Great bird of the galaxy

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The great bird of the galaxy was a mythological creature evoked as a blessing.

In 2266, after Yeoman Janice Rand brought him some food, Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu said, "May the great bird of the galaxy bless your planet!" (TOS: "The Man Trap")

In what seemed to be a malfunctioning holoprogram, Hikaru Sulu was in the rec room with Nyota Uhura. He seemed to be running a program about the crew of the USS Protostar. He then called out: "Computer, pause rec room. By the great bird of the galaxy, I've had enough of this nonsense! I swear it's the practical joker all over again!" (VST: "Holograms All the Way Down")

Appendices[]

The Great Bird of the Galaxy was the nickname of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, given to him by Associate Producer Robert H. Justman. (Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 317)) In a memo Roddenberry wrote Justman about some of the final script revisions to "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" (the memo was dated 28 July 1966), Roddenberry joked, "May the great bird of the galaxy never fly over your pool table."

An early okudagram was later created during TNG Season 1 that depicted an image of the great bird – Gene's face placed on the body of a parrot wearing a Starfleet uniform. It is seen briefly in "The Naked Now" at 15:00 and it also appears in "Conspiracy". The okudagram was based on a full-color painting Andrew Probert made as a gift for Roddenberry's sixty-sixth birthday in 1987. (Star Trek: The Next Generation 365, pp. 130-131)

The "great bird of the galaxy", according to Peter David, was actually a giant bird, and appeared in the Star Trek: New Frontier novels.

Great Bird of the Galaxy at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works