Star Trek Premieres
HISTORY This Week
The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
4.5 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 September 2022
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
September 8, 1966. For the first time, the USS Enterprise appears on screen. It is the premiere of a strange new futuristic TV show. Star Trek will introduce the world to a cast of characters that push the boundaries of TV. Why did NBC take a chance on a writer who had already once gotten them in trouble with none other than the US military? And how did Star Trek go where no show had gone before?
Special thanks to our guests, David A. Goodman and Michelle Sauer. Goodman’s latest film, Honor Society, is now streaming on Paramount Plus. Sauer is the author of Gender in Medieval Culture.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The History Channel, Original Podcast. |
| 0:04.4 | History this week, September 8, 1966. |
| 0:13.2 | I'm Sally Helm. |
| 0:15.6 | Captain's Law, star date 1513.1. |
| 0:19.1 | For the first time, the star ship enterprise appears on screen. |
| 0:23.7 | And almost half of all the TVs that are on in the US in that moment are tuned in. |
| 0:29.8 | It is the premiere of a new futuristic TV show, Star Trek. |
| 0:34.7 | On board the enterprise, Mr. Spock, temporarily in command. |
| 0:39.6 | Captain Kirk and the ship's chief medical officer, Dr. McCoy, |
| 0:45.6 | beamed down to the surface of Planet M113. |
| 0:50.1 | Their bodies rematerialize in front of a set that is pretty obviously fake. |
| 0:56.9 | The idea of beaming down is now iconic. |
| 1:00.0 | Even if you've never seen Star Trek, you might have said the phrase, |
| 1:02.7 | beamed me up Scotty. |
| 1:04.2 | And if you have seen Star Trek, you might know that this is a famous misquotation. |
| 1:08.5 | But this beaming down effect was born of necessity. |
| 1:12.2 | It was too complicated in 1966 to show the enterprise actually landing on distant planets. |
| 1:18.2 | And the whole concept of Star Trek is that Captain Kirk and his crew will be visiting |
| 1:21.9 | distant planets all the time. |
| 1:23.9 | So the show came up with a workaround. |
| 1:26.0 | The actors de-materialize on the enterprise and rematerialize wherever they need to go, |
| 1:31.8 | like teleporting. |
... |
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