By Howard M. Wedgle
Couldn’t make the screening tonight as you were preoccupied with the Broncos game? Don’t worry. I sacrificed not watching the game so I could attend the screenings from the original series of Star Trek and write about it.
I’m not sure I can call myself a Trekkie, but I do have a fondness for that show which debuted 50 years ago today. It was a Sci-Fi that was dreamt up by a former military man. Gene Roddenberry, who was born in El Paso, Texas, grew up in Los Angeles, and later worked as a commercial pilot after World War II. Roddenberry first started writing for westerns and police stories. Around April 1964, he pitched MGM on Star Trek. It was warmly received, but they passed on it. He then went to Desilu Productions, which was a television production company co-owned by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. They decided to back the production, which unfortunately, lasted only 3 seasons. It wouldn’t have made it that far if not for the letter campaigns that took place after the 1st and 2nd seasons. Talk about social media!
Tonight’s presentation of a couple of episodes from that short-lived run, was more about the success of the show, which didn’t really find popularity until the mid 1970’s, where it was resuscitated in syndication. Led by Metropolitan State College film professor, Vincent Piturro, the small group participated in a discussion regarding the reasons for the popularity of the show, even after 50 years. You could tell that Professor Piturro did a lot of research on the show and the actors. His view for the reason that the franchise has been so popular was for the humanistic viewpoint and the tolerance of diversity. It showed what is possible in the future, to not fear technology. Did you know that the flip phone was designed after the communicator they used in the original series? The writers’ forward thinking gave us a lot of gadgets we use today besides mobile communicators such as: videoconferencing, diagnostic scanners, talking computers.
There is a tremendous amount of material to read and watch about this long lasting “space western”. The Denver Film Society, who is the organizer, has schedule three more screenings at the Sie FilmCenter. Check out the calendar on ColoradoGrandparent.com: https://www.coloradograndparent.com/event/star-trek-at-50-2/all/
If you attend, please send me an email and let me know what you thought of it.
Live long and prosper.