Star Trek Turns 60

Outlets across the web are commemorating the milestone with retrospectives on the franchise's influence and future. The New York Times, cited in the Slashdot story, reports that the 60-year-old franchise has a fandom spanning at least three generations. What began as a five-year space mission on the U.S.S. Enterprise now represents an anthology of space travel across more than 25 series and films. Fans today may prefer captains such as Picard, Janeway or Sisko, and they commonly use abbreviations like TOS, TNG, DS9 and ENT to tell the series apart.

"Star Trek" functions as connective tissue between fans past and present, according to The New York Times piece. Shared references include captain's logs, stardates, warp factors, phasers, photon torpedoes, and a doctor's recurring complaint, "I'm a doctor, not a ____." The Vulcan salute "Live long and prosper" is widely known among geeks, but devoted Trekkies or Trekkers know the intended response is "Peace and long life." The franchise's staying power suggests that fans of all ages share not only language but also values.

In its roundup, Slashdot also looks back at its own early coverage, including a 1998 article about a Star Trek lawsuit, a 1999 Salon piece on the troubles with "Trek", a 2001 item on the next Star Trek series, a 2004 debate titled "Should Star Trek Die?", and a 2005 report on UPN officially canceling "Star Trek: Enterprise". The 2004 discussion featured actor LeVar Burton, who argued that Trek needed to disappear for several years to become special again.