Star trek
From ArticleWorld
Star trek is the hugely popular science fiction television and movie franchise. The show was first aired on September 8th 1966 in the United States and has amassed a huge cult following, affectionately referred to as ‘Trekkies.’
The Original
Star Trek is one of the most successful and expansive science fiction franchises ever seen. The show has amassed 726 individual episodes, spread over 6 different incarnations and has also had ten feature films made during it’s illustrious history. The Star Trek franchise started out as a simple series, which ran from 1966-69. The series followed a crew of humans and aliens cohabiting on the Starship Enterprise as they travelled through galaxies encountering new places and old enemies. The ship was led by William T. Kirk played by William Shatner and run by a crew of people of all different backgrounds, including the popular half-human half-Vulcan Spock, played by Leonard Nemoy. The series returned in 1973 running for two seasons as an animated programme featuring the voices of many of the original cast, this ended in 1974. 1978 saw a futuristic idea for Star Trek scrapped and the following year saw the first motion picture created simply named ‘’Star Trek: The Motion Picture.’’ During the 1980’s the television productions were put on hiatus whilst 3 more films with the cast were made ‘’II: The Wrath of Kahn’’ (1982), ‘’III: The Search For Spock’’ (1984) and IV: The Voyage Home (1986).
The Next Generations
In 1987 Star Trek returned to the television in the form of Star Trek: The Next Generation, this followed another group of space travellers on a similarly titled vessel called Enterprise, almost a century on from the original crew. The Next Generation proved to be the most popular incarnation of the Star Trek brand and proved to be a golden age for the crew. The show ran for 7 series before finally ending in 1994, but before it could even finish a new Star Trek series was starting, called Deep Space Nine. This series was a little different to the traditional Star Trek style, it followed the crew on a space station marooned in deep space. The show ran for 6 years until finally wrapping in 1999. Hot on the heals of the Next Generation were two more series set around the adventures of the crew on the Enterprise, first Voyager ran from 1995 until 2001 then it was replaced by the latest incarnation simply entitled Enterprise, which ran from 2001 to 2005. During this time of television upheaval the films kept on coming. Three more films featured the original cast starting with ‘’V: Final Frontier’’ (1989) then ‘’VI: The Undiscovered Country’’ (1991) and then the transitional film ‘’Generation’’ (1994). The final 3 films featured cast members from the Next Generation series of television, the films were ‘’First Contact’’ (1996), Insurrection (1998) and Nemesis (2002).
The Future
Star Trek has maintained a core popularity throughout its existence, but unsuccessful film box office figures and dwindling viewers of the television shows have left many to question what future the franchise has. The latest show, Enterprise was cancelled after poor figures and the possibility of another film is remote, as many of the cast from the Next Generation series have publicly stated that they would not be interested. However even in an uncertain future, Star Trek has enjoyed a near 40 year run on television and the big screen, it’s legacy is imbedded in the television history books and it’s popularity will no doubt last long after it has disappeared