These legendary words spoken by Capt. James T Kirk during the opening credits of the original series continue to resound in the ears of trekkies(star trek fans) decades after the series ended. When I was a kid in India, the national channel played a few episodes of the series and I was too young to understand things back then. I also remember seeing magazines with stills of some pointy eared guy who seemed to be flying with the aid of rocket shoes. He was also carrying two other people. This was Star Trek 5 of course. Finally when I was in the 7th grade, a private channel started airing episodes of the series and thats when I became a fan. I was hooked onto this. We also got to see episodes of the next generation which aired in the weekends. Slowly but steadily, the premise, characters, story lines, time lines etc of both shows started to permeate into my brain. You can even add episodes of “Lost in Space” to this mix.
Later on, with the advent of the internet and sites like the Wikipedia based “Memory Alpha”, I was boldly going where I had not gone before and learning all that is learnable about Star Trek. Now I feel I know it all, though I never bothered a lot with the newer shows like Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise.
I will always love the original series. Those campy styled episodes with over the top acting from most of the cast and yet this was a show from the 60’s which had an optimistic vision of mankind’s future. At a time when racial tensions were at their peak, the communications officer was an African American and a lady at that!!! At a time when the cold war was at its peak, the series envisioned future peace between the USA and USSR by having a Russian navigator and a proud, vain Russian at that!!! There were Chinese, Indian, Scottish and others. And the best part was the presence of a Vulcan…Spock!! Definitely one of the most endearing characters in the show.
A lot is spoken of William Shatner who played the role of Capt Kirk. We’ve heard the stories of how he is over rated and always tried to overshadow his cast mates. But no matter what you say, you have to agree. Star Trek was what it was because of Shatner. His brilliant over-the-top performance as Capt Kirk was the pivottal element around which the rest of the show revolved.
Kirk, Spock and Dr “Bones” McCoy were the trinity of the show. Their unique friendship accentuated with the constant jibes between Spock and Bones endeared them to Millions. Not to forget Scotty who was unique in his own way. Arguably the most famous among the rest of the supporting cast, who can forget him doing marvelous and wonderful feats on a daily basis to get the “Enterprise” out of dangerous situations.
I have seen all episodes of the three seasons that the show lasted. It is a pity that it didn’t do well in its first run but it is also a wonder that it rose to national prominence in syndication and made its cast world famous. I loved all the 6 movies with the original cast(Yes I like the eternally derided “Final Frontier” too!!!).
Many other shows sprung up which rode on the coattails of the original. Yet none of them barring the “next Generation” came close to the original series in terms of sparking the imagination of the fans and earning their love.
Now as we look upon the release of the new Trek film with new stars who will portray the main characters in their youth, I cant help but wonder if that old magic can ever be re-created. I probably think not. I thank the creator Gene Roddenberry for creating such a great show with its own great immense universe with endless possibilities similar to the world of Star Wars…but that will another blog by itself 
