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Star Trek  The Original Series
This is the one that started it all.  The original Star Trek from the sixties fought back from cancellation to becoming a classic.  William Shatner had even started living in a travel trailer before the Star Trek series started to pick up steam.  No other show in history has such fan support has Star Trek.  There are Star Trek conventions, movies, and of course the new Star Trek series that have followed.

Articles - Future Birthplace of Captain Kirk  List of Star Trek Series

Star Trek   Believe It or Not Trivia Facts!

1.Originally Spock was to be half human and half martian.

2 Star Trek was going to be called Star Track.

3.Deforest Kelley was originally offered the role of Spock by Gene Roddenberry. I'm a doctor not a vulcan

4. James Kirk was the youngest starship captain ever.

5. The average budget for each episode of the original Star Trek was $180,000.

6. Gene Roddenberry's first choice for Captain Kirk was Lloyd Bridges . Jack Lord of Hawaii Five-0 was  asked to play Captain Kirk before Shatner. 

7. George Takei once accidentally stabbed William Shatner.

8. Deforest Kelley once played a doctor on Bonanza and as a doctor the western Virginian who let Leonard Nimoy's character die.

9. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor George Takei  and his family were relocated to an internment camp for Japanese Americans.

10. George Takei  appeared in a John Wayne movie the Green Berets.

11. The Star Trek Animated series won an Emmy for Best Children's Series for the 1974-1975 season.

12. William Shatner turned down the role of Dr. Kildare for the role of Captain Kirk.

13. Leonard Nimoy protested vehemently against his character having pointy ears.

14. Nimoy introduced the Vulcan nerve pinch in an early TOS episode ("The Enemy Within") where Spock was supposed to KO the evil Kirk in the Engineering room. He suggested the "pinch" as a non-violent alternative. Nimoy also devised the Vulcan Salute - a raised hand, palm forward with the fingers parted between the middle and ring finger - based on the traditional kohanic blessing, which is performed with both hands, thumb to thumb in this position: a position thought to represent the Hebrew letter shin (ש). (This letter is often used as a symbol of God in Judaism, as it is an abbreviation for one of God's names, El Shaddai. This usage is seen, for example, on every mezuzah.) Nimoy says he derived the accompanying spoken blessing, "Live long and prosper" from this source, as the last phrase of the blessing is "May the Lord be forebearing unto you and give you peace" (Numbers 6:24-26).

15. The "Vulcan nerve pinch" concept on "Star Trek" was invented by Nimoy when he and the show's writers were trying to figure out how an unarmed Spock could overpower an adversary without resorting to violence.

16. Leonard Nimoy appeared in episodes of five different series with William Shatner: "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." (1964), "Star Trek" (1966), "Star Trek" (1973), "T.J. Hooker" (1982), and "Futurama" (1999).

17.James Doohan (Scotty) lost his right middle finger during World War II. Most of his scenes are shot to hide it. However, it is very noticeable in "Catspaw". When Scotty is holding a phaser pistol on Kirk & Spock, only two fingers are holding the butt of the phaser.

18. Martin Landau was originally offered the role of Commander Spock, but declined. Leonard Nimoy, who accepted the part, took over the role of disguise-expert on "Mission: Impossible" (1966) when Landau left that show. Mission: Impossible was also filmed on the same lot as Star Trek, therefore when "Star Trek" (1966) ended, Nimoy merely crossed the street to go to his new job.

19. Shortly after the cancellation of the series, the staff of the marketing department of the NBC TV network confronted the network executives and berated them for canceling Star Trek, the most profitable show on the network in terms of demographic profiling of the ratings. They explained that although the show was never higher than #52 in the general ratings, its audience profile had the largest concentration of viewers of ages 16 to 39, the most sought after television audience for advertisers to reach. In other words, the show, despite the low ratings, had the precise audience advertisers hungered for, which was more than ample justification to consider the show a big success.

20. In 2000, the show was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as having the largest number of spin-off productions, including the feature film series and the numerous TV series.

21. Gene Roddenberry originally conceived the Klingons as looking more alien than they do in the series, but budget restriction prevented this. When the show moved to the big screen, he was finally able to make Klingons look more alien. The resulting continuity break between TOS and the movies and later series was addressed in _"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993) Trials and Tribble-ations (#5.06)_, in which the character of Worf confirms that something did happen to make the Klingons appear human, but he refuses to elaborate. In the final season (season #4) of the fifth "Star Trek" series "Enterprise" (2001) an episode dealt with the exact nature of why some Klingons (that would be the Klingons from the original series) did not have the "knotted" forehead that visually characterized all Klingons portrayed starting with Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). The premise was that a group of Klingons on a Klingon-populated world separate from their home world are exposed to a virus that modifies their appearance to that of the way they looked in TOS (and the crew, especially the ship's doctor in "Enterprise" (2001) manage to discover and generate a medical fix for the malady, of course).

22. Stardates were established in order to keep the audience guessing as to when the series takes place. A calendar year for the adventures of the Enterprise crew is never given in any episode, and Gene Roddenberry said the series could have taken place anywhere from the 21st to the 31st Centuries. By the time of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987), however, calendar years for Trek adventures had been established and the official Star Trek Chronology now indicates that the original "Star Trek" TV series takes place between the years 2266 and 2269. It wasn't until Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982), where the 23rd century time line is established, and the movie begins with the caption "In the 23rd Century...".

Did Captain Kirk walk the streets of Mayberry?


See images and go on a tour of Star Trek in Mayberry.

23. On at least two occasions ("Miri" & "City on the Edge of Forever") the exterior Mayberry set from "The Andy Griffith Show" (1960) was used. In "City," as Kirk walks Edith home, they pass by the easily recognizable courthouse, Floyd's barbershop, Emmett's repair shop, and the grocery.

24. According to official blueprints of the Enterprise, published in 1975, among features on the ship that were never mentioned on the TV series were two auxiliary bridges, a second sickbay area, a swimming pool, a garden, and a six-lane bowling alley. This last item, no doubt included in the blueprints as a joke, is the earliest known case of humor creeping into the background of the show's designs; this would become commonplace in the other "Star Trek" TV series of the '80s and '90s.

25. # Ranked #1 in TV Guide's list of the "30 Top Cult Shows Ever!" (29 June 2007 issue).

# The Star Trek Crews from all the "Star Trek" series were ranked #2 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends" (1 August 2004 issue).

# Spock's farewell remark "Live long and prosper" was ranked #5 in TV Guide's list of "TV's 20 Top Catchphrases" (21-27 August 2005 issue).

26. The uniforms were color coded to show what division of the ship that the crew member was assigned to. The colors were: gold - command, navigation, and weaponry; red - engineering, security, and ship's services; and blue - science and medicine. In practice, the gold uniforms often appeared apple green, which some have attributed to local interference with television signals. However, what actually occurred was that the peculiar green tunic was green, but under the lights on the set it appeared gold in most lighting conditions. However, the true color can be seen in Kirk's special "wrap-around" tunic and to some extent in the special occasion "dress" uniforms, both of which were made out of different materials which reflected the light differently. The uniforms were dry-cleaned, but the velour tended to shrink, so they had to constantly be altered which is why they often looked short on the actors.
 

27. Each starship and starbase had its own insignia, which was worn on the left breast of the uniform. The Enterprise's insignia was the now well known arrowhead shape. The boomerang shape from the side of the ship was the starfleet command insignia.

28. Captain Kirk's birthplace was established to be the state of Iowa, according to Gene Roddenberry in his book "The Making of Star Trek". Although an exact city was never established throughout the series, in 1985 the town of Riverside, Iowa officially proclaimed itself to be the "Future Birthplace of James T. Kirk". Steve Miller, a member of the Riverside City Council who had read Roddenberry's book, suggested to the council that Riverside should proclaim itself to be the future birthplace of Kirk. Miller's motion passed unanimously and the council later wrote to Roddenberry for his permission to be designated as the official birthplace of Kirk, to which Roddenberry agreed. The town is home to many Star Trek-related attractions, events and displays, including a replica of the USS Enterprise (named the USS Riverside), as well as plays host to the annual Riverside Trek Festival.
 

Star Trek: 20th Anniversary Collectors' Edition
[Holographic Slipcase] [BOX SET] [SOUNDTRACK]

The Best Of Star Trek: 30th Anniversary Special!
Original TV Soundtrack Enhanced CD SOUNDTRACK