Sort of. For my money Star Trek was the first modern filmed science fiction and the first episode aired 40 years ago tonight on NBC. We can argue over the relative merits of TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, the Saturday morning cartoon and the ten movies but this series (along with Kubrick/Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey) set the tone and made commercially possible everything since. Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Blade Runner, GalaxyQuest, Lord of the Rings–I don’t know if any of them would have been made if Gene didn’t convince Desi Arnez and the NBC suits to put his “Wagon Train to the Stars” on Friday nights for three years.
I’m sure The Great Bird of the Galaxy is sitting up there drinking with James Doohan and DeForest Kelley and laughing over the mess we’ve made of his creations and I don’t care. Mr. Roddenberry, thanks for the literally thousands of hours of fun, excitement and entertainment!
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