The End of A Space Odyssey

When it debuted on NBC in the tempestuous mid-'60s, Gene Roddenberry's "Star Trek" was a valentine to a future of peace and plenty, set in the 23rd century. Humans had evolved past war and greed and now explored the galaxy, linked amicably with other species in the United Federation of Planets.

Roddenberry was a humanist who believed that mankind (and extraterrestrials as well) could devise technology to eradicate suffering. If not an atheist, he abhorred religion. "For most people," Roddenberry was quoted as saying, with not a little arrogance, "religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain." (In addition to being a grouch, he was a bad speller: His 1964 pitch to NBC said "Trek" characters would shoot "lassers" while on "reconnaisance" missions.)

Of course, history tells us that utopianism is doomed and that new technology is typically used to cause suffering rather than eradicate it. Perhaps the Roddenberrys of the 18th century likewise believed their descendants in the 20th would be too evolved for war and genocide.

Multiplying Like Tribbles

Like all good drama, "Star Trek" rose and fell with its characters.

Specifically, its captains. Shatner's Method-gone-mad James Tiberius Kirk was a Hornblower for the stars, as likely to lose his shirt during a peace negotiation as in hand-to-hand combat with a Gorn. He and Leonard Nimoy's logical Vulcan Mr. Spock were two of television's greatest characters.

It must be remembered that the original "Star Trek" ("TOS" to fans) was a ratings flop. NBC tried to cancel it after its second season but reupped it for a third after an intense letter-writing campaign from fans.

It was during the '70s and '80s, thanks to the growth of cable and additional channels -- and the need for programming -- that repeats of "Star Trek" gained a wider and more sustained exposure and caught fire as a cult phenomenon.

By this time -- thanks in no small part to four "Star Trek" movies that brought in $347 million -- Hollywood understood the franchise was marketable. For years Roddenberry resisted Paramount Pictures' efforts to create a sequel, waiting until he could craft it the way he wanted. The buzz on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" ("TNG" to fans) was so favorable that Barry Diller -- at the time, 1987, about to launch the Fox network -- wanted the show as the anchor for the network. Instead, the producers decided to take "The Next Generation" directly into syndication, enabling it to reap international profits sooner.

The captain of the redesigned, digitally enhanced Enterprise was Jean-Luc Picard, played by an English Shakespearean actor named Patrick Stewart. Where Kirk went it alone, Picard held staff meetings. Even though Picard was Kirk's moral superior, some fans thought he was a bald weenie. They made sport of his excessive formality and lack of sexuality. But the show was better designed, better acted and more intellectual than the original series, and it became a legitimate hit over its seven-year run, winning ratings and Emmys.

Much like the M-113 salt creature, which sucked the life out of men on the original series, Paramount had created a beast that required succor.

"Brandon Tartikoff was taking over at Paramount and he called me in and said, 'I want you to create another series that we'll air simultaneously with . . . 'Next Generation,' " recalled Paramount executive producer Rick Berman, who took over the franchise after Roddenberry's 1991 death. "He said, 'I want "The Rifleman" in space. Let's see if the climate can withstand two shows simultaneously.' "

"The Rifleman," a late-'50s/early-'60s western, featured a father-son team. " 'The Rifleman' in space" became "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" ("DS9"), the first non-trekking Trek. It was set on a space station rather than a starship, and the station was commanded by Benjamin Sisko (played by Avery Brooks), a widower with a young son, Jake.