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.

The Captains Close Up
DVD
Directed by William Shatner
Starring William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks
Entertainment One
Release Date: August 13, 2013

No one ever involved with the Star Trek franchise has benefited from its enduring popularity and cultural legacy as much as William Shatner. And why shouldn’t he? This is Captain James Tiberius Kirk we’re talking about here, one of the most popular and recognizable heroic figures ever created. Shatner saw his own fortunes as a struggling young actor with great talent and promise rise considerably in the 1960’s when he signed on to play Kirk after the original pilot episode of Trek with Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike was poorly received. The show may have only lasted three seasons in the first place, the third of which was made possible by one of the most effective fan letter-writing campaigns in the history of civilization, but its countless television and feature film spin-offs helped the franchise become the cornerstone of a geek nation that stretches to every corner of the planet and one day possibly to worlds yet unexplored. Shatner is one of the show’s greatest champions, its most iconic character and star, and to this day continues on as a tireless promoter for Star Trek‘s undying themes and the power of its fans and alumni to inspire greatness in themselves and others. Plus, those residual checks must be pretty nice.

Most recently Shatner wrote and directed The Captains Close Up, a 5-part series for the cable channel Epix that expanded on the intentions of his 2011 documentary feature The Captains. Each of the five episodes were devoted to interviewing and profiling the actors who played Starfleet captains in the original Trek and its four television spin-offs and multitude of big screen sci-fi adventures. The entire series has been released on DVD courtesy of Entertainment One, and with a combined running time of two-and-a-half hours on one disc makes binge watching essential and well worth the time of any Trek devotee.

Star Trek #10
Written by Mike Johnson
Art by Stephen Molnar
Colors by Jeff Rauch
Letters by Neil Uyetake
Based on the original teleplay The Return of the Archons by Boris Sobelman
Original Story by Gene Roddenberry
Creative Consultant: Robert Orci
Editor: Scott Dunbier
Cover by Tim Bradstreet
IDW Publishing
Release Date: June 27, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

This new Star Trek ongoing series is quickly becoming more than just a series to tide you over to the next Star Trek movie. It’s getting better and better with each issue, and it shows NO signs of slowing down, especially in this issue.

Writer Mike Johnson does some VERY impressive stuff this issue. Not only does he take this episode from the original series and turn it on its ear, but he gives up something really, REALLY shocking at the end. I mean it folks, this is a game changer on epic levels. I’m guessing since Roberto Orci does consulting for this series, it MAY even turn up in the movie. But believe me, it’s something that’s NEVER been done in Star Trek, let alone Star Trek comics.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Netflix Streaming
DVD
Star Trek created by Gene Roddenberry
Deep Space Nine created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller
Starring Avery Brooks, Colm Meaney, Michael Dorn, Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, René Auberjonois, Armin Shimerman, Nana Visitor, Cirroc Lofton, Alexander Siddig, Max Grodénchik, Terry Farrell, Nicole de Boer, Tony Todd, Iggy Pop
Paramount Television and CBS Television Distribution
Originally Broadcast: January 03, 1993

As a few of our regular readers have probably figured out by now, I have been going through a bit of a Star Trek kick as of late; and with all incarnations of the television shows available for instant streaming on Netflix, it’s a prime opportunity to become reacquainted with the final frontier. And so for this week’s review, I decided to dive into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

And yet, there are many fans who seem to consider DS9 to be the ginger stepchild left under the stairs.

I prefer to consider it SPECIAL.

…as in EXTRA SPECIAL COOL, yo.

Conceivably one of the most divisive series among fans, Deep Space Nine has been considered to be the best of the Star Treks by many fans, and yet the worse by many others. This is because DS9 takes a completely different perspective, perhaps even a bold one, by Star Trek standards: it stays fairly much in the one location.

Star Trek – The Original Series
Remastered Edition
Netflix Streaming
DVD | Blu-ray
Created by Gene Roddenberry
Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Grace Lee Whitney, Majel Barrett, Jeffrey Hunter, Roger C. Carmel, Ricardo Montalban, Joan Collins, Robert Lansing, Terri Garr, Kim Darby, James Daly
Paramount
Originally Broadcast: September 08, 1966

Several weeks ago, I reviewed the first couple of seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation for our Netflix Review feature here at Geeks Of Doom. I had an enjoyable time delving into some nostalgia that I decided to take a step back further and dive into the original series of Star Trek, complete with the remastering and updated visual effects throughout all three seasons, encompassing the good (classic memorable episodes), the bad (Spock’s Brain and Season Three), and the Ugly (Space Hippies).

Commencing in 1966, Gene Roddenberry‘s creation would eventually become a franchise revered and followed by millions of fans worldwide. Despite this, the history of the original series would become affected by budgetary constraints and poor ratings in archaic scales, limiting the primary voyages of the USS Enterprise to three seasons only.

As is prevalently known, Star Trek follows the voyages of the Enterprise, on its peaceful mission of exploration into unknown areas of the galaxy – attempting to meet and contact new civilizations, and represent the interests of the Federation. Lead by Captain Kirk (William Shatner), and accompanied by First Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley) among many others, the team aboard the starship would become known in-universe as legendary historical figures trailblazing their way into the unknown – and create such an element of veneration associated with the ship that the name Enterprise would be assigned to the Federation’s future flag ships.

Star Trek – The Next Generation (Seasons 1 & 2)
Netflix Streaming
Complete Series DVD
Season One DVD | Season Two DVD
Created by Gene Roddenberry
Starring Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Wil Wheaton, Whoopi Goldberg, John de Lancie
Paramount
Originally Broadcast: September 28, 1987

One of the greatest things about Netflix’s streaming service is the immediate accessibility to television series, both old and current, without being interfered with by lame advertisements interrupting your viewing experience. On top of that, there’s also the bonus of watching entire seasons in bulk, demolishing the week-to-week wait. But when we were discussing Star Trek on a recent episode of the Social Blend podcast, I couldn’t help but hop down Nostalgia Avenue for this week’s Netflix Review as well.