willfmoviejudge Although every man or woman is entitled to their opinion, Star Trek was one of the biggest most successful phenomenas of all time. This show was the pioneer of quality science fiction, because it was the aggregator that redefined and paved the way for other later successful sci-fi shows like Battle Star Galactica, Star Trek Next Generation, Voyager, etc. Star Trek was initially created by ex-Los Angeles police officer Gene Roddenberry after he retired from the police; movies and TV shows were his hobby.The premise initially was very simple: A captain aboard his enormous space ship called the U.S.S Enterprise and his crew trek on their five year expedition to explore strange new worlds and seek out life on other civilizations; simply put "to boldly go where no man has gone before." This crew has to obey a Federation of Planets policy known as the Prime Directive, which states that they cannot interfere with and alter the life of the civilians on the planet they encounter. However, as the show goes on, we see that the crew amongst the Enterprise almost always interfere with people's lives anyway. In addition, another sub premise revolves around the concept that they always have to fight against Klingons, Romulans, and other very hostile aliens to survive.Although this show only ran for three seasons (1966-1969), the reason why this show was affluently successful was because it knew how to draw the attention between younger (less mature) audiences as well as older (more mature) audiences alike. Younger audiences would love the exceptionally high level of action between the over acted, over choreographed fight scenes as well as Captain James T. Kirk played by William Shatner (who was also known for the Twilight Zone and Boston Legal) making love to MORE THAN 85% of the women he encountered on the show. It is the older audiences that would have a better understanding on Star Trek's overall message. Say what you want, but in reality Star Trek was at least 15-20 years ahead of schedule. Star Trek first aired in a period of time in U.S history when gender segregation and racial discrimination were still at large, a plague contaminating society's social mores. Shoving action and hokey scenes aside, Star Trek was responsible for explaining to us how people should work together to accomplish a common goal despite race, gender and creed.The main crew members aboard the Enterprise are all diverse from one another. 1: James Kirk is a Canadian/U.S. Captain where he is the one who commands the Enterprise and all its vital functions. Compared to most science fiction captains like Captain Picard from Star Trek Next Generation, he is more impulsive with his actions than he is diplomatic, which usually gets him into trouble. 2: Spock played by Leonard Nimoy is a half vulcan, half human hybrid who is Kirk's science officer as well as his second in command. A vulcan is an alien race that is distantly relatable to Klingons and Romulans but not nearly as aggressive. 3: Sulu played by George Takei (pronounced Ta Kay) is a Japanese pilot of the Enterprise, responsible for piloting the Enterprise to a given planet given orders by the Captain. 4: Chekov played by Walter Koenig is a young Russian man that is the ship's main ensign. An ensign is simply a young man or a woman who has an internship for a star fleet academy. 5: Dr. McCoy (aka Bones, we never find out why?) played by DeForest Kelly is an American Surgeon from down south who serves as the ship's head of a place called Sick Bay, which is basically the ship's hospital. His catchphrase was always "Dammit Jim I'm a Doctor not a..." you can literally fill in any word that starts with a "P". This Doctor has an opposite personality than Spock, therefore they always bicker about little trivial things. 6: Lieutenant Scott played by James Doohan is the Chief Engineer who is responsible for having to fix things on the ship. Whenever he has to fix things on the ship though; he always says "I can't do it Captain" but gets it fixed anyway. 7: Uhura played by Nichelle Nichols is the Enterprise's communications officer. This character/actress paved the way for African Americans to receive better roles in television (which was unheard of in the 1960's). This actress indirectly inspired Whoopi Goldberg to get into acting where she stars in the other show Next Generation. You get my point here, the characters are very diverse, but once again they work well together as one union.I highly recommend all age groups of people to give this show a chance. I understand that the first two seasons were fantastic, but the third season was sub-par; but I'm willing to forgive a handful or two of less than satisfactory episodes of this show because once again it was a show ahead of its time. I cannot explain everything in this one review, but my review already beat the dead horse on the overall sophication of this show. Once again, a show that generations and generations and GENERATIONS of kids and young adults should watch from beginning to end.Overall Show Rating: 92%

merelyaninnuendo Star TrekA cultural hub and by far one of the most loved and respected tale, Star Trek is created by Gene Roddenberry who wrote this brilliant concept, ahead of its time and is probably why it still doesn't fail to entertain us after these many years. It was written "for the future" in many aspects as it even though is smarter, wiser and powerful it still seeks for emotion and the force that binds it all. The relation between Spock and Kirk; despite of its premise, is the most human thing in this majestic tale where the adventures are endless. Encountering this original series, at this stage makes the execution look petty and a bit loose (the small technical aspects can be negotiated) but the writing is smart, gripping and hence it completely overpowers it. The series doesn't seem to mature as it should have but definitely has improved on terms of implementing smarter approach, parallel plot lines and thought provoking concept. There isn't much awareness on terms of structure of the script and the format to create an arc for the characters and offer it appropriate gravitas; in here the punch line is prior than the methodology. William Shatner is good on his role and is supported decently by DeForest Kelly as his side kick, but the real treat is Leonard Nimoy as a complex creature that is always soothing and satisfying on his portrayal of Spock. Star Trek is a game changer to its genre as it defines the true ambiguity of the nature at its wild.

digitalbeachbum I started watching reruns in the 70's every afternoon. Star Trek would come on around 5:00pm and run a single episode, Mon through Fri. I could never get enough. I even started to watch the animated series on Saturday.However after watching them several dozen times on Netflix I have been finding too many plot inconsistencies and mistakes with the logic of the shows. Some are still solid and hold special meaning for me. The other episodes are no longer valid and I can't stand watching them.I enjoy the themes that the original scripts bring to the screen and that the show attacked stereotypes and problems of that era. I enjoyed Spock as my most favorite character. He brought the show together for me. The more he was a part of an episode, the more I enjoyed it.The technology was fun to watch also. Many of the episodes featured state of the art, original Sci-fi props and ideas. It is amazing how much this show has influenced other Sci-fi shows and movies. It is almost like Star Trek is the grandfather of Sci-fi.Overall I still enjoy the series but I had to stop watching them. I think I overdosed on them. I'll shelf them for another couple of years and go back to enjoy them again.

TxMike I recently came across this old 1960s Star Trek series on Netflix streaming movies. I did what any reasonable person would do, I watched the "pilot" first, a 63-minute episode. I enjoyed it, it brought back good memories of a time long ago.But afterwards I found out a strange fact, this pilot, with a 1964 copyright, had never actually been aired. And that might also explain why it had no captain Kirk, instead it has a captain Pike played by Jeffrey Hunter. But it had other major characters, like Spock.I found out later, Jeffrey Hunter decided to drop out of possible future Star Trek work and that is why captain Pike was replaced by captain Kirk when the series actually began. Who knows, William Shatner might never have become so famous if Hunter had stuck with the series.The pilot is interesting, the crew of the Enterprise get a signal that a strange planet, with 0.9 the gravity of Earth, plus an atmosphere with oxygen and nitrogen, has signs of survivors of an old spaceship crash. So they decide to be beamed down for a rescue mission. What they find are an alien race with small, weak bodies and very large, bald heads and the ability of mind control. There had been only one survivor of that crash, a woman, and they were trying to find a male to mate with her and continue that race. Then most of that unaired pilot was incorporated into episodes 12 and 13 of the first season, with a new Captain Pike story.Over 50 years ago the special effects were nothing like what has been developed since then, and the sets looked like sets built on a sound stage, and not very authentic. But none of that matters, it was a groundbreaking TV series at a time when the viewing audience were hungry for space-exploration stories. I now need to watch a few of the regular episodes that were actually aired and with captain Kirk.