(written from a Production point of view)
Star Trek is a science fiction franchise comprising nine television series, thirteen films, three companion series, numerous novels, comics, video games, reference works, podcasts, role playing games, along with thousands of collectibles.
History
Originally, Star Trek was a product of Desilu Studios as created by Gene Roddenberry in a first draft series proposal "Star Trek is...", dated 11 March 1964.
Beginning with a single pilot episode, "The Cage", filmed in 1964, Star Trek was not placed on the schedule of the NBC network until a second pilot episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", was produced in 1965.
Star Trek officially went into production on April 21, 1966 and ran for three seasons until it was canceled in 1969. Four years later, the series returned to NBC as a Saturday morning animated series which ran from 1973 to 1974.
No new production of Star Trek took place until 1979, when Star Trek: The Motion Picture took the franchise into feature films, which have continued to be produced periodically since. Star Trek did not return to television until 1987 with the debut of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Following three more spin-off productions, the 2005–2006 TV season was the first since 1987 without a new Star Trek series being broadcast, though all series remain in syndication.
As a result of a 2005 split between the former Viacom and CBS, Star Trek television productions fell under the ownership of CBS Television Studios. During this period, films continued to be produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures under a licensing agreement. A thirteenth film was released in 2016. CBS and Viacom were reunited and merged under the name ViacomCBS in late 2019, reuniting the film and television branches of Star Trek with that way.
After 12 years off the air, the franchise returned to the airwaves with its first streaming series, Star Trek: Discovery, which premiered in the fall of 2017. This also saw the franchise expand into companion series, like the aftershow After Trek, which premiered right after the Discovery.
Currently, licensees of Star Trek products (reference works, novels and collectibles) include Art Asylum toys, Pocket Books, and IDW Publishing. Older licenses for previously produced material belong to numerous companies.
Production history
- See also: Production timeline.
The Original Series
Star Trek: The Original Series premiered on NBC's fall schedule on 8 September 1966.
- Desilu/NBC, Gene Roddenberry, 1966–1967
- Paramount/NBC, Gene Roddenberry, 1967–1969
- Cast (Remastered) • Episodes
Spin-off series
Star Trek: The Animated Series
Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Paramount/Viacom; Rick Berman & Michael Piller, 1993–1999
- Cast • Episodes
- Paramount/UPN; Rick Berman & Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor, 1995–2001
- Cast • Episodes
- Paramount/UPN; Rick Berman & Brannon Braga, 2001–2005
- Cast • Episodes
- CBS Television Studios/CBS All Access; Bryan Fuller & Alex Kurtzman, 2017–
- Cast • Episodes
- CBS Television Studios/CBS All Access
- CBS Television Studios/Nickelodeon
- CBS Television Studios/CBS All Access
Films
- The Original Series films
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture - Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
- Paramount, 1979–1991
- Producers: Gene Roddenberry, Robert Sallin, Harve Bennett, Steven-Charles Jaffe, Ralph Winter
- Directors: Robert Wise, Nicholas Meyer, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner
- The Next Generation films
- Star Trek Generations-Star Trek Nemesis
- Paramount, 1993–2002
- Producers: Rick Berman
- Directors: David Carson, Jonathan Frakes, Stuart Baird
- The alternate reality films
- Star Trek-Star Trek Beyond
- Paramount, 2009–2016
- Producers: J.J. Abrams, Damon Lindelof
- Directors: J.J. Abrams, Justin Lin
Aftershows
- CBS Television Studios/CBS All Access, 2017–2018
- CBS Television Studios/Facebook Live, 2019–
Podcasts
Engage: The Official Star Trek Podcast
- CBS Television Studios, 2016–2018
- CBS Television Studios, 2020–
Unproduced projects
Overseas adaptations
Star Trek has been aired around the world throughout its run of television and film series. Most often, it has been dubbed into the native language of each country in question, while others subtitled the productions and kept the original language tracks. During this time, the titles, characters, and so forth have been changed as they move from language to language.
Variations of the Star Trek title
Japanese title logo
- Albanian: "Udhëtimi yjor"
- Bulgarian: "Стар Трек"
- Chinese: "星际迷航"(first appeared in TAS, meaning "Lost in space")
- Croatian: "Zvjezdane Staze"
- Czech: "Star Trek"
- Esperanto: "Stela Vojaĝo"
- French: Only in Quebec (french speaking community) Canada: "La Patrouille du Cosmos" (TOS only, all other series and films used the English version "Star Trek" moniker, followed by the French language subtitle)
- German: "Raumschiff Enterprise" (this is actually "Spaceship Enterprise" translated. Also used for "The Next Generation", as "Raumschiff Enterprise: Das Nächste Jahrhundert" or "Spaceship Enterprise: The Next Century")
- Greek: "Σταρ Τρεκ"
- Hebrew: "מסע בין כוכבים" (meaning "Journey Between the Stars")
- Hungarian: "Űrszekerek" (rarely used, especially in connection with the movies, meaning "Space Wagon Trains")
- Japanese: "宇宙大作戦" ("Uchū Daisakusen") (only used in reference to TOS, meaning "Big Operations in Space")
- Latin: "Iter Stellare" (meaning "Star Journey")
- Macedonian: "Ѕвездени Патеки" (Szvezdeni Pateki)
- Persian: "پیشتازان فضا" (meaning "Vanguards of Space")
- Polish: "Gwiezdna wędrówka"
- Portuguese (Brazil): "Jornada nas Estrelas" (literally "Journey to the Stars", but in modern day parlance just "Star Trek")
- Portuguese (Portugal): "O Caminho das Estrelas" (literally "The Road/Track of the Stars", but in modern day parlance just "Star Trek")
- Russian: "Звёздный путь"
- Serbian: "Звездане стазе, Звјездане стазе"
- Slovenian: "Zvezdne Steze"
- Slovak: "Star Trek"
- Spanish: "Viaje a las Estrellas" (meaning "Voyage To The Stars", universally used in the entire Spanish-speaking part of the world)
- Turkish: "Uzay Yolu"
- Ukrainian: "Зоряний шлях"
As a somewhat generic rule of thumb, it can be surmised that the more substantial variations of the Star Trek title are usually employed in those territories where the productions are dubbed in the native language – typically the large language countries with Italian and French (somewhat surprisingly, as France in particular vigorously combats the use of anglicisms in its language at every level of its society) being notable exceptions insofar the title is concerned – , whereas the English expression remains commonly unaltered – whether literally translated/transcribed in the local language/script or not – for the smaller language countries using subtitles for the retained English language tracks. Notable is that Brazil employs the dubbed format, whereas mother country Portugal employs the subtitle format.
Licensed media
Floor tile in the NBC gift shop at 30 Rock
Related topics
See also
- Star Trek parodies and pop culture references
- Star Trek documentaries and specials
- Star Trek corporate history
- Production timeline
- Production staff
- Star Trek auctions
- Star Trek fonts
Other topics
- 47
- Bottle show
- Design patents filed for the Star Trek franchise
- I'm a doctor, not a...
- Redshirt
- Shakespeare and Star Trek
- Stardates
- Story arcs
