Star Trek: The Original Series

Ok, yeah, so they’re not quite kissing in this pic. But they do. Eventually. Compelled, actually. But they do.

There’s a lot to admire about the little sci-fi series that started it all. The Original Series with Shatner as Kirk, Nimoy as Spock, etc. featured some real jaw-droppers if not outright firsts in not just science fiction, but television history:

• First interracial kiss – Kirk and Uhura, way before Spock and Uhura did it in the latest incarnation of Star Trek. Now, in the episode that featured this kiss, Kirk and Uhura were basically forced by god-like beings to do it against their will, but hey, it was still pretty ground breaking for its time.
• A Russian as a good guy – Yep, Chekov, loveable faux Beetles haircut and all. At the height of the Cold War with the Russians in the 1960s, Star Trek actually dared to show a Russian as part of the “good guys!” The closest analogy I can think of at the moment would be like showing a member of Al Qaeda as a card-carrying aficionado of the “good guy club” today.
• An Asian that speaks English, and well – Good old Sulu, they actually showed an Asian person in some role other than that of some stereotypical kow-towing Charlie Chan manner. Kudos to Trek for that.
• An Alien that was … well, sympathetic – Yes, as strange as it may sound now with our multitude of sci-fi t.v. shows featuring good guy aliens, the network execs in charge of Star Trek back in the 60s were awfully wary of Mr. Spock. I mean, he’s got pointed ears, like some devil. Perhaps even THE devil!
• I’m sure there’s more, but I can’t recall at the moment what other notable feats Star Trek: TOS achieved.

In honor of all that TOS goodness, here are some more starships, enjoy!

• Starfleet Detroyat-class: Fan-made starship, and cool to boot.
• Starfleet Pyotr Velikiy-class: Featured in the Vanguard novel series I’m half-reading at the moment (half-reading because I am also reading Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind; awesome book by the way!)
• Starfleet Federation-class: This is another fan-made starship with a rather interesting, if convoluted, backstory. As near as I can figure it out, back when Trek was in that dead zone of having been cancelled from the airwaves but not yet having made it into the cinema screen, some guy named Franz Joseph got the thumbs up from Gene Roddenberry to publish a book with all new starship designs. After Trek picked up some Hollywood steam, Gene basically gave Joseph the boot and for all intents and purposes told Joseph to take his new ship designs and shove a photon torpedo up them. Oh well.