Star Trek at 45!

On September 8th 1966 a lttle TV show named Star Trek debuted for the first time on NBC.  It told the tale of the crew of the Starship Enterprise’s journey to explore strange new worlds,  seek out new life and to boldly go where no Man has gone before.  (That is until some Einstein changed it to “where no one has gone before”; which musters about the same emotional impact as Ben Stein muttering “Bueller…Bueller…”

For years in the 1970’s and early ’80’s UHF Channel 50 in Detroit would broadcast reruns of  Star Trek every Saturday and Sunday evening.  By the time I was 10 I knew all 79 episodes like the back of my hand.  Later I would close my eyes at the beginning of a show and try to guess which episode it was from Kirk’s opening “Captain’s Log”.  Yep, I was a Star Trek geek and and it only followed that my closest friends would be Star Trek geeks. 

But all of that pales to the fact that when Star Trek premiered in that September evening of 1966 I was 4 days old.

Yep, I’m as old as Star Trek. 

Over time as the show celebrated key anniversary years (15, 25, 35) with retrospective reflections and highlight interviews with cast and crew I was always reminded how old I was.  So when I saw promotions for the 45th anniversary I was suddenly like, “Ugh, am I really going to be 45 years old !” 

Somehow the 25th anniversary was much more exciting to me.

Anyhow…Happy Birthday Star Trek!  Won’t be long before we’re both celebrating 50!