TheStar Trek canon includesThe Original Series, several subsequent television series, anda film franchise; further adaptations also exist in expanded media. After the conclusion ofThe Original Series, the adventures of its characters continued inThe Animated Series, and six feature films. A television revival beginning in the late 1980s and concluding in the mid 2000s saw four spinoff series:The Next Generation, following the crew of a new starshipEnterprise a century after the original series;Deep Space Nine andVoyager, both set in the same era as theNext Generation; andEnterprise, set a century before the original series in the early days of human interstellar travel. The adventures of theNext Generation crew continued in four additional feature films. In 2009, the film franchise underwent areboot, creating an alternate continuity known as theKelvin timeline; three films have been set in this continuity. The most recentStar Trek revival beganstreaming on digital platforms in 2017 with series set at various points in the original continuity:Discovery (Seasons 1–2) andStrange New Worlds set beforeThe Original Series; anthology seriesShort Treks;Picard,Lower Decks andProdigy set during or after theNext Generation era; andDiscovery (Seasons 3–5) and the upcomingStarfleet Academy set in the 32nd century.
Star Trek is noted forits cultural influence beyond works of science fiction.[6] The franchise is also notable for its progressive stances oncivil rights.[7]The Original Series included one of the first multiracial casts on US television.
Conception and setting
As early as 1964,Gene Roddenberry drafted a proposal for the science fiction series that would becomeStar Trek. Although he publicly marketed it as aWestern in outer space—a so-called "Wagon Train to the stars"—he privately told friends that he was modeling it onJonathan Swift'sGulliver's Travels, intending each episode to act on two levels: as a suspenseful adventure story and as a morality tale.[8][9][10][11]
MostStar Trek stories depict the adventures of humans and aliens who serve inStarfleet, the space-borne humanitarian and peacekeeping armada of theUnited Federation of Planets. The protagonists havealtruistic values, and must apply these ideals to difficult dilemmas.
Many of the conflicts and political dimensions ofStar Trek areallegories of contemporary cultural realities.The Original Series addressed issues of the 1960s, just as later spin-offs have tackled issues of their respective decades.[12] Issues depicted in the various series include war and peace, the value of personal loyalty,authoritarianism,imperialism, class warfare, economics, racism, religion, human rights,sexism, feminism, and the role of technology.[13]: 57 Roddenberry stated: "[By creating] a new world with new rules, I could make statements about sex, religion,Vietnam, politics, and intercontinental missiles. Indeed, we did make them onStar Trek: we were sending messages and fortunately they all got by the network.[13]: 79 If you talked about purple people on a far off planet, they (the television network) never really caught on. They were more concerned about cleavage. They actually would send a censor down to the set to measure a woman's cleavage to make sure too much of her breast wasn't showing."[14]
Roddenberry intended the show to have a progressive political agenda reflective of the emerging counter-culture of the youth movement, though he was not fully forthcoming to the networks about this. He wantedStar Trek to show what humanity might develop into, if it would learn from the lessons of the past, most specifically by ending violence. An extreme example is the alien species known as theVulcans, who had a violent past but learned to control their emotions. Roddenberry also gaveStar Trek an anti-war message and depicted the United Federation of Planets as an ideal, optimistic version of the United Nations.[15] His efforts were opposed by the network because of concerns over marketability, e.g., they opposed Roddenberry's insistence thatEnterprise have a racially diverse crew.[16]
In early 1964, Roddenberry presented a brieftreatment for a television series toDesilu Productions, calling it "aWagon Train to the stars".[17] Desilu studio headLucille Ball was instrumental in approving production of the series.[18] The studio worked with Roddenberry to develop the treatment into ascript, which was then pitched to NBC.[19]
While the show initially enjoyed high ratings, the average rating of the show at the end of its first season dropped to 52nd out of 94 programs. Unhappy with the show's ratings, NBC threatened to cancel the show during its second season.[20] The show'sfan base, led byBjo Trimble, conducted an unprecedented letter-writing campaign, petitioning the network to keep the show on the air.[20][21] NBC renewed the show, but moved it from primetime to the "Friday night death slot", and substantially reduced its budget.[22] In protest, Roddenberry resigned as producer and reduced his direct involvement inStar Trek, which led toFred Freiberger becoming producer for the show's third and final season.[b] Despite another letter-writing campaign, NBC canceled the series after three seasons and 79 episodes.[19]
Post–Original Series rebirth (1969–1991)
After the original series was canceled, Desilu, which by then had been renamedParamount Television, licensed thebroadcast syndication rights to help recoup the production losses. Reruns began in late 1969, and by the late 1970s the series aired in over 150 domestic and 60 international markets.[citation needed] This helpedStar Trek develop acult following amongTrekkies greater than during its original run;[23] by 1976, the cast describedStar Trek as "the most popular series in the world".[24]
One sign of the series' growing popularity was the firstStar Trek convention, which occurred on January 21–23, 1972 in New York City. Although the original expectation was that a few hundred fans would attend, several thousand turned up. Fans continue to attend similar conventions worldwide.[25]
The series' newfound success led to the idea of reviving the franchise.[26]Filmation withParamount Television produced the first post–original series show,Star Trek: The Animated Series, featuring the cast of the original series reprising their roles. It ran on NBC for 22 half-hour episodes over two seasons on Saturday mornings from 1973 to 1974.[27]: 208 Although short-lived, typical for animated productions in that time slot during that period, the series garnered the franchise's onlyEmmy Award in a "Best Series" category—specificallyOutstanding Entertainment Children's Series; later Emmy awards for the franchise would be in technical categories.Paramount Pictures and Roddenberry began developing a new series,Star Trek: Phase II, in May 1975 in response to the franchise's newfound popularity. Work on the series ended when the proposedParamount Television Service folded.[28]
Following the success of the science fiction moviesStar Wars andClose Encounters of the Third Kind, Paramount adapted the planned pilot episode ofPhase II into the feature filmStar Trek: The Motion Picture. The film opened in North America on December 7, 1979, with mixed reviews from critics. The film earned $139 million worldwide, below expectations but enough for Paramount to create a sequel. The studio forced Roddenberry to relinquish creative control of future sequels.[29]
The success of the sequel,Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, reversed the fortunes of the franchise. While the sequel grossed less than the first movie,The Wrath of Khan's lower production costs made it net more profit. Paramount produced sixStar Trek feature films between 1979 and 1991, each featuring theOriginal Series cast in their original roles.[30]
By 1983 Paramount sawStar Trek as amedia franchise that it could use across mediums beyond television and film, such as books through its publisherSimon & Schuster, and video games through its video game studioSega.[31] In 1987 it brought the franchise back to television withStar Trek: The Next Generation. Paramount chose to distribute the new series as afirst-run syndication show rather than a network program.[10] The series was set a century after the original, following the adventures of a new starshipEnterprise with a new crew.[32]
Post-Roddenberry television era (1991–2005)
FollowingStar Trek: The Motion Picture, Roddenberry's role was changed from producer to creative consultant, with minimal input to the films, while being heavily involved with the creation ofThe Next Generation. Roddenberry died on October 24, 1991, giving executive producerRick Berman control of the franchise.[13]: 268 [10]: 591–593 Star Trek had become known to those within Paramount as "the franchise", because of its great success and recurring role as atent pole for the studio when other projects failed.[33]The Next Generation had the highest ratings of anyStar Trek series and became the most syndicated show during the last years of its original seven-season run.[34] In response to theNext Generation's success, Paramount released a spin-off series,Deep Space Nine, in 1993. While never as popular as theNext Generation, the series had sufficient ratings for it to last seven seasons.
In January 1995, a few months after theNext Generation ended, Paramount released a fourth television series,Voyager.Star Trek production reached a peak in the mid-1990s withDeep Space Nine andVoyager airing concurrently and three of the fourNext Generation-based feature films released in 1994, 1996, and 1998. By 1998,Star Trek was Paramount's most important property and the profits of "the franchise" funded a significant portion of the studio's operations.[35]Voyager became the flagship show of the newUnited Paramount Network (UPN) and thus the first major networkStar Trek series since the original.[36]
The actors who played the Captains on the first fiveStar Trek series, together in London atDestination Star Trek
AfterVoyager ended, UPN producedEnterprise, a prequel series.Enterprise did not enjoy the high ratings of its predecessors and UPN threatened to cancel it after the series' third season. Fans launched a campaign reminiscent of the one that saved the third season of theOriginal Series. Paramount renewedEnterprise for a fourth season, but moved it to theFriday night death slot.[37] Like theOriginal Series,Enterprise's ratings dropped during this time slot, and UPN canceledEnterprise at the end of its fourth season.Enterprise aired its final episode on May 13, 2005.[38] A fan group, "SaveEnterprise", attempted to save the series and tried to raise $30 million to privately finance a fifth season ofEnterprise.[39] Though the effort garnered considerable press, the fan drive failed to save the series. The cancellation ofEnterprise ended an eighteen-year continuous production run ofStar Trek programming on television. The poor box office performance in 2002 of the filmNemesis cast an uncertain light upon the future of the franchise. Paramount relieved Berman, the franchise producer, of control ofStar Trek.
Reboot (Kelvin timeline) film series (2009–2016)
In 2007, Paramount hired a new creative team to reinvigorate the franchise on the big screen. WritersRoberto Orci andAlex Kurtzman and producerJ. J. Abrams had the freedom to reinvent the feel of the franchise. The team created the franchise's eleventh film,Star Trek, releasing it in May 2009. The film featured a new cast portraying the crew of the original show.Star Trek was a prequel of the original series set in analternate timeline, later named theKelvin Timeline. This gave the film and sequels freedom from the need to conform to the franchise's canonical timeline and minimized the impact these films would have on CBS's portion of the franchise. The eleventhStar Trek film's marketing campaign targeted non-fans, stating in the film's advertisements that "this is not your father'sStar Trek".[40]
The film earned considerable critical and financial success, grossing (in inflation-adjusted dollars) more box office sales than any previousStar Trek film.[41] The plaudits include the franchise's firstAcademy Award (formakeup). Two sequels were released. The first sequel,Star Trek Into Darkness, premiered in the spring of 2013.[c][42] While the film did not earn as much in the North American box office as its predecessor, internationally, in terms of box office receipts,Into Darkness is the most successful of the franchise.[43] The thirteenth film,Star Trek Beyond, was released on July 22, 2016.[44] The film had many pre-production problems and its script went through several rewrites. While receiving positive reviews,Star Trek Beyond disappointed in the box office.[45]
Expansion of theStar Trek Universe (2017–present)
CBS turned down several proposals in the mid-2000s to restart the franchise on the small screen. Proposals included pitches from film directorBryan Singer,Babylon 5 creatorJ. Michael Straczynski, andTrek actors Jonathan Frakes and William Shatner.[46][47][48] While CBS was not creating newStar Trek for network television, the ease of access toStar Trek content on new streaming services such asNetflix andAmazon Prime Video introduced a new set of fans to the franchise. CBS eventually sought to capitalize on this trend, and brought the franchise back to the small screen with the seriesStar Trek: Discovery to help launch and draw subscribers to its streaming serviceCBS All Access.[49]Discovery'sfirst season premiered on September 24, 2017.[50] While the first three seasons of the show are shown in the United States exclusively on the service, which changed its name toParamount+, Netflix, in exchange for funding the production costs of the show, owned the international screening rights for the show.[51] This Netflix distribution and production deal ended right before the fourth season premiere ofDiscovery in November 2021.[52]Discovery has since been exclusive to Paramount Global owned platforms.[citation needed]
The Starfleet emblem as seen in the franchise
In June 2018, after becoming sole showrunner ofDiscovery, Kurtzman signed a five-year overall deal with CBS Television Studios to expand theStar Trek franchise beyondDiscovery to several new series, miniseries, and animated series.[53] Kurtzman wanted to "open this world up" and create multiple series set in the same universe but with their own "unique storytelling and distinct cinematic feel",[54] an approach that he compared to theMarvel Cinematic Universe.[55] However, the franchise would not tell a single story across multiple series, allowing audiences to watch each series without having to see all of the others.[56] CBS and Kurtzman refer to this expanded franchise as theStar Trek Universe.[57]
The second series of the expansion of theStar Trek Universe,Star Trek: Picard, featuresPatrick Stewart reprising the characterJean-Luc Picard fromThe Next Generation.Picard premiered on CBS All Access on January 23, 2020. UnlikeDiscovery, Amazon Prime Video streamsPicard internationally.[58] CBS has also released two seasons ofStar Trek: Short Treks, a series of standalone mini-episodes which air betweenDiscovery andPicard seasons. A new live-action series,Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, a spinoff of the second season ofDiscovery and prequel to the original series, premiered on May 5, 2022.Lower Decks, an animated adultcomedy series, was released on August 6, 2020, on CBS All Access. Another animated series,Star Trek: Prodigy, premiered on the rebranded serviceParamount+ first on October 28, 2021, and on December 17, 2021, onNickelodeon.[59]Prodigy is the firstStar Trek series to specifically target younger audiences, and is the franchise's first fully computer animated series. Star Trek's television presence would reach a new peak in 2022, with fiveStar Trek series airing simultaneously that year.[d]
TheStar Trek: Picard series finale aired in April 2023.[60] Discovery's series finale aired in May 2024.[61] AStar Trek: Starfleet Academy series is in pre-production to take the place of one of these series.[62]Star Trek: Prodigy was removed from Paramount+ in June 2023.[63] The series was picked up by Netflix, and season 1 was made available on December 25, 2023. A second season aired later in 2024.[64]
Paramount is also planning to create television films for Paramount+ every two years.[65] The first of these movies,Section 31, starsMichelle Yeoh, reprising her role asEmpress Georgiou fromDiscovery,[66] and was given a release date of January 24, 2025.[67]
Twelve television series make up theStar Trek franchise:The Original Series,The Animated Series,The Next Generation,Deep Space Nine,Voyager,Enterprise,Discovery,Short Treks,Picard,Lower Decks,Prodigy, andStrange New Worlds. All series in total amount to 950 episodes across 50 seasons of television.[e]
Paramount Pictures has produced thirteenStar Trek feature films. The first six films continue the adventures of the cast of theOriginal Series; the seventh film,Generations, was intended as a transition from original cast to the cast of theNext Generation; the next three films focused completely on theNext Generation cast.[f] The eleventh film was widely considered to be areboot of the franchise, despite being a continuation set in analternate timeline known as the "Kelvin Timeline". Additionally, streaming service Paramount+ has released a television film,Star Trek: Section 31.
In May 2022, Alex Kurtzman said there were discussions about expanding theStar Trek Universe to dramatic podcasts.[71] The next month,Nicholas Meyer said he was negotiating a deal to make a podcast based on a television series he had planned aboutKhan Noonien Singh before the events ofStar Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.[72] The project was confirmed in February 2025 as anaudio drama series titledStar Trek: Khan.[73]
YouTube series
The animated preschool web seriesStar Trek: Scouts premiered on September 8, 2025, as part of the franchise's 60th anniversary celebrations. Developed by Nickelodeon Digital Studio in partnership with CBS Studios, the show follows three young friends—JR, Sprocket, and Roo—as they train to become future Starfleet explorers in short-form episodes running approximately three to four minutes each. The first two episodes were released on YouTube on September 8 and 9, 2025, while the full 20-episode season is expected in 2026.[74][75][76]
A pinball machine themed forStar Trek: The Next Generation
Many licensed products are based on theStar Trek franchise. Merchandising is very lucrative for both studio and actors; by 1986 Nimoy had earned more than $500,000 from royalties.[77] Products include novels, comic books, video games, and other materials, which are generally considerednon-canon.Star Trek merchandise generated $4 billion for Paramount by 2000.[78] In 2024, The Nacelle Company acquired the rights to makeStar Trekaction figures for the 60th anniversary of the original series. The action figures will start to debut in late 2025 in waves.[79]
Since 1967, hundreds of original novels, short stories, and television and movie adaptations have been published. The first originalStar Trek novel wasMission to Horatius byMack Reynolds, which was published in hardcover byWhitman Books in 1968.[80]: 131
In 1968, Gene Roddenberry cooperated with Stephen Edward Poe, writing as Stephen Whitfield, on the nonfiction bookThe Making of Star Trek forBallantine Books.[81]
The first publisher ofStar Trek fiction aimed at adult readers wasBantam Books.James Blish wroteadaptations of episodes of the original series in twelve volumes from 1967 to 1977; in 1970, he wrote the first original Star Trek novel published by Bantam,Spock Must Die!.[80]: xi
A 2014 scholarly workNewton Lee discussed the actualization ofStar Trek's holodeck in the future by making extensive use of artificial intelligence and cyborgs.[82]
Star Trek-based comics have been issued almost continuously since 1967, published byMarvel,DC,Malibu,Wildstorm, andGold Key, among others. In 2009,Tokyopop produced an anthology ofNext Generation-based stories presented in the style of Japanesemanga.[83] In 2006,IDW Publishing secured publishing rights toStar Trek comics and issued a prequel to the 2009 film,Star Trek: Countdown.[84] In 2012, IDW published the first volume ofStar Trek – The Newspaper Strip, featuring the work of Thomas Warkentin.[85] As of 2020, IDW continues to produce new titles.[86]
TheStar Trek franchise has numerous games in many formats. Beginning in 1967 with aboard game based on the original series and continuing through today with online and DVD games,Star Trek games continue to be popular among fans.
Star Trek has led directly or indirectly to the creation of a number of magazines which focus either on science fiction or specifically onStar Trek.Starlog was a magazine which was founded in the 1970s.[80]: 13 Initially, its focus was onStar Trek actors, but then it expanded its scope.[80]: 80 Star Trek: The Magazine was a magazine published in the U.S. that ceased publication in 2003.Star Trek Magazine, originally published asStar Trek Monthly byTitan Magazines for the United Kingdom market, began in February 1995. The magazine has since expanded to worldwide distribution under the nameStar Trek Explorer.
Other magazines through the years included professional, as well as magazines published by fans, orfanzines.
TheStar Trek media franchise is a multibillion-dollar industry, owned by Paramount Global.[89] Gene Roddenberry soldStar Trek toNBC as a classic adventure drama; he pitched the show as "Wagon Train to the Stars" and asHoratio Hornblower in Space.[90] The opening line, "to boldly go where no man has gone before", was taken almost verbatim from a U.S.White House booklet on space produced after theSputnik flight in 1957.[91]
Star Trek and its spin-offs have proven highly popular in syndication and was broadcast worldwide.[92] The show's cultural impact goes far beyond its longevity and profitability.Star Trekconventions have become popular among its fans, who call themselves "trekkies" or "trekkers".[93] An entire subculture has grown up around the franchise, which was documented in the filmTrekkies.Star Trek was ranked most popular cult show byTV Guide.[94] The franchise has also garneredmany comparisons of theStar Wars franchise being rivals in the science fiction genre with many fans and scholars.[95][96][97]
ISS-42 astronautSamantha Cristoforetti pays tribute to actor Leonard Nimoy, with a Vulcan salute in 2015 from space.
TheStar Trek franchise inspired some designers of technologies, thePalm PDA and the handheld mobile phone.[98][99] Michael Jones, Chief technologist ofGoogle Earth, has cited thetricorder's mapping capability as one inspiration in the development of Keyhole/Google Earth.[100] TheTricorder X Prize, a contest to build a medical tricorder device was announced in 2012. Ten finalists were selected in 2014, and the winner was to be selected in January 2016. However, no team managed to reach all the required criteria; smaller prizes were given to three of the finalists.Star Trek also broughtteleportation to popular attention with its depiction of "matter-energy transport", with the famously misquoted phrase "Beam me up, Scotty" entering the vernacular.[101] TheStar Trek replicator is credited in the scientific literature with inspiring the field ofdiatomnanotechnology.[102] In 1976, following a letter-writing campaign,NASA named its prototypeSpace ShuttleEnterprise, after thefictional starship.[103] Later, the introductory sequence toStar Trek: Enterprise included footage of this shuttle which, along with images of a naval sailing vessel calledEnterprise, depicted the advancement of human transportation technology.
BeyondStar Trek's fictional innovations, its contributions to television history included a multicultural and multiracial cast.[104] While more common in subsequent years, in the 1960s it was controversial to feature anEnterprise crew that included a Japanese helmsman, a Russian navigator, and a black female communications officer. Captain Kirk's and Lt. Uhura's kiss, in the episode "Plato's Stepchildren", was also daring, and is often mis-cited as being American television's first scripted, interracial kiss, even though several other interracial kisses (e.g. onThe Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour[105]) predated this one.[104] Nichelle Nichols, who played the communications officer, said that the day after she told Roddenberry of her plan to leave the series, she was told a big fan wanted to meet her while attending anNAACP dinner party:
An occupied Borg "alcove" prop on display at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum
I thought it was a Trekkie, and so I said, 'Sure.' I looked across the room, and there was Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. walking towards me with this big grin on his face. He reached out to me and said, 'Yes, Ms. Nichols, I am your greatest fan.' He said thatStar Trek was the only show that he, and his wife Coretta, would allow their three little children to stay up and watch. [She told King about her plans to leave the series.] I never got to tell him why, because he said, 'You can't. You're part of history.'
After the show, Nichols used this public standing to speak for women andpeople of color and against their exclusion from the US human space program; NASA reacted by asking her to find people for its future Space Shuttle program. Nichols proceeded and successfully brought the first non-white people andwomen into the US space program, working in this quality for NASA from the late 1970s until the late 1980s.[107][108]
In 2020, the US effort to develop a vaccine to protect againstCOVID-19 was namedOperation Warp Speed, which was suggested by aStar Trek fan, Peter Marks. Marks leads the unit at theFood and Drug Administration which approves vaccines and therapies.[109]
Parodies
Early parodies ofStar Trek included a famous sketch onSaturday Night Live titled "The Last Voyage of the StarshipEnterprise", withJohn Belushi as Kirk,Chevy Chase as Spock andDan Aykroyd as McCoy.[110] In the 1980s,Saturday Night Live did a sketch with William Shatner reprising his Captain Kirk role inThe Restaurant Enterprise, preceded by a sketch in which he played himself at aTrek convention angrily telling fans to "Get a Life", a phrase that has become part ofTrek folklore.[111]In Living Color continued the tradition in a sketch where Captain Kirk is played by fellow CanadianJim Carrey.[112]
A feature-length film that indirectly parodiesStar Trek isGalaxy Quest. This film is based on the premise that aliens monitoring the broadcast of an Earth-based television series calledGalaxy Quest, modeled heavily onStar Trek, believe that what they are seeing is real.[113] ManyStar Trek actors have been quoted saying thatGalaxy Quest was a brilliant parody.[114][115]
Star Trek has been blended withGilbert and Sullivan at least twice.The North Toronto Players presented aStar Trek adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan titledH.M.S. Starship Pinafore: The Next Generation in 1991 and an adaptation byJon Mullich of Gilbert and Sullivan'sH.M.S. Pinafore that sets the operetta in the world ofStar Trek has played in Los Angeles and was attended by series luminaries Nichelle Nichols,[citation needed] D.C. Fontana and David Gerrold.[116] A similar blend of Gilbert and Sullivan andStar Trek was presented as a benefit concert in San Francisco by the Lamplighters in 2009. The show was titledStar Drek: The Generation After That. It presented an original story with Gilbert and Sullivan melodies.[117]
In August 2010, the members of theInternal Revenue Service created aStar Trek themed training video for a conference. Revealed to the public in 2013, the spoof along with parodies of other media franchises was cited as an example of the misuse of taxpayer funds in a congressional investigation.[121][122]
Star Trek has been parodied in several non-English movies, including the GermanTraumschiff Surprise – Periode 1 which features a gay version of theOriginal Series bridge crew and a Turkish film that spoofs that same series' episode "The Man Trap" in one of the series of films based on the characterTurist Ömer.[citation needed] An entire series of films and novel parodies titledStar Wreck has been created inFinnish.[123]
The Orville is a comedy-drama science fiction television series created bySeth MacFarlane that premiered on September 10, 2017, onFox. MacFarlane, a longtime fan of the franchise who previously guest-starred on an episode ofEnterprise, created the series with a similar look and feel as theStar Trek series.[124] MacFarlane has made references toStar Trek on his animated seriesFamily Guy, where theNext Generation cast guest-starred in the episode "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven".
Other Space is ascience fiction comedy streaming series which premiered onYahoo! Screen on April 14, 2015. Created byPaul Feig, it is set in the 22nd century and follows the dysfunctional crew of an exploratory spaceship who become trapped in an unknown universe.
Until 2016, Paramount Pictures and CBS permitted fan-produced films and episode-like clips to be produced. Several veteranStar Trek actors and writers participated in many of these productions. Several producers turned tocrowdfunding, such asKickstarter, to help with production and other costs.[125]
Popular productions include:New Voyages (2004–2016) andStar Trek Continues (2013–2017). Additional productions include:Of Gods and Men (2008), originally released as a three-part web series, andPrelude to Axanar.[citation needed] Audio dramatizations such asThe Continuing Mission (2007–2016) have also been published by fans.
In 2016, CBS published guidelines which restricted the scope of fan productions, such as limiting the length of episodes or films to fifteen minutes, limiting production budgets to $50,000, and preventing actors and technicians from previousStar Trek productions from participating.[126] A number of highly publicized productions have since been canceled or have gone abeyant.[127]
Documentaries
Star Trek has been a popular subject fordocumentaries reviewing the history of the franchise.[128][129] Some examples include:
Star Trek 25th Anniversary Special (1991), is a 93-minute TV special hosted by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, wherein cast, crew, and special guests tell the story thus far, including behind-the-scenes and blooper video.[130][131]
Star Trek: A Captain's Log (1994), is a 43-minute TV special hosted by William Shatner, with actors from the original series talking about their characters and other aspects of the show, interspersed with scenes from the original series and subsequent films.[132][133]
Journey's End: Saga of Star Trek Next Generation (1994), is a 44-minute TV special hosted by Jonathon Frakes that reviewed the final season of the series and the upcomingGenerations.[134][135]
Star Trek: Voyager - Inside the New Adventure (1995), is a 45-minute TV special that aired the week before theVoyager premiere. Hosted byRobert Picardo, it goes behind-the-scenes of the series creation and the pilot "Caretaker" with cast and crew interviews.[136][137]
Inside Star Trek: The Real Story (1998), subtitled "A first hand acount - by the insiders", is hosted byHerbert F. Solow, former Head of Television Productions atDesilu Studios, and features interviews with those who worked behind the scenes (writers, directors, producers, technicians and artists) on the original series, based upon the 1996 book of the same name that he co-wrote withRobert H. Justman.[139][140]
Trekkies (1997), exploring the subculture ofStar Trek fandom.[132]
Trekkies 2 (2004), visits fans from other countries, examines the "Trekker" vs "Trekkie" debate, and revisits fans fromTrekkies (1997).
How William Shatner Changed the World (2005), is a two hour TV special hosted by William Shatner that interviews inventors, doctors, professors and others on howStar Trek has changed today's world.[141][142]
Star Trek: The Captains' Summit (2009) - Hosted byWhoopi Goldberg, this 71-minute special filmed for theStar Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection is around table discussion with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart, and Jonathan Frakes about their work on-set and how the franchise has affected their lives.[144][145]
Chaos on the Bridge: The Untold Story Behind Trek's Next Generation (2014), is a 59-minute TV special hosted by William Shatner that recalls the struggle to launch and produceThe Next Generation with interviews by writers, producers, executives, cast, and crew.[146][147]
50 Years of Star Trek (2016), an 85-minute retrospective by cast, crew, creators, and critics about the impact ofStar Trek from its creation, to the present, and into the future.[148][149]
Building Star Trek (2016), is a 92-minute special commemorating the 50th anniversary and the efforts by a conservation team fromSmithsonian'sNational Air and Space Museum to restore and conserve the original 11-foot model of the U.S.S.Enterprise from the original series. It features interviews with astronauts, engineers, writers, and cast.[150][151]
The Center Seat (2016), an 85-minute special onStar Trek for its 50th anniversary, aired by theHistory network.[129]
The Roddenberry Vault (2016), is a Blu-ray release of newly-located footage cut from the original series, taken from film located in personal archives. Three new one-hour documentaries and audio commentaries were produced by specialists Roger Lay, Jr., Michael Okuda, and Denise Okuda. The three documentaries are titled,Inside the Roddenberry Vault,Star Trek: Revisiting a Classic, andStrange New Worlds: Visualizing the Fantastic.[152][153]
What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2019), is a two-hour special about the production and legacy of the show.[128][154]
Some documentaries have been funded by the community by money raised bycrowdfunding.[128]What We Left Behind raised nearly $650,000 in this way, and a plannedVoyager documentary, titledTo the Journey: Looking Back at Star Trek: Voyager, raised $450,000 in 24 hours.[128][157]
Of the various science fiction awards for drama, only theHugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation dates back as far as the original series.[g] In 1968, all five nominees for a Hugo Award were individual episodes ofStar Trek, as were three of the five nominees in 1967, one of which won.[h][27]: 231 The Next Generation won Hugo awards in 1993 and 1995. Nominations have also been received byDeep Space Nine,Enterprise,Discovery, andLower Decks, as well as several of theStar Trek feature films and, in 2008, an episode of thefan-made seriesStar Trek: Phase II.
Jeri Ryan, appearing at theCreationStar Trek convention in 2010; she was nominated for three Saturn awards and won for Best Supporting Actress in 2001 and 2024.
One of the most successful films wasStar Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which grossed a global total of $133 million against a $21 million budget.[1][158]The Voyage Home garnered 11 nominations at the 14th annualSaturn Awards, tyingAliens for number of nominations. Nimoy and Shatner were nominated for best actor for their roles,[159] and Catherine Hicks was nominated for best supporting actress. At the59th Academy Awards,The Voyage Home was nominated for Best Cinematography, Sound (Terry Porter,David J. Hudson,Mel Metcalfe andGene Cantamessa), Sound Effects Editing, and Original Score.[160]
The episode "The Big Goodbye" in the first season ofStar Trek: The Next Generation, in recognition of its "new standard of quality for first-run syndication", the episode was honored with aPeabody Award in 1987. "The Big Goodbye" was also nominated for twoEmmy Awards in the categories of Outstanding Cinematography for a Series andOutstanding Costumes for a Series, with costume designerWilliam Ware Theiss winning the award in the latter category.[161]
In 2024, the entireStar Trek franchise was awarded the Peabody Institutional Award for its enduring body of work and lasting impact on media and society at large.[163]
Corporate ownership
Star Trek began as a joint-production ofNorway Productions, owned by Roddenberry, andDesilu, owned byDesi Arnaz andLucille Ball. The profit-sharing agreement for the series split proceeds between Norway, Desilu (laterParamount Television), William Shatner's production company, and the broadcast network,NBC. However,Star Trek lost money during its initial broadcast, and NBC did not expect to recoup its losses by selling the series into syndication, nor did Paramount. With NBC's approval, Paramount offered its share of the series to Roddenberry sometime in 1970. However, Roddenberry could not raise the $150,000 (equivalent to $1,214,524 in 2024) offered by the studio.[19] Paramount would go on to license the series to television syndicators worldwide. NBC's remaining broadcast and distribution rights eventually returned to Paramount and Roddenberry sometime before 1986, which coincided with the development of what would becomeThe Next Generation.
As for Desilu, the studio was acquired byGulf+Western. It was then reorganized as thetelevision production division ofParamount Pictures, which Gulf+Western had acquired in 1966. Gulf+Western sold its remaining industrial assets in 1989, renaming itself Paramount Communications. Sometime before 1986,Sumner Redstone had acquired a controlling stake ofViacom via his family's theater chain,National Amusements. Viacom was established in 1952 as a division ofCBS responsible for syndicating the network's in-house productions, originally calledCBS Films. In 1994, Viacom and Paramount Communications were merged.[19] Viacom then merged with its former parent,CBS Corporation, in 1999. National Amusements and the Redstone family increased their stake in the combined company between 1999 and 2005.
Split ownership (2005–2019)
In 2005, the Redstone family reorganized Viacom, spinning off the conglomerate's assets as two independent groups: the newViacom, and the newCBS Corporation. National Amusements and the Redstone family retained approximately 80% ownership of both CBS and Viacom.[164]Star Trek was split between the two entities. The terms of this split were not known. However, CBS held all copyrights, marks, production assets, and film negatives, to allStar Trek television series. CBS also retained the rights to all likenesses, characters, names and settings, and stories, and the right to licenseStar Trek, and its spin-offs, to merchandisers, and publishers, etc.[165] The rights were exercised via the newCBS Television Studios, which was carved out of the formerParamount Television.
Viacom, which housedParamount Pictures, retained the feature film library, and exclusive rights to produce new feature films for a limited time.[citation needed] Viacom also retained home video distribution rights for all television series produced before 2005.[19][166] However, home video editions of the various television series released after the split, as well as streaming video versions of episodes available worldwide, carried variants of the new CBS Television Studios livery in addition to the original Paramount Television Studios livery. It was unclear who retained thesynchronization orstreaming rights.[citation needed]
Rights and distribution issues, and the fraught relationship between the leadership at CBS, Viacom, and the National Amusements' board of directors, resulted in a number of delayed and canceledStar Trek productions between 2005 and 2019.[167] Additionally, the development and release of the newStar Trek film, in 2009, was met with resistance by executives at CBS, as wasInto Darkness (2013) andBeyond (2016), which affected merchandising, tie-in media, and promotion for the new films.[168] During this period, both CBS and Viacom continued to listStar Trek as an important asset in their prospectus to investors, and in corporate filings made to theSecurities and Exchange Commission.
Re-merged current ownership
On August 13, 2019, CBS and Viacom boards of directors reached an agreement toreunite the conglomerates as a single entity called ViacomCBS.[169] National Amusements' board of directors approved the merger on October 28, 2019, which was finalized on December 4, bringing theStar Trek franchise back under one roof.[170][171][172] ViacomCBS was renamedParamount Global on February 16, 2022.[173]
New ownership
On July 7, 2024, Paramount Global's board approved a deal to merge withSkydance Media, the resulting company was being referred to at that time as "New Paramount".[174][175] After delays due to a series of lawsuits and FCC approval, the merger was completed on August 7, 2025. The merged company was officially named "Paramount, A Skydance Corporation", but was widely referred to as "Paramount Skydance".[176][177][178]
^Published asStar Trek Monthly from 1995 until 2003
^Roddenberry co-authored two scripts for the third season.
^Star Trek Into Darkness premiered in Sydney, Australia, on April 23, 2013, but the film did not release in the United States until May 17, 2013
^While 2022 had the most Star Trek series, each series had fewer episodes per season than when TNG, DS9 and Voyager where airing together.
^The episode count includes all completed and released episodes. The count also includes theOriginal Series's unaired pilot, "The Cage". Multi-part episodes not originally broadcast as one presentation are counted individually. Ten feature-length episodes are counted as two episodes each, as they were split for foreign broadcast and syndication.
^Film titles of the North American and UK releases of the films no longer contained the number of the film following the sixth film (the sixth wasStar Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country but the seventh wasStar Trek Generations). However, European releases continued using numbers in the film titles untilNemesis.
^Although theHugo Award is mainly given for print-media science fiction, its "best drama" award is usually given to film or television presentations. The Hugo does not give out awards for best actor, director, or other aspects of film production. Before 2002, films and television series competed for the same Hugo, before the split of the drama award into short drama and long drama.
^abcdefDavies, Máire Messenger; Pearson, Roberta (August 2007). "The Little Program That Could: The Relationship between NBC andStar Trek". In Hilmes, Michele (ed.).NBC: America's network. Berkeley:University of California Press. pp. 209–223.ISBN978-0-520-25079-6.
^Sackett, Susan (May 15, 2002).Inside Trek: My Secret Life with Star Trek Creator Gene Roddenberry. Tulsa, Oklahoma: HAWK Publishing Group.ISBN978-1-930709-42-3.
^"Star Trek: Series and Movies".startrek.com. CBS STUDIOS INC., PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION, AND CBS INTERACTIVE INC.Archived from the original on November 11, 2023. RetrievedNovember 11, 2023.
^"STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION".startrek.com. CBS STUDIOS INC., PARAMOUNT PICTURES CORPORATION, AND CBS INTERACTIVE INC.Archived from the original on November 11, 2023. RetrievedNovember 11, 2023.
^"Star Trek – A Short History".ee.surrey.ac.uk. Transcribed press release originally distributed by Paramount Pictures. May 9, 1994. Archived fromthe original on December 5, 2010. RetrievedAugust 21, 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
^Lee, Newton (August 2, 2014). "From a Pin-up Girl to Star Trek's Holodeck: Artificial Intelligence and Cyborgs". In Lee, Newton (ed.).Digital da Vinci: Computers in the Arts and Sciences. New York:Springer Science+Business Media. pp. 1–22.ISBN978-1-4939-0964-3.
^"Nichelle Nichols, NASA Recruiter".NASA. Archived fromthe original on December 22, 2009. RetrievedJanuary 9, 2019.From the late 1970s until the late 1980s, NASA employed Nichelle Nichols to recruit new astronaut candidates. Many of her new recruits were women or members of racial and ethnic minorities, including Guion Bluford (the first African-American astronaut), Sally Ride (the first female American astronaut), Judith Resnik (one of the original set of female astronauts, who perished during the launch of the Challenger on January 28, 1986), and Ronald McNair (the second African-American astronaut, and another victim of the Challenger accident).
^Arcynta Ali Childs (June 11, 2011)."Q & A: Nichelle Nichols, AKA Lt. Uhura, and NASA". Smithsonian.com. Archived fromthe original on June 27, 2011. RetrievedJanuary 9, 2019.Ten years after "Star Trek" was cancelled, almost to the day, I was invited to join the board of directors of the newly formed National Space Society. They flew me to Washington and I gave a speech called "New Opportunities for the Humanization of Space" or "Space, What's in it for me?" In [the speech], I'm going where no man or woman dares go. I took NASA on for not including women and I gave some history of the powerful women who had applied and, after five times applying, felt disenfranchised and backed off. [At that time] NASA was having their fifth or sixth recruitment and women and ethnic people [were] staying away in droves. I was asked to come to headquarters the next day and they wanted me to assist them in persuading women and people of ethnic backgrounds that NASA was serious [about recruiting them]. And I said you've got to be joking; I didn't take them seriously. . . . John Yardley, who I knew from working on a previous project, was in the room and said 'Nichelle, we are serious.' I said OK. I will do this and I will bring you the most qualified people on the planet, as qualified as anyone you've ever had and I will bring them in droves. And if you do not pick a person of color, if you do not pick a woman, if it's the same old, same old, all-white male astronaut corps, that you've done for the last five years, and I'm just another dupe, I will be your worst nightmare.
^Porter, Jennifer E; McLaren, Darcee L (January 1999).Star Trek and Sacred Ground: Explorations of Star Trek, Religion, and American Culture. Albany, New York:State University of New York Press. p. 268.ISBN978-0-585-29190-1.
^Geraghty, Lincoln (March 30, 2007).Living with Star Trek: American Culture and the Star Trek Universe. London:I.B. Tauris. pp. 51–52.ISBN978-1-84511-421-3.
