Happy Birthday, Star Trek

[kelliem]

Star Trek is 40 years old today.

That means on this date in 1966, 7-going-on-8-year-old me was begging my mom to let me stay up past my bedtime to watch that "new show that looks better than Lost in Space." :D

Thankfully, she did. And without TOS, I would never have become the person I am today. (Some may argue that might have been better, but I never will!) And as tzikeh pointed out, we probably wouldn't be here today if not for Star Trek, the Original Series.

So, I raise my coffee mug to Gene Roddenberry and his "wagon train to the stars," and to Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, and all the rest of the gang. Happy birthday, and thank you.

ETA: Go tell ellen_fremendon your favorite thing from any incarnation of Trek.

Comments

[betagoddess.livejournal.com]

Wow! I was 16 back then and watched EVERY ep! It was the coolest thing around and I had SUCH a crush on Spock! LOL! Those were the days! =>}

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Everyone I knew had a crush on Spock. He was coooool. :) Ah, nostalgia. :)

[betagoddess.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. That was right about the time that we got our first colour TV. I used to love to babysit for a family that had one before we did. Spock in colour. Oh YEAH! And Leonard Nimoy also did a stint in Mission Impossible, with curly hair. ALSO very tasty looking. Heh heh! =>}

I really wouldn't want to EVER be a teenager again, but what with Star Trek AND the Beatles, there were some very good times of escape back in the day. =>}

Well, I think we can say that

[cattraine.livejournal.com]

we certainly ventured where no one had before...heh. Yay! Star Trek!

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

Your icon makes me all sorts of happy. *raises mug in your direction!*

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Don't forget Man from UNCLE. :-)

Yeah, we had the best stuff to distract us from our homework.

Re: Well, I think we can say that

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

To this day I'm never sure if I should go boldly, or boldly go. :)

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Isn't it great? I love those old publicity shots. Really, all I did was crop it, shrink it, and up the saturation a tad. Everything else was already there. :)

[betagoddess.livejournal.com]

Oh YEAH! I SO slashed Napolean and Illya in my teenage brain. LOL.

It's a darned good thing we had no computers or TV's in our rooms way back then. Heh heh!

[silme.livejournal.com]

Sci-Fi Channel here in the UK has been airing the top ST:TOS tonight based on viewers' votes. My vote, 'Mirror, Mirror', was number three. 'City on the Edge' was two, and 'Tribbles', natch, is the top one, on now.

I was only five, but I watched the show back in 1966 also. I remember sneaking down the stairs and watching through the railways halfway downstairs. When my mother discovered me, she relented and let me enter the living room. My brother, who was 18, was a huge science-fiction fan, and he explained a lot of things I didn't understand at my young age. We bonded through ST. :)

[silme.livejournal.com]

Envy! You had colour TV that early?! :) (It would be years before my parents would break down and buy a colour -- well, color, since I was in the US then -- set.)

[betagoddess.livejournal.com]

Yes, we were quite lucky. We had a b&w TV early in the 50's. I don't remember being without it. And as soon as good coloUr (only in Canada, heheh) TV's arrived, my Dad got us one.

Although in those days, we only had one TV and if he was home, he almost always got his choice. Luckily, I think everyone else in the family must've liked SciFi, cause I got to see it all. Or maybe it was on early. I really don't remember.

Later on, my parents had a tiny b&w TV in their room, and to watch some of my shows, I had to use it. *sigh*

Neither of our kids, who are now adults, ever had a decent TV in their room, but at least we had two TV's and I was more than willing to let them have their choices later on, having been often denied them by my jock Dad. I STILL hate it when hockey is on TV. Some Canadian, eh? Heh heh.

Luckily, my J. AND my kids all share my love of SciFi/Fantasy, so we used to watch a lot of shows together. I might've been the odd one out in a family of jocks, but my OWN little family shares many of my interests, thank goodness. =>}

[silme.livejournal.com]

I'm in the UK now. I remember having to tell my teacher back in 1968 (back in Pennsylvania) that I couldn't watch the travel show on Mexico that night (we were studying Mexico) because our TV didn't have UHF -- and the show was on channel 17. We didn't get a TV with UHF until the next year. And it was b/w. :)

I bonded with my brother, thirteen years my senior, over Star Trek. :)

[betagoddess.livejournal.com]

I started University in 1968. I think we had UHF on one TV, but I don't remember if we watched anything on it back then. =>}

My parents liked to be up to date and luckily had the means to be so.

My brother is only a year older than me. We used to watch wrestling from Buffalo! LMAO! Just the other day we were talking about The Sheik and Sweet Daddy Seeky, Gorgeous George - the Claw! LOL. I used to do "the Claw" on my brother's stomach and he HATED it! I did it again to him last week. His son got a big kick out of ME of all people talking about sports.

Those were the days. Heh heh!

[silme.livejournal.com]

We didn't have the means, alas. We didn't have a car either. My father died in 1998 at age 82 having never owned a car.

My brother was in university in 1966 when ST started. He knew everything, or at least it seemed that way then. ;)

[betagoddess.livejournal.com]

I actually had a relatively prosperous childhood. My Mum and Dad both had a car and when my brother and I went to University, Dad bought us a small car so we didn't have to take the bus to downtown Toronto. It turned out to be a lemon, but was nice while it lasted. It was also the reason I was forced to learn to drive a standard car!

I hated that at the time, but since I married for love and not money and then decided to be a stay at home Mum and not work, we've always had one car and a standard at that, since they are both cheaper to buy and use less gas - important to us both for the budget and the environment. =>}

By Grade 7, my brother and I were in the same grade. I was good at some things, him at others. But I've always thought he is a wonderful guy and an example for other guys to follow. A real sweetheart, as is his son. Just like his Dad, lucky guy. =>}

[silme.livejournal.com]

Oh, I despise automatic transmissions. I admit that my first car was one, but only because it was very cheap. I've been driving manuals since the early '80s, and I prefer them. Not only is the mileage good, but they're much better to drive in snow and ice. I moved to Colorado in 1979, so the latter became a necessity!

Here in the UK, btw, if you take the driving test on an automatic, you're licensed only to drive automatics. If you take the test on a manual, you're legal for both. (When I moved here, I did need to take the test, so I did it on a manual. Over here, you truly want the better mileage! :)

[betagoddess.livejournal.com]

I learned to drive on an automatic, thank goodness. I was nervous enough about that at 16. Always WAS a wuss. LOL. Now I'm a fearless driver. I love it!

AND since I already had a license, I just had to have my Dad show me how the gears worked and then take out the car in our quiet neighbourhood and stall all over the place until I could do it smoothly enough to dare the trip downtown. =>}

Our daughter learned on our car and is always amused when guys here are SO surprised that a mere girl knows how to drive a standard. LOL. I tell her to tell them that her MOTHER drives one, too. =>}

Cheers!

[mrlnpndrgn]

Santé!

I don't remember exactly when I saw ST-tos for the first time (it was in French, that I'm sure of), but I remember that we got only two channels in our area, and that I had to watch an horrible soap-like Quebecois show that ran just before st in order to snag the viewing rights before my brothers...

I was the sci-fi fan of the family though they finally saw the light eventually :)