ReRuns: ‘Star Trek’ was Light-Years Ahead of Its Time

March 26 marks the 94th birthday of Leonard Nimoy, who played the loyal first officer Spock in “Star Trek.”

While Nimoy (“Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” “Mission: Impossible”) died in 2015, his legacy — and that of the original series — still lives on.

“Star Trek” premiered in 1966 with showrunner Gene Roddenberry producing three seasons before NBC cancelled the show in 1969. Nimoy was the only cast member of the rejected original pilot, “The Cage,” to appear in the broadcast show.

The series follows the crew of the USS Enterprise, a spaceship seeking diplomatic ties to aliens in the Milky Way galaxy of the 23rd century. William Shatner stars as Captain James T. Kirk, assisted by Spock and Dr. Leonard McCoy, played by DeForest Kelley.

Also aboard are actors Nichelle Nichols as communications officer Uhura, George Takei as navigator Sulu, James Doohan as engineer Montgomery Scott and Walter Koenig as ensign Pavel Chekov.

Shatner (“T. J. Hooker,” “Boston Legal”) has an unfortunate habit of chewing scenery to a pulp. Despite his melodramatic delivery, Kirk is still the heart of the series, a solid, if overly sincere presence on the ship. As leader of the Enterprise, Kirk carves out a middle ground between Spock’s steely adherence to logic and McCoy’s hot-blooded, human-first emotions.

As the child of a human and an alien from the Vulcan race, Spock deals with discrimination from both McCoy and other Vulcans. The on-screen prejudice mirrors discrimination Nimoy faced for being Jewish — in fact, he and Shatner bonded over shared experiences of antisemitism, according to The Canadian Jewish News.

The first interracial kiss on TV is disputed, but “Star Trek” was the first American show to broadcast a kiss between a Black person and a white person. In the 1968 episode “Plato’s Stepchildren,” Kirk kisses Uhura. 

When network brass demanded to film another take without the kiss, Shatner and Nichols (“Futurama,” “Heroes”) deliberately flubbed their lines, ensuring the kiss would air, The Associated Press reported.

Nichols was praised by Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. for her portrayal of a Black woman in a position of power. King told her “Star Trek” was the only show he let his children stay up to watch, Nichols said in an interview with NPR.

Similarly, Sulu marked a milestone for positive Asian American representation. Unlike depictions of East Asian men as evil, conniving and emasculated, Sulu is kind-hearted, brave and athletic. 

In one iconic scene from “The Naked Time,” he shows off his fencing prowess while shirtless. Takei (“Mulan,” “Allegiance”), who grew up in a Japanese American internment camp in the 1940s, went on to campaign for diverse representation of Asians on screen as well as gay rights.

Adding to the show’s relevance, the season two episode “The Ultimate Computer” deals with frighteningly relevant concerns about artificial intelligence taking human jobs. The episode follows the frustrated crew dealing with a computer designed to assist them, which malfunctions and murders Federation members.

As AI continues to spark debate and distress, Kirk’s assertive allegiance to humanity rings true.

“Compassion — that’s the one thing no machine ever had,” Kirk says. “Maybe it’s the one thing that keeps men ahead of them.”

While “Star Trek” maintained a phaser-sharp focus on moral dilemmas and serious issues, it wasn’t afraid to indulge in fun.

In the season two episode “A Piece of the Action,” Kirk, Spock and McCoy transport to a Chicago-like city overrun by gangsters. The trio don pinstriped suits with shoulder pads galore and gallivant around the city, even improvising a card game called fizzbin to distract the mob. The result is a riveting, raucous watch that still holds up more than 50 years later.

Not all episodes are must-sees — there’s the bizarrely horny “Who Mourns for Adonais?” and the clunky racial metaphor of “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” — but the series is, as a whole, an unmissable cultural touchstone.
“Star Trek: The Original Series” is available to stream on Paramount+.