Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Fun Facts Blog: Star Trek

This past Saturday was the 46th anniversary of the first episode of the original Star Trek series. Here are some Star Trek Fun Facts to help you celebrate!

Everyone knows Captain James T. Kirk as the captain of the USS Enterprise. Real fans know that Captain Christopher Pike was the captain prior to Kirk.

There was another captain who is semi-accepted as the first captin of the Enterprise, Robert April. He appeared only in Star Trek: The Animated Series, which is debatedly not part of the cannon. However, Robert April was also the Captian of the USS Yorktown, the original concept by Gene Rodenberry. April eventually turned into Pike.

Star Trek never did very good in the ratings, earning a spot as the 33rd most viewed show (out of 94) for the second and third week of airing, dropping to 51st for the next couple weeks. Even with the low overall numbers, Star Trek had the correct demographics and ran for 79 episodes.

The character of Spock is the only character from the original pilot to appear in the series.

Alexander Courage wrote the theme to Star Trek. Gene Rodenberry wrote the lyrics, even though he never intended them to be used.

The most widely acclaimed episode of Star Trek, The City on the Edge of Forever, was originally written (and rewritten once) by Harlan Ellison. The script was further rewritten internally, causing Ellison to use the pseudonym Cordwainer Bird due to his dislike of some changes.

Leonard Nimoy came up with the Vulcan salute, basing it on the way he remembered Jewish priests giving blessings when he was a child.

The episode I remember watching the most as a kid, and my favorite episode, is The Trouble with Tribbles.

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