Tomorrow marks the 46th anniversary of the airing of the very first regular Star Trek television episode, which premiered on NBC on September 8, 1966. To celebrate this wonderful occasion, Google has posted an interactive Doodle on their home page today.

The Doodle starts out showing the original crew of the USS Enterprise on the ship’s bridge. The popular characters – Spock, Uhura, Captain Kirk, Bones, Sulu, and a Red Shirt (and we all knows what happens to them) – have all been turned into the letters spelling Google. When you click on some of the characters as well as specific areas of the bridge, it yields sounds, blinking lights, and one even opens the door, where you’re taken to the Transporter Room. Click the right spot in the Transporter Room and you’ll get a nod to a famous episode. Clicking other items gets you beamed down to the planet below’s surface, where you’ll get to reenact one of the most famous scenes from the series, starring one of its most popular enemies!

I don’t want to reveal what you’ll see in the game, because it’s fun to uncover everything yourself. Just know that it’s a lengthy interactive game for a Google Doodle and that it’s lots of fun! After you’ve gone through the Doodle yourself, you can watch the video here below that plays out the entire Doodle for you, so you can see anything you might have missed.

Check out Google.com to see their interactive tribute to Star Trek.

FYI – the episode that marks this anniversary is called “The Man Trap.” Though other episodes had been produced and contained events that came before, “The Man Trap” was actually the first regular episode of the series to air on television. You can watch the episode right now through Amazon’s Instant Video; you can also view it on the Season 1 Blu-ray or DVD. Also, for a limited time, Amazon is having a Star Trek DVD/Blu-ray Sale where you can get all the movies for discounted prices.

Happy Anniversary, Star Trek!

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