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50th Anniversary of Star Trek - 08 Sep 2016

dimsum

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From io9:

On September 8, 1966, exactly 50 years ago today, the very first episode of Star Trek aired on television. More than just science fiction, it dared to imagine a future for humanity where it had moved past war, inequality, and poverty, replacing them with tolerance, exploration, and hope. And it’s not an exaggeration to say that Star Trek changed the world.

Star Trek has had many incarnations over the years—there have been six television shows, 726 total episodes, 13 movies, and one reboot—but its primary mission has stayed the same. The result is a series that won countless awards (31 Emmys!) but has also fostered a massive fandom that includes actors, politicians, and more. It’s a show that created and made famous many of the tropes that science fiction uses all the time now. It’s a series so influential that an actual spacecraft was named after the fictional starship Enterprise. Scientists have spent years working to turn the fake technology seen in the series into a reality. President Barack Obama is a fan.

On-screen, it helped popularize diversity in popular entertainment. It made all its viewers feel included and inspired. A beautiful example is Leslie Jones telling the story of seeing Whoopi Goldberg on television for the first time and being so thrilled to see someone who looked like her. And that connects back to Goldberg, when she saw Uhura on Star Trek at age nine. “I looked at it and I went screaming through the house,” she said, “‘Come here, mom, everybody, come quick, come quick, there’s a black lady on television and she ain’t no maid!’ I knew right then and there I could be anything I wanted to be.”

It’s a show so ground-breaking that it gets credit for things it wasn’t even the first to do. Kirk and Uhura’s kiss wasn’t the first scripted interracial kiss on television, but everyone thinks it is. But that myth is still part of the influence of Star Trek, and it’s a myth easy to believe because of how hard Star Trek likes to push the boundaries, to (boldly) go whether other series and movies so seldom do, to reveal what humanity would look like at its most accepting, its most optimistic, and its most noble.

It seems impossible now, but back in 1966, the original Star Trek was not an easy sell—it had two pilots and a major cast change before going on the air—and it was canceled after three seasons, due to low ratings. But thanks to syndication, a loyal fandom arose, one that has only grown over the last five decades. Now it’s an institution. And it’s an institution that will continue, as the series finally returns to TV next year with Bryan Fuller’s highly anticipated Star Trek: Discovery.

Here’s to you, Star Trek. And here’s to the next 50 years.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/happy-50th-anniversary-star-trek-1786384803

An awesome audio clip of Star Talk with Neil DeGrasse Tyson interviewing Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) on how one famous person convinced her to stay on the show:

http://www.startalkradio.net/show/a-conversation-with-nichelle-nichols/

Fun wiki fact:  It actually aired on CTV (yes, our CTV) on Sep 6th, 1966 - two days before the US airing.

Also, relevant Oatmeal comic:  http://theoatmeal.com/comics/plane
 
Dimsum said:
. . .  Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) . . .

Damn, fifty years go by awful quick.

Since Nichelle Nichols was mentioned, it seems appropriate to note a connection (albeit fleeting) to the RCN a few years before her iconic appearance in the original series.

This was from the January 1961 issue of "The Crowsnest" (they misspelled her first name).
 

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Blackadder1916 said:
Damn, fifty years go by awful quick.

Tell me about it. My father was watching an episode of Star Trek in the hospital waiting room while I was born. :facepalm:
 
How William Shatner changed the world

William Shatner presents a light-hearted look at how the "Star Trek" TV series have influenced and inspired today's technologies, including: cell phones, medical imaging, computers and software, SETI, MP3 players and iPods, virtual reality, and spaceship propulsion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjlF_iSo1Og
 
Blackadder1916 said:
Since Nichelle Nichols was mentioned, it seems appropriate to note a connection (albeit fleeting) to the RCN a few years before her iconic appearance in the original series.
No way!!  She toured with Lionel Hampton?!  AWESOME vibraphone and keyboard dude!

/old guy  ;D
 
Well, Spock was right:

By and large, the Star Trek actors have lived long ... and prospered.  [:D
 
Oldgateboatdriver said:
Well, Spock was right:

By and large, the Star Trek actors have lived long ... and prospered.  [:D

I wonder how much, if anything, they make on residuals?

Jim Backus played the millionaire Thurston Howell III on Gilligan'a Island 1964 - 1967,
"I cry a lot. I watch myself three or four times a day on TV, and I don't get a dime. My relatives think I'm terribly wealthy, but we were only paid for the first five or six reruns of the show. I feel miserable, suicidal." "Somebody's getting the money," he says. "Producers, the networks, everybody but the actors."
http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20090086,00.html


 
At the risk of stirring up a geeky hornet's nest (weird mental image there), the 2009 Star Trek movie had the best "reveal" sequence.  For some reason this video is flipped but you get the idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZpEOpeha3Y
 
Dimsum said:
At the risk of stirring up a geeky hornet's nest (weird mental image there), the 2009 Star Trek movie had the best "reveal" sequence.  For some reason this video is flipped but you get the idea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZpEOpeha3Y

Admit it. You are posting from your mom's basement, right? :)
 
Dimsum said:
Worse.  Greenwood.

Warning: One of our former 031 Sgts is trapped there with you. She is now a Flt Lt, and a crossfit fiend. Do not make her angry....
 
daftandbarmy said:
Warning: One of our former 031 Sgts is trapped there with you. She is now a Flt Lt, and a crossfit fiend. Do not make her angry....

We're good friends - I knew her from my 7 months of fun on course.  Actually she dropped by for a beverage when we came in yesterday.
 
Have been watching "For the love of Spock" as it's become available on line.  Enjoying it very much with a tinge of sadness because Leonard isn't with us anymore.
 
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