Star Trek

A short-lived television series fueled by the creative genius of Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek aired for three seasons, from 1966 through 1968. Set in the twenty-second century, the central theme of the science fiction series was the exploration of outer space. Its story lines revolved around the space travels of the ship U.S.S. Enterprise, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk. The ship's mission, as announced in the opening moments of each episode, was "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."

The decisions and actions of Captain Kirk, a Ulysses-like character portrayed with casual offhandedness by William Shatner, were the series main focus; however, several supporting characters who comprised the heart of the Enterprise crew became hugely popular as well. The most prominent of these ancillary characters was Commander Spock (Leonard Nimoy). A pointed-eared being from the planet Vulcan whose native populace embraced a behavioral standard of stoic, emotionless rationality, Mr. Spock was known for being able to achieve a Vulcan mind meld with any living creature merely by touching the base and side of its head. Other characters included Montgomery "Scottie" Scott ( James Doohan), the ship's chief engineer; Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), the ship's communications officer (one of the first African-American woman to land a featured role in a television series); and Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley), the ship's chief medical officer who was the emotional opposite of Spock, with a personality as impassioned as Spock's was passionless.

Though Star Trek produced an original corpus of only seventy-nine episodes, the fictional world it sketched attracted what are generally acknowledged to be television's most fervent and loyal fans. First known as Trekkies and later Trekkers, these fans stubbornly supported the series long after its demise. They organized Star Trek conferences and became famous for investing considerable money and effort to create their own Star Trek costumes. This intrepid and indefatigable fan support eventually attracted new monies and energies to the Star Trek phenomenon, which spawned an animated television series, numerous books, six full-length feature films starring much of the original cast, and eventually three spin-off television series, including Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager.

By their intense commitment to the series and its characters, Trekkers revealed the extent to which mass-mediated entertainment could take on a religious function for at least part of its audience base at the end of the twentieth century.

See alsoSpace Flight.

Bibliography

Brasher, Brenda E. "Thoughts on the Status of the Cyborg: On Technological Socialization and Its Link to the Religious Function of Popular Culture." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 64, no. 4 (1996): 809–830.

Jindra, Michael. "Star Trek Fandom as a Religious Phenomenon." Sociology of Religion 55, no. 1 (Spring 1994): 27–51.

Brenda E. Brasher