Star Trek: The Original Series (1966)

Watchseries; This has to be one of the greatest series in history. I really enjoy watching a lot of the episodes especially those from the second and third seasons when Chekov was on and the supporting cast really became complete. I especially loved the episodes that dealt with what happens when someone upsets the natural course that a planet goes on (eg. "A Piece of the Action"). In the case of those episodes, usually someone wants to help a planet achieve its destiny at a faster rate or leaves a form of literature or technology behind leading to disastrous results as was the case with the Ekosians who followed the Nazi model or the world that used the model of 1920's Chicago to base their societies on. This pretty much is a moral for any world including our own and how we should leave not only people follow their own path but let nature take it's own path.

This has to be one of the greatest series in history. I really enjoy watching a lot of the episodes especially those from the second and third seasons when Chekov was on and the supporting cast really became complete. I especially loved the episodes that dealt with what happens when someone upsets the natural course that a planet goes on (eg. "A Piece of the Action"). In the case of those episodes, usually someone wants to help a planet achieve its destiny at a faster rate or leaves a form of literature or technology behind leading to disastrous results as was the case with the Ekosians who followed the Nazi model or the world that used the model of 1920's Chicago to base their societies on. This pretty much is a moral for any world including our own and how we should leave not only people follow their own path but let nature take it's own path.

Star Trek: The Original Series watchseries. An inspirational sci fi show that has interesting stories, character development and growth. Star trek shows the audience a possible future far more advanced than the regular war stories and dystopian police states that tend to flood science fiction. Each episode has a balance between action and story telling that keeps the viewer engaged. One of the best sci fi shows on telly.

This show made all of it's principles into cause celebrities & in fact did the same for it's producers & almost everyone involved with it. This was one of the last series produced by Desilu studios it's first season. Then Desilu was sold to Paramont in order for Lucy & Ricky to separate their business interests after the divorce. Oh, but what a way to end their partnership.

This original series & it's films & syndicated sequels have produced more money for Paramont than any other franchise. William Shatner became so famous for his role in this, that he went to to advertise Promise Margerine, do TJ HOOKER (a Cop series) in the 1970's for ABC. Then he kept working on other stuff until now he has managed to become a TV regular again on Boston Legal.

Lenoard Nimoy(Spock) went on to do several other projects including hosting the syndicated series "In Search of". All the others came back for the movies as well. The big thing that made this series so popular was the plot lines which especially in the first seasons were so imaginative. These were from creator Gene Roddenbury who had learned his craft in the unusual Western series hit Have Gun, Will travel.

Roddenbury made morality a major strength in plotting these original episodes. He tapped some talented science fiction writers as well for ideas. This was really his wagon train to the stars. This original series has a couple of fine veteran Western folks behind the camera with Gene L. Coons & Fred Friedberger who worked on action series like The Wild Wild West. The resemblance of Kirks fight scenes in Star Trek to the Wild Wild West are no coincidence.

Towards the end, as NBC kept cutting the budget, the show suffered too, but by then, NBC still had not realized what they had & killed off the series. Thank goodness for re-runs, then video & now DVDs to keep this original going. The guest list for this series was small, but it had some excellent guest stars including William Windom, Roger C. Carmel, Michael Dunn (Dr Lovelass on Wild Wild West), Ricardo Montoban, & others (Most did guest shots on West too). It is one of the rare Science Fiction series to combine serious themes & comedy successfully & really be inventive. After all, to me it seems like these guys invented the cell phone style of communication in the 1960's. European Scientists are still experimenting to see if beaming people up can be done. What a legacy this series has left all of us.

I am 58 and never was a big fan of science fiction. Had seen episodes from Star Trek decades ago, but never was a huge fan.

Well...recently have been watching reruns on a free TV channel. And I am amazed at how good and unique this show was....and is...especially for a show from the 1960s. Much credit is due to William Shatner. He's a good, versatile actor and was able to "sell" the script with a sense of seriousness and reality that it made up for the low budget sets, costumes and sometimes silly plots. He should have won an emmy for his acting.

Also, loved the vibrant simple colors used on the sets and in wardrobe. The thinly adorned sets were visually enhanced by all these primary colors.

The topics, scientific lingo and gadgets were also far beyond what most people were thinking of before this period. Look at all those cell phones they used in the series. And the flat screen TV monitors. Just way ahead of their time.

Of course, Spock and the doc were great supporting cast members. But without Kirk, William Shatner, the show probably would not have worked.

Does anyone need an introduction anymore to this great series? In the beginning Desilu said yes to the budget and schedule of Roddenberry only because there were many space stories being pitched and picked up in the mid-sixties, and this was going to be theirs. NBC used Star Trek to compete with Lost in Space, which was already on CBS the year before.

NBC being the all color network made the series very high key in lighting and primary-colored in the uniforms and the instrument displays, to better sell color TV at the time.

There were so many innovations shown on the screen from Dr.McCoy's diagnostic helpers to the auto door movements to hand communicators, transporters, phased light weapons, all of which impressed viewers. Added to that, they all seemed like they really worked!

People have said that Star Trek was the first to show an alien working harmoniously on a space crew and this is not fully true. You might laugh now, but in 1950 there was a very popular, well written, well acted radio and TV series called "Tom Corbett, Space Cadet" that had that very element working for it. Nothing much was very ground breaking on that show except that the acting was a cut above other shows. Roddenberry did go a few steps farther with Star Trek, adding a multi-racial crew and women having real authority as crew members or aliens.

Prior to Star Trek, the "alien" or "other" was a concept meant to inspire fear and justify violence. However it seemed that the series delighted in reversing this. Repeatedly the aliens are shown to be less dangerous than thought: the Talosians want the best for Capt. Pike, Balok isn't so bad, the Salt Creature is meant to be pitied, and so on. However if the villain was inanimate or a Frankenstein composed of man's ignorance, say NOMAD or the Planet Killer, then all violence the Federation can muster could be justified.

For my money Roddenberry, who appeared to be a casting couch throwback producer from an "Ed Wood" era, accomplished nothing so amazingly wonderful prior to Star Trek, and certainly nothing afterward that ever surpassed this singular achievement. He fought to keep Mr. Spock in the show and oversaw all the writing for a stable consistency,(I'm not a Harlan Ellison fan), so from this perspective, you could say he was born to create Star Trek then step off the stage. His whole life after Trek seemed warped by the show's gravity, and often he was pulled back into it for the 1987 follow on series and the first round of feature films.

Some audience members may prefer TNG, or the feature films. They may look back at the 1966 debut of Star Trek as merely "the future looked a lot like the Sixties". But why is it that the pure human emotions in those 79 episodes still attracts new converts? There must be something there that's communicating beyond the show's original five year mission. Star Trek still works as an adventure; one that considers human drama primary. That is unusual for any science fiction based story, wouldn't you say?

This show changed the way we looked at science fiction forever. Before there was The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and the prequel Enterprise. There was Captain James T. Kirk and crew on the Starship Enterprise. Exploring new worlds and new life. Traveling through time and space. Leonard Nimoy is great has Mr. Spock, the half human/half alien science officer and second in command. Deforest Kelly is also great Has Dr. Leonard Bones Mccoy, our favorite whiney Doctor, who came out with favorite sayings like "He's dead Jim" and "I'm a Doctor not a brick layer". The special effects may have seemed hoaky at times. But the show was still great in it's day. Gene Roddenberry was a genuis when he created this show. The show was well acted by everyone . So Star Trek fans live long and prosper.