STAR TREK – Very Much Alive and Kicking!

Written by: Samuel K. Sloan (SoSF Producer & Managing News Editor)

Whoever thinks STAR TREK is dead must have there head stuck in the ground, or somewhere else.

You can’t seem to flick the clicker, any time day or night that you will run into one of the many STAR TREK series running in syndication, or one of the ten movies that have been made over the last 30 years.

SPIKE TV runs episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) almost daily, TBS also give these two stalwarts of the franchise at least one weekly viewing, as well as continuing doses of STAR TREK: Voyager (VOY).

The cable network G4-TV runs a little show called Star Trek 2.0, which takes episodes of Star Trek, the 1960’s original series (TOS) and turns them into a carnucopia of viewing with online gaming, voting, interactive stock-like bidding and chats, right on your television set while the episode is airing in real time. They also run episodes of TNG throughout the week.

And, as we reported just a few days ago, NBC Universal struck a deal with CBS Paramount to allow all four seasons of STAR TREK: Enterprise, the TOS prequel series, on their popular SciFi Channel cable network beginning this fall.

I’m not even taking into account the numerous local stations that run some form of STAR TREK at different hours of the day and some of the other “Superstations” found on many cable company’s selections, that do the same.

Last month I tried an experiment, and in one week I watched a different episode of a variety of different STAR TREK programming, including some of the theatrical releases that were running on HBO and Cinemax. That week I allowed myself (for the sake of the experiment) a total of 35 hours of viewing time, and was able to watch nothing but STAR TREK shows, and not one duplicate episode was viewed. As an avid STAR TREK fan, I was in Roddenberry heaven.

Now, TV Land is climbing onboard the Star Trek “enterprise” and will also be airing three episodes of TOS on September 8th beginning at 8 PM ET/PT. “Captain Kirk and crew go on a whole new voyage as they make their debut on TV Land,” said a community manager at the TV Land Boardroom.

The three special episodes will be aired to help celebrate STAR TREK’s 40th Anniversary which began on NBC/Desilu Studios back in the fall of 1966. The three back-to-back episodes TV Land plans on showing are “The Man Trap,” “The Trouble with Tribbles” and “Plato’s Stepchildren.”

The real exciting news is that STAR TREK will be joining TV Land’s regularly scheduled programs later this fall.

When you take all this programming into account, the many fanfilms available on the net, and the upcoming STAR TREK: XI feature film, I would have to say that The STAR TREK franchise is very much alive and well and may it continue to “Live Long and Prosper.”