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Star Trek: The Original Series

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Star Trek: The Original Series (referred to as Star Trek prior to any spin-offs) is the first Star Trek series. The first episode of the show aired on 6 September 1966 on CTV in Canada, followed by a 8 September 1966 airing on NBC in America. The show was created by Gene Roddenberry as a " Wagon Train to the Stars". Star Trek was set in the 23rd century and featured the voyages of the starship USS Enterprise under Captain James T. Kirk .

Star Trek was later informally dubbed The Original Series , or TOS, after several spin-offs aired. The show lasted three seasons until canceled in 1969 . When the show first aired on TV, and until lowering budget issues in its third season resulted in a noticable drop in quality episodes and placed in a 10 pm Friday night death slot by the network, Star Trek regularly performed respectably in its time slot. After it was canceled and went into syndication , however, its popularity exploded. It featured themes such as a Utopian society and racial equality, and the first African-American officer in a recurring role.

Ten years later, Star Trek: The Motion Picture reunited the cast on the big screen aboard a refurbished USS Enterprise . They appeared in five subsequent films, ending with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country in 1991, during production of the spin-off series Star Trek: The Next Generation and shortly before Gene Roddenberry's death. Several original series characters also appeared in the seventh movie, Star Trek Generations , and in other Star Trek productions.

• 1 Opening credits
• 2.1 Starring
• 2.2 Also starring
• 3 Production crew
• 4.1 First pilot
• 4.2 Season 1
• 4.3 Season 2
• 4.4 Season 3
• 5.1 Concept
• 5.2 The first pilot
• 5.3 The second pilot
• 5.4 The series begins
• 5.5 The first season
• 5.6 Syndication
• 5.7 Reception
• 5.8 Remastered
• 6 Related topics
• 8 External links

Opening credits [ ]

• Main Title Theme (Season 1)  file info (composed by Alexander Courage )
• Main Title Theme (Season 2-3)  file info (composed by Alexander Courage )

Main cast [ ]

Starring [ ].

• William Shatner as Captain Kirk

Also starring [ ]

• Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock
• DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy ( 1967 - 1969 ; co-star 1966 - 1967 )

In addition, the following regulars were listed in the end credits as co-stars:

• James Doohan as Scotty
• Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
• George Takei as Sulu
• Walter Koenig as Chekov ( 1967 - 1969 )
• Majel Barrett-Roddenberry as Christine Chapel
• Grace Lee Whitney as Janice Rand

Production crew [ ]

• Gene Roddenberry – Creator, Writer, Producer, Executive Producer
• Gene L. Coon – Writer, Producer
• John Meredyth Lucas – Writer, Producer, Director
• Fred Freiberger – Producer (1968-69)
• Robert H. Justman – Associate Producer (Season 1-2), Co-Producer (Season 3), First Assistant Director (two pilots)
• D.C. Fontana – Writer, Script Consultant (1967-68)
• Steven W. Carabatsos – Writer, Story Consultant (1966)
• John D.F. Black – Associate Producer, Writer, Story Editor (1966)
• Arthur H. Singer – Story Consultant (1968-69)
• Byron Haskin – Associate Producer (first pilot)
• Walter "Matt" Jefferies – Production Designer, Art Director
• William E. Snyder – Director of Photography (first pilot)
• Ernest Haller – Director of Photography (second pilot)
• Jerry Finnerman – Director of Photography (61 episodes, 1966-1968)
• Keith Smith – Director of Photography (1 episode, 1967)
• Al Francis – Director of Photography (16 episodes, 1968-1969), Camera Operator (61 episodes, 1966-1968)
• Jim Rugg – Supervisor of Special Effects
• Rolland M. Brooks – Art Director (34 episodes, 1965-1967)
• Fred B. Phillips – Make-up Artist
• Robert Dawn – Make-up Artist (second pilot)
• William Ware Theiss – Costume Designer
• Gregg Peters – First Assistant Director (Season 1), Unit Production Manager (Season 2-3), Associate Producer (Season 3)
• Claude Binyon, Jr. – Assistant Director (third season)

Episode list [ ]

• List of TOS episodes by airdate
• List of TOS remastered episodes by airdate

First pilot [ ]

Season 1 [ ].

TOS Season 1 , 29 episodes:

Season 2 [ ]

TOS Season 2 , 26 episodes:

Season 3 [ ]

TOS Season 3 , 24 episodes:

Behind the scenes [ ]

Concept [ ].

Star Trek was created by Gene Roddenberry, whose interest in science fiction dated back to the 1940s when he came into contact with Astounding Stories . Roddenberry's first produced science fiction story was The Secret Weapon of 117 , which aired in 1956 on the Chevron Theatre anthology show. By 1963 Roddenberry was producing his first television series, The Lieutenant , at MGM .

In 1963, MGM was of the opinion that "true-to-life" television dramas were becoming less popular and an action-adventure show would be more profitable (this prediction turned out to be right, and led to series such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E ). Roddenberry had already been working on a science fiction concept called Star Trek since 1960 , and when he told MGM about his ideas, they were willing to take a look at them. As the production of The Lieutenant came to an end, Roddenberry delivered his first Star Trek draft to MGM. The studio was, however, not enthusiastic about the concept, and a series was never produced.

Roddenberry tried to sell his " wagon train to the stars " format to several production studios afterward, but to no avail. In 1964 , it was rumored that Desilu was interested in buying a new television series. Desilu was a much smaller company than MGM, but Roddenberry took his chances, greatly aided with the help of Desilu Executive Herb Solow . This led to a three-year deal with Desilu in April 1964 .

The first attempt to sell the Star Trek format to broadcasting network CBS (Desilu had a first proposal deal with the network) failed. CBS chose another science fiction project, Irwin Allen 's more family-oriented Lost in Space instead of Roddenberry's more cerebral approach. But in May 1964 , NBC 's Vice-President of Programming Mort Werner agreed to give Roddenberry the chance to write three story outlines, one of which NBC would select to turn into a pilot.

One of the submitted story lines, dated 29 June 1964 , was an outline for " The Cage ", and this was the story picked up by NBC. Now, the daunting task that Roddenberry and his crew faced was to develop the Star Trek universe from scratch. Roddenberry recruited many people around him to help think up his version of the future. The RAND Corporation's Harvey P. Lynn acted as a scientific consultant, Pato Guzman was hired as art director, with Matt Jefferies as an assisting production designer. This phase of creativity and brainstorming lasted throughout the summer, until in the last week of September 1964 the final draft of the "The Cage" script was delivered to NBC, after which shooting of the pilot was approved.

The first pilot [ ]

In early October, preparations for shooting "The Cage" began. A few changes in the production crew were made: Roddenberry hired Morris Chapnick , who had worked with him on The Lieutenant , as his assistant. Pato Guzman left to return to Chile and was replaced by Franz Bachelin . Matt Jefferies finalized the design for the Enterprise and various props and interiors. By November 1964 , the sets were ready to be constructed on stages Culver Studios Stage 14 , 15 , and 16 . Roddenberry was not happy with the stages, since they had uneven floors and were not soundproof, as Culver Studios had been established in the silent movie era when soundproofing had not been an issue to consider. Eventually, in 1966 , the rest of the series was shot on Paramount stages 9 and 10 , which were in better shape.

Casting of the characters was not a problem, apart from the lead role of Captain Pike (still known as "Captain April " at this point, later renamed "Captain Winter" before finally choosing "Pike") who Roddenberry convinced Jeffrey Hunter to play. Leonard Nimoy ( Spock ) had worked with Roddenberry on The Lieutenant . Majel Barrett , also a familiar face from The Lieutenant , got the part of the ship's female first officer, Number One . Veteran character actor John Hoyt , who had worked on many science fiction and fantasy projects before, was chosen to play the role of Doctor Phil Boyce . Young Peter Duryea and Laurel Goodwin were hired as José Tyler and Yeoman J.M. Colt , respectively. The extras were cast from a diversity of ethnic groups, which was significant because integration was not a usual occurrence in 1960s television, and segregation was still a reality in the United States.

To produce the pilot episode, Robert H. Justman was hired as assistant director; he had worked on The Outer Limits shortly before. Makeup artist Fred Phillips was brought in as well, whose first job it was to create Spock's ears. Another veteran from The Outer Limits was producer-director Byron Haskin , who joined as associate producer. On 27 November 1964 , the first scenes of "The Cage" (or "The Menagerie," as it was briefly known), were shot. Filming was scheduled to be eleven days, however the production went highly over budget and over schedule, resulting in sixteen shooting days and US$164,248 plus expenses.

But there were still a lot of visual effects to be made. An eleven-foot filming model of the USS Enterprise , designed by Matt Jefferies, was built by Richard Datin , Mel Keys , and Vern Sion in Volmer Jensen 's model shop , and was delivered to the Howard Anderson Company on 29 December 1964 .

In February 1965 , the final version of "The Cage" was delivered at NBC and screened in New York City. NBC officials liked the first pilot. Desilu's Herb Solow says that NBC was surprised by how realistic it looked, and that it was "the most fantastic thing we've ever seen." The reason the pilot was rejected was because it was believed that it would attract only a small audience, and they wanted more action and adventure. They also had problems with the "satanic" Spock and the female first officer (Number One). However, NBC was convinced that Star Trek could be made into a television series, and that NBC itself had been at fault for choosing the "The Cage" script from the original three stories pitched. Also, after spending US$630,000 on "The Cage" (the most expensive TV pilot at the time), they didn't want to have their money wasted. NBC then made the unprecedented move to order a second pilot.

The second pilot [ ]

For the second pilot, NBC requested three story outlines again. These were " Where No Man Has Gone Before " by Samuel A. Peeples , and " Mudd's Women " and " The Omega Glory " by Roddenberry. Although it was the most expensive of the three, NBC chose " Where No Man Has Gone Before ", as it had the most action and most outer space spectacle. However, the other two premises were also made into episodes of the series later.

Filming the second pilot began in July 1965 , and took nine days to complete. The entire cast of " The Cage " was replaced except Spock. Jeffrey Hunter chose not to reprise his role as Captain Pike, mostly by the advice of his wife, who felt that "science fiction ruins her husband's career". Roddenberry wanted both Lloyd Bridges and Jack Lord for the role of the new captain, however both declined. Finally William Shatner , who had previous science fiction experience acting in episodes of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits , was chosen. The new captain was named James R. Kirk (later renamed James T. Kirk).

For the role of the chief medical officer, Roddenberry chose veteran actor Paul Fix . Canadian actor James Doohan got the role of chief engineer Scott , and young Japanese-American George Takei was featured as ship's physicist Sulu . The latter two reprised their roles in the upcoming series, though Sulu was a helmsman in the series. Other actors considered for being regulars were Lloyd Haynes as communications officer Alden and Andrea Dromm as Yeoman Smith , but neither of them were re-hired after the pilot.

Many of the production staff were replaced. Robert Dawn served as head make-up artist, however Fred Phillips returned to the position in the series itself. Academy Award winner cinematographer Ernest Haller came out of semi-retirement to work as the director of photography. Associate producer Byron Haskin was replaced by Robert H. Justman , who now shared double duties as producer and assistant director.

The Enterprise model was updated for the second pilot, and many new outer space effects shots were made, most of which were reused in the series itself. The sets were also updated a bit, most notably the main bridge and the transporter room. Most of the uniforms, props, and sets were reused from " The Cage ", however some new props (including the never-seen-again phaser rifle ) and a brand new matte painting (the planet Delta Vega ) were made specially for this episode.

" Where No Man Has Gone Before " was accepted by NBC and the first season of a regular series was ordered for broadcasting in the 1966-67 television season. History was made.

The series begins [ ]

Preparation for the first regular season began in early 1966 . All the Enterprise interior sets were updated, as well as the introduction of brand new uniforms. The look of the show became more colorful and more vivid. The Enterprise model was also updated once more. Also, the entire production was moved from Desilu's Culver City studios to the main Gower Street studio's Stage 9 and 10 ( Paramount Stage 31 and 32 from 1967 onward) in Hollywood.

Kirk (Shatner) and Spock (Nimoy) were kept as the series stars, with Grace Lee Whitney joining the two as Yeoman Janice Rand (replacing Andrea Dromm as Yeoman Smith). Whitney had worked with Roddenberry a year before on an unsold pilot titled Police Story . Publicity photos promoting the new series were made at this time, with the three of them, mostly using props left from the two pilots (most notably the aforementioned phaser rifle). Shatner and Nimoy wore their new uniforms on these photographs, while Whitney had to wear an old, pilot version.

Scott (Doohan) and Sulu (Takei) were also kept, the latter becoming the ship's helmsman instead of physicist. Two additions made the Enterprise main crew complete: DeForest Kelley was hired to play the new chief medical officer, Leonard McCoy , as Roddenberry had known him from previous projects, including the aforementioned Police Story . Actress Nichelle Nichols got the role of communications officer Uhura , who became a symbol of the racial and gender diversity of the show. Nichols was a last minute addition, weeks before filming began on the first regular episode.

Jerry Finnerman became the new director of photography, while Fred Phillips, Matt Jefferies, and Rolland M. Brooks returned to their former positions. Writer John D.F. Black was brought in as the second associate producer (next to Justman). While Roddenberry and Black handled the script and story issues, Justman was in charge of the physical aspects of production.

Filming of the first regular episode, " The Corbomite Maneuver " began on 24 May 1966 . Finally Star Trek debuted on NBC with a "Sneak Preview" episode at 8:30 pm (EST) on 8 September 1966 . NBC chose " The Man Trap " (the fifth episode in production order) to air first, mainly because they felt it was more of a "traditional monster story" and featured more action.

The first season [ ]

In August 1966 , several changes were made in the Star Trek production staff. Roddenberry stepped down as line producer and became the executive producer. His replacement was Gene L. Coon , who also regularly contributed to the series as a writer. While Black had also left the series, story editor Steven W. Carabatsos came in, sharing story duties with Roddenberry and Coon. To handle post-production, Edward K. Milkis was brought in by Justman. Carabatsos had left Star Trek near the end of the season, and was replaced by D.C. Fontana , formerly Roddenberry's secretary and a writer for the series.

Syndication [ ]

• See : Syndication

Due to the overall length of the episodes of The Original Series , several minutes of each episode are frequently cut during the show's reruns, notably on the Sci-Fi Channel . Starting in April 2006 , the G4 network began airing the full length episodes in "Uncut Marathons" on Saturdays. G4 stopped airing these full-length versions in November 2006, and has discontinued its run of Star Trek 2.0 , which was a trivia-oriented and interactive version of the show for the viewers.

For current airings see Where to watch .

Reception [ ]

The Original Series has been nominated for and won a number of awards over the years. Some of the awards include:

• The series was nominated for thirteen Emmy Awards during its run, but did not win any.
• It was nominated eight times for the "Best Dramatic Presentation" Hugo Award , sweeping the nominees in 1968. It won twice, and Roddenberry won a special award in 1968.
• The 2003 "Pop Culture Award" in the TV Land Awards .
• The 2005 Saturn Award for "Best DVD Retro Television Release."

Aaron Harberts and James Frain cited TOS as their favorite Star Trek series. ( AT : " O Discovery, Where Art Thou? ")

Remastered [ ]

On 31 August 2006 , CBS Paramount Television announced that, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Star Trek , the show would return to broadcast syndication for the first time in sixteen years. The series' 79 episodes were digitally remastered with all new visual effects and music. The refurbished episodes have been converted from the original film to high-definition video, making it on par with modern television formats.

Related topics [ ]

• TOS directors
• TOS performers
• TOS recurring characters
• TOS writers
• Character crossover appearances
• Undeveloped TOS episodes
• Desilu Stage 9
• Desilu Stage 10
• Star Trek Writers/Directors Guide
• Star Trek: The Original Series novels
• Star Trek: The Original Series comics (DC)
• Star Trek: The Original Series comics (IDW)
• Star Trek: The Original Series soundtracks
• Star Trek: The Original Series on VHS
• Star Trek: The Original Series on Betamax
• Star Trek: The Original Series on CED
• Star Trek: The Original Series on LaserDisc
• Star Trek: The Original Series on DVD
• Star Trek: The Original Series on Blu-ray

External links [ ]

• Star Trek: The Original Series at Wikipedia
• Star Trek: The Original Series at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Star Trek: The Original Series at StarTrek.com
• Star Trek: The Original Series at the Internet Movie Database
• Star Trek: The Original Series at the Movie and TV Wiki
• Public Radio Special: The Peace Message in Star Trek
• 1 Abdullah bin al-Hussein

Star Trek: The Original Series Timeline Explained

The timeline of "Star Trek" is a long and complicated one. It's been more than half a century since the first episode aired, and that was merely the first of ten TV series and counting, not to mention ten movies in the original continuity and three in a rebooted timeline. Within the "Star Trek" universe, the timeline is far longer than that, stretching from our own time (or long before if we start getting into ancient Vulcan history) to the 32nd century, where the later seasons of "Star Trek: Discovery" are set.

So for this recap, we'll limit ourselves to the in-universe timeline first "Star Trek" series that began airing in 1966, which most people now refer to by the retronym "Star Trek: The Original Series." What circumstances led to the events of that series, what were the major incidents during it, and what became of its ship and characters after it ended? Let's take a journey through it, piece by piece and year by year.

Long, long ago

The path that leads to Star Trek begins in 2063, when the eccentric scientist known as Zefram Cochrane creates Earth's first warp drive and proves that faster-than-light travel is possible. This is a major turning point for the human race, which was rebuilding from a long and bloody World War 3. There is still a long way to go, but Cochrane's invention marks a shift that leads to humanity not just getting back on its feet on Earth, but stepping out into the larger galaxy.

A nearby Vulcan ship detects the warp signature from Cochrane's test flight. The Vulcans figure that if Earth's people are now capable of traveling faster than light, it is time for them to meet people from other worlds. So the Vulcans land on Earth and introduce themselves to Cochrane and his contemporaries.

In time, Earth builds a variety of spacefaring ships utilizing Cochrane's warp technology, which comes in handy a century later when Earth and Vulcan join two other worlds, Tellar Prime and Andoria, in forming the United Federation of Planets . As interstellar diplomatic relations prove largely successful, the Federation expands to include more than 150 planets. Starfleet, which had already been formed on Earth to explore space and make contact with new worlds, is folded into the Federation upon its creation in 2161.

Not so long ago

The Constitution-class Starfleet ship commissioned as the USS Enterprise , bearing the registry number NCC-1701, is first launched in the mid-23rd Century, almost a hundred years after the formation of the Federation. Its first Captain is Robert April. From the very beginning, the Enterprise's primary mission is to explore the Galactic Frontier, seeking out previously undiscovered worlds and making contact where appropriate.

When April is promoted to commodore and steps down from command of the USS Enterprise, First Officer Christopher Pike is promoted to replace him. As captain of the Enterprise, Pike becomes one of the most decorated officers in Starfleet. During this time, Spock joins the crew as a science officer. This Enterprise crew visits the planet Talos, where Pike is briefly held captive by the highly evolved psychic beings who dwell there and has a brief romance with a woman named Vina (depicted in the original "Star Trek" pilot, "The Cage" ).

Later, Pike and the Enterprise come to the aid of the USS Discovery, whose crew includes Spock's adopted human sister, Michael Burnham (revealed in "Star Trek: Discovery" Season 2). The Enterprise plays a role in helping the Discovery and its crew travel to the far future (in the "Discovery" Season 2 finale, "Such Sweet Sorrow" ).

The five year mission begins

In 2265, Christopher Pike is promoted and Captain James T. Kirk is given command of the USS Enterprise. Commander Spock remains a science officer but also became Kirk's first officer. Chief engineer and second officer is Lt. Commander Montgomery Scott, affectionately known as Scotty. One of Kirk's oldest friends, Lieutenant Commander Gary Mitchell, initially serves as helmsman at Kirk's request. 

One of this crew's first missions sends them to the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy, where an encounter with a mysterious energy barrier imbues Mitchell with godlike psychic powers. Elizabeth Dehner, a doctor serving under Enterprise Chief Medical Officer Mark Piper, is also affected and later developed similar powers. Mitchell is driven insane by the experience and becomes a threat to the Enterprise and even the galaxy. Doctor Dehner sacrifices her life to stop him, and both perish. Captain Kirk keeps the circumstances of their deaths private, wanting Mitchell to be remembered positively. This all happens in the second "Star Trek" pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before."

Following this incident, Lt. Hikaru Sulu, who has been working in the science divison, becomes helmsman of the Enterprise. With Dehner's death and Piper's retirement, Doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy became the chief medical officer. Around the same time, Lt. Nyota Uhura joins the bridge crew as a communications officer. With this crew in place, the Enterprise sets out on the five-year exploratory mission that is the focus of "Star Trek: The Original Series."

Although the time period is vague on the show, the original "Star Trek" is set three hundred years after it originally aired, so the first year of their mission, as depicted in Season 1 , runs from 2266 to 2267. During that year, the USS Enterprise has a run-in with the Romulans ( "Balance of Terror" ), who haven't been seen since their war with Earth a century earlier. They also deal with the fall-out of failed negotiations with the Klingons ( "Errand of Mercy" ). Captain Kirk fights a Gorn captain ( "Arena" ) and deals with the death of his brother, Sam Kirk ( "Operation — Annihilate!" ). The Enterprise crew also has their first encounter with the notorious con artist and pimp Harry Mudd ( "Mudd's Women" ).

Admiral Christopher Pike briefly returns to the Enterprise after an accident leaves him paralyzed and nonverbal. After a fiercely loyal Spock helps Captain Kirk understand the situation, they take Pike to Talos, where the Talosians can help him live out his life free of physical constraints, and where he is reunited with Vina ( "The Menagerie" ).

Perhaps most significantly, the USS Enterprise encounters a drifting derelict ship, the USS Botany Bay, which houses cryogenically frozen war criminals from the Eugenics Wars of the past. Their leader, Khan Noonien Singh, is revived and attempts to take control of the Enterprise. Kirk defeats Khan, leaving him and his allies marooned on the planet Ceti Alpha V. Starfleet historian Marla McGivers, who had fallen in love with Khan and betrayed the Enterprise for him, chose to join him in exile rather than stay on the ship and face court martial ( "Space Seed" ).

As the mission entered its second year in 2267 (corresponding with the fall 1967 debut of Season 2 ), the bridge crew of the USS Enterprise is joined by Ensign Pavel Chekov, a young man from Russia. He and Sulu become close friends, and in time he becomes a vital member of the ship's inner circle.

The Enterprise soon travels to Spock's home planet of Vulcan for his marriage to his betrothed, T'Pring. However, T'Pring had already chosen another lover in Spock's absence, and the visit became a fiasco in which Spock and Kirk are made to engage in ritual battle until Kirk fakes his own death. Freed from his betrothal, Spock returns to the ship a confirmed bachelor ( "Amok Time" ).

Later that year, the Enterprise crew is involved in an incident on Deep Space Station K-7 involving a poisoned shipment of grain, a Klingon spy, and the rapidly reproducing trilling fuzzballs known as tribbles, which are peddled by the shady Cyrano Jones ( "The Trouble with Tribbles" ). Although they didn't know it, they are also visited at this time by time travelers from the 24th Century, who infiltrate the Enterprise crew to avert an attempt to change history by the future version of the same Klingon spy (as seen in the "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" ).

Other incidents in year two included the return of Harry Mudd ( "I, Mudd" ), the discovery of a Mirror Universe ( "Mirror, Mirror" ), and a visit from Spock's parents ( "Journey to Babel" ).

The third year of the mission (and the 1968 TV season) kicks off with a bizarre incident in which an alien civilization steals Spock's brain from his body. Even weirder, Spock survives the incident long enough for his brain to be returned to his skull before he suffers any permanent effects ( "Spock's Brain" ). Spock's brain was also affected by an encounter with a Medusan ambassador, a member of a non-humanoid race whose appearance drives any humanoid who sees one mad. Fortunately, Spock is also able to recover from this incident ( "Is There in Truth No Beauty" ).

Another non-humanoid alien race, the Tholians, traps the Enterprise in an energy web for trespassing into their space. Spock is in command at the time and is unwilling to move the ship because Captain Kirk has shifted out of phase with the universe after an incident involving the USS Defiant, and they need to remain in the area to get him back safely ( "The Tholian Web" ).

The Enterprise command crew also takes part in an undercover mission aboard a Romulan ship, where Kirk is able to steal a Romulan cloaking device while Spock romances a female captain ( "The Enterprise Incident" ). As the third year draws to a close, the crew has a series of increasingly bizarre adventures. These include an encounter with Abraham Lincoln ( "The Savage Curtain" ), finding themselves trapped in the past of a doomed planet ( "All Our Yesterdays" ), and Kirk temporarily swapping bodies with a nefarious woman ( "The Turnabout Intruder" ).

The mission continues

Since "Star Trek: The Original Series" only ran for three seasons, it fell to other media to tell the stories of the last leg of the USS Enterprise's five-year mission. Countless comic books and novels have been published that recount other adventures of Captain Kirk and his crew. While they're not really considered part of the official canon of Star Trek continuity, they've still provided ample entertainment for fans nostalgic for the show, and some of the best ideas that originated in them have found their way into more widely-seen media.

In 1973, the USS Enterprise returned to TV screens on "Star Trek: The Animated Series." Whether this series counts as official canon has been the subject of much debate, but so much of it has been referenced in later TV and movies (including the second animated series in the franchise, "Star Trek: Lower Decks" ) that it seems safe to count. However, certain things, such as life support belts (a force field-based method of saving money by not redrawing the characters in space suits), have to be glossed over.

During the leg of the mission depicted on the animated series, Ensign Chekov is replaced by Lieutenant Arex, an orange alien with three arms and three legs. Lieutenant Uhura is sometimes replaced at the communications station by Lieutenant M'Ress, a catlike female alien.

On one memorable adventure, Spock goes back in time to his childhood on Vulcan ( "Yesteryear" ). Harry Mudd also returns to cause more trouble ( "Mudd's Passion" ), as do Cyrano Jones and his tribbles ( "More Tribbles, More Troubles" ).

The crew reunited

Fans pick back up with the crew after the end of the five-year mission in the first of the "Star Trek" feature films,  "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."  Jim Kirk has been promoted to Admiral and becomes Chief of Starfleet Operations, which is based at Starfleet Headquarters in San Francisco. Spock returns to Vulcan and begins training to purge himself of emotions and further devote himself to logic. Doctor McCoy leaves Starfleet to practice medicine on Earth. Three years later, in 2273, the USS Enterprise is being completely refitted under the supervision of Scotty and the ship's new captain, Willard Decker. 

When a massive, destructive anomaly was discovered heading for Earth, Admiral Kirk assumes command of the Enterprise on a mission to intercept it, to the annoyance of Decker, who is temporarily demoted to first officer. At Kirk's request, McCoy's Starfleet commission is reactivated, bringing him back to the Enterprise as well. After the new science officer is killed in a transporter accident, Spock soon rejoins the crew as well.

After the anomaly is revealed to be an ancient probe from Earth, Captain Decker joins with it so that it can fulfill its purpose of reuniting with its creator. Decker and the anomaly vanish, leaving Kirk in sole command of the USS Enterprise.

The death of Spock

In 2285, the Enterprise is on what is meant to be a short training voyage, but that changes when Khan Noonien Singh reappears, looking for Admiral Kirk. The planet where Kirk left Khan and his people more than fifteen years earlier has become a harsh desert after a catastrophic shift in orbit, and Marla McGivers, who had become Khan's wife, was killed. Khan and his remaining followers escape by commandeering the USS Reliant, but Khan can't be satisfied until he takes personal revenge on Kirk. Kirk barely manages to defeat Khan, but the Enterprise sustains heavy damage. Captain Spock saves the rest of the crew by manually repairing the ship's main reactor but receives a lethal dose of radiation in the process. Spock reassures Kirk that he would always be his friend, and then dies ( "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" ).

During his funeral service, Spock's body is launched from the Enterprise and falls to the surface of a planet that is in the process of being radically terraformed by the experimental Genesis Device. This creates a unique opportunity to restore Spock to life. Before he died, Spock infused Dr. McCoy with his psychic essence, which is soon found to have a deleterious effect on the doctor's mental state, which can only be cured by returning it to the correct body. 

The return to Earth

To reunite Spock's psychic essence with his body that is regenerating on the Genesis Planet, Kirk and his loyal crew (McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov) must defy Starfleet orders and steal the USS Enterprise from spacedock. In the course of rescuing Spock, the Enterprise has a deadly encounter with Klingons that results in the destruction of the Enterprise ( "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" ). Escaping in a commandeered Klingon Bird of Prey, the crew travels to Vulcan, where Spock can heal. They stay there for three months, until early 2286.

As the crew travels back toward Earth on the Bird of Prey, facing court-martial for their actions, a mysterious alien probe is discovered heading toward Earth, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. When Spock realizes that the probe is attempting to contact humpback whales, an extinct species in the 23rd Century, the crew traveled back in time to 1986 and returns with a mated pair of whales, saving Earth from the probe. With their heroism taken into account, the charges are dropped at their court-martial. However, Kirk is demoted back to Captain for disobeying Starfleet orders and given command of the newly commissioned Enterprise NCC-1701-A ( "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" ).

The later years

In 2287, the new Enterprise and its crew are sent to deal with a diplomatic crisis when Federation, Klingon, and Romulan ambassadors on Nimbus III are taken hostage by a renegade Vulcan. The Vulcan, Sybok, is Spock's half-brother, who rejected Vulcan logic in favor of emotion and was exiled. He recruits a cult-like army by using his psychic abilities to help people conquer painful memories, inspiring gratitude and loyalty. Sybok, along with his followers, hijacks the Enterprise and travels to a mysterious planetoid in the center of the galaxy, where he believes he will find God. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy join Sybok on the planetoid, where they meet an entity claiming to be God, which turns out to be an incredibly powerful malevolent being who has been imprisoned there. Sybok is killed, and the entity is destroyed ( "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" ).

In 2293, three months before the aging Enterprise crew is scheduled to stand down, they embark on a diplomatic mission to accompany the Klingon chancellor to Earth for peace negotiations. En route, the chancellor is assassinated, while Kirk and McCoy are framed for his death. After being tried by the Klingons, they are sentenced to a prison planet, leaving Spock to root out a conspiracy to escalate hostilities between the two civilizations. Ultimately, peace is established, Kirk and McCoy are freed, and the Enterprise crew is free to move on to the next phase of their lives ( "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" ).

A series of epilogues

Later in 2293, Kirk, Chekov, and Scotty are present as guests on the maiden voyage of the new Enterprise NCC-1701-B, where an incident involving a time nexus leads to James Kirk's disappearance. In 2371 he is discovered alive inside the nexus by Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the Enterprise NCC 1701-D, but Kirk dies helping Picard thwart the villainous Soran ( "Star Trek Generations" ).

After retiring from Starfleet, Spock becomes an ambassador. He is instrumental in achieving peace with the Romulans. He also encounters Captain Picard and his crew during a crucial part of that effort (in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" two-parter "Unification" ). At the end of his life, Ambassador Spock travels back in time, finding himself in an alternate timeline alongside a younger version of himself and his friends, who led very different lives ("Star Trek" 2009).

Doctor Leonard McCoy, who has always been grumpy about being in Starfleet, ironically has the longest Starfleet career of the three. He becomes a branch admiral and Chief of Starfleet Medical. In 2371, as a very old man, Admiral McCoy tours the Enterprise-D during its first mission (in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" premiere "Encounter at Farpoint" ).

In 2294, newly retired Captain Montgomery Scott is a passenger aboard the USS Jenolan when the ship crashes into a Dyson Sphere. Scotty manages to put himself into suspended animation using the Jenolan's transporter and is revived in 2369 by the crew of the Enterprise-D. After some time aboard the new Enterprise, he sets out aboard a shuttlecraft to enjoy his retirement ("Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Relics" ).

Hikaru Sulu becomes captain of the USS Excelsior and has his own illustrious career. Serving under him is a young Vulcan named Tuvok, who later becomes the chief tactical officer of the USS Voyager under Captain Kathryn Janeway (Tuvok remembers this time in the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Flashback" ).

Less is known about the post-Enterprise-A careers of Pavel Chekov and Nyota Uhura. Still, even if they retired to live quiet lives, they must have been remembered as Federation heroes for their many adventures serving under Captain Kirk. Even all these years, there are still many stories left to be told.

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8 Ways the Original ‘Star Trek’ Made History

By: Sarah Pruitt

Updated: November 2, 2021 | Original: September 8, 2016

When "Star Trek" premiered on NBC in the fall of 1966, it promised "To boldly go where no man has gone before." More than half a century later, it has done just that. The original "Star Trek"—which lasted for only three seasons—birthed some 20 spinoff series and films; a universe of games, toys, comics and conventions; and influenced decades of science-fiction. Here are eight ways the show broke new ground. 

The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek premieres Friday, November 5 at 10/9c on The HISTORY ®  Channel

1. A veteran of World War II, Gene Roddenberry created a show about fighting another world war—this time in space.

After piloting a B-17 bomber in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II , Roddenberry served in the Los Angeles Police Department before he began writing for TV. He created the short-lived series “The Lieutenant” before Desilu Studios (founded by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz) picked up “Star Trek” in 1966. In an era before man set foot on the moon, the show introduced us to a 23rd-century world where interplanetary travel was an established fact: Captain Kirk and the crew of the starship Enterprise (named for the real-life ship that turned the tide toward the Allies in the Battle of Midway) roamed the galaxy, clashing with alien enemies like the Klingons, Excalbians and Romulans.

2. The show’s multicultural, multiracial cast put it well ahead of its time.

In addition to the half-Vulcan Spock, the crew of the Enterprise in “Star Trek”’s debut season included Lt. Nyota Uhura (played by the African American actress Nichelle Nichols) and Lt. Hikaru Sulu (played by the Japanese American actor George Takei). In an era of mounting racial tensions, “Star Trek” presented a positive image of people of different races, genders and cultures (not to mention aliens and humans!) working together cooperatively—a somewhat utopian vision, perhaps, but a heartening one. Nichols later said that she was reportedly thinking of leaving the show after the first season, but was convinced to stay on by none other than Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , whom she met at a NAACP fundraiser. The civil rights leader, who admitted to being a devoted fan of the show, told Nichols that she was breaking new ground in the role of Uhura, and showing African Americans what was possible for them.

3. The original 'Star Trek' referred repeatedly to the ongoing, escalating conflict in Vietnam.

Though marketed as a classic adventure drama (Roddenberry based the character of Captain Kirk on Horatio Hornblower from C.S. Forester’s classic naval adventure series), “Star Trek” didn’t shy away from tackling moral and social issues such as war, racism and discrimination. The first season episode “Taste for Armageddon” was one of TV’s first allegories for the Vietnam War , an issue the show would return to most famously in the second season’s “A Private Little War.” In that episode, the Klingons are providing weapons to a primitive planet, and Capt. Kirk decides to do the same in order to preserve the “balance of power” on both sides. One of the most controversial plot lines of that season, the story was clearly analogous to the escalating nature of American involvement in Vietnam.

4. But it offered a positive vision for the future in the midst of Cold War tensions.

In the show’s second season, a new navigator named Pavel Andreievich Chekov showed up on the bridge of the starship Enterprise. As Roddenberry recounted in The Fifty-Year Mission , a two-volume oral history of “Star Trek” published in 2016, the character was added after the Russian newspaper Pravda pointed out that the show ignored the Soviet Union ’s pioneering contributions to space travel. But Walter Koenig, the actor who played Chekov, said the Pravda explanation was made up for publicity: The show’s producers wanted a character to appeal to a younger demographic, and just decided to make him Russian. Though a long-running theory held that the Klingons and the Federation represented the Soviet Union and the United States, two ideologically opposed superpowers, another interpretation argues that “Star Trek” functions as a critique of Cold War -era politics, by offering an optimistic vision of the future at a very uncertain moment in history.

5. It was the beneficiary of one of the most successful fan-organized letter-writing campaigns in TV history.

By late 1967, the original “Star Trek” series was struggling, and rumors flew that NBC was planning to cancel the series after only two seasons. Spurred into action, more than 100,000 fans—known as “Trekkers” or “Trekkies”—wrote letters in support of the show. In the largest of numerous protests on college campuses, 200 Caltech students marched to NBC’s Burbank, California studio wielding signs with slogans like “Draft Spock” and “Vulcan Power.” NBC eventually acknowledged the success of the fans’ campaign, announcing that the show would return for another season.

6. The show featured one of the first interracial kisses on TV.

After being “saved” by the fans, the third season of the original “Star Trek” largely bombed, but one particular moment stands out: In the episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” Capt. Kirk kisses his communications officer, Lt. Uhura, in what is thought to be the first scripted interracial kiss on American television. Though NBC executives worried how the kiss would play on television in 1968 (especially in the South), they eventually decided to leave it in the episode, earning the show enduring fame for the barrier-breaking moment. (Though Kirk and Uhura’s liplock is often cited as the first interracial kiss on TV, a kiss between actors on the British soap opera “Emergency Ward 10” predated “Plato’s Stepchildren” by several years.)

7. It enjoyed record-breaking success in syndication post-cancellation.

Despite its cancellation after only three seasons (and 79 episodes), “Star Trek” gained new life through syndication, as the devotion of its growing fan base increased from the late 1960s and throughout the ‘70s. By 1986, nearly two decades after it entered syndication, A.C. Nielsen Co. listed “Star Trek: The Original Series” as the No. 1 syndicated show. That same year, Roddenberry launched a second TV series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” which was immediately syndicated and became a ratings hit. Meanwhile, “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” had grossed more than $80 million in 1979, leading to several more movies in the ‘80s and ‘90s, followed by a 21st-century “reboot” of the series starting in 2009. Trekkie enthusiasm fueled the success of comic books, cartoons, novels, action figures and other merchandise based on the series, as well as Star Trek-themed conventions attended by thousands at hotels and other venues around the world.

8. Thanks to 'Star Trek' fans, America’s first space shuttle orbiter was christened Enterprise.

In 1976, hundreds of thousands of Trekkies wrote impassioned letters to NASA arguing that the first space shuttle orbiter should be named after the starship Enterprise. Though he never mentioned the letter campaign, President Gerald R. Ford expressed his preference for the name “Enterprise,” with its hallowed Navy history, and the space administration’s officials ended up dropping their original choice, Constitution. Roddenberry and many original “Star Trek” cast members were on hand to greet the shuttle when it rolled out of the manufacturing facilities in Palmdale, California for its dedication ceremony in September 1976. Though Enterprise was used in a number of flight tests, it was never launched into space, and spent much of its life in storage.

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Den of Geek

Star Trek Timeline Explained

How does Star Trek: Discovery relate to the other Star Trek shows and movies? We unravel the history of the future to make it clear.

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This article comes from Den of Geek UK .

The Star Trek canon is a complicated place. Within the TV show and movies alone, there are prequels, sequels, time travel and alternate universes to keep track of – and not all of them happen in the right order. Star Trek Discovery is the latest continuity insert (and a fine one at that) – but how does it relate to everything else?

We begin our look at Star Trek’s timeline around 40 years into “our” future, at a point when the Earth is recovering from World War III…

2063 – Star Trek: First Contact (most of it)

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This movie – Star Trek 8 , if you’re keeping track – sees the Star Trek: The Next Generation crew take a jaunt back in time to the era of Zefram Cochrane: the man who invented warp drive technology. The flight of his ship, the Phoenix, attracts the attention of some passing Vulcans who make the titular first contact. It’s an important moment.

read more – 8 Amazing Things About Star Trek: First Contact

2151-2155 – Star Trek: Enterprise

A hundred years later, the crew of Starfleet’s first warp 5 vessel, the Enterprise (registration NX-01) seeks to establish humanity as a significant player in the galaxy, although poor relations between Vulcans and humans keep it from being a simple task. Significantly, the Enterprise is key to defeating the Xindi who attempt to attack and destroy Earth.

read more: The Importance of the Star Trek: Enterprise Characters

2161 – As detailed in the final episode of Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT 4×22: “These Are The Voyages…”) the United Federation of Planets is formed from an alliance between four species: Humans, Vulcans, Andorians and Tellarites. The Enterprise NX-01 is also retired.

2165 – Sarek, Spock’s father, is born on Vulcan.

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2210 – Amanda Grayson, Spock’s mother, is born on Earth.

2230 – Spock is born. Amanda Grayson is 20 and Sarek is 65. Problematic tbh.

2233 – James T. Kirk is born. Just for context, in the divergent timeline of the reboot movies the Romulan terrorist Nero arrives from the future on the Narada, destroys the USS Kelvin and kills George Kirk. Everything after this point doesn’t apply to the reboot timeline, but… that’s a separate article.

2245 – The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) is launched under the command of Robert M. April.

2254 – The USS Enterprise visits the planet Talos IV while under the command of Captain Christopher Pike. Spock is already serving aboard the vessel at this time. Although the Talosians attempt to capture the crew, they are able to escape. It’s all detailed in “The Menagerie” ( TOS 1×15-16).

2256- ongoing – Star Trek Discovery

Experimental starship Discovery (NCC-1013) fights in the first major Klingon-Federation war. Michael Burnham, Spock’s adopted sister, is part of the crew. Sarek also visits sometimes. At one point Discovery encounters the Enterprise of this era while investigating the red lights phenomena and is placed under temporary command of Captain Christopher Pike.

2265-2269 – Star Trek: The Original Series

Nine years after the events of Star Trek: Discovery , Kirk, Spock, Bones (and the rest) run a five year mission in deep space aboard the Enterprise, exploring the galaxy, establishing tropes, and talking numerous computers to death.

read more: The Most Important Star Trek Original Series Episodes

Notably, on one mission the Enterprise is able to restore a seriously-injured Christopher Pike to Talos IV so that he can live out his life in a psychically-created paradise preferable to reality. Lucky git.

2269-2270 – The Animated Adventures Of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek

Sometimes deemed non-canon but increasingly less so, this series takes place immediately following the live-action show and mostly features most of the original cast. (Don’t listen too carefully to the voices.)

There’s a comic book series where the animated crew meet the Transformers which is definitely not canon and absolutely nuts but therefore great.

2270s – Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Following an 18-month refit, the Enterprise encounters V’ger prompting Admiral Kirk to reassume command of the ship.

read more – The Troubled Production of Star Trek: The Motion Picture

2285 – Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan

Khan Noonien Singh, having escaped exile at the hands of Captain Kirk ( TOS 1×24: “Space Seed”), exacts revenge on the Enterprise using the Genesis device. The crew defeats Khan but Spock sacrifices his own life to save the Enterprise. Sad.

read more – The Difficult Journey of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Slightly later in 2285 – Star Trek III: The Search For Spock

The Enterprise returns to Earth for repairs before realising that Spock is still alive, having been reborn on the Genesis planet created in the previous film. The Klingons get involved and while attempting to rescue Spock, the Enterprise is destroyed. The crew hijacks a Klingon Bird of Prey and returns Spock to Vulcan and the care of Sarek.

read more – In Defense of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

2286 – Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

The crew of the Enterprise return to Earth (sans Enterprise) just in time to find it under attack: an invincible alien probe is bombarding the planet with a destructive signal trying to communicate with whales, which humans have driven to extinction. After heading back in time to 1987 to grab a whale, the crew return to 2286 and are placed on board a new version of the Enterprise: the NCC-1701-A.

2287 – Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

Spock’s half-brother Sybok steals the Enterprise and tries to fly it into God. We wish we were making this up.

read more – Examining the Political Themes of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier

2293 – Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

The wall comes down, IN SPACE. When the Russian Klingon power station Moon Chernobyl Praxis explodes, the notoriously insular empire begins discussion with its former enemies to achieve a friendly peace. Kirk and his crew save the peace process from a destabilisation plot by the Romulans. The Enterprise A is decommissioned.

read more – The Political Parallels of Star Trek VI: The Undisovered Country

2293 – Star Trek: Generations (some of it)

The Enterprise B (NCC-1701-B) is launched and Captain Kirk is thought to have died following an encounter with the mysterious energy ribbon known as The Nexus.

2344 – The Enterprise C (NCC-1701-C) is active under the command of Captain Rachel Garrett. You can learn more in TNG 3×15, “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” which is a great episode.

read more – Does Star Trek: Generations Deserve Another Chance?

2364-2370 – Star Trek: The Next Generation

The crew of the Enterprise D (NCC-1701-D) – Picard, Riker, Data (and the rest) travel around the galaxy encountering moral dilemmas which can usually be solved by reversing the polarity of something.

read more – The Best Star Trek: The Next Generation Episodes

2368 – Sarek dies ( TNG 5×01 – “Unification”)

2369-2375: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Things get confusing as TV shows begin to overlap. Commander Sisko unleashes the dragon aboard the strategically-important space station, Deep Space Nine.

read more – The Best Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Stories

2371: Star Trek Generations (the rest of it)

Picard et al rescue Kirk from the Nexus, proving that he didn’t die in 2293 after all. Although he later does in fact die. No backsies this time. Except in that one novel series. The Enterprise D is also turned into space-confetti.

2371-2378: Star Trek Voyager

Captain Kathryn Janeway gets the USS Voyager (registration unimportant) stranded in the Delta Quadrant and they spend 7 years trying to get home while stopping to check every molecule of every asteroid they so much as brush against. Harry Kim dies and is replaced by a replica created by a weird time thingy but no-one really talks about it.

read more – Why the Star Trek: Voyager Premiere is Worth a Rewatch

2373: Star Trek: First Contact (the rest of it)

Aboard the newly-commissioned Enterprise E (NCC-170-ah you get it by now) the Next Generation Crew follows a Borg ship back in time and prevents them from disrupting First Contact with the Vulcans. See the start of this article.

2375: Star Trek Insurrection

Nothing important happens in this one but it’s not as bad as people think.

2379: Star Trek Nemesis

Some important stuff DOES happen in this one because Data dies, but in this case it IS as bad as people think. Janeway shows up, promoted to Admiral, likely because she never wants to see the inside of a starship again.

read more – What Went Wrong With Star Trek: Nemesis?

2387: Star Trek (reboot)

Romulus is destroyed when a nearby star goes supernova. Spock is unable to stop it. A grieving Romulan named Nero travels back in time and creates the divergent JJ Abrams timeline which remains outside the scope of this article. However, the destruction of Romulus and the strange disappearance of Spock remain canon. Who knows what everyone else is up to?

Some time after 2387: Untitled Picard Series

The producers of the eagerly-awaited untitled Picard series have explained that the destruction of Romulus and dissolution of the Romulan empire will be a springboard for some of the events in this TV show, in which Picard has (likely) left Starfleet behind for good.

Sometimes around 3256: Short Treks’ “Calypso”

As someone pointed out in our comment section, one of Discovery’s latest Short Treks , “Calypso,” takes place roughly 1,000 years following the events of  Discovery , catching up with the abandoned ship’s computer, Zora. This potentially concerning peak into the Federation’s future has yet to be addressed in Discovery .

This, broadly, is where established canon ends. Further glimpses in the future (such as the future timeline seen in TNG finale, “All Good Things) can only be considered potential futures.

Have we missed anything? Let us know in the comments!

• April 19, 2024 | Exclusive First Look At Artwork From ‘Star Trek: Celebrations’ – IDW’s One Shot Comic For Pride Month
• April 19, 2024 | Podcast: All Access Faces The Strange On ‘Star Trek: Discovery’
• April 18, 2024 | Lost Original USS Enterprise Model From ‘Star Trek’ Returned To Gene Roddenberry’s Son
• April 18, 2024 | Recap/Review: ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Gets The Timing Right In “Face The Strange”
• April 17, 2024 | Watch: Things Get “Odd” In ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Trailer And Clip From “Face The Strange”

RETROSPECTIVE: The Original Series Remastered Project

| September 6, 2016 | By: Matt Wright 109 comments so far

10 years ago, the 40 th Anniversary of Star Trek was fast approaching. HDTV was the future. CBS knew they needed to do something to be sure the “one that started it all”,  The Original Series , was ready for that future. Produced from 2006-2008, The Original Series  – Remastered (TOS-R) was a huge undertaking that came with a variety of challenges and fan controversies. Keep reading for an in-depth look back at the project.

2006 in review

While we tend to quickly forget, the 40 th anniversary year (2006) was actually a rather bleak time.  Star Trek: Enterprise had been canceled after only 4 seasons the year before. Many Trek products were put on semi-permanent hold or canceled outright. Organizationally Star Trek as a franchise was a mess because of the big Viacom split up that occurred in late-2005. The split resulted in all kinds of purging of Star Trek archives on the Paramount lot through auctions. Later on, while TOS-R was actively being produced, StarTrek.com was shut down for over 2-years (2007), and Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas was dismantled (2008).

Rumors of a rebooted movie franchise had only just started to circulate. It was of course those rumors that led to the founding of TrekMovie.com, known then as “The Trek Movie Report.” Any information about the new film was naturally sparse in the early days. However, the remastering of The Original Series was happening right then and needed to be covered. On a personal note, TOS-R is how I came to be involved with the site; I did the weekly coverage of the episodes as they aired.

Technological Challenges

While CBS knew the future was HD, the realities of the technology in 2006 was that HDTV sets weren’t nearly as ubiquitous as we might expect looking back on it from 2016. The adoption rate of HDTV sets was only ~15% of US households in 2006.  HD DVD and Blu-ray were just barely formats and would be fighting it out for who would win the HD disc wars until 2008.

The idea of a streaming movie/TV service was just being toyed with and not really viable in 2006. Most people still downloaded their content for offline viewing from the iTunes store or Amazon. Netflix introduced their streaming platform in 2007 as an add-on to their DVD rental program. Internet speeds weren’t there yet to support a streaming HD experience, the average US broadband connection was a paltry 2 Mbit/sec or less. Other technology to deliver the content, like commodity chips to decode the H.264 compression standard, also wasn’t quite there. It would take the proliferation of devices like Blu-ray players, the Sony PS3, and the Roku streaming players over the next few years to get the final pieces into place.

Given the state of technology in 2006, the method best suited for first-run distribution of TOS-R was still the tried-and-true weekly syndication model. It slotted into the place of the Star Trek: Enterprise repeats being shown on the weekend by local CBS or CW affiliates. The satellite distribution system for syndicated content was still only standard definition (SD) capable, upgrades were coming, but it would be too late for TOS-R’s run. Even being delivered in SD, the significant work done to clean up the aging film, along with the much better contrast and color of the new film transfers was immediately obvious.

The Remastering Process

Rather than working on an entire season at a time, the remastering was approached like a TV series, where the CBS-D team delivered episodes on a weekly schedule. The schedule was not in season order, rather in a “fan favorite” order, with well-liked episodes such as “Balance of Terror” getting worked on first.

CBS assembled a team based inside their subsidiary company CBS Digital (CBS-D). CBS Digital was doing visual effects, titles, and similar work, for the TV industry. For example, one of their well-known title sequences (from a few years later) is the Modern Family opening credits.

Mike and Denise Okuda were a logical choice to help guide the project. They worked with the production team to go through all the reels of film, to make stylistic choices on the new visual effects, and more.

You can  read more about CBS Digital’s workflow in our article from 2006.

CBS realized they were in a bit of a rock-and-a-hard place with TOS. Unlike the much newer productions (such as TNG, which would later get remastered from the raw elements), they only had the finished episodes. So they did not have the isolated original elements to work with.

The old visual effects were looking worse for wear, by modern standards they never looked spectacular because of all the layers of printing film-onto-film and splicing in the visual elements, and there was lots of generational loss on the frequently re-used stock ship footage. CBS made the controversial decision to replace the visual effects (VFX) sequences entirely with a new computer generated USS Enterprise, and new more realistic planets.

1080p original VFX

The original 35mm film canisters of each episode were pulled from the archives and freshly scanned at 2K. The film was then digitally cleaned up by removing dirt and scratches and given a new color grading.

Since the entire finished episode was scanned, the later 2009 Blu-ray releases of TOS contain an option for either the original VFX or the CGI version. While the original VFX was available (mostly for purists who could get that on the Blu-ray season sets), the “default” version of TOS became the version with CGI.

To hedge their bets, a 16:9 widescreen version of the new VFX, along with the live action footage cropped to 16:9, was prepared, this hasn’t really been seen much, outside of a syndication run in Japan . The wider VFX can be seen in some episodes on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, but the live action is the original 4:3 ratio.

The New Visual Effects

The new computer generated visual effects ended up being a bit of a mixed bag. There was excellent work on faithfully enhancing the matte paintings and creating new planets to give proper variety to the universe. These aspects were generally well liked.

Vulcan arena from Amok Time

The redone “Enterprise in orbit” shots allowed for a greater variety of angles.

Original and new CGI orbit shot from Court Martial

The big sticking point for many fans was the new CGI model of the Enterprise. The first wave of episodes featured a model that just seemed a bit off, with oddly colored nacelle caps. The feedback was not great, and the message was received at CBS Digital. Of course, they already had a number of episodes in the pipeline that couldn’t be stopped. The second Enterprise model was much improved. It debuted with the fan favorite episode “The Trouble with Tribbles.”

The nature of an ongoing project to crank out episodes week-after-week meant that the CBS-D team got better with each episode, the unfortunate reality of this is that episodes done later in the process often look better than earlier episodes. So while the episodes weren’t done in standard season order, it does mean that the first eight episodes prepared were stuck with the initial  Enterprise model, and early versions of planetscapes, etc.

Perhaps the largest part of the controversy with the fans and the CGI model of the Enterprise was the color of the hull. The CGI Enterprise was much more of a battleship grey, lacking the blueish tint we had all known.  The blue tint, of course came from the bright lights and the blue screens behind the models needed to shoot the visual effects in the 1960’s.

The fan backlash was quite loud, the producers eventually made a statement that they had researched the paint of the physical model and their model was derived from how it looked in person. This started an interesting aesthetic debate, what was more appropriate: how it looked on the screen (with the blue spill), or the color of the model as it was in more normal lighting?

It’s interesting to see that the new 2016 Smithsonian restoration, which was painstakingly researched to be as accurate as possible, looks similar to the CGI model the TOS-R team used. The TOS-R version is still a bit darker than the model in the Smithsonian, this was a stylistic choice by the team, they purposefully lowered the level of light that hits the Enterprise as a nod to the fact the ship is in space.

Photo by Dane Penland/Smithsonian

The New Audio Mix

While the visuals were what really needed the help, the audio had been remixed for 5.1 with the DVD releases, the team decided to make a new audio mix. They started with as high quality a source as they could find in the archives. With an eye toward the future, the end result was a high quality 7.1 mix suitable for future high definition disc releases.

Perhaps the biggest audio change for TOS-R was that they found a new soprano singer, Elin Carlson, to record the famous opening “ahhhh-ahhhhh” with modern audio capture techniques which allowed for a fuller representation of her voice, compared to the rather harsh recording of the original singer. It was then mixed in with a newly recorded arrangement of the theme song, and a cleaned up isolated track of William Shatner’s famous opening monologue.

“Risk is our business”

CBS took a big risk presenting new CGI for our beloved show, especially when you consider it was on a TV show budget in 2006. I think ultimately it was a good choice, it let the remastering team provide variety: they could stop reusing the same few ships/starbases, matte paintings, even camera angles of the Enterprise. The downside of course is that the CGI can vary widely, in some shots looking great, and others a bit cartoony. The “feel” of the Enterprise model also was tweaked a number of times, sometimes it moved like a gazelle, others it lumbered more like the original VFX. It was an evolving process, with judgement calls made by the team episode-by-episode.

When the TOS-R project wrapped up in mid-2008, the HD disc wars had just been won, Blu-ray emerged a victor. While TOS-R had been released on DVD, a good High Definition release hadn’t really been possible. There was a Season 1 HD DVD release, but it too only contained the new VFX versions. In 2009 to much rejoicing CBS announced the Blu-ray season sets, thanks to the capacity of Blu-ray these new sets would contain both the original VFX and the new CGI VFX, so this release could become the definitive way to enjoy the freshly cleaned up TOS.

In syndication, for retro TV networks like MeTV, CBS seems to still only be offering up the CGI version, I can only infer that this is what they consider to be The Original Series for the casual fan. The original VFX seems to be reserved for purists and collectors, available on the Blu-ray season sets and the upcoming Roddenberry Vault Blu-ray set.

There’s more information at our TOS-R landing page , it has links to all the articles we’ve written over the years, links to the DVD and Blu-ray reviews, a link to our sub-page with the list of the episodes as they aired in the remastered “seasons”, and an archived list of the stations that were part of that first syndication run.

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I still prefer the look of the original elements. The CGI elements don’t match the photography of the live action elements, and the Enterprise just doesn’t have the depth of the model. Bottom line, it just looks fake. Fortunately, Amazon Prime still has the original cut instead of the remastered.

We all have our preferences. I prefer the CG Enterprise and it totally feels like those were the shots they would have used back then if they had the budget and tech to do so. It’s the old model shots that look fake and worn.

I find the old shots are fine to watch in standard def, the picture standard for which they were intended, but they fail to hold up in HD. Like you, I’m TOS-R all the way for HD viewing.

Both versions are products of their time, but I find CGI in all its forms to look subpar compared to physical models. Even the reboot films, with all their hundreds of millions of dollars, can’t produce a starship that looks a tenth as real as the models from thirty years ago. When they debuted WOK in 4K this weekend, those ships looked real enough to touch — not like CGI toys on screen.

Don’t know how you can make such a claim, given the rich original cinematography and high contrast look, which is there on the CG planets but is completely ‘off’ on the ship shots, which look like a cartoon, seriously. Movement is off as well, but the ship cg look is just godawful bad, and wholly inappropriate to the TOS style.

For these last 10 years whenever I watched a TOS episode it was the remastered version. It’s only now this last year that I started watching the original elements version. And I have to say, I got the feeling this really is the only way to go, it really is part of the charm of the show and I have come to the conclusion that was being taken away with the remastered versions. Never going back to the butchered versions again :)

I agree that the CGI doesn’t look like it even belongs in TOS. Personally, the ONLY copies of TOS that we have or watch are the original 2-episode-per-disc DVDs. Because they don’t have the damned fakey, video-gamey CGI FX.

@Vokar Feeling like a broken record… the Blu-ray sets contain both the original and new CGI VFX, So you can simply choose to watch the original. Then you get the vastly superior restoration of the 35mm film: the cleaner, sharper resolution, and the better color grading.

Say it as many times as you like, it doesn’t change the fact that the “CGI VFX” are a travesty, spitting and pissing on the work of the original special effects creators. Oh, but they’re dead and can’t complain! So it may be that I can “simply choose” but those “updated” FX should not even exist. ST has been bastardized. Fin.

The work of an entire crew assigned to shoot the models is lost with the CG version and that to me is a travesty. Those people worked hard to give us the best they had and with a very limited budget. The CG simply doesn’t match well with the original footage, it’s jarring and distracting.

I’m sure Jim Rugg and his crew would understand and NOT be offended.

You work in the business?

@Mick Davies

Exactly. A travesty indeed. The CGI doesn’t belong at all, whether simply an “option” or not. It’s spitting in the faces of the men who designed created the original models and opticals.

Yea but there are so many great angle and close up shots they did that could not be done back then. Like the new shuttle docking sequences are fantastic. In the episode Court Martial you have close ups of the Enterprise as well as other ships in orbit and shuttles flying around. Bottom line, the original just looks fake. On blu-ray, you can watch either which is awesome. Since 2006, I have not watched the original effects.

I enjoy the new CGI and its variety, and in some cases prefer it (such as new planetscapes, the addition of the Antares or the Medusan vessel)- while in others (particularly my favorite model of the series, the Doomsday Machine!) I prefer the models.

As a video editor, the thing that bugs me most is the way the fades to starship scenes had to be altered, extended to before and after the original fade had completed, and made much quicker to compensate- so they often come in a second too soon, preceding the music cue and throwing off the editing. It was the only thing they COULD do, without the original elements… but the editor in me cringes every time I see it.

On the other hand, the ultra-grain of the original shots can be very distracting in this format, so I do end up watching the CGI effects more often than the original. Still, I always keep a DVD of the original version Doomsday Machine handy, because nothing beats the surreal translucency of the original funnel when it turns.

Agreed Andrew (I’m a video editor too!) It’s a shame the negatives for the transition scenes couldn’t have been located and the transitions redone properly. As it stands, there’s a definite quality drop before breaks and around (now too quick) dissolves.

I don’t have a problem with the wonderful original model work. It’s the technical quality of the optical printing that inevitably looks really messy in 1080p. I wonder how fans might have felt if the Enterprise exteriors had been re-shot with the original model (something I was advocating years before TOS-R!) or if they’d been able to locate the original effects elements, rescan them and recomposite them.

Something missing from the article? It seems to end abruptly after the VFX section. In any case–I have been rewatching a lot of episodes with my son on Netflix, and while he doesn’t see the difference (he’s 12 and watching these for the first time), I must say the jump between the live action and CGI is quite jarring. The CGI itself is generally fine for the age, but CBS made no real attempt to blend it in with the original footage. One should only look at a fan series like Star Trek Continues to see this done well. Color grading, film grain, a bit of blurr–things like that could have been done to blend the footage in better.

I was wondering this same thing about the article- there’s no conclusion or “to be continued”… it just sort of feels like it Sopranos itself.

Yep sorry I rushed to get the bulk of it done for this morning. It’s been updated with the final sections.

There are certainly parts where the CGI looks fantastic, as it went on later and later it did. However, it looks like it is part of a show.

The original VFX, especially not so cleaned, actually looks like you are seeing a huge ship in space.

I have been hooked on the remastered versions since they arrived, re-purchased TOS when they became available, and will never look back. Having watched TOS in it’s original form since the 70’s, I think the upgrades are fantastic.

I remember picking up the old yellow plastic DVD set many years ago for £50, with its claim that the episodes had been ‘beautifully remastered’ when they clearly hadn’t been. The picture was filthy and scratched and sound was less than great. TOS -R, when it came along, was as different as night and day from that earlier release. I’ve liked having the option to watch the original effects on Blu-ray, but I’ve never bothered to do so.

@Dom Yes, they had a rather rudimentary clean up done to them in 1998 (for the Sci-Fi Channel Special Edition showings), the same basic master digital tapes were then used for the 1999 (2-episode Region 1) / 2004 season set DVD releases. But it was nothing compared to what kind of digital restoration tools were available in 2006.

I thought CBS did an actual 16:9 cut for the live action portion as well as the VFX for some territories where it was deemed that the 4:3 might not be accepted. Was this ONLY the VFX then?

I have to say, I’ve been watching it in syndication with my TV cropping it to 16:9, and in almost all cases, it looks much better in wide screen — the framing keeps all the action in the area, and it makes the drama more intimate, immediate and focused; there’s a lot of unused space at the top and bottom of the 4:3 framing that makes a lot of it look like a stage play. There are of course exceptions where a director would stack visuals from top to bottom, all meant to be seen at once, but that’s actually quite rare that anyone got that inventive. While it wouldn’t appease the purists, a little pan and scan, or careful cropping would fix those few scenes, and again increase focus and intimacy. I have really enjoyed watching it this way, as it gives the same old shows a new fresh look.

The great thing is that digital pretty much gives everyone the ability to watch the show however they want. But syndication is more for the average TV audience who don’t likely already own the show in some format. That’s the place where CBS ought to make sure their 50 year old TV show competes 1:1 with current TV shows. This black bars on the side can be just as big a turn off as B&W or SD for a young audience just discovering Star Trek for the first time. Whether CBS ever produces a full length 16:9 version, I’m surprised they haven’t at least generally released the 16:9 VFX version. I’ve been trying to see that version since I first heard about it, but have yet to find it. It seems to me even that small expansion on exterior shots would make a difference, almost like going outside of the ship it gets bigger like the expanse of space, and inside is more contained. Modern films use frame size as a way to tell the story, so I’d like to finally see for myself whether it would work for Trek or not too.

Curious Cadet must not care about all of the women’s beehives getting cropped.

That’s the best part to crop!

Seriously, the people who care about original aspect ratios intended by a TV director from the 60s are not the people being exposed to Trek in TV syndication, who don’t even know they have a zoom button or how to use it. There’s an argument to be made for artistic integrity, and there’s one to be made for marketing the brand.

Cropping and pan and scan is way too risky on a television series with as much camera movement and dollys as TOS. Best to leave it as the director framed it. Of course anyone, who has no problem with compromising the integrity of the original framed composition can always set their TV to “zoom” so those pesky black bars are gone. Either presentation can usually be enjoyed, just depends on how you wish to view it.

I thought CBS did an actual 16:9 cut for the live action portion as well as the VFX for some territories where it was deemed that the 4:3 might not be accepted.

They did, I talk about it in the article. Look for where I talk about a syndicated run in Japan. It also links to an article we ran at the time.

Thanks Matt for clarifying, I thought they did. I was confused by your wording which I thought was applying only to the 16:9 VFX and not the live action portion as well.

How can we see that? Is it available anywhere? I must admit I’m curious as to how much care they took doing it as I have tried it with iMovie on a few scenes, and there’s some pretty tricky nuances that have to be finessed from shot to shot in some cases to compensate for movement. I’m guessing they just centered the picture and let it roll for the most part.

I really don’t know how one would get a hold of them. I think they were only for foreign market syndication packages, I supposed a TV network wanting to syndicate it now could ask for the 16:9 version?

Star Trek TOS is just awesome; picked up the entire series (Remastered) and watching it slowly (one episode every two months is all the TV I get with kids). Watched Friday’s Child as could barely remember it (it was 25 years ago, I know because I saw it on a 25th anniversary run of TOS) and for an average episode, man was it great! The Enterprise must beat the Klingons to a MINING deal(!) by negotiating with a truly alien culture that put’s emphasis on strength over all else (the aliens were willing to sell mining rights for goods?!)! Kirk has to accept the loss of a red shirt within the first five minutes as just a cost of doing business in space. My wife who usually rolls her eyes at the site of anything Trek actually pauses to watch when she realizes they are trying to save a pregnant woman and likes McCoy (though the ethics on him slapping the pregnant woman while touching on equality of the sexes and the medical profession was highly questionable!!!). It had a whole cold war Federation vs Klingon conflict in the background. “I’m a doctor, not an escalator!” “I think you’re both gonna be insufferably pleased with yourselves for at least a month… sir. ” “There’s an old, old saying on earth, Mr. Sulu: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” Chekov: I know this saying. It was invented in Russia.” The music is fantastic. Entertaining, thought provoking – that being said I would not be surprised if it is banned as the anti-Avatar in the next fifty years. There is NO WAY this episode would be made today. It made space strange, dangerous and different; yet was entertaining and thought provoking. Enjoy TOS while it can and cheers to those that did not allow it to be buried.

I had heard that the new CG effects were done in 16:9 and the original show elements remained the standard 4X3. But I was really hoping the blu rays would include the full 16:9 shots and just go back and forth with the aspect ratio as needed. Very disappointing the discs maintained the 4X3 ratio for the CG effects shots.

Would be interested to know why this was…. What was the point of doing them in widescreen if they weren’t going to be seen in widescreen?

I agree. At a minimum, this should have been just as much a choice as was giving the original VFX option. I can only imagine that CBS hopes to hold these back and wait for another release to double-dip with a less-purist generation.

The widescreen version is shown regularly here in Canada in HD on the Space Channel. It looks fantastic. Whole different way of viewing the series. Purists won’t like the idea of missing a tiny bit of top and bottom from the original 4:3… but it’s still really cool. All that was missing in the TOS re-master was a warp effect. Boggles my mind not to have added that.

“tiny bit?” Man, do you cut off parts of paintings so they will fit in your existing glass frames? That is one of the most offensive posts I’ve seen here that didn’t get into politics or sexuality.

Yep, that’s about the kind of reply I expected to hear in this forum. Soup Nazi’s of Star Trek. “We don’t care if you like seeing things a different way. One way! One way only!”

Yes. I would crop a photo to fit a frame. I do crop photos to fit frames. Sometimes it looks better. And TOS-R in widescreen psychologically appeared way more modern when it was viewed in 16×9 formatted for a 16×9 screen.

If you can’t process or accept that, it’s ok. I won’t judge you for your preference the way old-school Trek people judge other people for liking variations on a theme.

I gingerly accept a fraction of a shirt or wall panel being cropped so that I don’t have black bars on the sides of every TV that I own.

You’re COMPLETELY missing the point; this isn’t a TREK thing at all, this is interfering with the art form, same as pan&scan. You oughta be ashamed.

I’m guessing you could never deal with black bars on the top & bottom of old 4:3 TVs, either, when seeing films in their original aspect ratio. Now THAT is an old person’s affliction, so old-school is in this case something you’re guilty of, not being able to see the work in the proper context.

For maybe only the fourth or fifth time ever here, I really wish trekmovie had an ‘ignore user’ function.

—> “this is interfering with the art form” <—

Couldn't have said it better! My late friend (ACP) worked for Howard Anderson for several years, and while I don't know whether he had a hand in the TOS FX or not, he worked in opticals and miniatures for more than one effects house during the 50s and 60s, and I'd be livid if his work had been cut and replaced just for the sake of some "yay it looks kewl now!" fanboy's 60 inch 4K curved screen.

Re:Soup Nazi’s of Star Trek

Aspect ratio changing IMAX transfers must drive you crazy.

It as nothing to do with aspect ratio Nazism. It has to do with how museums, both photo and painting, preserve and display original art.

If you’ve ever gone to a museum, you’d immediately realize there’s something up with proper bordering and framing of pictures. It’s not haphazard.

Personally, I think the problem stems from various aspect ratios being transferred to the 16:9 spec discs with no thought given as to how to properly border it with white or off-white as most museums do in photo exhibits. I feel there’s a reason black borders in museums are a minority, and this is why people intuit that something’s off when the disc manufacturers unartfully just allows the mastering to default to black.

Another example, when I attended the Trimble’s Equicon/Filmcon in the 70s the syndicated 16mm reels of the episodes were projected larger than life on the film screen and not a soul complained about the “white” borders on the projection screen. Likewise, I don’t recall in my entire life, anyone complaining about the top and bottom white borders of many of the Trek movies screened in the old movie houses that I’ve seen them screened.

“All that was missing in the TOS re-master was a warp effect. Boggles my mind not to have added that.”

I’m happy they didn’t. TOS didn’t have a warp effect.

Bah. It would’ve been a nice little touch. If they had the time and budget they would’ve done it. First thing they did in TMP was have the warp effect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQDS7ajcnZQ

Really!? How’s it look? DId they re-frame any of the shots? Or do you end up with some odd croppings?

It was very well done. Clearly re-framed shot-by-shot… and not just a wholesale crop.

It was written about a full decade ago here on TrekMovie… https://trekmovie.com/2006/12/18/video-of-trek-remastered-in-widescreen/

https://trekmovie.com/2007/07/31/tos-r-goes-widescreen-in-japan/

But obviously not as cool as these stitched panoramas written about 2 years back… https://trekmovie.com/2014/09/10/see-what-star-trek-tos-would-have-looked-like-in-widescreen-cinerama/

Cool beans, I’d like to see how the re-framed episodes look.

But they don’t NEED to crop the 4:3 images. Just go back and forth between the two. Similar to how “The Dark Knight” changed aspect ratios on the blu ray from 16:9 to 2.35:1. That is what the remastered versions on disc should have done. I have no idea why they don’t. Sort of why the famous Star Trek Blooper reel wasn’t an extra on any of the season discs.

Yes, I agree, I’d love to watch it this way. But I’d also love to see it the other way too. In watching TOS in zoom mode on my flatscreen, I’ve noticed the cropped picture works much better in the original framing. Could that be because those directors in the 60s all wanted to be film directors, and were working on their reels at their day jobs?

I always hoped that they would have invited the original directors to come back and reframe their shows. That would have been the height of artistic integrity. But I suspect many of them had passed by the time this project was going. But that would have been the way to do it.

Seriously though, there is so much wasted, empty space at the top and bottom of most shots in TOS since they were often framing a 7 member ensemble cast in landscapes and had no choice but to include a lot of pointless area. TNG was the worst about this, but made all the more difficult to crop, because those guys had some uncomfortably tight close ups that just can’t be cropped and look right.

Good article so far, Matt, but it just stops! Keep going! ;)

Ten years… blimey! I started writing in the comments section back when this site started. In that time, I left my home town for nine years and I’m just contemplating returning. A lotta life gone by! I love my TOS-R Blu-rays and love that I now have access to TOS-R on Netflix. The enhancements were mostly inspired. Barring a couple of misfires, I consider TOS-R to be the definitive version of the show.

My only big complaints were the Tholian ship design in the revamped The Tholian Web and missed opportunities to correct mistakes such as Balok’s missing line in the ultimatum countdown scene in The Corbomite Maneuver. Also, these days, one or two opportunities to sort out obvious stunt doubling such as in The Enemy Within might be possible.

I’m sad that the opportunity to create a CGI ‘Star Trek: Reanimated’ TV show, reworking the 1970s’ cartoon series, has never happened. There’s a great opportunity just screaming out to be taken, given all the imagery we have of the original cast in the TV show in order to enhance facial expressions and so on that is lost in Filmation’s relatively low budget animation.

More please, Matt; it’s a good read. :)

Regarding TAS getting Reanimated. I was very hopeful when TOS-R happened 10 years ago that we would also get TAS-R. I have been disappointed that it has not happened … yet. I think this is a golden opportunity to get an improved animation style put into that series. If and when they ever do it, please add the computer games episodes from the 1990s (25th anniversary edition, Judgment Rites and Secret of Vulcan Fury). I think of TAS and the games as the 4th and 5th year of the 5 year mission.

Nah, animation is expensive. It’s hard to imagine there’s a serious market for it outside of the core fans, and there’s not really enough of them to syndicate, and hard to package them with the live action series.

Ideally they save their money and give us a live-action CGI version when the technology gets there … then they could expand TOS in syndication and that would be worth something.

Yes live action versions of TAS and the Games would be the ultimate. Here is what we know they can do. Rebuild the interior set of the Enterprise, or just buy the existing sets from the fan films that already have been created. Use the original series music and sound effects. Have actors of today come in and play the guest starring roles. I imagine they could get some fairly big names to appear and promote the series. The most difficult thing to do is to make the original cast look like they did in the 1960s. They are getting there, though. They have the voice work already. Bring Shatner, Koenig, Takei and Nichols back to add additional dialogue to expand the episodes to one hour. This last point, to me, is the most urgent. Last year Leonard Nimoy passed away. So I would hope that CBS would have brought the cast together and record these episodes to fit the one hour time limit. By the time, the CGI is up to realistic standards, the original cast would be gone. Get that part done first and then work on the rest later.

Sorry, it was kind of a rush job to make the deadline for today. I just added a conclusion.

I can’t agree at all with those saying that the new CGI effects are jarring and fake. Nothing is more jarring than seeing awful low budget 60’s special effects that take you right out of the story, and this is coming from someone who grew up on the series in the 70’s.

A classic example is the first season episode “Tomorrow is Yesterday”. In order for the crew to get back to the 23rd century the Enterprise needs to slingshot around the sun. Whenever I used to see that, I’d think to myself “where the heck is the sun?”, “what’s with the awful special effetcs of the Enterprise wobbling around in space?” How about watching the original version of that episode and then the remastered episode and see which one is more jarring? Friends used to come round and laugh at that episode. They don’t anymore with the new effects.

For the so-called “purists”, you can keep your original special effects, sheesh!

By that logic, the low budget sets and costumes should “take you right out of the story” too, no?

No they don’t actually. I think for the time and for the budget that they had to work with, I think they were well done. The exterior visual effects were more critical, especially with episodes like the one I mentioned because they needed to properly represent what was happening, such as the slingshot manuever. Not all episodes needed to rely on special effects but when they did, they were pretty poor.

The good news is the original versions are available for those who feel it is the best way to view it. I only look at it when I wish to compare old with new. And remind myself how much better the remastered shots are. Overall CBS-D did a bang up job. Especially in resisting the temptation to do too much with the effects shots. I think they overdid SOME just a little… Making the Amok Time site atop some 4,000 foot rock spire seemed a bit much to me but it did give a nice view of the Vulcan city in the background that was reminiscent of TAS episode Yesteryear. So there was good and bad there. Overall, no complaints at all.

I loved the slingshot effect, but couldn’t understand why they removed footage of an actual F-104 Starfighter and replaced it with the CGI recreation.

It was pretty poor stock footage at the time, likely several generations away from the original stock footage which likely wasn’t all that great.

Yep, the footage was stock promotional military footage that had seen better days even in 1966.

Curious Cadet and Matt Wright,

Re:promotional military footage

Remember this was the Cold War 60s. Promotional military footage had to straddle the two worlds of looking cool enough to promote the military while being generationally downgraded so that the enemy couldn’t extract anything useful from the footage.

The sad thing is the original high grade military master footage used for the military’s own internal performance evaluations would be a vast improvement over anything done to date to improve the war aircraft images and is probably sitting on some shelf in a military surplus store for 75 cents.

Although they absolutely floored me with WORLD WAR II in Color which used formally classified color footage that had remained “classified” until around the turn of the millennium. Maybe a FOIA request might have turned something up for the restorers?

Sure, but of course a FOIA request takes time, they didn’t have a ton of time to make their scheduled dates. But yes, it’s a bummer a good copy of the real footage couldn’t have been used.

It’s the movement of the Enterprise that bothers me most in the remastered episodes. For me, the original series and movies, especially STTMP, got the movements of the Enterprise right: she’s a big ship and moves slowly, but with grace. The remastered episodes are not consistent about how she moves (a problem in its own right) but some of them have her buzzing her around more like a speedboat than a ship of the line, turning on a dime, in my opinion stripping her of mass and scale. Quickness obviously appeals to many folks these days — it rules the Abrams aesthetic — but it’s not always better.

Just watched Dagger of the Mind and was pleasantly surprised, again, by the ringed planet they are orbiting. The shading and lighting of the Enterprise itself comes off as a bit game-ish at times, in various episodes, but it’s not consistant and, for the most part, the ship looks great. Also, aside from the wonderful visuals, the carefully engineered sound-design and remixing of the elelments is top notch. From appropriately placed dialog or a door opening to the right, off screen, that we hear in the right speaker… to completely surrounding you, in reverb, when Kirk goes “shipwide”. The remastered blurays have been and are, still, a joy to behold.

I think they should re-remaster it… I also think an entirely CGI remake of the Animated series would be interesting, akin to Clone Wars/Rebels… They could take the original voice acting, and redo the visuals. It could be really cool. Some of those stories could really standout.

Instead of putting more money into redoing the animation, I’d rather wait until they can get the CGI up to a level of realism and create live action productions truly extending the original series.

In the meantime, I wouldn’t mind seeing James Cawley do a version where they replaced the visuals with live action and lip-synched the performances from the animation! That would be a true fan-film right there …

Curious Cadet,

I think that ship has sailed.

However, I could be possibly interesting if Barco Escape and Cawley’s orginal spec sets could use their technology to create “busy” “framing content” if Paramount is determined to go that route in eliminating the black.

It’s kind of funny that this story is here now. My family missed the airing of those episodes, and we just recently, I mean RECENT, like the last week recent, started watching them on Blue-ray. I’m glad the story’s here because we’re still on the first disk and we haven’t been terribly impressed so far and were doubting we’d continue with it, but “CBS-D team got better with each episode” gives us hope! I didn’t know that TNG was redone though!

So how do we talk someone into redoing Star Trek V: The Final Frontier?

FYI: the Blu-ray sets contain both the original and new CGI VFX if you don’t like ’em

Yes, we’ve seen that as well, thanks! What we wonder, “What were they thinking!” is the audio levels from the landing page to the episodes. The episode is very soft, and when adjusted, the landing page is very loud! But, as was pointed out, not everyone had a front room set up like a theater for sound back when they were made either. . .

While I do agree that some of the new effects are cool and they’ve added some nice little touches (it’s a little thing, but I liked the working gears and other parts in the trap door in Norman’s stomach in “I Mudd”) but as a kid and even into my college years when we’d hit the 20th anniversary mark, I never thought of the effects as cheesy. They were what they were – – a product of their time,….and product of what the show was then. And that’s the show I grew up with and fell in love with. I don’t object to the new effects, or the effort that went in to it. But like I told Dave Rossi at the 40th convention in Chicago, and as Steve Austin said in the third pilot movie – – just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

I have to say I appreciate what they did but prefer the original elements. The model Enterprise had more convincing movement, less herky-jerky than the CGI version, especially the shuttlecraft. They did some effective stuff; the explosion in Pattern of Force’s intro; some of Immunity Syndrome; the phaser hits on Apollo’s temple. But there were editorial decisions made I couldn’t understand. For example; in Doomsday Machine (remastered) the berserker itself appears insanely huge very early in Decker’s first attack. In the original, the attack begins with large shots of Enterprise and the planet killer; they appear almost as equals, so the battle is very dramatic; this is Decker’s perspective. Not until the Enterprise is caught by the machine do we know Decker is insane to try this. In the CGI version, it’s obvious from go the Enterprise is a fly trying to swat an elephant — no drama. An the Enterprise itself appears puny, not powerful. Also thought the long shots of Romulans attacking in Deadly Years wasn’t as effective as the original closeups. Not on a small TV screen. Having said, that, CBS could have invested more money in higher quality CGI, so the team surely gave them good work for what they had to work with. But some decisions, like giving the planets different colors in the original TOS, added to the entertainment value.

Terrific article, Matt! Thank you! :)

I agree that some of the CGI effects do clash a bit and look a touch cartoon-ish. In an ideal world, had the Enterprise model been in the condition it is now, thanks to the Smithsonian, I’d have been all in favour of at least reshooting the Enterprise flybys with the physical model.

Of course, Doug Drexler and his team created the CGI FX for Battlestar Galactica at 720p and uprezzed the shots, rather than TOS-R’s 1080p, finding the shots blended better and sold themselves better when placed alongside the 1080p live action. But what the heck? It’s still a very solid job all round.

I grew up watching TOS on my mom’s Columbia House VHS tapes. They were a rip-off, but that was the only way we could watch them at the time. I was a surprised when I found out there was a tiny bit more footage on the disc releases. Example: A couple shots/scenes at the beginning of I, Mudd …

I only was able to catch a few episodes of TOS-R when they were on. My local station aired them at some weird, and infrequent times. NASCAR cut into the first ten minutes of the Doomsday Machine. BOO!

The CGI was definitely hit-and-miss, but i do agree with the ship’s color choices. I occasionally like to build models and got the big 1/350 scale TOS Enterprise for Christmas. Turns out there are a lot of people out there, beyond the Smithsonian, who have taken the effort to try and nail down the right color (Japanese Navy Grey is pretty close if I recall).

The Max Gabl digital mattes were sublime, and (with the exception of the re-recorded theme) the remastered sound was a delight.

The Enterprise was OK, and it got better as episodes progressed. The Klingon battlecruiser, sad to say, was a little below standard, in my opinion–very low poly and it showed.

Yep Gabl (and Niel Wray too) did some amazing work for TOS-R (and later TNG-R).

on Netflix, season 2’s “Obsession” is presented in the original format

Just a quick question regarding the “edited-for-time (i.e. more ads)” restored versions that are currently running on ME-TV: were these rather awkward cuts made by the studio just for the versions available to the syndicated channels, or are these edited versions (with about 5 to 8 minutes missing) the only restored versions available?

The full episode 35mm film reel was scanned in and cleaned up, and then they created new VFX for it. After the full uncut episode was finished they handed it off to be cut up for syndication.

Our TOS-R page has a bunch of this information BTW: https://trekmovie.com/tos-in-hd/

Thank you, sir; I’ll check it out.

It is not cut up on HEROES & ICONS which airs an episode Su-Fri. But I’ve noticed some weird staccato movements of the reimagined ship fx which I attribute to time compression being employed.

Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Both versions are equally special and will likely endure another fifty years long after many of the spin offs, reboots and re images go the way of the dodo

The TOS Remastered BluRay set is one of my favorites. The original effects are there and I for one always liked the new CG effects as well. If anything, the new CG effects were at times too reverential to the original and I would not have minded if they had gotten a little bolder with the ship designs and even the Enterprise going into warp (again, the original effects are still there for the purists). But overall it’s pretty much the definitive set of TOS in my opinion.

Great job as usual Matt, congrats.

My biggest complaint is the “re-done” vocals on the classic “Star Trek” theme song. To me it is such a turn off.

The song as it is now just screams “Yes, this is a show for geeks and geeks alone”….I thought the original theme was cool and needed no augmentation. No offense to the geeks of the world, but I want my original “Star Trek” theme back….why mess with perfection !!!

That’s a good point. Is the original theme music also select-able along with the original VFX in BluRay?

When I get home I’ll pop in a disc and let you know, I believe so, because the opening credit sequences were totally redone both audio and visual effects. So I think you’d get the original version. Been a long time since I’ve looked.

Yep confirmed, as it should be, when you choose the original effects from the main episode menu, you get the original VFX and the matching older stereo audio track too.

I’m so happy they did this.

I’m looking for a final definitive answer to a yes or no question. Without exposition. Can the original TV series episodes in the 50th Aniversay Boxed Set be screened with the original effects?

You’re commenting on the wrong article technically, and also good lord man, the answer is in the body of this article text, also in the comments here, and a person asked this same question in the comments on the review to which you’re referring.

The 50th anniversary boxed set is simply new pressings of the 2009 Blu-ray sets. As I said in the 50th anniversary review.

So yes, you can watch it with the original effects.

So, “Yes.”

Thanks Matt. I admire your professional decorum.

Overall I think they did a good job. They were respectful of the source material and when in doubt they tried to emulate the original effects (i.e. the pulses for phasers in Balance of Terror instead of the more familiar phasers seen later). Sure, they’re not perfect as noted above, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Really don’t understand how there was fan controversy. If you’re a Star Wars fan and what they did to the original 3 movies, you have many legitimate reasons. Everything CBS did was tastefully done drawing on what was originally there, there were no major Lucas type changes and thats because everyone loved and respected the franchise and people like the Okuda’s keeping a eye on everything being done, bless those two.

Personally I would have made 2 more changes to TOS, again minor. First off why did the third season get blue coloured font for the title. IMO, the remastering (as they redid all the lettering) should have done yellow first season, blue second season, red third season, representing the three division colours for the three season. Would love to have seen the “Star Trek” text in red.

The second thing I would have like to have seen is a warp jump created for TOS, there are many times Kirk tells Sulu to go to warp and the Enterprise just slowly moves away from the planet. We never saw a warp jump until The Motion Picture. I would have designed a special warp jump for TOS. Nothing like the stretch effect of TNG more like a precursor to the TMP warp jump effect.

Those two things would have been the cherry on top.

People should understand that the CGI Enterprise and FX shots in TOS-R are specifically made to look 60’s-ish. That’s why it might look like sub-par CGI.

If you look at the connie Defiant in ENT A Mirror Darkly, that CGI connie looks so much better

They also had a much larger budget for that episode.

I really enjoy the fact that the episodes are available to be viewed either with the original effects or the CGI if you have the bluray set. I thought the new effects were mostly done well and in some cases really enhanced the episodes. My biggest objection is the rerecording of the main title theme with the singer’s voice mixed way too heavily. The original had the voice more in the background where it blended in better. I remember this site showing the clip comparisons between the old and new effects back then, which was fun. Also entertaining were the debates over the Doomsday Machine episode for which Mr. Dochterman also did enhanced effects in a different manner than CBS Digital…both great, by the way. Good times back then.

Nice to see the subject of the TOS ‘remastering’ being revisited. I’d like to offer some of my current thoughts on that, and on the ‘widescreen’ issue too. Years ago, I avidly looked forward to each new episode article which previewed it’s new FX on this site. However, although certain new shots and tweaks were excellent at times, there were just too many shots that seemed rushed and quite poorly executed for my liking…and I was sorely disappointed with the missed opportunity to really do a first-rate job at times. And my view hasn’t changed about that. Despite this, I went through a phase of thinking that TOS:R would be the only way I would ever wish to re-watch the show again in the future, no matter what. But I was wrong as it turned out…as the inconsistent work done by the CBS Digital team ended up being just too frustrating for me, overall. Everything from the almost ‘pre-viz’, low-quality CGI in some shots…to the dubious motion of the Enterprise at times…to the numerous untouched hand-phaser FX…all helped to change my mind – and I have now reverted to preferring to re-watch the show in it’s original form in future. Sure, the original opticals look dated, and some of the Enterprise elements look shakey and badly matted in certain shots…but these days, the old FX just tie-in better overall for me in a ‘retro’, stylised way with the rest of the show’s general aesthetics, if you know what I mean. And as much as I really liked some of the more effective ‘remastered’ CGI Enterprise shots, I’ve long decided that I much prefer the look (and color) of the original miniature Enterprise in the scheme of things, despite the flaws. And while there were a lot less angles shown (and a few repeated ones)…I definately prefer the more stately movements of the original Enterprise overall, especially compared to some of the zippy movements seen in in the likes of the remastered ‘Doomsday Machine’. – speaking of which, it was always one of my favourite episodes as a youngster, and I much prefer the look of the original ‘Doomsday Machine’ compared to how it was re-designed in the remastered episode – another big reason why I’m sticking to the original version of the show in future. Another aspect of the original Enterprise that I liked were certain angles that were seen, and which were not as effective in some of the new TOS:R shots. And I prefer the way the original Klingon ship shots were composed compared to the remastered shots, especially as the CGI was pretty unimpressive-looking during those. And while the various TOS:R planets were pretty good overall, I still appreciate the look of the original versions, as they have their own ‘otherworldly’ look to them, generally. Yet another advantage of sticking with the originals, is that the end title shots will match perfectly – it’s a little thing, but in certain instances they don’t match with the look of the TOS:R shots, and it’s a pity they couldn’t have been re-done to fit better with the remastered visuals. Oh and yes…another advantage of my sticking to the original versions will be the fact that I get to hear the original theme arrangement, which I prefer too. I’ve no doubt that these ‘remastered’ versions are becoming the ‘default’ versions that new fans are seeing as their first exposure to the original STAR TREK episodes…and that’s okay I guess, as TOS:R has some neat new shots amongst the more disappointing ones…and will certainly come across as less ‘dated’ overall to fresh viewers. I’m sure if TOS:R had been my first exposure to the show, then I would automatically look on it as being the way I’d prefer to re-watch the episodes in future…in the same way that many who only saw the inferior ‘Special Editions’ of the original STAR WARS trilogy to begin with, prefer to re-watch those same versions they originally got introduced to. However, I was one of those that grew up with the original TOS effects, and have no problem with reverting to the ‘stylistic’ nostalgia they offer, after weighing up the different types of flaws offered by the ‘remastered’ episodes. _________________________________________________________________________ As far as the whole ‘widescreen’ thing goes, I remember eagerly looking forward to the day I could watch this show in a more ‘cinematic’ 16:9 format somehow…and was disappointed that we didn’t seem to be getting the Japanese ‘widescreen’ transmission version anytime soon. Back in 2007 when it was discussed here, I didn’t own the kind of large widescreen tv set which I do now, so I didn’t realise that it would have a range of settings options that would effectively let me do that! But thanks to the various settings, I will never …  Read more »

Sorry, the ‘widescreen’ stretch setting is an abomination to me. Far worse than cropping the top and bottom of the frame, where there is typically wasted, unartisticly framed, space, included in the composition only because of the 4:3 format. Shatner is fat enough in some episodes ;-)

@ CC – I’ve no doubt that the ‘psuedo’ kind of ‘widescreen’ I described above is not for everyone, and that many will prefer to keep the almost ‘square’ look which the existing 4;3 frame entails…even if it means seeing big black bars either side of the picture on their 16:9 widescreen tvs.

And that’s fine, as I once felt that I only wanted to watch the original aspect ratio too. But once I got used to the likes of the slightly ‘stretched’ appearance (without losing any of the picture frame whatsoever), I found it didn’t bother me in the least after a short while…as the impact of seeing the show’s visuals filling the whole of my widescreen tv in a 16:9 aspect was a real treat for me. (and the Shat and everyone else still look plenty thin this way)

Things only look slightly ‘squashed’ at the end of the day, but the overall effect is my preferred default way of re-watching the episodes now. When I tried checking how the 4:3 aspect looked again, I found that I couldn’t revert back to watching the smaller image with black bars in future.

It might not be a ‘true’ widescreen picture, but I’m happy to stick with it…as I have a feeling it will be a long time before there is any kind of official ‘widescreen’ available to us all. And even then, there’s no guarantee that the image will be ‘cropped’ by someone with a very good eye for the task.

I love that this site now gives somewhat obscure but pertinent information on Trek. After many “dark” periods with no new postings for extended periods when Anthony seemed to have left the site, we now get a constant stream of new content thanks to Kayla, Matt, Brian, et al. Thanks to you all for reinvigorating the site over the last few years and making it the go to Trek site once again.

Who here prefers the TOS-R color-corrected picture that shows the true green color of the Command uniforms? Does that affect canon for anyone?

Interesting, I was always aware of the apparent true darker green color of Kirk’s wrap-around-the-belly tunic so it doesn’t surprise or shock me that command gold seems a fiction.

The A/V geek in me wants the photo realism of what the film captured.

But I suppose it all boils down to what the production intended? Were they aware of the flaws of their film processing and did they seek to exploit it so as to use cheaper off-color material to create gold? Or was it always intended to exploit the three primary colors of Color TV, red, green and blue?

Memory Alpha says the command color was avocado green and that would seem to be that. But then canon or no, why did Roddenberry sign-off on this?

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/c/c9/McCoy_command_uniform.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/144?cb=20061209065327&path-prefix=en&trekmovie=.jpg

I have always wondered, and never gotten a straight answer about the animated series. Obviously there was an effort to emphasize the green in both Kirk’s wrap around tunic, as well as the command dress uniforms, which likewise Roddenberry signed off on. I had wondered with some of the animation errors, whether Roddenberry was even aware of the color discrepancy, which I like to think the animation was done by the off-shore animators watching the reruns, and the episodes were delivered fully colored after Roddenberry could do anything about it so he just had to go along with it.

Or maybe he just changed his mind, as there was no green in TMP nor TNG which was his direct involvement.

According to Memory Alpha they caught an overseas coloring flub where Uhura was colored with Chapel’s skin tone and fixed it in time before airing.

Bag on the CG all you want, but my kids wouldn’t sniff TOS with the original FX elements. As a matter of fact they would laugh at being able to see through the Enterprise on some shots. As far as I’m concerned the updated FX shots were the thing that kept TOS relevant to a new audience. Now I catch the kids with the DVD’s in their room.

They don’t have a problem with the ships looking like something out of Hanna-Barbera, but they got uptight over the mattework?

Don’t ever show them WORLD AT WAR, the film grain will probably incite them to madness.

http://www.roddenberry.com/media/vault/Script-StarTrekTheMotionPicture.pdf

Tos-R grew on me quite a bit in the last decade. I now own all three bluray sets. The article said it right, ” mixed bag” is a great way to describe this effort.

FYI – TOS-R is now airing on BBC America. Still looks pretty good.

A sad post-script; they also released 30-second, modern-styled trailers for each episode that were a great deal of fun- but apparently only about 2/3 (the first ‘two seasons’ worth) were ever completed due to StarTrek.com shutting down. For some of us, that was a GREAT disappointment. :-(

‘Star Trek’: Long-Lost Original USS Enterprise Model Finally Makes the Voyage Home

The model was used for the pilot and credits of the original 'Star Trek' series.

The Big Picture

• The original USS Enterprise model has been found in a storage locker after going missing for decades.
• The model was used for the original unaired pilot and opening credits of Star Trek: The Original Series .
• Rod Roddenberry plans to restore and display the iconic starship model in a museum for public viewing.

The original model of the USS Enterprise from Star Trek: The Original Series has been located, after spending several decades missing — not in some distant region of space, but in a storage locker. The model has been returned to Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry , the son of original Trek creator Gene Roddenberry . ABC News reports that the three-foot-long model was given to Gene Roddenberry after the original Trek series ended in 1969, and graced his desk for several years before he loaned it to the makers of 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture . The model disappeared shortly afterward and remained missing until it turned up on eBay last year. It had been discovered in a storage locker by parties unknown, who contacted action site Heritage Auctions. Although the model would fetch an enormous price at auction as a one-of-a-kind pop-cultural artifact, an arrangement was made between the finders and Roddenberry, whose father died at 70 in 1991.

The model in question was the first finished model of the iconic starship; it was used for the series' original unaired pilot episode, "The Cage," which was later incorporated into a two-part episode , "The Menagerie," before it was released in full in the 1980s. It was also used for the shots of the Enterprise seen in the show's opening credits. A larger model was later created for the rest of the series; that model is currently on display at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum . Roddenberry intends for the original model to find a permanent home, as well:

"This is not going home to adorn my shelves. This is going to get restored and we’re working on ways to get it out so the public can see it and my hope is that it will land in a museum somewhere."

What Is the USS Enterprise?

The flagship of the United Federation of Planets' Starfleet, the USS Enterprise is a Constitution-class starship from the 23rd century. It was originally captained by Robert April, who appeared on Star Trek: The Animated Series before appearing in live-action for the first time in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds . April later passed on command to Christopher Pike , whose adventures are currently being chronicled in the prequel series Strange New Worlds . After Pike was promoted to fleet command, James Kirk was given command of the ship, taking it on a five-year mission that kicked off one of science fiction's most enduring franchises.

In Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , then-Admiral Kirk stole the Enterprise to journey to the unstable Genesis Planet and reunite his friend Spock's mind with his body; during that adventure, Kirk had the ship self-destruct to prevent it from being seized by the Klingons. It was later replaced by a near-identical ship, the Enterprise-A ; many subsequent Federation ships have borne the name, up to the rechristened Enterprise-J in the series finale of Star Trek: Picard .

The son of Roddenberry and actor Majel Barrett , Rod Roddenberry is the chief executive officer of Roddenberry Entertainment. He currently executive produces the latest generation of Star Trek series, including Discovery , Strange New Worlds , Picard , Lower Decks , and Prodigy .

The original model of the Enterprise is now back in the Roddenberry family. Viewers can see it in action in Star Trek: The Original Series , which can be streamed on Paramount+.

Star Trek: The Original Series

In the 23rd Century, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise explore the galaxy and defend the United Federation of Planets.

Watch on Paramount+

'Star Trek' Origin Story Movie Will Be Set Decades Before 2009 Film

Paramount Pictures is ready to boldly go (again).

After rumors circulated earlier this year, Paramount officially announced a new "Star Trek" prequel film on Thursday, this time taking place decades before the original 2009 "Star Trek" feature.

"Andor" director Toby Haynes will direct from a script by Seth Grahame-Smith (who is also writing another hotly touted CinemaCon title, the third "Now You See Me" film). J.J. Abrams is returning to produce.

But then again, we've heard about a new "Star Trek" movie before.

During the run-up to "Star Trek Beyond" in 2016, it was revealed that a fourth film would reunite Chris Pine's Captain Kirk with his deceased father (played, once again, by Chris Hemsworth). A year later, Quentin Tarantino approached Paramount about doing a "Star Trek" movie - this time as an R-rated gangster movie (based, in part, on the 1968 episode of the original series "A Piece of the Action"). In 2018 S.J. Clarkson, a TV vet who would eventually direct "Madame Web," was hired to direct the fourth film in the Abrams-verse, but salary disputes led to Pine and Hemsworth leaving the project. That version was canceled in 2019 and Tarantino stated in 2020 that he wouldn't be making his "Star Trek" either.

In November 2019 "Fargo" creator Noah Hawley was hired to write and direct a new "Star Trek" film based on his version of the series. A year later, this movie was canceled by new Paramount Pictures president Emma Watts. In 2021 "Star Trek: Discovery" writer Kalinda Vazquez was hired to write a version based on her original pitch, but a separate script was being developed by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. The studio even set a summer 2023 release date for a new "Trek" (which "Trek" was the question).

In 2021 that release date was pushed to Christmas 2023, under the direction of "WandaVision" director Matt Shakman. Josh Friedman and Cameron Squires were brought on to retool the script. In early 2022 it was announced that the stars of the three previous "Star Trek" installments in the Abrams-verse would all be returning, although it was later reported that the actors had not entered negotiations to return.

In 2022 Shakman left "Star Trek" to join Marvel Studios' "The Fantastic Four." But just last month Steve Yockey was hired to write a fourth "Star Trek" movie.

Now, we are finally getting word of another film in development, with another writer/director team. But it's not the first time that a "Star Trek" prequel script has been floated, as Erik Jendresen, cowriter of "Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning," had submitted a script for "Star Trek: The Beginning" before J.J. had taken over and pitched his 2009 version. It depicted the Earth-Romulan War.

The post 'Star Trek' Origin Story Movie Will Be Set Decades Before 2009 Film appeared first on TheWrap .

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Star Trek Movies in order

• Movies or TV
• IMDb Rating
• In Theaters
• Release Year

1. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

G | 143 min | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi

When an alien spacecraft of enormous power is spotted approaching Earth, Admiral James T. Kirk resumes command of the overhauled USS Enterprise in order to intercept it.

Director: Robert Wise | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 96,539 | Gross: $82.26M

Star Trek I

2. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

PG | 113 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

With the assistance of the Enterprise crew, Admiral Kirk must stop an old nemesis, Khan Noonien Singh, from using the life-generating Genesis Device as the ultimate weapon.

Director: Nicholas Meyer | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 129,141 | Gross: $78.91M

Star Trek II

3. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

PG | 105 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

Admiral Kirk and his bridge crew risk their careers stealing the decommissioned U.S.S. Enterprise to return to the restricted Genesis Planet to recover Spock's body.

Director: Leonard Nimoy | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 86,116 | Gross: $76.47M

Star Trek III

4. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

PG | 119 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

To save Earth from an alien probe, Admiral James T. Kirk and his fugitive crew go back in time to San Francisco in 1986 to retrieve the only beings who can communicate with it: humpback whales.

Votes: 91,422 | Gross: $109.71M

Star Trek IV

5. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)

PG | 107 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Captain Kirk and his crew must deal with Mr. Spock's long-lost half-brother who hijacks the Enterprise for an obsessive search for God at the center of the galaxy.

Director: William Shatner | Stars: William Shatner , Leonard Nimoy , DeForest Kelley , James Doohan

Votes: 64,161 | Gross: $52.21M

Star Trek V

6. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

PG | 110 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

On the eve of retirement, Kirk and McCoy are charged with assassinating the Klingon High Chancellor and imprisoned. The Enterprise crew must help them escape to thwart a conspiracy aimed at sabotaging the last best hope for peace.

Votes: 80,857 | Gross: $74.89M

Star Trek VI

7. Star Trek: Generations (1994)

PG | 118 min | Action, Adventure, Mystery

With the help of long presumed dead Captain Kirk, Captain Picard must stop a deranged scientist willing to murder on a planetary scale in order to enter a space matrix.

Director: David Carson | Stars: Patrick Stewart , William Shatner , Malcolm McDowell , Jonathan Frakes

Votes: 86,999 | Gross: $75.67M

Star Trek VII

8. Star Trek: First Contact (1996)

PG-13 | 111 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

The Borg travel back in time intent on preventing Earth's first contact with an alien species. Captain Picard and his crew pursue them to ensure that Zefram Cochrane makes his maiden flight reaching warp speed.

Director: Jonathan Frakes | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , Brent Spiner , LeVar Burton

Votes: 131,994 | Gross: $92.00M

Star Trek VIII

9. Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)

PG | 103 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

When the crew of the Enterprise learn of a Federation conspiracy against the inhabitants of a unique planet, Captain Picard begins an open rebellion.

Votes: 79,422 | Gross: $70.12M

Star Trek IX

10. Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)

PG-13 | 116 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The Enterprise is diverted to the Romulan homeworld Romulus, supposedly because they want to negotiate a peace treaty. Captain Picard and his crew discover a serious threat to the Federation once Praetor Shinzon plans to attack Earth.

Director: Stuart Baird | Stars: Patrick Stewart , Jonathan Frakes , Brent Spiner , LeVar Burton

Votes: 83,879 | Gross: $43.25M

Star Trek X

11. Star Trek (2009)

PG-13 | 127 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The brash James T. Kirk tries to live up to his father's legacy with Mr. Spock keeping him in check as a vengeful Romulan from the future creates black holes to destroy the Federation one planet at a time.

Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Simon Pegg , Leonard Nimoy

Votes: 620,019 | Gross: $257.73M

Star Trek XI

12. Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)

PG-13 | 132 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction.

Director: J.J. Abrams | Stars: Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Zoe Saldana , Benedict Cumberbatch

Votes: 496,903 | Gross: $228.78M

Star Trek XII

13. Star Trek Beyond (2016)

PG-13 | 122 min | Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

The crew of the USS Enterprise explores the furthest reaches of uncharted space, where they encounter a new ruthless enemy, who puts them, and everything the Federation stands for, to the test.

Director: Justin Lin | Stars: Chris Pine , Zachary Quinto , Karl Urban , Zoe Saldana

Votes: 258,347 | Gross: $158.85M

Star Trek XIII

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Commander riker had a star trek: tng clone before thomas riker - he murdered him.

Commander Riker murdered his own clone in Star Trek: The Next Generation long before he knew about his transporter duplicate, Thomas Riker.

• Riker faced his own clone early on in TNG, refusing to be replicated for the sake of individuality.
• Mariposans cloned Riker and Pulaski without consent, leading to Riker taking matters into his own hands.
• Later, Riker discovered his own transporter duplicate in a twist of fate, navigating the complexities of having a double.

Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) had a clone in Star Trek: The Next Generation long before he found out about his transporter duplicate, Thomas Riker. For seven seasons of TNG and four movies, Riker served as First Officer of the USS Enterprise-D under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart). The Enterprise and her crew encountered many strange phenomena over the years, including the occasional evil twin or surprise doppelganger. In TNG season 7, Riker met his transporter clone, but he had a much more violent reaction the first time he was cloned.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 2 , episode 18, "Up the Long Ladder," the USS Enterprise-D crew encounters two different colonies that both originated from the same ship, the SS Mariposa. One of the colonies, the Bringloidi, has embraced a simple life of farming and the Enterprise brings them aboard when their planet begins experiencing solar flares. The Bringloidians inform Captain Picard of the other colony, Mariposa, which has become a more advanced society made up of clones. With an original population of only five colonists, the Mariposan clones have begun degrading, and they want more DNA samples to add to their gene pool.

The Bringloidians are based on cliched Irish stereotypes that were outdated even in 1989 when the episode aired.

10 Star Trek Characters Who Met Their Doppelganger

Commander riker murdered his first clone in star trek: tng's "up the long ladder", the mariposans steal riker and dr. pulaski's dna so they can clone them..

Soon after the USS Enterprise-D contacts the Mariposans, Commander Riker beams down to the planet with Dr. Katherine Pulaski (Diana Muldaur) and Lt. Worf (Michael Dorn) . After the Mariposans reveal themselves as clones, they ask for samples of DNA from Enterprise crew members to repopulate their gene pool. Because they have been continuously copying and recopying the same five people, the clones have begun to experience replicative fading and will be nonviable within a few generations. When the Mariposans ask for DNA samples, Riker is the first to speak up, saying:

No way, not me. [...] One William Riker is unique, perhaps even special. But a hundred of him, a thousand of him diminishes me in ways I can't even imagine.

The Prime Minister of Mariposa, Walter Granger (Jon De Vries), seems to accept their refusal, asking if the Enterprise crew could still help repair their equipment. As Lt. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton) and an engineering team work on repairs, the Mariposans steal DNA from Riker and Pulaski and clone them anyway. As they were unconscious through the process, Riker and Pulaski did not notice anything amiss, but, with his VISOR, Geordi could tell that Granger was lying. Riker, Pulaski, and La Forge then beam back down to Mariposa's cloning labs, and Riker kills both clones. Although Pulaski cringes, she supports Riker's decision, and though Granger calls them murderers, the away team suffers no consequences for killing two defenseless lifeforms.

Will Riker's Greatest Fear Later Came True With His Clone Thomas Riker

Will riker is no longer unique after this tng season 6 episode..

In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 6, episode 24, "Second Chances," the Enterprise visits the planet Nervala IV to investigate a Federation research station that was abandoned eight years ago. Commander Riker leads an away team down to the planet, and they discover an exact double of Riker claiming to be Lt. Will Riker. Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) determines that the man is genetically indistinguishable from Commander Riker. Riker had been on a mission to Nervala IV eight years before and was the last to beam up from the planet. La Forge realizes that the transporter beam must have split, resulting in one Riker being beamed to the ship and one being left on Nervala IV.

"Second Chances" is the directing debut of LeVar Burton, who would go on to direct another Riker-centric episode in TNG season 7, episode 12, "The Pegasus."

Lt. Riker decides to go by the name Thomas and transfers to another ship at the end of "Second Chances," before eventually joining the rebel group known as the Maquis and popping up on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . By TNG season 6, Riker has experienced many strange adventures since his encounter with the Mariposans in "Up the Long Ladder." While he is still clearly unsettled that he has a clone, he never considers killing his duplicate. The situation is different, of course, as Thomas Riker's creation was an accident, but it's clear Riker does not feel quite as strongly about having a duplicate as he did earlier on Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Star Trek: The Next Generation is available to stream on Paramount+.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

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Original U.S.S. Enterprise Model From ‘Star Trek’ Is Returned to Creator’s Son

The 33-inch model surfaced on eBay after disappearing decades ago. An auction house is giving it to the son of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of “Star Trek.”

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By Emily Schmall

The first model of the U.S.S. Enterprise, the starship that appeared in the opening credits of the original “Star Trek” television series , has been returned to Eugene Roddenberry, the son of the creator of the series, decades after it went missing.

“After a long journey, she’s home,” Mr. Roddenberry wrote on social media on Thursday.

For die-hard Trekkies, the model’s disappearance had become the subject of folklore, so an eBay listing last fall, with a starting bid of $1,000, didn’t go unnoticed.

“Red alert,” someone in an online costume and prop-making forum wrote, linking to the listing.

Mr. Roddenberry’s father, Gene Roddenberry, created the television series, which first aired in 1966 and ran for three seasons. It spawned numerous spinoffs, several films and a franchise that has included conventions and legions of devoted fans with an avid interest in memorabilia.

The sellers of the model were bombarded with inquiries and quickly took the listing down.

The sellers contacted Heritage Auctions to authenticate it, the auction house’s executive vice president, Joe Maddalena, said on Saturday. As soon as the sellers, who said they had found it in a storage unit, brought it to the auction house’s office in Beverly Hills, Calif., Mr. Maddalena said he knew it was real.

“That’s when I reached out to Rod to say, ‘We’ve got this. This is it,’” he said, adding that the model was being transferred to Mr. Roddenberry.

It was not clear what Mr. Roddenberry, who was traveling and could not immediately be reached on Saturday, would do with the reclaimed model. It was also unclear how it got to the storage unit in the first place and who had it before its discovery.

The original U.S.S. Enterprise, a 33-inch model, was mostly made of solid wood by Richard C. Datin, a model maker for the Howard Anderson Company, a special-effects company that created the opening credits for some of the 20th century’s biggest TV shows .

An enlarged 11-foot model was used in subsequent “Star Trek” television episodes, and is now part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum , where it was donated by Paramount Studios in 1974.

Mr. Maddalena said that Gene Roddenberry, who died in 1991 , kept the original model, which appeared in the show’s opening credits and pilot episode, on his desk.

The model went missing after Mr. Roddenberry lent it to the makers of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” which was released in 1979, Mr. Maddalena said.

“This is a major discovery,” he said, likening the model to the ruby slippers from the “The Wizard of Oz,” a prop that was stolen in 2005 and recovered by the F.B.I. in 2018, and that Heritage Auctions is selling.

While the slippers represent hope, he said, the starship Enterprise model “represents dreams.”

“It’s a portal to what could be,” he said.

Emily Schmall covers breaking news and feature stories and is based in Chicago. More about Emily Schmall

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