All language subtitles for The.Unknown.Story.S01E05.Star.Trek.1080p.PCOK.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-playWEB_track3_[eng]

Come in.

I'm at the foot
of the ladder.

Back before
we'd taken one small step

for man
and one giant leap for mankind,

Gene Roddenberry boldly took us
where no man had gone before.

He just had this idea
for this future series.

To
the final frontier,

and in the process,
he forever changed our galaxy.

Star Trek is a philosophy.

It's a way of life
for many people.

"Star Trek", the
groundbreaking original series

that sparked
a pop culture phenomenon.

I looked at the pilot
and I was enthralled with it.

It's about the future and
about the way things might be.

They came up with
so many forward-thinking ideas.

The man who actually
invented cell phones

said he was influenced
and inspired

by the communicator
in "Star Trek".

"Star Trek:
"The Original Series"

forever changed
the TV landscape.

The diversity of
the "Star Trek" cast

was like nothing you saw
on television at that time.

I met Dr. Martin
Luther King and he said,

"You have opened the door

"and changed the face
of television forever."

Join us as we beam
you up inside the USS Enterprise

and explore how it all started.

It was Lucille Ball
who stepped forward and said,

"I want to do the show,
I believe in the show."

Star Trek
was never a hit

when it was on the air.

What on-set
conflicts almost derailed

the series in its first season?

He had been hired
to carry the show,

and all of a sudden everybody's
Spock this, Leonard that.

There was
a tension between them

and a distance.

And why does it
endure today?

It will not go away,

proven by the new series
that are coming on now.

It will, I think,
carry on in perpetuity.

More than
50 years later,

the original series has grown
into a blockbuster franchise

with a permanent place
in pop culture.

People just walking
down the street, you know,

would see me pass,
"Beam me up, Scotty!"

"Captain, guess what?

"The ship is about to blow up!"

December 6, 1979.

Throngs of fans await
the premiere of a film

more than a decade
in the making.

Who could have imagined,
in their wildest imagination,

think that they would turn
this little television series

into this motion picture?

After the
back to back successes of

"Star Wars" and "Close
Encounters of The Third Kind",

Hollywood studios are scrambling
to find the next great

sci-fi fantasy blockbuster.

Paramount looks to
their own library

and takes a gamble
on relaunching the adventures of

the USS Enterprise.

It's a gamble that would
continue to pay off

for decades to come

"Star Trek:
The Motion Picture"

was supposed to be
the only "Star Trek".

That's why it was called
"The Motion Picture".

When that made a ton of money,

they started talking
about one sequel,

and that was so final
that we killed off Spock,

and you can't have
"Star Trek" without Spock.

But that made a ton of money,
and so forth and so on.

The television show
that inspired the film

premiered 13 years earlier
in 1966.

The crazy thing is
"Star Trek" was about

exploring space and the
possibility of going to space

before we landed on the moon.

"Star Trek:
The Original Series"

only lasted three years
on the air,

but it would go on to spawn
multiple spinoff series,

a film franchise, a reboot,

and a devoted fan base that
ensures it will forever remain

in the zeitgeist.

"Trouble with Tribbles",
one of the great episodes

in the history of "Star Trek".

You found out that Tribbles
really hate Klingons.

And my favorite episode
is where they're aliens

and nobody knows why
they're fighting.

One head black on the left
and white on the right,

the other was exactly reversed,
and they hated each other.

They look like
the old-fashioned black

and white cookie, these guys.

"The City on
The Edge of Forever".

Kirk and Spock wind up
back in 1930s America,

and it's the middle
of the Depression,

and Kirk falls in love
with this woman,

and the future has been changed.

The Enterprise isn't up there
to beam back to

because one thing that Kirk did
changed everything.

You know,
at the end of the day,

Star Trek is about human beings
trying to do the right thing,

and it sounds so simple,
it sounds so corny,

I could imagine myself
on an adventure on a starship.

Everybody can see themselves
on the Enterprise,

going into space.

Focuses on these themes
that make people think

because each episode
is like a morality play.

What is it,
I wonder, about "Star Trek"

which engenders
this kind of interest?

Optimism, good storytelling,
interesting characters,

and a few laughs along the way.

Its cast and story

and science fiction
and special effects.

And we follow
a storytelling tradition

that has mythology as its base

and the hardy group
of travelers,

the hero protagonist,
the antagonist,

and the human values
are all part of the magic.

It's escaping the reality
of the Earth for one magic hour

to get on the Enterprise
and explore the heavens.

In us is that knowledge
and that fascination

with what's out there.

"Star Trek" at its core
is about hope and inclusiveness,

and it inspires, in fact,
demands from us

the very best of ourselves,
the highest and the best,

and that's a pretty good thing.

It's a very positive
vision of humanity.

It's a vision of the world where
if you work together,

you can achieve great things.

It's a show that taps
the imagination, doesn't it?

It's about the future and
about the way things might be

2 or 300 years from now.

It's a hopeful show
about the future.

We sure need some of that,
don't we?

"Star Trek" is
so much more than

just a silly science fiction
show from the 1960s.

It's a philosophy.

It's a way of life
for many people of all races,

creeds and colors.

I think so many of us found it
when we were young,

and it's just a huge part
of our childhoods

and a part of how we learned
about the world,

and it asked you questions
and made you think.

I think that one of
the reasons we're so obsessed

with "Star Trek" is that,
in the end,

we all want to be them.

We want to have the ability

to go where no man
has gone before.

To truly
understand the genesis

and the enduring legacy
of "Star Trek",

we have to start back on Earth

with this man,
series creator Gene Roddenberry,

who, in 1964,
is a former LAPD cop

moonlighting as
a television writer.

Gene Roddenberry was a
really extraordinary individual.

He was a pilot in World War II.

After the war, he was
a speechwriter for the LAPD,

and I think that kind
of inspired his love of

wanting to write and wanted
to be a writer, and he broke in.

He ended up writing for
a bunch of shows like,

that were very popular
at the time,

stuff like "Naked City"
and "Dr. Kildare".

But the most important one,
the one that I think

is the most significant is
"Have Gun, Will Travel".

After writing
for several hit series,

Roddenberry is eager
to create his own show,

one that reflects
the times he is living in.

There was so much going on
in the country at the time.

There was racial issues,
there was the war in Vietnam.

You had protests,

you had Cold Wars
with foreign powers.

And Gene Roddenberry's vision
for the future was one where

everybody got along,
no matter what color they were.

Everybody, men and women,
were working together

for something good.

Gene was a secular humanist.

He firmly believed that
the human spirit will prevail.

Roddenberry decides
the perfect setting

for his new series is a place,
at least at the time,

where no man has gone before.

It was the chance
to deal with social issues

that television couldn't really
grapple with in the '60s,

so he couched his
social commentary

in dealing with
the political issues of the day

in science fiction.

He called it
his wagon train to the stars.

That's how he sold it,
his idea of,

let's get onto a ship
and go out

and explore something
new every day.

Originally he thought, oh,
this would be like

a western in outer space,

and all of a sudden he realized
it encompassed something larger.

And it was created
in a time when mankind, America,

and the Russians were only
just starting to go into space.

Gene Roddenberry
was the visionary.

It was really his idea
to create this whole universe,

but it was more than
just action.

There was a message
with the series.

When it comes time
to pitch a socially-conscious

space Western Roddenberry
connects with Desilu,

the studio started by
Lucille ball and Desi Arnaz.

And Desilu, which had
much success in comedy,

obviously with the
"I Love Lucy: show,

wants to do more drama,
so they developed two shows,

"Star Trek"
and "Mission Impossible".

Pretty good batting average.

Lucy liked the
"Star Trek" concept

once she understood it.

She said, "Go for it,"
and the rest is history.

Gene Roddenberry
was very smart

about how he designed the show.

He brought in at the very
early stages of its conception

futurists and technologists

and they came up with so many
forward-thinking ideas.

Like one of them was
a giant computer brain

that you could talk to,
you know, and it would answer.

Now we have it in our
living room with Alexa and Siri,

but you know, back then,

the idea you could
talk to a computer

and they could answer back
and give you information,

it's remarkable, and the man who
actually invented cell phones

said he was influenced
and inspired by the communicator

in "Star Trek".

But perhaps
the most fascinating

design element
is the series' centerpiece,

the starship named after
the world's first

nuclear-powered
aircraft carrier.

The aesthetic of
the Enterprise is perhaps

one of "Star Trek's"
greatest accomplishments

because it is the most beautiful

fictional spaceship
ever designed.

Nothing comes close.

It was designed by the great
Matt Jeffries, who, again,

another World War II veteran
who was a professional aviator,

and he just comes up with
something completely new.

As pre-production
on the series continues,

one daunting challenge
for Roddenberry and his team

is how they will get
the Enterprise crew to and from

the different planets
they visit each week.

Originally,
the plan had been

to just use a shuttle

that would take people
back and forth,

but it's too expensive to do
special effects every week

to show and time consuming
to send a crew from the ship

in a shuttle down to a planet,

so the transporter
was their way around it.

In 30 seconds,
you could have somebody

stand on the pad
and suddenly find themselves

in the center of the adventure,

and that's where
the transporter came from.

♪

With the design
of the series established,

casting gets underway
for the pilot,

but the episode,
titled "The Cage",

is strikingly different
from the "Star Trek"

that would ultimately
inspire and appeal

to its devoted fan base,

including one early iteration of
an Enterprise crew member.

Mr. Spock originally,
when he was created,

one of the ideas
Gene Roddenberry had

was he was going to be like
a Martian or red alien,

and it was just so alien

that there was
nothing relatable to it.

The role of
Mr. Spock is initially offered

to well-known film star
Martin Landau,

but the actor turns it down.

The part is then offered to
33-year-old Leonard Nimoy.

He had been a guest star on
"The Lieutenant",

and Gene from very early after
seeing him on "Lieutenant"

thought of him
for this new show.

Had a pretty good
reputation as a serious actor,

and it was dangerous
to start out in this new

and otherworldly character
with a strange look,

pointed ears, could be a joke.

I thought the character
had great potential,

but also some built-in pitfalls,

and if it didn't work,
it could be disastrous,

so I worried about it,
but it worked out fine.

Leonard Nimoy was
the perfect actor to play it.

It was both calm and logical,

but there were also these
flashes of a real passion.

Ror the crucial role
of the ship's doctor,

a veteran of stage
and screen is chosen.

They cast John Hoyt,
who was best known to people

from "The Twilight Zone"
at that point.

as the head of
the USS Enterprise,

now named
Captain Christopher Pike,

Roddenberry is keen to cast
popular TV actor Lloyd Bridges,

best known at that point

as the star of
the series "Sea Hunt",

but Bridges isn't too interested
in sci-fi,

and passes on the pilot.

So the casting team moves on
to their next choice.

Jeffrey Hunter
was the choice

after they exhausted
their other choices.

He was a
fairly large movie star.

He'D been in "The Searchers"
with John Wayne,

and it seemed like
a really good choice.

The final
character cast

is the ship's second-in-command,

and the merry Gene Roddenberry

has just the right
actress in mind.

So,
in the pilot "The Cage",

there was a role for
the first officer,

which was not Mr. Spock
at the time.

It was Number One.
Didn't even have a name.

Number One was played by
Majel Barrett.

Now, Majel Barrett was
Gene Roddenberry's mistress,

so the network,

who had had other ideas
for the role,

were overruled by Roddenberry,
who was with Majel at the time,

and cast her.

The pilot
is finally screened

for executives at NBC
in February of 1965,

but reactions to the episode

are not exactly
what Roddenberry had hoped.

"The Cage". So it was
maybe not exactly right

for what NBC
was expecting or planning.

It was a very different
kind of "Star Trek".

It was very cerebral,
and they said,

"We're not gonna pick it up,
but we're not gonna pass.

"We want you to do
a second pilot,

"and this time,
we want more action adventure

"and have it be less heady."
Now, at this point,

Desilu wasn't even sure t
hey wanted to do it

because this is gonna be
very expensive,

but it was Lucille Ball
who stepped forward and said,

"I want to do the show,
I believe in the show."

Lucy actually had
discretionary fund

for development purposes.

She could use it
any way she wanted,

but she decided
she was gonna give it to them

to do this second pilot.

So "Star Trek" does owe
its existence to Lucille Ball

and her approval
because she could have said no

and it never
would have happened.

So it's another reason
why we should all love Lucy

because Star Trek wouldn't exist
without Lucille Ball's foresight

and passion for the show,

which could've
bankrupted her studio.

In addition to
a less cerebral story

with more action,
NBC also takes issue with

several of the pilot's
casting choices,

forcing Roddenberry and his team
to go back to the bridge

and shake up the crew
of the USS Enterprise.

In 1965,
Gene Roddenberry and his team

are crafting a second
"Star Trek" pilot.

In addition to a revised story,

the Peacock Network
also requests

several major casting changes.

Unfortunately for Roddenberry,

one of the characters
on the chopping block

is Number One,
played by Majel Barrett.

Roddenberry would later go on
to divorce his wife

and marry Barrett,
but at the time,

the two were having an
extramarital relationship.

She was the first
casualty of the first pilot.

Now why is that?
Well, Gene would say

it's because the network
didn't want a woman.

You know, they said that
the women in the test groups

would say, "Who does that woman
think she is bossing them

"around like that?"

The reality is a little
more complicated than that,

as it often is in life.

Majel Barrett was
Gene Roddenberry's mistress,

and they didn't like the fact

that she was
Gene Roddenberry's mistress.

So that was the end of Majel,

but of course Majel would return
as not only Christine Chapel

for the next three seasons
of "Star Trek",

but as Gene Roddenberry's
wife as well.

With the character
of Number One

no longer a factor,

Mr. Spock,
the half-man half-Vulcan

played by Leonard Nimoy is
promoted to second-in-command.

Gene used
to tell a joke.

He would say that
the network basically said

it's one or the other,
Spock or Number One,

so I kept the Vulcan
and I married the woman.

Also gone
for round two is John Hoyt

as the ship's doctor.

He is replaced by veteran
character-actor Paul Fix.

And new to the second pilot
are the characters of

Montgomery Scott,
the ship's engineer,

played by James Doohan,

and George Takei as the ship's

botanist-turned-navigator,
Hikaru Sulu.

When I went to meet
Gene Roddenberry,

he was the only person
seated behind that desk,

and he came out
from behind that desk,

and we sat together
in a corner of his office,

and we just shot the breeze.

He wanted to know more about
who we were as people,

what we brought with us

in addition to
our acting competence,

and I think that's
the secret of his genius.

But perhaps the most
significant bit of recasting

is one that NBC didn't request.

One of the most
remarkable stories happens

when they do
do the second pilot,

"Where No Man Has Gone Before".

Jeffrey Hunter
passes on returning to

the lead role of Captain Pike.

Him and his wife have decided
that he should be doing

more movies and not TV,
because back then,

TV was kind of like slumming.

It's where you go
when your movie career is over.

So they decide
they're gonna recast,

which is fine because
a lot of people felt

they wanted somebody
who was perhaps

more a man of action,

and they find it fortunately
in William Shatner.

♪

William Shatner
was one of a group of

young handsome actors
in the late 50s and 1960s

who were in the movies
and moving into television,

and they called Shatner,
and he auditioned,

and got the part.

So Gene Roddenberry
called me to look at that pilot

with the idea of him
recasting the whole show

and me playing the part that
Jeffrey Hunter had played.

So I looked at the pilot,
and I was enthralled with it,

and we made the second pilot.

The second pilot,

completely different,
complete 180, action,

Shatner's running around
with a phaser gun

doing barrel rolls
and, you know, jumping,

and things are exploding,
and it does the trick.

It does what
it was supposed to do,

which is show the network,
this is what we can do

on a weekly basis
with action and adventure,

and I think the network
was excited about

the potential for the show.

"Star Trek"
premieres on NBC

in September of 1966.

The episode wins
the first half hour

and tied in its second
during its initial time slot.

It was
a set of characters

that seemed to be working nicely
with each other,

and they were intent
on solving problems.

And in
those particular years,

that wasn't very normal
for science fiction,

and these people
felt like real people.

The stories
were about adventure

and exploring the universe,

and there was drama
and there was action,

but there was really
a message to every episode.

In the
subsequent episodes,

viewers are introduced
to several new faces,

including a second recasting
of the ship's Dr. McCoy,

when DeForest Kelley
boards the Enterprise.

I was not in either
one of the pilots.

He had wanted me for
"Star Trek", the other pilot,

but the network
turned against me,

and the feeling was that

I had done so many
villains and heavies

that I was not right
for the doctor role,

so I started with it,

but I was not in neither one
of the pilots.

Also joining
the cast is Nichelle Nichols

as Uhura, the ship's
communications officer.

Nichelle Nichols was
one of the few black actresses

on TV at the time.

She was the person
who talked between

Starfleet Command
and the Enterprise.

She was in charge of
all of the translations,

and she could speak
a dozen languages,

and she was the heart of
a lot of those episodes

because she was teaching you
how to communicate

with other species.

Having a bridge crew

with people from
different backgrounds,

different ethnicities,
different races

was really important
for the American public to see,

but at the time it was
very, very groundbreaking.

The diversity
of the "Star Trek" cast

was like nothing you saw
on television at that time.

There was a Black woman
at the communications console.

There was a Japanese man
driving the ship.

It was diverse before
diversity was a thing.

In a 1986
sit-down interview

for "Good Morning America",

Gene Roddenberry recalls
the pushback he received

for his diverse casting choices.

When I brought in
a mixed racial crew,

both the network
and Desilu Studios,

which headed at that time
came in saying,

"What are you doing?

"You're going to ruin us."

And then when I insisted on it,
then the advertisers came in,

the agencies, and said,

"If you show this Black girl
as an officer

"dealing with white people
on that basis,

"you're going to be barraged
with the hate letters,

"and whole areas of the country

"are going to refuse
to handle your show,"

and we often forget,
that's how the country was then.

As viewers continued
to tune in week after week,

several of the characters
gained a devoted following.

I wanted
to be Captain Kirk.

William Shatner as Captain Kirk

sat there in the center seat
commanding everything.

He had swagger. He hooked up
with all the alien chicks.

But he was also a mighty leader
and a compassionate human being.

He was just this
classic American hero

that everybody loved.

My feeling has always been
that the more human

you can make a character,
the more vulnerable,

the more identifiable,
the better it is.

But it was
Leonard Nimoy's Spock

that becomes the show's
unexpected breakout character.

I think when William Shatner
signed on for the show,

he was the lead character,

so he expected that
he was gonna be the star.

But the character of Spock
kind of jumped out at everybody,

and everybody was
talking about Spock.

The first week
after the show had gone,

had been on the air
for the first time,

one day, somebody in the studio
brought me some mail.

There were maybe
10 or 15 pieces of mail,

and I sat down
during the lunch hour,

and I autographed pictures
and sent notes

to all these people,
and I thought,

"Well, once a week,
I can do that, you know,

"it doesn't take
that much time."

Three or four days later, they
brought a stack about that big,

and there were about 70 or 80
or 100 letters, I don't know.

This I'll have to spend
the weekend doing.

The next week, it came in a sack
about that high,

and it just kept
growing from there.

And of course,

Nimoy started doing
all these interviews

and getting all this fan mail,

and it creates a little tension
with Bill because, you know,

Bill was the star of the show.

He had been hired
to carry the show,

and all of a sudden everybody's
Spock this, Leonard that,

so I think it was a little tough
for Shatner at first.

There were arguments,
there were discussions,

there was dissatisfaction,

but to call it a feud
overstates it tremendously.

There was at times distance.

ta times, there was
a coldness between them.

There was a tension
between them.

But eventually that tension
forces Roddenberry to intervene.

While filming
"Star Trek's" first season,

on-set tension develops

between stars William Shatner
and Leonard Nimoy,

as Spock's growing popularity

threatens to overshadow
Captain Kirk.

Roddenberry had his
vision of what "Star Trek" was.

Shatner and Nimoy
had their visions

of who their characters were

and what the world
of the future was,

and sometimes they clashed.

A creative tension on a set
is not abnormal.

But the conflict

finally forces "Star Trek"
creator Gene Roddenberry

to step in.

In a very famous memo
that Gene Roddenberry wrote

and sent to William Shatner
and Leonard Nimoy,

he tells Bill that he's getting
too big for his britches,

he tells Leonard that his ego
is getting out of control,

and Gene, and in that letter,
threatened to leave.

He said, you know, "I know
where the show is going,"

and he said, "Bill,
you think it's Leonard,

"and Leonard thinks it's Bill,"
and he says it's all of you.

And he says if this behavior
doesn't change,

how are we supposed
to sell the idea

that you're people
that love each other

and care about each other,
you know, when you're feuding,

and this is going on,

and it clearly had some effect
because William Shatner

and Leonard Nimoy end up
becoming very good friends.

NBC announces
a second season of "Star Trek",

and for its sophomore outing,

a new crew member
is added to the bridge.

♪

Pavel Chekov,
the navigator, he was Russian.

Remember, at this point,

we were on the brink of war
with the Russians,

and now you had a starship
with a Russian navigator

played by Walter Koenig.

The way
the world was written,

they didn't have
the name of the character yet.

It was just sort of an anonymous
nondescript character,

but they wanted
a maybe Russian accent,

and it was
a very suspenseful moment,

very tension-filled moment.

It was, "Captain,
the ship is about to blow up.

"What are we going to do?"
But when I got done, they said,

"Okay, well, that's nice,

"but can you make it funny?"

Funny, you know?

So the the the reading
that actually got me the role

was, "Captain, guess what?

"The ship is about to blow up!"

The very fact that
there was a Russian onboard

the bridge of the Enterprise
in the middle of the Cold War

said something about

Gene Roddenberry's
vision for the future.

We were gonna get past this.

We still were far from
an ideal integrated society.

The Civil Rights Acts
were just being passed

while this show was on the air.

But Star Trek did a lot of
episodes about social justice

and about war and ideology,

and they would be disguised
in the science fiction genre.

In one
groundbreaking episode,

Shatner's Captain Kirk
and Lieutenant Uhura,

played by Nichelle Nichols,
share a kiss.

♪

Just a year
before the episode aired,

the Supreme Court
had struck down laws that made

interracial marriage illegal.

It was a huge moment
in television.

Remember,
this is the 1960s.

This is when we're fighting
segregation down south.

But the landmark
TV moment almost didn't happen,

as Nichelle Nichols came close
to departing the ship.

She wanted to leave
after the first season

because she didn't have
enough lines and all of that.

She felt like, in the 1960s,

she felt, hey,
what am I doing here?

I should be acting,
I should be doing theater.

I should be exploring
my potential more.

I felt that I had a vibrant
and exciting career going,

and my first love
is musical theater,

and I had come back from
Europe to do "Star Trek",

and I thought I had created
this lovely character,

and it was fun doing,

and I wanted to go on
and do other things.

And as fate would have it,

I met Dr. Martin Luther King
that very weekend,

and he said, "You cannot quit,
you can't leave now."

He said, "You have
opened the door

"and changed the face
of television forever.

"You can't leave it now,
it's too soon."

He says, "You have the first
non-stereotypical role

"on television
for the world to see.

"This is not a Black role
and it's not a female role,

"and you've got it,

"and you're part of
the Command Crew,

"and the world must see that

"they see us
as we should be seen."

And Nichelle Nichols
listened to Dr. King,

and that's what made her
not quit Star Trek.

But despite
"Star Trek's" popularity,

viewership for the show
begins to drop.

So at the end
of the second season,

the ratings weren't great,
and there was a question

as to whether or not
NBC would renew "Star Trek".

It looked like it wasn't
going to renew "Star Trek"

for a third season.

Word of
a possible cancelation

reaches two of "Star Trek's"
most passionate fans,

BJo and John Trimble.

I said, you know,

they really ought be something
we can do about that.

The Trimbles
come up with a plan

to save their favorite show.

It was
a letter-writing campaign.

We had to work it out because
nobody else had done that,

and we, you know,
we had no template.

So I wrote up a set of rules
basically on telling people

what to do.

We came up with
the concept of write your letter

and then send it out
to 10 friends

and ask each of them
to write a letter

and send it out to
10 of their friends.

That really worked.

We were quite surprised.

All these NBC executives
were flooded with mail saying,

"Save Star Trek."

There had never been
anything like this

for a tv show before, and they
didn't know what to make of it,

and they were
clogging the switchboard,

and they were getting
bags and bags of letters,

and more letters than Santa.
Ultimately, NBC relented.

In fact, they had to go on air
and announced the fact that

"Star Trek" will return
for a third season.

We were actually out shopping
for a new TV set,

and they were showing an episode
of Star Trek at the time,

and right at the end
of the show,

this voiceover comes on
and says that "Star Trek"

is going to be renewed
for a third season,

please stop writing letters.

And I'm sure that the people
in that store were kind of

bemused by the fact that

there were two people jumping up
and down and cheering.

It was pretty amazing.

Despite
its third season renewal,

NBC moves the show
to a different time slot,

a decision that doesn't sit well
with the show's creator.

Gene Roddenberry
was hoping for a good time slot,

and when the network
settled on the death slot,

you know, Friday at 10,

when none of
the young demographic

that watched "Star Trek"
was around, you know, he walked.

He had threatened them if they
had done that, he would leave,

and he had no choice
but to leave.

The Roddenberry-less
third season of "Star Trek"

premieres in the fall of 1968

in the midst of American
social and political upheaval,

but under its new leadership

and with significant
budget cuts, the series falters.

The ratings
started dropping,

and honestly,
some "Star Trek" fans

would argue the third season
wasn't the best anyway,

and I would probably get killed
for saying that on the street,

but yeah, by the third season,

that's when some of the cornier
"Star Trek" episodes came in.

And with less money
and less time

and a producer who didn't
understand the show as much,

it was a recipe for disaster.

Now there's
a marked dip in quality.

In 1969,
after three seasons,

NBC decides to ground
the USS Enterprise,

and this time, despite the best
efforts of its fan base,

the cancelation sticks.

♪

The cost
per thousand was not there.

All media works on,

how much does it cost
to reach how many people?

If only 30 million people are
watching instead of 50 million,

the thinking is by the network
that if we take them off the air

and put something else on,

we may get a show
that will be more popular

When the show got canceled,
people were horrified,

and they really wanted it
to come back.

And it looks like
this is the end for "Star Trek",

but it's only the beginning.
It's only the beginning.

After three seasons,

"Star Trek: The Original Series"
is canceled in 1969.

And that could've
been the end of that.

The show runs three seasons.

A few years later,
nobody remembers it.

But that third season

clinched by the letter
writing campaign

launched by BJo and John Trimble

give Star Trek enough episodes
to go into syndication.

So, by 1969,
there's no new content, but

the show does hit syndication
in a way that makes it

much more accessible
to broader audiences

who find "Star Trek"
and love "Star Trek".

And what happens is

you suddenly have
all these local stations

that are looking for new content
to play after the news

picking up "Star Trek".

Remember.
repeating television shows

was a new concept,

so what happened was
a lot of people, like me,

didn't discover "Star Trek"
in its original run,

and they start finding it
getting played during the day,

sometimes late at night,

and it brought a whole new world
of fans to the show.

When it was canceled,
I thought it was over.

I really did.

I thought it'll do a year
or two or three of reruns

and then disappear.
Three or four years later,

it started to come back
bigger than ever,

and that was a pretty
interesting time,

from 1972,3,4,5,6,

when the series
was a big hit in syndication,

and we were not making
any more "Star Treks"

and there were no plans
to make "Star Trek."

There was a great audience
hungering for more "Star Trek".

By the early 1970s,
the series is airing in

more than 100 domestic
and 60 international markets

and the show develops
a cult following

greater than it had
during its original run.

It's wildly popular, hugely
popular, and a lot of that is

college students
and younger people,

the most desirable demographic,

is watching
and rewatching "Star Trek".

Trekkies became a thing
in the '70s.

There are people who
are interested in "Star Trek",

people who know every word
that the series ever made.

They have examined
with a microscope

and they know every motivation

other than they like
or they dislike,

and those are
the hardcore Trekkies,

and they are vociferous.

If they don't like something,
they'll let you know.

I'm impressed by
some of the fans

and how much
they love "Star Trek"

and how much
they've embraced this.

Being a Trekkie is almost
a badge of honor

because I think that people
have begun to see that

liking "Star Trek"
isn't just for nerds

or people like that.

Gene Roddenberry
can't believe it.

He's treated like
he walks on water

So, it's extraordinary,
and the network,

everyone starts taking notes,
saying,

hey, maybe
this "Star Trek" isn't dead yet.

Network executives
revisit the

once-canceled program,

and in 1973,
"Star Trek: The Animated Series"

premieres with most of
the original cast

voicing their roles.

In the animated series,
you had the first Holodeck,

which is really the beginning
of virtual reality.

You know, it's not that
different than, you know,

people playing VR games today.

And by the late 1970s

after the major box office
success of "Star Wars"

and "Close Encounters of
the Third Kind",

the USS Enterprise was finally
given another chance

to resume its mission.

Somebody at Paramount
who eventually bought Desilu

said, "Wow, this is impressive.

"People really like this.

"We need to reboot
the 'Star Trek' franchise,"

and they said, "why are we
wasting 'Star Trek'

"on a tv show?
"Let's do a movie."

In March of 1978,

Paramount announces
"Star Trek: The Motion Picture"

with the original series cast

reprising their
now-iconic roles.

And notably, there was
a much bigger budget

and much more involvement
with the cast,

even behind the scenes.

The arrival of
"Star Trek: The Motion Picture"

in 1979 was huge
for Star Trek fans.

It was something we had been
waiting for for years,

and to see all of
our favorite characters

back together again,

Kirk and Spock
and McCoy and Scotty,

and that magic was still there.

"Star Trek:
The Motion Picture"

opens on December 7th, 1979,

and sets a box office record
for highest opening weekend.

The film made
a huge amount of money,

so that was very appealing
to the studio.

A second movie
is released in June of 1982.

"Star Trek II:
The Wrath of Khan",

perhaps the most popular movie
in the "Star Trek" series.

The sequel leads to
several more sequels

filmed over the next decade.

I think every
"Star Trek" fan

went to the theater
to see every "Star Trek" movie.

Everybody in the theater
was there for the same reason.

They loved the show,
they love the universe,

they wanted to be there
for that opening day.

The success
of the films

leads to an idea to bring
"Star Trek" back to its roots.

They started to think that
there might be interest

in another show.

"Star Trek:
The Next Generation"

is set almost a century

after the events
of the original series,

and is equipped with
a whole new Enterprise crew,

including Patrick Stewart
as Captain Picard,

Brent Spiner as Data,

and Levar Burton
as Geordi LaForge.

Original creator Gene
Roddenberry

is heavily involved
in the new spinoff.

It's a different time
for "Star Trek".

Captain Picard is a calmer and

more diplomatic
Starship Captain.

he's not just kissing
every girl on every planet.

He is a more thoughtful captain.

It's a slower show
in many regards,

and it's really a whole
different elevation

of "Star Trek".

And "The Next
Generation" would also be

the final outing for series
creator Gene Roddenberry,

who passes away in 1991
at the age of 70.

I think that Gene Roddenberry
was kind of amazed

because even before he died,
there was so much "Star Trek",

and it was the series
that wouldn't die.

I mean, it became
a whole way of life

for some people,

and a real positive, optimistic,
uplifting vision for the future.

Despite the father
of the franchise

no longer steering
the Enterprise,

the "Star Trek" universe
is about to expand even further.

In the early '90s,

after its triumphant return to
TV with "The Next Generation",

Paramount decides to order
a new series further expanding

the "Star Trek" universe.
- "Deep Space Nine"

was the first
post-Roddenberry series.

It took place on a space station

that was circling
around Cardassia.

I was a major Cardassian.

Cardassian, by the way,
not Kardashians, so.

It started out as a dark horse

and ended up being,

in a great many
people's estimation,

one of the best series.

In 1994,
after six films featuring

the original "Star Trek" cast,

the seventh feature,
"Star Trek: Generations",

is released and serves as an
official crossover transition

from one Enterprise crew
to the next with Captain Picard

enlisting the help of Kirk,
Scotty and Chekov.

Come on in, it's all right.

It's my house.

At least, it used to be.

I'm Captain Jean-Luc Picard
of the Starship Enterprise.

The original series cast
had done six films,

and they were, frankly,
all getting a little older

to be chasing around the galaxy,

so they thought that
"Generations" would be able to

make that transition seamless,

and Captain Picard
meets Captain Kirk

in something called The Nexus,

and Kirk once again
saves the universe,

and then Picard
can take it from there.

With the
continuing success

of the revitalized
TV shows and films,

the franchise continues to grow,

and to the relief
of fans everywhere,

producers of the new
installments remain committed to

Gene Roddenberry's
original vision of progress.

You have
a show like "Voyager"

with the first female captain,
"Deep Space Nine" with

the African-American
captain in Cisco.

Deep Space Nine deals with sort
of deep-rooted social issues

and explores it through the lens
of science fiction,

and it goes back to
Gene Roddenberry's idea

at the very beginning.

in the early 2000s,
the fourth "Next Generation"

film "Nemesis" is released

to negative reviews
and poor box office,

and the cancelation of
the "Enterprise" TV series

in 2005 marks the first time
in 18 years

without any new "Star Trek"
series in production.

Fans carried the torch
of "Star Trek"

when the studio and
network dropped it, you know,

and I think all these
fannish activities,

like "Star Trek" conventions

or talking about
"Star Trek" online

or "Star Trek" fan fiction,

and I think we wouldn't still be
watching "Star Trek" today

if it wasn't for those
"Original Series" fans

not giving up on this show.

Fans anxiously
wait for the next iteration,

but after six television shows
and 10 films,

it's clear that "Star Trek"

is in need of
some fresh perspective.

The "Star Trek" universe
takes a slumber.

Then all of a sudden, boom,

JJ Abrams comes in
and reboots the movie series.

Paramount said, let's go back,
let's go back to the beginning

with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock

and all of those
beloved characters,

and let's do a movie with that.

He casts Christopher
Pine as Captain Kirk,

Zachary Quinto as Mr. Spock,

and the premise is
original Mr. Spock Leonard Nimoy

travels back in time
to guide a new timeline

as there's a time-traveling
bandit that now creates

a second timeline
for "Star Trek",

And that allowed them
to really just go off

and change the story

and trajectory of
"Star Trek" entirely.

So that way we can make
"The Original Series"

without ticking off
"The Original Series" fans.

Well done, JJ Abrams, well done.

The rebooted
"Star Trek" film

is released in 2009
and is a box office smash.

Two successful sequels follow
and paved the way

for a brand new
"Star Trek" TV series.

And with
"Star Trek Discovery",

we had this new era of
Star Trek back on television,

and from there, you know, we've
only gotten more iterations

which is very exciting. Right
now we're in a very fertile time

in "Star Trek"
franchise history.

The well-received "Discovery"
leads to two additional

TV spinoffs, "Picard",

and the much anticipated
"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds",

which, in a truly
full circle moment,

will follow the adventures
of Captain Christopher Pike,

the character from
the 1964 original "Star Trek"

pilot episode who was retooled
to become Captain Kirk.

I think that Gene Roddenberry
would be happy that it's gone in

the different directions
that it has.

He would like that the ethos
of "Star Trek" is still alive,

and again, it's humanity
reaching its best potential,

and I think that you can see
that in every "Star Trek" series

that's out right now.

Today,
the "Star Trek" universe

is a multi-billion
dollar franchise,

one of the most successful
in history.

Not bad for a once-canceled
space western from the 1960s.

It will not go away,

and proven by the new series
that are coming out now,

it will, I think carry on
in perpetuity.

"Star Trek" is very much
in the popular culture.

Everyone knows
Kirk, Spock, McCoy.

They know these characters,
they love these characters.

It's modern mythology,

and I don't think
it's going anywhere

because "Star Trek"
keeps reinventing itself.

The "Star Trek" universe
is this kind of magical place

where you think we all
get together eventually

and we overcome our differences,

and I think that all of us hope
that the future is like that.

And I think it will continue
to live long and prosper,

if not into the 23rd century,
probably pretty close.