Happy 47th Anniversary!!!

NCC 1701 U.S.S. Enterprise

To boldly go ...

Main crew of the Enterprise in TOS (the original series)

Happy 47th!!!

Another shot of some of the main crew from the TOS Enterprise (Sulu and Nurse Chapel have been left out, for some reason;  notice also that Yeoman Janice Rand is in neither photo, although she was a recurring character, rather than a member of the main crew -- but she was in the very first episode ever broadcast, "The Man Trap").

Yeoman Janice Rand in the second episode ever broadcast, "Charlie X."

Forty-seven years ago today, on the 8th of September in the year 1966, the most amazing television series ever broadcast, Star Trek (usually called "Star Trek - The Original Series," or "ST:TOS," but which I prefer to call "Star Trek Classic," or "Trek Classic") debuted on the NBC television network in the USA.

Sulu gone wild, from the episode "The Naked Time."

This series took on pressing social concerns of the day, including racism, sexism, intolerance of dissident opinions, cultural imperialism (the famous "Prime Directive" forbade cultural contamination by Starfleet officers), the possibility of progress without the naïveté of utopianism, etc.

Spock of the Mirror Universe, in the episode "Mirror, Mirror."

The first interracial kiss ever broadcast was in the Star Trek Classic episode "Plato's Stepchildren," as seen in this scene:

Worth noting is that the first episode of Star Trek:  The Animated Series was first broadcast also on the 8th of September, but in the year 1973.

When the new Trek series began in the 1980s, Star Trek:  The Next Generation, it continued the pattern of addressing assorted social concerns, ranging from racism and sexism to homophobia and transphobia, the perils of a police state, cultural imperialism, etc.  Subsequent series have likewise followed this model, taking on social, political, economic, religious, and cultural issues and providing a progressive perspective, showing us what we could become if we strive for such betterment by promoting education and seeking liberty, equality, and justice for all -- and warning us of what we could become if we instead choose to glorify and perpetuate ignorance, intolerance, prejudice, superstition, and irrationality.

More pictures follow, starting and ending, appropriately, with Romulans and their vessels (in an era before the Tal'Shiar had polluted the Romulan Star Empire with their fascist police state mentality).

The "Romulan Mini Skirt Commander," as many have called her, unnamed in the original episode ("The Enterprise Incident"), but named Di'on Charvon in non-canon literature.

A fleet of Romulan D7 vessels (given to the Romulan Star Empire by the Klingons during one of their periods of alliance with the Klingon Empire), commanded by Commander (that is, Fleet Commander) Di'on Charvon, surrounding the NCC 1701 U.S.S. Enterprise in the episode "The Enterprise Incident."

 

The same non-canon literature which names her as Di'on Charvon says that she changed her name after the events of "The Enterprise Incident," taking the name Liviana Charvanek.  Here she meets Kirk and Spock for the first time, on her ship, and under her own terms.

The Klingon-built D7 Flagship of Commander Di'on Charvon, in the espisode "The Enterprise Incident."

Marta, an Orion woman played by Yvonne Craig (Barbara Gordon / Batgirl in the 1960s Batman TV series).

Spock of the Mirror Universe with his bodyguards and the Prime Universe Captain Kirk (masquerading as the Kirk of the Mirror Universe)

Commander Kang of the Klingon Empire, from the episode "Day of the Dove"

Klingon D7 from the episode "Errand of Mercy" (Remastered)

Lieutenant Uhura of the Prime Universe (masquerading as her Mirror Universe counterpart), engaged in psych ops versus the Sulu of the Mirror Universe

Mark Lenard (who also played Sarek, the father of Spock in several other TOS episodes, and likewise appeared as Sarek in subsequent series and movies in the franchise) in his first Star Trek role as another unnamed Romulan Commander (Fleet Commander, or "Riov" in the Rihan language later developed by Diane Duane, a rank equivalent to a Starfleet Captain, if not a Starfleet Commodore), from the episode "Balance of Terror."  Non-canon literature names this character "Keras" (which is "Sarek" spelled backwards).

The Romulan Bird of Prey commanded by "Keras" in the episode "Balance of Terror"

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