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Star Trek at 40: September 8, 1966
Thursday, September 8, 1966
8:30 p.m. (Eastern time) It was the new television season, just like any other, and NBC was about to debut their new science fiction show. That in itself wasn't a novel idea: CBS had Lost in Space, ABC had contemporary shows like The Time Tunnel and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. It was pretty standard that networks had something on the air that fell into the general category of science fiction. And while these other shows had their own quaint charms, they lasted a few seasons and mostly drifted off into memory, and later syndication. (The other one-hour drama that every network had was a Western; NBC already had a bona fide hit in Bonanza and CBS, with Wild Wild West, neatly combined the Western with sci-fi.)
On the evening of the 8th of September, following Daniel Boone, this new NBC show premiered with an episode called "The Man Trap." The angle of the story was different, to say the least: It was a love story with a sci-fi twist, borne of a relationship from the doctor's past, featuring a monster that, in the end, just wanted to live. It was moving, tragic and anything but cheesy. The viewers — at least the ones who were paying attention — were hooked.
This show proved it had something different. It had a unique life that would go on to exist beyond expectation. It stood outside of time, as it tapped into universal themes and epic struggles, and put the cosmos on notice: Things have changed! Primetime on NBC eventually proved that this was no place for something so big, so broad in scope. This three-season show, after all, would go on to spawn four live-action spin-offs, an animated series, ten movies and counting, plus a licensing empire that, to this day, embraces books, videos, exhibits and assorted merchandise.
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Thursday, September 8, 1966
8:30 p.m. (Eastern time) It was the new television season, just like any other, and NBC was about to debut their new science fiction show. That in itself wasn't a novel idea: CBS had Lost in Space, ABC had contemporary shows like The Time Tunnel and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. It was pretty standard that networks had something on the air that fell into the general category of science fiction. And while these other shows had their own quaint charms, they lasted a few seasons and mostly drifted off into memory, and later syndication. (The other one-hour drama that every network had was a Western; NBC already had a bona fide hit in Bonanza and CBS, with Wild Wild West, neatly combined the Western with sci-fi.)
On the evening of the 8th of September, following Daniel Boone, this new NBC show premiered with an episode called "The Man Trap." The angle of the story was different, to say the least: It was a love story with a sci-fi twist, borne of a relationship from the doctor's past, featuring a monster that, in the end, just wanted to live. It was moving, tragic and anything but cheesy. The viewers — at least the ones who were paying attention — were hooked.
This show proved it had something different. It had a unique life that would go on to exist beyond expectation. It stood outside of time, as it tapped into universal themes and epic struggles, and put the cosmos on notice: Things have changed! Primetime on NBC eventually proved that this was no place for something so big, so broad in scope. This three-season show, after all, would go on to spawn four live-action spin-offs, an animated series, ten movies and counting, plus a licensing empire that, to this day, embraces books, videos, exhibits and assorted merchandise.
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