What else was going on that year? The Beatles performed their last public concert and Janis Joplin did one of her first. Janet Jackson was born and Walt Disney died. The NFL and the AFL merged.
Star Trek was often a political statement about peace and understanding disguised as a science fiction adventure. Kirk, Spock, Ohura, Scottie, Checkov and Sulu functioned well as a multi-cultural team while our country faced race riots and the Viet Nam war. There were plot lines about racial harmony and the futility of war … a little preachy perhaps but appealing to my own sensibilities.
In Kirk’s world, space travel was routine, not just to other planets but to other solar systems as well. In our world a manned lunar landing was still nearly 3 years away.
Star Trek seems to have influenced parts of our future. Men and women of various races and cultures now work together in space. Kirk’s communicator looks a lot like the Motorola StarTac cell phone I just gave up after five years. I bet the name of my cell phone model is no coincidence.One irony of this story is that Star Trek did not do well in the ratings and was cancelled after 3 seasons. Fiercely loyal fans went where no group had gone before, however, and kept the show alive in syndication and merchandising. Six TV shows and ten feature films were spun off from the original series. Many of the characters and their mannerisms have become part of our culture. Lead actor William Shatner is still on TV.
Boomers like me were fascinated by space flight. Americans first flew in space in the 1960s and as a kid I watched many launches on television. Now, 40 years later, I’m watching live coverage of a space shuttle launch as I write this paragraph …
“… five, four, three, … three main engines up and burning, one … liftoff …. beginning a new chapter in the completion of the international space station for the collaboration of nations in space ...”
The synergy between the anniversary of Star Trek and the launch of Atlantis is thrilling for me. I feel like a kid again, except that today I’m watching a launch live on my laptop computer, with NASA TV on the lower half of the monitor and this paragraph on the top, while simultaneously viewing pictures from MSNBC’s coverage on a large TV to my left. In 1966 our one family TV had a big cabinet with a small screen and computers were the size of a classroom and only found in colleges, businesses and government installations.
The NASA narrator’s launch sentence above might not be as profound as Kirk’s opening but the idea is the same.
Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before.
Happy Birthday, Star Trek. May your legacy live long and prosper.
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