place on an Enterprise that was later refitted with more advanced tech (for the day).
The show would establish itself as an important genre entry on television, even though it fought off cancellation throughout its run, and now it stands as one of the greatest examples of sci-fi TV (more on that at this link).
It Helped the Perception of Sci Fi to Mature on Television
When television started to become a primary source of entertainment in the early 1950s, supplanting the previously dominant radio, most sci-fi TV shows were aimed at kids, particularly space operas such as Captain Video and His Video Rangers, Space Patrol, Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, and others of that ilk. There were genre anthologies such as Lights Out, Tales of Tomorrow, and Science Fiction Theatre that appealed to a broader audience, but throughout that decade, sci-fi on television was mostly considered kiddie fare.
In the 1959–60 season, things started to change, beginning with the CBS series Men Into Space. That took a much more serious approach to space exploration and was based on much of the science available at the time (you can read more about the series at this link). That same season and on the same network, Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone had its debut, and he used the sci-fi and fantasy elements of the series to get some poignant morality plays past the network censors (you can read more about that one at this link). Both of those shows had an appeal to a younger audience, but older viewers could appreciate the science from Men Into Space and the hard-hitting drama from The Twilight Zone, which helped the genre mature on television.
This would continue throughout the 1960s with other sci-fi and fantasy entries like Thriller, The Outer Limits, and The Invaders pushing the boundaries and seeking out an older audience. This would culminate with the premiere of Star Trek in the 1966–67 season, giving us one of the most thoroughly sci-fi genre entries from that era. It took its subject matter seriously and did not pander to a younger audience like Lost in Space over on CBS. But it could also have a sense of fun with more comedic episodes like “Shore Leave,” “A Piece of the Action,” and the all-time classic “The Trouble with Tribbles.” Trek had broad appeal with younger and older viewers, and it definitely helped advance the perception of the genre as more than just for kids.
It Proved That Sci-Fi TV Does Not Fit into the Standard TV Viewing Model
Star Trek faced cancellation throughout its three-season run, but the fact is that it performed reasonably well for its timeslot, at least through its first two years. But it was an expensive series to produce for the time and frequently went over budget, plus Gene Roddenberry was regularly butting heads with network execs at NBC. Ratings remained a problem, and the show’s move to the unfavorable Friday-night 10 PM slot for its third season certainly did not help.
During its first season, the show might have been cancelled except that NBC was among the networks paying increasing attention to the demographics of its viewers (age, income, education, etc.) and discovered that Trek attracted what advertisers considered a desirable audience (upper-income, well-educated, etc.). Its prestige and unusually devoted following also worked in its favor, and NBC decided to green-light a second season. That should have been an early indication that this show did not necessarily fit into the typical model of highest viewership proving success, but the network ultimately turned away from that. If executives had a crystal ball and could have seen how popular the show would become and how it would turn into a long-running franchise, perhaps they would have chosen differently, or perhaps not. Network execs are notoriously short-sighted. (You can read more about the cancellation at this link.)
But Star Trek proved that even though a show did not regularly rank among the most-watched primetime entries, it could have much greater staying power. When you look at some of the top-rated shows that aired in Trek’s final season, like Ironside, Mannix, and Here’s Lucy, they may have enjoyed extended encore runs in the years after they wrapped up, but nothing to the extent of the huge popularity Star Trek would experience when it hit syndication in the 1970s. That was the beginning of the show turning into a phenomenon and branching out into an extended franchise, something that the ratings numbers used to justify its cancellation never predicted.
And we would see the same pattern for years after that as the broadcast networks failed to learn the lesson Trek taught them and continued to rely heavily on the Nielsen numbers. Time and again they would cancel genre entries too quickly, only for those very shows to find an extended life in syndication and/or on home video. Battlestar: Galactica, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and Firefly are just a few examples of shows that would follow a similar path, even if they did not build into the franchise Star Trek would become.
It Offered Bold Stories That Challenged Common Perceptions
One of the complaints that I regularly hear about the newer Star Trek shows is that they are too “woke,” though the people leveling that criticism don’t really understand what it means. Typically, it relates to the various franchise entries bringing in LGBTQ+ themes or stories that are too “liberal” in a cultural setting where liberal ideas have been demonized, but really it is often just a blanket attack against the franchise’s attempts to push boundaries. And what these people don’t seem to realize is that Star Trek has been “woke” all the way back to the beginning, challenging beliefs that discriminate, dehumanize, and/or isolate groups of people, treating them as less than equal.
To start with, take the basic concept behind IDIC: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. That is central to Vulcan philosophy, and it means that diversity creates strength and beauty. Different people, cultures, ideas, experiences, and ways of thinking can come together in countless combinations, producing something greater than uniformity could. It emphasizes embracing differences and finding strength in unity, as well as accepting all people along with different beliefs in order to learn from them.
And this philosophy, which sure sounds very close to liberal ideals, contains that buzzword “diversity,” which has become somewhat of a pariah in the current culture wars. So I am not sure how those people screaming “woke” reconcile that with the IDIC philosophy at the heart of the original series. Watching the various franchise entries doesn’t necessarily mean you have to agree with them, but the fact is that those principles are core to many of the stories from the original series and beyond.
Take a look at just a couple of examples from TOS: the episodes “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” and “A Private Little War.” The former episode addresses racism head-on, and it would certainly be considered “woke” by many people today who want to deny the racism that has been quite evident against people of color or those of an undesirable ethnic origin throughout this country’s history. It challenged perceptions at a time when racism was still widespread, and sadly, sixty years later, many have once again embraced those dubious beliefs. “A Private Little War” offered an allegory of sorts on the Vietnam War at a time when criticizing the government’s actions in that country was quite controversial—again, something that we are experiencing these days. And yet one more thing to point out: “Plato’s Stepchildren” delivered one of television’s earliest and most famous interracial kisses between a black person and a white person, and the episode reportedly faced resistance in parts of the South.
Star Trek was challenging discrimination and division while championing diversity right from the beginning. And those who attack it as “woke” these days (and would have done the same when it started if that term had existed then) are at odds with the core principles of the franchise. Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations is an essential philosophy of the show, and embracing that is how we get to the brighter future Trek offers us.
Star Trek Still Lives on Today and Will Continue for Many More Years
As mentioned, the series found massive popularity once it hit syndication, and NBC learned that this was not just any cancelled show. The network first took advantage of that with the Saturday morning animated series that acted as a continuation of the original. Then there were talks of a movie, but Paramount was in control of the property after acquiring Desilu Studios. The movie plans shifted to a new series that would help launch a proposed fourth broadcast network, but then those shifted back to the big screen (and the new network never happened) after Star Wars proved a massive hit at the box office.
That would lead into a series of films and then the Star Trek spin-off shows The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise. After going on hiatus for a few years in the 2000s, the franchise would be revitalized by a big-screen reboot, followed by multiple TV shows that have run on the Paramount+ streaming service (originally called CBS All Access). The television franchise remains active today with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, though both of those will be wrapping up in the next year or so. But Trek will be returning to the big screen, with a new film currently in development.
In addition to that, any number of books, comics, games, toys, and other products related to the show have come out over the years, including some pretty impressive fan-made movies and web series. So there has been a regular output from this franchise—which struggled through its first three years of existence—for sixty years now, and that is not looking to slow down anytime soon. Today, we can look back and appreciate what it accomplished, and even if we have not enjoyed every iteration of Trek, we can look forward to it boldly moving into the future and continuing to explore new worlds and possibilities.
You can dive much deeper into Star Trek: The Original Series with Marc Cushman’s wonderful book series These Are the Voyages.
Some Star Trek trivia and anecdotes:
Alexander the Great Could Have Changed Television’s Star Trek, Batman, and More
There Were Lyrics to the Star Trek Theme Song?
Which Episode of Star Trek: The Original Series Claimed the Most Redshirts?
Lieutenant Leslie Was the Redshirt that Survived Star Trek: The Original Series (Sort of)
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