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Tvcrazy.net TV trivia and facts sections Fun Facts Home

 List of Star Trek TV Series
Back to Star Trek Trivia

The Original Series (1966–1969)

Star Trek (Also known as "TOS", The Original Series) debuted in the United States on NBC on September 8, 1966. The show tells the tale of the crew of the starship Enterprise and its crew's five-year mission "to boldly go where no man has gone before." The original 1966-1969 television series featured William Shatner as Captain James Tiberius Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Spock, DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, James Doohan as Montgomery Scott, Nichelle Nichols as Uhura, George Takei as Hikaru Sulu, and Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov.

In its first two seasons, it was nominated for Emmy Awards as Best Dramatic Series, and Leonard Nimoy received nominations all three years for acting. Individual episodes won two Hugo Awards and six additional nominations in 1967-68, and a WGA Award for Best Dramatic Episode in 1968.

After three seasons, however, the show was canceled and the last original episode aired on June 3, 1969. The series subsequently became popular in reruns and a cult following developed, complete with fan conventions. Originally presented under the title Star Trek, it has in recent years become known as Star Trek: The Original Series or as "Classic Star Trek" — retronyms that distinguish it from its sequels and the franchise as a whole. All subsequent films and television series, except the animated series of the 1970s and the earlier seasons of Enterprise, have had secondary titles included as part of their official names. A re-release of the series began in September 2006 with computer-generated imagery "enhancements" as a high-definition "Remastered" edition. The entire series has been remastered. The remastered episodes currently air in syndication while the originals appear on many countries' channels although these broadcasts are infrequent and irregular.

 The Animated Series (1973–1974)

Star Trek: The Animated Series was produced by Filmation and ran for two seasons from 1973 to 1974. Most of the original cast performed the voices of their characters from The Original Series, and many of the original series' writers, such as D. C. Fontana, David Gerrold and Paul Schneider wrote for the series.

While the animated format allowed larger and more exotic alien landscapes and lifeforms, animation and soundtrack quality, the liberal reuse of shots pioneered by Jonnie 'Roy' White and musical cues as well as occasional animation errors has detracted from the reputation of the series. Although it was originally sanctioned by Paramount (who became the owners of the Star Trek franchise following its acquisition of Desilu in 1967), Roddenberry forced Paramount to stop considering the series canonical. Even so, elements of the animated series have been used by writers in later live-action series and movies. Kirk's middle name, Tiberius, first used in TAS episode "Bem", was made official in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and elements of Spock's childhood from "Yesteryear" were mentioned in the TNG episode "Unification, Part 1". The holodeck also made its first appearance in TAS episode "The Practical Joker".

TAS won Star Trek's first Emmy Award on May 15, 1975. Star Trek TAS briefly returned to television in the mid-1980s when it was rebroadcast on the children's cable network Nickelodeon per the request of Nickelodeon's Evan McGuire, who had greatly admired the show, even using its various creative components as inspiration for his short series called Piggly Wiggly Hears A Sound, which never aired. In the early 1990s, the Sci-Fi Channel also began rerunning TAS. The complete TAS was also released on Laserdisc format during the 1980s.The complete series was first released in the USA on eleven volumes of VHS tapes in 1989. All 22 episodes were released on DVD in 2006.

Phase II
Star Trek: Phase II was set to air in June 1978 as the flagship series of a proposed Paramount Pictures television network, the Paramount Television Service, and 12 episode scripts were written before production was due to begin. The series would have put most of the original crew back aboard the Enterprise for a second five-year mission, except for Leonard Nimoy as Spock, who did not agree to return due to legal disputes with Paramount (detailed in his autobiography, I Am Not Spock). A younger, full-blooded Vulcan named Xon was planned as a replacement, although it was still hoped that Nimoy would make guest appearances.Sets were constructed and several minutes of test footage were filmed. However, the risks of launching a fourth network and the popularity of the then-recently released film Star Wars led Paramount to make a Star Trek film instead of a weekly television series. The first script of this aborted series ("In Thy Image") formed the basis of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, while two others ("The Child" and "Devil's Due") were eventually adapted as episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation during the 1988 Writers Guild of America strike.

The Next Generation (1987–1994)

Star Trek: The Next Generation (Also known as "TNG" and The Next Generation) is set approximately 100 years after The Original Series. It features a new starship, the Enterprise-D, and a new crew led by Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes). The series introduced alien races new to the Federation as crew members, including Deanna Troi, a half-Betazoid counselor played by Marina Sirtis, and Worf as the first Klingon officer in Starfleet, played by Michael Dorn. It also featured Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher, LeVar Burton as chief engineer Geordi La Forge, and the android Data portrayed by Brent Spiner. The show premiered on September 28, 1987 and ran for seven seasons, ending on May 23, 1994. Unlike the previous television outings, the program was syndicated instead of airing on network television. It had the highest ratings of any of the Star Trek series and was the #1 syndicated show during the last few years of its original run, allowing it to act as a springboard for ideas in other series. Many relationships and races introduced in TNG became the basis of episodes in DS9 and Voyager.  It was nominated for an Emmy for Best Dramatic Series during its final season. It also received a Peabody Award for Outstanding Television Programming for the episode "The Big Goodbye".

Deep Space Nine (1993–1999)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Also known as "DS9", Deep Space Nine) is set during the last years and the immediate post-years of The Next Generation and was in production for seven seasons, debuting the week of January 3, 1993. Like Star Trek: The Next Generation, it aired in syndication in the United States and Canada. It is the only Star Trek series to take place primarily on a space station rather than aboard a starship. It is set on the Cardassian-built space station Deep Space Nine, located near the planet Bajor and a uniquely stable wormhole that provides immediate access to the distant Gamma Quadrant.The show chronicles the events of the station's crew, led by Commander (later Captain) Benjamin Sisko, played by Avery Brooks. Recurring plot elements include the repercussions of the lengthy and brutal Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, Sisko's unique spiritual role for the Bajorans as the Emissary of the Prophets and in later seasons a war with the Dominion. Deep Space Nine stands apart from earlier Trek series for its lengthy serialized storytelling, conflict within the crew, and religious themes — all of which were elements that Roddenberry had forbidden in earlier Trek programs. Nevertheless, he was made aware of plans to make DS9 before his death, so this was the last Star Trek series with which he was connected.

Voyager (1995–2001)

Star Trek: Voyager was produced for seven seasons from January 16, 1995 to May 23, 2001, launching a new Paramount-owned television network UPN. It features Kate Mulgrew as Captain Kathryn Janeway, the first female commanding officer in a leading role of a Star Trek series. Voyager takes place at about the same time as Deep Space Nine. The premiere episode has the USS Voyager and its crew pursue a Maquis ship (crewed by Starfleet rebels). Both ships become stranded in the Delta Quadrant about 70,000 light years from Earth. Faced with a 75-year voyage to Earth, the crew must avoid conflict and defeat challenges on the long and perilous journey home. Like Deep Space Nine, early seasons of Voyager feature greater conflict between its crew than is seen in later shows, as a large contingent of the crew is made up of Maquis fugitives forced by circumstance to cooperate with Starfleet regulations instead of doing things the Maquis way. Eventually, though, they settle their differences, after which it becomes more reminiscent of The Original Series. Voyager is originally isolated from many of the familiar aspects and races of the Star Trek franchise, barring those few represented on the crew. This allowed for the creation of new races and original plot lines within the series. Later seasons, however, brought an influx of characters and races from prior shows, such as the Borg, Q, the Ferengi, Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians as well as cast members of The Next Generation.

Enterprise (2001-2005)
Star Trek: Enterprise (originally titled Enterprise prior to the third season), produced for an abbreviated four seasons airing from September 26, 2001 to May 13, 2005, is a prequel to the other Star Trek series, taking place in the 2150s, some 90 years after Zefram Cochrane developed the first warp-capable starship from a ballistic missile and about a decade before the founding of the Federation. The series shows how the first extraterrestrial contact with the Vulcans and subsequent guidance led to Earth's first warp-five capable starship, the Enterprise, commanded by Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula). For the first two seasons, Enterprise is mostly episodic, like the original series and The Next Generation. The third season's "Xindi mission" arc carried through the entire season. Season 4 was especially known for showing the origins of several common elements in the other series, due to the producers having recruited as writers Trek experts Mike Sussman and the writing team of Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. In addition, season 4 rectified and resolved some core continuity problems in the series (some of which were created in season 1 of Enterprise), most notably the decades-old issue of the drastic change in the appearance of the Klingons between TOS and other Trek series. The fourth season's story arcs are often spread to two or three episodes. Ratings for Enterprise started strong but declined rapidly, although longtime viewers were pleased by the final season's many homages to other Trek series.

As the show's viewer ratings dwindled, J. Michael Straczynski and Bryce Zabel proposed rebooting the franchise with the crew of the original series. They proposed a two-hour pilot where Kirk and Bones meet Spock and start the five year mission. Each season would chronicle a year on the Enterprise, as the crew embark on finding the common ancestor of every intelligent lifeform, with some stand-alone episodes in addition to "four or five episodes" building to a season finale. To further differentiate the show from past incarnations, they wanted to delete the holodeck, completely reinvent the technology, make the tribbles vicious, or even make Scotty a woman (though they made clear that example was a joke). They also suggested hiring famous novelists (Michael Crichton and Stephen King were some of their suggestions) to write episodes just as the original show made use of the likes of Richard Matheson. Straczynski explained Paramount ignored the proposal as they were not "even willing to talk about Star Trek".