STAR TREK "Space...the final frontier..." 79 episodes of 50 minute duration. Paramount 1966 - 69.

If U.S. television can be said to have ushered in the birth of a genuine phenomena, then that phenomena bears the title of Star Trek; the brainchild and labour of love of former WWll pilot, LAPD officer and veteran TV scriptwriter Gene Roddenberry.

The original series pilot ‘The Cage,’ which featured high profile motion picture actor Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike, was rejected unbroadcast by wary network executives at NBC as being too cerebral. But such was Roddenberry’s single-minded belief in the 'Star Trek' concept, that all opposition was swept aside, resulting in the network’s (at that time) unprecedented green lighting for production of a second pilot. With Hunter bowing out of the project and such well known and viewer friendly names as Lloyd Bridges and Jack Lord passing on the revamped central character of the starship Enterprise’s captain, the mantel ultimately settled on the shoulders of young, respected Canadian actor William Shatner as the embodiment of Starfleet’s finest officer; charismatic Captain James Tiberius Kirk.

‘Where No Man Has Gone Before,’ was a success. And with the airing of the first episode of the series proper, the core triumvirate of Kirk, his loyal and eminently logical Vulcan first officer, Mister Spock, and crusty chief medical officer, Doctor Leonard 'Bones' McCoy, ably supported by a ground-breaking, multi-racial gender mixed crew of 432, helped introduce the viewing audience to a genuinely polished and thought provoking range of stories. ‘The Man Trap,’ saw the laying of the foundations of a televisual legend. A legend which more than thirty-five years, numerous spin-off television series, motion pictures, and a multi-billion dollar merchandising juggernaut later, shows no evidence of losing its warp drive fuelled momentum.

Its original ‘five year mission’ long since surpassed, 'Star Trek' in all its myriad forms remains true to its founding credo: 'To boldly go where no man has gone before,' and in the process, it has touched the lives of millions.