Sixty years ago, on Sept. 8, 1966, an hourlong television show made its debut on NBC. It featured a spaceship called the USS Enterprise. A captain named James Tiberius Kirk. A science officer with pointy ears who was half human and half Vulcan named Spock. A doctor named Leonard “Bones” McCoy. A engineer named Montgomery “Scotty” Scott. A communications officer named Nyota Uhura. A helmsman named Hikaru Sulu. A nurse named Christine Chapel. (And later, a navigator named Pavel Chekov.)
For the next three years and 79 episodes, the crew of Star Trek, creation of the great Gene Roddenberry, went “where no man has gone before,” exploring the galaxy (even leaving it on occasion) and finding impressive and unpredictable ways to solve planetary problems and escape danger. And in what seemed like every scenario, Capt. Kirk – played (some might say overplayed) by William Shatner, who’s still going strong at 95 – seemed to be planting his lips on some often scantily clad female.
When Star Trek arrived on the scene, I was 5 years old. I honestly don’t remember watching it in its earliest days. But I do recall watching a number of episodes in that first run that lasted from September 1966 to June 1969, mixed in with other favorites like Batman and Lost in Space.
But like millions of other fans of Star Trek, I didn’t become a “Trekkie” until it hit syndication, which wasn’t long after NBC canceled the series due to consistently low ratings. Its popularity skyrocketed in syndication as Star Trek conventions were held and people couldn’t get enough of the show, its characters and actors. Why that wasn’t the case when it was on network TV will remain one of the mysteries of the universe.
I remember watching the syndicated series after school with my brother Isaac and our dad Clark when we were still living in Houston in 1971 and I was 10 (we moved to Conroe late that year). We continued watching it whenever we could, and when the Saturday morning animated series came out in 1973 when I was 12, I remember watching that too.
All the while, I collected Star Trek paperback books and other memorabilia and would even bring the books to school at Washington Jr. High in Conroe as my friends who were fellow Trekkies and I would talk about the episode we’d watched the previous day. Even in high school, I still watched it when I had the chance. Of course, by then we’d seen all the episodes multiple times. Sad to say, by the way, that a couple of years ago, I went up in the attic and threw all those paperbacks away.
As a kid, I also built and hung from the ceiling over my bed plastic models of the Enterprise, a Klingon Battle Cruiser, the Romulan Bird of Prey and the Enterprise’s Galileo shuttlecraft. I made a model phaser, communicator and tricorder, Mr. Spock – every Star Trek model set I could find in the early to mid-’70s, I bought and built. Yes, I was an obsessed young Trekkie.
Did I grow out of my Trekkie phase in college? Kind of … but not really. When Star Trek: The Motion Picture came out in early December 1979, my freshman year at Texas A&M, I went to see it with friends including my Conroe High School and Aggie friend Mark Stevens, who remains a dear friend to this day. When I went home for Christmas break that month, I went to see it again with – who else? – my dad!
Fast forward to now. Like Star Wars, Star Trek is still a huge phenomenon that shows no sign of losing fans. After the movies with the original cast and crew in the ’80s, a slew of offshoot TV series began with Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. I can’t even tell you how many series and movies the franchise is up to now.
But what I can tell you is that I pretty much jumped ship after the initial few movies. When the new TV series came into the picture, I was working nights at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and couldn’t watch them. And honestly, I don’t remember being all that interested. Not sure if it’s because I was loyal to TOS (The Original Series) or I couldn’t see a new series meeting what I considered the high standards of the original.
When one series after another came out, I still really wasn’t interested. I’ve seen a few episodes of The Next Generation and a couple of the more recent movies, but that’s it. We have access to TNG and some of the other series on the Pluto streaming service, so I’ll probably break down and watch them sometime. Maybe.
But all this is to say happy 60th birthday to Star Trek, an escape that got me through some pretty rough times during childhood. There were a lot more fantastic episodes than forgettable ones. And believe it or not, I *still* enjoy watching many episodes of that trailblazing series. The Trouble With Tribbles, City On the Edge of Forever or Mirror, Mirror, anyone?
And I will maintain until I can’t anymore that Spock, portrayed by the remarkably talented Leonard Nimoy, is one of the most original, memorable, well-acted characters in the history of television. If you care to debate this, I’m game. 
Live long and prosper, Star Trek!!! 
A Life of Words 