Classic TV -Star Trek Enterprise on DVD

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9/8/1966 – 9/2/1969 NBC
Color – 60 minutes – 79 episodes

From Paramount Studios
Created by Executive Producer
Gene Roddenberry

Producers: Gene Coon, later Fred Frieberger, John Meredyth Lucas

Star Trek – The Next Generation (TNG)
Syndicated 1987 – 1994 178 episodes
Created by Executive Producer Gene Rodenberry

Star Trek – Deep Space Nine (DS9)
Syndicated 1993 – 1999 176 episodes
Created and Produced by Rick Berman and Michael Piller

Star Trek – Voyager
UPN 1995 – 2001 172 episodes
Created and Produced by Rick Berman, Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor

Star Trek – Enterprise
UPN 2001 – 2005
Created and Produced by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga

Star Trek TOS Cast

William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Lt. Cmdr./Cmdr. Spock
DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy
James Doohan as Lt. Cmdr. Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott
George Takei as Lt. Hikaru Sulu
Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Uhura
Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov
Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman Janice Rand (1966)

Majel Barrett Roddenberry as Nurse Christine Chapel (TOS) and as Computer Voice in all Star Treks

Star Trek Theme Songs

Star Trek TOS Theme

“Star Trek TOS Main Theme” by Alexander Courage

Star Trek TNG Theme by Alexander Courage and Jerry Goldsmith

Star Trek Deep Space Nine Theme by Dennis McCarthy

Star Trek Voyager Theme by Jerry Goldsmith

Star Trek Enterprise Theme “Where Will My Heart Take Me” by Diane Eve Warren

Star Trek TOS Tidbits

“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.”

(This would be modified in subsequent Star Trek series to “its continuing mission” and “where no one has gone before.”

Gene Roddenberry had a terrific idea for a new science fiction TV show. Figuring the network honchos might be too dense to grasp the concept, he put it into terms they could understand. He called it a “Wagon Train to the stars,” after the popular TV Western. Roddenberry had just finished a stint as head writer for Have Gun Will Travel and knew that Westerns were universal.

Dated March 11, 1964, Roddenberry created the first draft of his concept for Star Trek. He wound up taking the idea to Desilu Studios. Yes, as in Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball and their vice president Oscar Katz. Around this time, Desilu was taking a chance on another unusual show which came to be called Mission Impossible. Roddenberry got an okay from NBC to proceed.

They shot a pilot, called “The Cage” later renamed and packaged as “The Menagerie” with Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike, which wasn’t that remarkable. What did get network attention was the pointy-eared science officer and the female first officer. What? A woman giving men orders? A Vulcan? What in hell is a Vulcan?

Roddenberry knew he couldn’t keep both. So Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) stayed and the first officer (Majel Barrett) became a nurse. Although the actress did pick up an additional job title, she became Mrs. Roddenberry.

The crew of the starship Enterprise was noteworthy in other respects as well. The international crew included a Russian in a time when the nation was obsessed with dirty Commies. Nichelle Nichols played a black communications officer, Lt. Uhura only a year after Bill Cosby debuted in I Spy as the first black lead in prime time.

Much has been written about the appeal of Star Trek which sustained the franchise across five series and many movies. But I was watching from the beginning as I am now.

Hope. That’s what I think Roddenberry gave us. Hope that we could be better. Optimism about the future of humankind is a powerful draw.

You didn’t ask, but I’ll tell you anyway. James Tiberius Kirk is my pick for Best Starship Captain. Why? When the bad guys show up, I don’t want a wide ranging conversation about the importance of diplomacy. I say, fire phasers and photon torpedoes, and if there’s anything left of them, then we can talk.
Gene Roddenberry
Majel Barrett Roddenberry

Passings

Gene Roddenberry died in 1991 of a heart attack. DeForest Kelley died in 1999 of stomach cancer. James Doohan died of Alzheimers and pneumonia in 2005.
William Shatner