50 Years of ‘Star Trek’

Fifty years ago, on September 8, 1966, the first Star Trek episode was broadcast in the US, on NBC.

Has it really been a half-century? We feel that time has passed by at warp speed!

Original Star Trek cast (Credit: TVgoodness.com)

Star Trek was a culturally influential TV show that made a considerable impact on society. The show regularly dealt with significant social issues of the day such as sexism and feminism, racism, militarism, and peace. The idea of people from all nations coming together to explore space and utilizing the imagined exciting futuristic technologies inspired a generation.

Martin Cooper, General Manager of Systems at Motorola and one of the inventors of the cell phone, explained how Star Trek affected his life-mission:

Suddenly there was Captain Kirk talking on his communicator. Talking! With no wires! To the rest of the world, it was a fantasy.  To me, it was an objective.

Dr. Marc D. Rayman, Chief Propulsion Engineer of JPL, was also deeply inspired by the show:

I was always fascinated by Star Trek.  It offered a vision of what could be.

Previously, we had found a family history connection between Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock) and his co-star William Shatner (James T. Kirk).

Today, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, we’re going to solve a fierce debate: Who is the “best” Star Trek character?

Fans around the world have long argued the virtues of each character and ranked them accordingly.

We’ve decided to rank them a little differently. We’ve taken a look at our historical records to see how many records we could find of people with the same name as some Star Trek characters. Can you guess which leading Star Trek character has more records under their name?

14,568,940 Montgomery Scott

3,717,947 Leonard McCoy

1,557,794 James T. Kirk

933,045 Nyota Uhura

637,866 Mr. Spock

38,034 Hikaru Sulu

Who is your favorite Star Trek character? How would you rank them?