Pop-culture Series: Star Trek
History of Star Trek
57 Years Ago and Now
Star Trek premiered on NBC TV on September 8, 1966… 57 years ago. It is my favorite show; I was glued to the TV for the first episode and for every one after that. It significantly influenced my life and my choice of a career in technology.
An Optimistic Future
The show represented an optimistic vision of the future where challenges of poverty and hunger on Earth had been addressed. But many other issues — relevant to the ’60s — were depicted on other planets as still being wrestled with centuries into the future: free speech, civil rights issues, and never-ending war. Set circa A.D. 2266–2269, it is just over the horizon.
Star Trek: The Original Series showed a utopian view of science fiction that was somewhat different from current dystopian Sci-Fi movies and television. And the franchise is still creating new shows, as I’ll describe below.
Star Trek did not just envision the future; it imagined and helped drive it. It inspired generations of scientists, engineers, and technologists like me worldwide. Many scientists…
