Star Trek

Star Trek is a science fiction franchise, created by Gene Roddenberry, comprising six television series, ten films plus numerous books, comics, games and collectibles.

This is a very brief summary of what Star Trek is. It focuses on the televised aspects of the show, but it doesn't not go in depth on any particular one. This may change in the future, but for now this remains as an overview of what Star Trek offered in the mainstream. In the Star Trek universe, humanity developed faster-than-light space travel, using a form of propulsion referred to as "warp drive", following nuclear war and a post-apocalyptic period in the mid-21st century. According to the story time line, the first warp flight happened on April 5th, 2063. Later, humans united with other sentient species of the galaxy to form the United Federation of Planets. As a result of the intervention and scientific teachings of the Vulcans, an advanced telepathic alien race, humanity largely overcame many Earth-bound frailties and vices by the middle of the twenty-second century. Star Trek stories usually depict the adventures of human and alien beings who serve in the Federation's Starfleet.

The protagonists are essentially altruists whose ideals are sometimes only imperfectly applied to the dilemmas presented in the series. The conflicts and political dimensions of Star Trek form allegories for contemporary cultural realities; Star Trek: The Original Series addressed issues of the 1960s, just as later spin-offs have reflected issues of their respective eras. Issues depicted in the various series include war and peace, authoritarianism, imperialism, class warfare, economics, racism, human rights, sexism and feminism, and the role of technology. Roddenberry has stated that by creating "a new world with new rules, I could make statements about sex, religion, Vietnam, politics and intercontinental missiles. Indeed, we did make them on Star Trek: we were sending messages and fortunately they all got by the network"

Television series

The Original Series (1966 - 1969)

"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."

• Captain Kirk never said, "Beam me up, Scotty, " in any episode.
• Gene Roddenberry once hypothesized that the Enterprise carried a platoon of Starfleet Marines, but they never appeared onscreen in the original series. (Although the last series, Enterprise, introduced the MACOs, they weren't actually a part of Starfleet)
• "Shore Leave" is the only episode in which the U.S.S. Enterprise is seen orbiting a planet from right to left. The I.S.S. Enterprise also does this briefly in the parallel universe, in the teaser to "Mirror, Mirror", but by the beginning of the first Act, it is again orbiting from left to right.
• 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", 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, where the 23rd century time line is established, and the movie begins with the caption "In the 23rd Century...".
• In the hallways of the Enterprise there are tubes marked "GNDN", these initials stand for "goes nowhere does nothing".
• The slanting crawlway that leads up to the warp-drive nacelles is referred to as a "Jefferies tube." This is a reference to art director Walter M. Jefferies. "Jefferies Tubes" were greatly used in the later series.
• When NBC was promoting Star Trek in magazines, all shots of Spock's pointed eyebrows and ears where airbrushed out of the pictures because NBC thought that no one would watch the show due to Spock's resemblance to the Devil.
• 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.
• Leonard Nimoy is the only actor to appear in every episode of the series.
• 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. The arrowhead later became the standard Starfleet insignia.
• Two models of the Enterprise were used on the show. One is 3 feet long and the other is 11 feet long.
• The shimmer of the transporter beam was actually a film of aluminum powder being blown into the air by an industrial fan, under a bright spotlight.

The Animated Series (1973 - 1974)

• The show's final episode, "Counter-Clock Incident, " introduced the very first captain of the Enterprise, Robert April. Due to Gene Roddenberry's later request that the animated series not be considered canon, however, it has never been made part of official Star Trek continuity.
• The life-support belts came about simply because the bulky spacesuits created for "Star Trek" were too complex to draw.
• Walter Koenig was the only original "Star Trek" cast member to never appear on the series.
• Gene Roddenberry decided that this animated series was not "canon" because he did the show for the money, and he wouldn't have let the writers do some of things they did if he knew Star Trek would return in live-action
• Because of the series' low budget, Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), James Doohan (Mr. Scott), and Majel Barrett (Nurse Chapel) all voiced many of the extra crewmen, aliens, and "guest" characters that appeared on the series.

Phase II

The Next Generation (1987 - 1994)

"Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations - to boldly go where no one has gone before."

• The corridor, engineering, transporter room, and battle bridge sets were derived from sets originally built for the first four Star Trek movies. A majority of the sets also served as different locations on the Enterprise-A in the fifth and sixth Star Trek films.
• The ceiling of the transporter chamber on the Enterprise D is in fact the floor of the transporter chamber from the Enterprise in the original series.
• The original version of the Starfleet uniform was very uncomfortable for the actors, leading to a change of design from one-piece to a two-piece outfit in Season Three. Although the new uniforms were easier to wear, the jackets had a tendency to "ride up" when the actors were sitting down. Patrick Stewart got into the habit of straightening his jacket with a sharp downward tug as he stood up, an action that became known among the cast and crew as "The Picard Maneuver" (from a tactical maneuver mentioned in the show).
• Data's cat "Spot" is a male throughout the history of the show, but is suddenly female in the episode "Force of Nature, and in the episode "Genesis" gives birth to kittens.
• Two characters on the show were named after real people: The alien "Q" was named for Janet Quarton, a British fan; and Geordi La Forge was named after another Trek fan, George La Forge, who was confined to a wheelchair.
• The Master Alarm sound was reused from the original Star Trek series
• The Ferengi were originally introduced with the intention of making them the main, recurring adversaries in the series. However, audiences found the Ferengi too comical to take seriously as potential foes, and the race was gradually refined into the more comical characters later typified by Quark in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". The Borg eventually became infamous as TNG's ultimate nemesis.
• Worf's prosthetic forehead changed in season 2 because the original was stolen
• The Borg were originally written as insectoids, but were changed to cyborgs due to budget constraints
• The number 47 pops up an inordinate amount of times on computer screens, serial numbers, dates and so on. This tradition was started by writer/coproducer Joe Menosky and was soon picked up by the rest of the production team. Menosky said that he choose that particular number because when he was a graduate student at Pomona College, Professor of Mathematics Donald Bentley proved as a joke that all numbers are equal to 47.
• In 1994 the series became the first show in syndication to ever be nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series.
• Deanna Troi was nearly written out after the first season and, in fact, is absent from many of those episodes. But, after both Tasha Yar and Dr. Pulaski were written out, Troi was kept.
• Most of the characters underwent minor changes before the show debuted: Picard's first name was Julien; Riker was spelled 'Ryker'; Data's name was pronounced 'dat-uh' instead of 'day-tah'; Wesley Crusher was Leslie Crusher, Dr. Crusher's daughter.
• The sliding doors were very loud on the show and have been compared to sliding glass doors. The actors were instructed to hold their dialogue until the doors stopped; you will rarely see an actor delivering lines while a door is opening or closing.
• Jonathan Frakes returned to rehearsals at the start of the second season sporting a beard with the intention of shaving it off before shooting began, but the producers liked it and asked him to keep it. It remained for the rest of the show's run.
• Many displays and readouts in this series also have smaller printing or sight gags that are actually too small to be read on a TV screen. These were known internally as "Okudagrams, " after production designer Michael Okuda. One such joke is on the medical displays and reads "Medical Insurance Remaining".
• Close inspection of an oversized Enterprise schematic which was shown in nearly every episode reveals a detail invisible to TV audiences: the image of a mouse on a wheel in Engineering (the schematic is on display at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum). A Porsche can also been seen in the Main Shuttlebay.
• VISOR stands for "Visual Instrument and Sensory Organ Replacement".
• Patrick Stewart was so convinced that the show would fail that for the first six weeks of shooting he refused to unpack any of his suitcases.
• According his own diagnostics, Commander Data's data storage capacity is 800 quadrillion bits. This translates into 100 petabytes or 100 PB. For comparison purposes, the HTML content of the internet ca. 2005 is estimated at 1-2 PB.

Deep Space Nine (1993 - 1999)

The adventures near a wormhole on the edge of the final frontier.

• Kira was a last-minute addition to the cast; the original plan was to include the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" character of Ro Laren, but Michelle Forbes didn't want a series at the time.
• Dax was originally envisioned as an alien from a low-gravity world forced to get around in a wheelchair and who flew around her quarters; the concept was scrapped and recycled into the character of Melora because the "flight" cables were too difficult to rig.
• In the episode "Man Alone, " the planet Alderaan is listed as a recent place visited by a murder victim. Alderaan is the planet destroyed by the Death Star in Star Wars.
• Stars Alexander Siddig (Dr. Bashir) and Nana Visitor (Kira) were married in real life in 1997 (after the show's fourth season).
• Lit Star Trek model kit parts can be seen as medical instruments throughout the series. In one episode, Dr. Bashir uses a part that makes up a Romulan Warbird engine nacelle to scan or heal.
• The guy who is often in Quark's bar is named "Morn", which is an anagram for "Norm" from Cheers, who was often in the bar. Like Norm, Morn always sat in the same seat at the bar.
• Although we only rarely see it, there is an ATM in Quark's bar. It dispenses the various types of currency used by major races visiting the station: Federation credits, Bajoran litas, Cardassian leks, and Ferengi latinum.
• The design of Ops incorporates ideas that were considered but dropped for The Bridge on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" , such as the upper level office, the briefing table in the center of the room, and the transporter being built into the set.
• The tankards used for Klingon bloodwine are actually measuring cups used in baking
• The spots on Jadzia Dax were not stenciled. Instead, they were drawn on personally by Michael Westmore each day, a process which took over an hour.
  

Voyager (1995 - 2001)

• At one point, several male actors read for the role of Janeway in the event Paramount had cold feet over casting a female lead.
• The character of Tom Paris was a last-minute creation. Originally, Nicholas Locarno, (also played by Robert Duncan McNeill) a Starfleet Academy cadet who had been expelled in the episode "The First Duty" of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", was to have been the person that Captain Janeway released from prison to help track down the Maquis ship. However, using Locarno in "Star Trek: Voyager" would mean the producers would have to pay royalties to Ronald D. Moore and Naren Shankar (the writers of "The First Duty") every time Locarno appeared in an episode. Rather than do that, the producers created the character of Tom Paris, who shares a similar back story as Nick Locarno (both had been cashiered out of Starfleet having caused the death of another officer).
• Kate Mulgrew (Captain Kathryn Janeway), Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Tim Russ (Tuvok) and Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris) are the only actors to appear in every episode of the series.
• There are only six actors to play the same character on three different "Star Trek" series: Jonathan Frakes (William T. Riker), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), Armin Shimerman (Quark), John de Lancie (Q), Michael Ansara (Kang) and Richard Poe (Gul Evek). This is the only series in which all six appear.
• Jeri Ryan turned down the role of Seven of Nine four times; she only accepted the part after repeated lobbying by executive producer Jeri Taylor.
• The introduction of Seven of Nine is credited with saving the series from possible cancellation after its first few seasons, as the sexy character sparked a revival in ratings.
• Like its predecessors, the series used a large filming model of the starship where the show takes place. It wasn't until the last few seasons that a computer generated (CGI) starship replaced the 6-foot model. Nevertheless, the "USS Voyager" seen in the opening credits (which date back to late-1994), is totally CGI.
• In the series finale, "Endgame", Janeway gives Tuvok a picture of the Voyager crew. The picture is in fact a fifth season promo photo issued by Paramount Pictures.

Enterprise (2001 - 2005)

"Take her out ... straight and steady."

• Footage created by Industrial Light and Magic for Star Trek: First Contact (1996) showing the launch of Cochrane's ship, the Phoenix, is included in the opening credits.
• This was the first Star Trek series to have an actual theme song, a fact that caused controversy among fans, who were split on the idea. The pilot episode used a different piece of music for the closing credits (in fact, an instrumental of the opening song) from the rest of the episodes. Beginning with the third season, the theme was revised to be more upbeat.
• The first Star Trek series to not use "starring" and "also starring" in the credits; also the first to not name the characters being played by the actors (i.e. [Actor] as [Character]).
• The solar system in the title sequence is described in German.
• This is the only "Star Trek" series to have the same regular cast throughout its entire run.
• The first name of Captain Archer was initially to have been Jeffrey. While the (American) producers of the show didn't see any problems with this name, UK fans pointed out the link to disgraced author, actor and politician Jeffrey Archer after learning of the name over the Internet. The name was changed to Jackson, but there was exactly one person in the country named Jackson Archer. To avoid lawsuits, Jonathan was chosen for a name because there were 20 Jonathan Archers
• It had been reported that NBC, the network that carried the original "Star Trek", was interested in acquiring this series, but lost out to UPN.
• The bridge set has 80 plasma screens built into it.
• "Star Trek" was originally left off the title because of its overuse in previous franchise titles and because "Enterprise" was just as instantly recognizable, from the premiere episode #1.1, "Broken Bow", all the way through the episode #3.3, "Anomaly". After the second season suffered low ratings, the third season adopted the title "Star Trek: Enterprise" starting with episode #3.3, "Extinction".
• In Capt. Archer's cabin, there is a photo on the wall of a Pan American World Airways Boeing Clipper. Gene Roddenberry was, at one time a pilot for Pan Am.
• The captain's chair used in the fourth season was originally from the Enterprise-E bridge set in an alternate ending for Star Trek: Nemesis.
• The first and last lines of the series are the same: "...where no man has gone before..."

Feature films

Bridge Crew

The Enterprise

Bridge of the Enterprise

An original design for the movie, the USS Kelvin

Kirk crawling out of an Enterprise escape pod

Spock is emotionally compromised.

Our villain, Nero on the bridge of his ship

Some fans consider the even-numbered Star Trek films to be superior to the odd-numbered Star Trek films (the so-called "Star Trek movie curse"); the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth films are considered fan favorites, whereas the first, third, fifth, seventh, and ninth are often considered the weaker films. Although the aptly titled "Star Trek" will be the eleventh feature film, fans hope the trend will not continue.

This fan impression roughly corresponds to the critics' reviews of the films. According to Rotten Tomatoes website, the best of the Star Trek films are: Star Trek (94% fresh), The Wrath of Khan (92% fresh), First Contact (91% fresh), The Undiscovered Country (84% fresh), and The Voyage Home (86% fresh). The worst films are The Final Frontier (18% fresh) and Nemesis (36% fresh). Critics were almost evenly divided on the remaining 3 films (The Motion Picture, Generations, and Insurrection).