The Smithsonian special Building Star Trek turns out to be a fascinating rundown on how the cheap props of a cancelled 1960s television show foreshadowed some of today’s coolest technology.
It’s informative and fun, in other words, even if you cared nothing for Star Trek, Captain Kirk or the guy with the pointy ears. It airs at 8 p.m. ET Sunday.
The original TV show, which premiered Sept. 8, 1966, lasted three seasons, which were just a warm-up for what has become an industry of movies and other Star Trek matter.
Building Star Trek explores that legacy by talking with preservationists and scientists who are developing real-life models of Star Trek fantasy notions like the tractor beam and teleporting.
The tractor beam, which was never seen on the TV show because the producers couldn’t afford the cost of creating that special effect, could find an object in space and draw it into Starship Enterprise, the craft on which our gang explored the universe.
Now it turns out that real-life light has properties that enable it not only to push matter but also to pull it. This means it would be possible to cruise through space and collect small floating objects we could then study to help determine what’s out there, where it came from and maybe where we’re going.
Teleporting, wherein Star Trek characters could be dissolved in one place and reappear in another, seems to be a little trickier. Scientists haven’t found a way to transport matter that way, quite yet. They have learned that particles can be manipulated and moved.
An easier one is the hand-held device (right) by which Star Trek characters talked to each other. Today we call it our phone. In 1966, though, these portable units were known mostly in Star Trek and the “Dick Tracy” comic strip.
While Building Star Trek focuses heavily on science, it also notes the cultural phenomenon, which will be on full display Sept. 2-4 at the Javits Center in New York. That’s Star Trek: Mission New York, three days of total indulgence for fans.
On a more permanent basis, the Smithsonian special naturally also follows the arrival of the original Enterprise at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington.
The surprisingly small model – the one that was used for exterior shots, not the interior set – will take its place next to the Spirit of St. Louis and other historic flying craft.
Meanwhile, on the other side of America, Seattle’s EMP Museum is assembling all the pieces it can find of the original Enterprise bridge.
The EMP quest is complicated by the fact that most of the original set was thrown away when the show was cancelled, and the rest of it was slowly cannibalized over the next decade for productions by UCLA film students.
But Star Trek fans, who include the directors at both the Smithsonian and EMP, don’t give up easily. If there’s a guy out there with an ultra-rare phaser, they will find him.
The larger question here, as with most cult faves, is exactly why Star Trek has endured where so many other shows have faded into the mists of history. Why it may indeed lead where no TV show idea has gone before.
Building Star Trek tackles that question and suggests the answer is pretty simple: that everything about Star Trek, from its socio-political metaphors to its whole basic premise, exudes hope and optimism.
It’s the ultimate “Yes we can” show, telling us that mankind can take on the whole universe, endure and survive, without becoming destructive conquerors.
If it happened to foreshadow some amazing technology along the way, that’s a nice bonus, too.