Star Trek: The Motion Picture turned 40 years old this year. Perhaps one of the least-loved, yet utterly successful films that spawned multiple sequels in the last few decades, The Motion Picture is a bit of conundrum. While it is rooted in the same universe as shows and movies that came before and after it, it has a markedly different look and feel than much of the rest of the Star Trek canon. This makes it something of an odd man out. At the same time, it’s a movie that tried to express a number of character and plot ideas that were used again with much more success in other adventures in the Star Trek universe.

Star Trek: The Animated Series
The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek
Blu-ray Edition
Created by Gene Roddenberry
Directed by Hal Sutherland, Bill Reed
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Majel Barrett
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release Date: November 15, 2016

When the original Star Trek was cancelled in 1969 after three seasons, it left a void with fans who wanted NBC to renew the television series about the starship Enterprise and its crew’s five-year mission to explore new worlds and new civilizations. Audiences grew to love William Shatner‘s Captain Kirk and his first officer, the half-human half-Vulcan Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, but the ratings just weren’t high enough after the show was moved for the third season to a Friday night “death” slot. While Star Trek got to live on in syndication, it wasn’t until 1973 that new life was breathed into it with Star Trek: The Animated Series, produced by Filmation, the company behind Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.

When it was announced that Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) would be acting as showrunner for Star Trek Discovery, fans were excited at what he would bring to their beloved franchise. Since they got their first look at the show at SDCC and learned how the show would “explore stories from a different point of view,” fans have been eagerly awaiting the pilot, which will air on CBS, with subsequent episodes airing on the CBS All Access streaming platform. However, significant delays have forced CBS to pull Fuller from his duties as showrunner. More on the story below.

A few weeks ago the first details on that new Star Trek series that will be shown on CBS’s new streaming service All Access were revealed at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, including the title, Star Trek: Discovery.

Today at the Television Critics Association summer press tour, co-creator, showrunner, and executive producer Bryan Fuller discussed the show in further detail with reporters, revealing that Discovery will have a female lead character who will be a lieutenant commander instead of a captain. The reasoning behind this decision, in the words of The Hollywood Reporter’s Lesley Goldberg, was to allow the series “to explore stories from a different point of view.”

Happy 47th anniversary to Star Trek! On September 8, 1966, the very first regular television episode of the series, created by Gene Roddenberry, premiered on NBC.

The episode that marks this anniversary is called “The Man Trap,” which introduced the world to the bridge crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk; Leonard Nimoy as First Officer Mr. Spock, DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy, George Takei as Sulu, and Nichelle Nichols as Uhura. Though other installments for the series 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, if you want more Star Trek (and you totally should), Amazon is having a Star Trek DVD/Blu-ray Sale right now where you can get all the movies for discounted prices.