Musing about Star Trek, and a look at Star Trek Collectors Prints, Artwork, Models, and Figurines.

Star Trek debuted on September 8, 1966. Despite a promising beginning (the debut episode actually beat its competition), the ratings were discouraging and the show had to be twice saved from cancellation by letter-writing campaigns. In 1969, after only three seasons and 79 episodes Star Trek was cancelled by NBC.

Today, the show is broadcast over 200 times a day in the United States alone and has been translated into 47 languages worldwide, making it the most watched science fiction series in history.

Star Trek takes us on a journey into the unexplored regions of space, aboard the USS Enterprise, a Huge "star ship." Its commander is Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) . Its officers and crew include representatives of every know race and gender, plus one startling character called Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) , who has pointy ears, slanty eyebrows and Beatle bangs, and turns out to be half-earthling, half-Vulcanian and all business (creatures from the planet Vulcan, as we all know, never display any emotion) .

Back in the late 1960s each week on the NBC television station the show Star Trek, would take a different trip into the possible worlds that hide in the future, and it is a lot of fun to watch and share in the adventure. Star Trek expressed the beliefs of its creator, a rare situation for most television programming (especially in 1966). The show reflected Roddenberry's view by presenting a refreshingly positive view of humanity. Man is not destined to die in a nuclear holocaust, He can progress to the higher and better level represented by the Enterprise and its crew. Of course, the world of Star Trek is not perfect, but it is stall a better one than ours. Any bridge scene is sufficient proof. Bridge personnel are an Irish captain, alien science officer, Scottish engineer, black communications officer (female), southern doctor, Asian navigator, and Russian ensign. All have deep respect and care for each other. The comment on our own society is implicit.

Roddenberry's positive-ness manifests itself in various ways aside from Star Trek's overall view of a brighter future. One example is man's mastery of technology. Captain Kirk completely dominates the super machines that surround him. Also, the Enterprise possesses the awesome capability to destroy an entire planet, yet its primary mission is peace and contact. In Star Trek, technology helps man, but it does not replace or harm him. A second and more significant aspect is the friendship and understanding that characterize Star Trek. The crew of the Enterprise respect and care for each other and this is extended to others. New life forms are not usually feared or destroyed, but understood. In "Devil in the Dark", Kirk encounter a seemingly vicious and murdering monster. Instead of destroying it immediately, Kirk sought to understand the motive for the Horta's violence. In the end, he discovers that the Horta is trying to protect her Children. This episode underscores an important point for Roddenberry: "Identify... feel! That is what drama is all about. And that is its importance too ... If you can learn to feel for a Horta, you may also be learning to understand and fell for other humans of different colors, ways and beliefs."

There is the deep friendship between Kirk and his half-human, half-Vulcan science officer. There is a sense of oneness, that Kirk and Spock are the two halves of a perfect whole. This is all the more important due to Spock's half-bred nature and cultural alienations stemming from his Vulcan heritage. To present day Spocks, the image of a totally competent officer, earning the respect of the crew and the lasting friendship of Kirk, is a very powerful symbol. Taken as a whole, Star Trek pictured a world characterized by, hope, achievement, understanding and love. This optimism is frequently cited by viewers of those involved with Star Trek as the single most important reason behind the shows success. And Star Trek was undeniably a success; in terms of numbers, devotion and loyalty, the show has developed a following unparalleled in television history. For example, when NBC cancelled Star Trek after its second season, viewers wrote nearly one million letters of protest. As a result, NBC aired Star Trek for one more season, finally cancelling it in 1969. (NBC blamed poor ratings. Roddenberry blamed the third season time slot - Friday at 10 p.m. for the bad ratings. He also felt was not as popular then as it is now.)

Today, as syndicated reruns, the show is extremely successful and its audience continues to grow. There are hundreds of clubs and fan magazines and at least twenty professionally published Star Trek books. National Star Trek conventions regularly attract thousands of fans. In Washington, the Smithsonian Institute established a Star Trek archive as part of a continuing effort to evaluate the impact of science fiction on future scientist and scientific progress. Even psychiatric hospitals frequently request the episode entitled "The Enemy Within". Doctors feel it demonstrates to patients, better than they can, what the good and evil sides of a person are. Clearly, Roddenberry's Star Trek is not just another television program that came and went.

Star Trek has a lot of wonderful gadgets dreamed up for its series, and Science fiction is not that far ahead of reality the creator of the Star Trek TV series, point out that much of the show's way-out gadgetry has since come into being. "Man is capable of doing anything he can imagine," said Hollywood science fiction writer the late Gene Roddenberry. "Take the bed in Dr. McCoy's sick bay in Star Trek, for instance, Recently, the Mayo Clinic came up with the same t hing - a bed that measures all body functions. "A few years after we designed the captain's bridge for the U.S.S. Enterprise - the Star Trek spaceship - the U.S. Navy asked us for the plans for it in connection with a secret communication project.

"The Basic weapon used by the Enterprise crew was called the phaser - a disintegrating device. Well, the Air Force now has a mini-laser device and the actually call it a phaser. "On Star Trek, too,' Roddenberry went on, "we demonstrated surgery that did not involve cutting and stitching - such as shriveling an inflamed appendix - using ultrasonic sound waves. Experiments like this are actually under way at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California."

The late Roddenberry once said the Smithsonian Institution in Washington put a model of the Enterprise in its Air and Space Museum and told him: "the word came first, and then the execution of the idea. Star Trek supplied the word."

The star ship Enterprise is propelled by matter and anti-matter to create the power required to warp space and exceed the speed of light. The Enterprise also has a secondary propulsion system called impulse power engines. These engines, of course, are not as powerful and the ship's peed when using them is less than the speed of light. If all engines fail, the ship's gravitational and life support systems can be switched to battery power which has about a one-week full-load capacity.

The PVC figures in the photo above featuring the original crew from the classic Star Trek TV series. These figurines were produced in 1991 by Hamilton Gifts, they are mint, still sealed in their original bags, which were taken from a sealed case. They include Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov and measure approximately 4" tall, each with a unique base denoting their department of command, science or engineering. Also included in this set are a Andorian, a Tellarite, a Gorn, a Mugato, and a Talosian. The only one missing in this set is Mr. Spock.

The mission of the U.S.S. Enterprise is very like that of the warships of major powers at the turn of the century, when these vessels were assigned to sectors of various oceans where they represented their governments. The captains of these ships were often put out of contact with their homelands for long periods of time and so they had broad powers to regulate trade, brush wars, slavery, surveys and investigations. In the case of the Star-ship, which is out of communication with Earth and Star-fleet bases for long periods of time, the welfare of the crew as well as Earth people and activities encountered during these voyages is left to Captain James T. Kirk.

The Captain is assisted by the ship's Science Officer, number two racking officer holding the rank of Commander. He is in charge of all scientific departments aboard. His position is at the bridge library-computer station which links the bridge to the vessel's intricate "brain". This is an advance computer which interconnects all stations of the ship. Mr. Spock can tap the resources of the entire computer system from his central panel. This includes a micro-record library on man's history, arts, sciences, philosophy and all know information on other solar systems, Earth colonies, alien civilizations and almost anything else.

All through the ship are turbo-lifts by which any section of the vessel can be reached. There are interconnecting corridors with doors and hatches opening on a variety of areas. There are various Transporter Rooms throughout the ship. Up to six people at a time can be transported or "beamed" to and from vessels and planets by converting matter into energy, beaming that energy to a fixed point, then re-converting it back. The shuttle craft which holds six or seven passengers for trips on intra-solar system missions is housed in the Engineering section, a large complex portion of the ship housing a hanger deck (large enough to hangar a whole fleet of today's jet liners).

One of the most important pieces of equipment is the Tricorder. This is about the size of a large rectangular handbag. It can used to analyze and keep records of almost any type of data on planet surfaces, plus sensing of identifying various object. Also called a sensor; Mr. Spock uses it as a portable scientific tool and Uhura as Communication Officer maintains records with it.