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.

Looks like it’s another banner April 1st for actor George Takei. Last year on this date, news hit that the Star Trek veteran would get his own spin-off film called Star Trek: Excelsior (read George Takei To Target That Explosion and Fire Again In Sulu Spinoff “˜Star Trek: Excelsior’).

Now, the actor, best known for his role as the original Sulu in the Star Trek universe, revealed that he’ll be starring in a J.J. Abrams Star Wars reboot called Star Wars: Galactic Empire, set to start filming early next year. In the new film, Takei will stretch his acting abilities to the limit in the role of Master Ceti Maru, a member of the Jedi High Council.

Geeks of Doom learned exclusively that Takei will indeed be performing the classic Jedi Mind Meld in Star Wars: Galactic Empire.

Do you know that meme that shows an image of Star Trek‘s Captain Picard with a quote from Star Wars (“Use the Force, Luke”) attributed to Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series? It’s a pretty popular meme meant to not only incite a geek frenzy, but also to set off facepalms across the universe.

On Friday, President Obama, who’s known for his love of Star Trek and other geeky franchises, inadvertently triggered a collective facepalm and inspired a meme of his own after he combined Star Wars and Star Trek references during a press conference at The White House.

Speaking to the press, the President stated that he couldn’t use a “Jedi Mind Meld” to make Republicans in Congress go along with his budget proposal to avert a sequester.

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.

Happy Birthday to George Takei! The actor, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the USS Enterprise in the original Star Trek, turns 75 today.

In honor of Takei’s birthday, the geeky band Five Year Mission recorded a song and made a very cool video for the occasion, touting Sulu as the “23rd century’s samurai from outer space.” Takei delightfully shared the video on his prolific Facebook page, writing “This may be the best birthday video ever. I’m smiling ear to ear.”

You can watch the video here below.