Encounter at Farpoint: Star Trek's first live action spin-off is launched....(with link)
At 7:30 PM Eastern time on Tuesday, June 3, 1969, NBC aired Turnabout Intruder , the final first-run episode of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry’s science fiction/action-adventure series about the 23rd Century starship Enterprise and its five-year mission to “explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before.” Star Trek (which has been retroactively titled Star Trek: The Original Series ) had never enjoyed much support from NBC or been a ratings heavyweight. The network had wanted to cancel the show almost from the start, but the influence of Lucile Ball (owner of Desilu, the studio which produced Star Trek during Seasons One and Two) and a now-famous letter-writing campaign by the series’ fans saved Capt. Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Mr. Scott (James Doohan) and the rest of the Enterprise crew f...