24 Star Trek Tidbits For the Trekkie Nerds Among Us
Star Trek is bigger than ever. Each week, Trekkies new and old "boldly go" with new content. Over the decades, though, Trek has made history in ways even the biggest fans don't know about. With that in mind, here are the CRAZIEST facts about your favorite franchise!
1.
Gene Roddenberry's original script for the first "Star Trek" movie contained a scene in which James T. Kirk has a fistfight with an alien who had assumed the image of Jesus Christ. Certain elements of this script did eventually show up in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"—but most did not. -u/ralphbernardo https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/search/?q=star%20trek&restrict_sr=1&sr_nsfw=
2.
Martin Luther King Jr was a huge fan of Star Trek. He loved that it showed a future with people of all colors working together in harmony. He bumped into Uhura, Nichelle Nichols, at a convention. She said she was quitting. She ended up staying after MLK urged her to, saying she was a role model. -u/SonOfQuora
3.
The line, "Resistance is futile," from the Star Trek series was trademarked in 2017. -u/CounterintuitiveZen
4.
The Maquis from Star Trek share their name with a group of French guerrilla fighters who opposed the Nazi occupation of France during World War II. -u/PixelPervert
5.
When Nichelle Nichols read for the part of a communications officer in 'Star Trek', she had a copy of Robert Ruark's 'Uhuru' with her. 'Uhuru' is Swahili for 'freedom', and when Gene Roddenberry heard what the word meant, he changed the character's name to 'Uhura'. -u/AbathaCrispy
6.
D'Armond Speers tried to teach his son Klingon language, used by Klingons in Star Trek series, as a first language. The boy answered mostly in English which his mother talked to him in and at the age of 5 stopped answering dad when he was speaking Klingon to him. -u/zkih
7.
The costume Robin Williams used as Mork on "Happy Days" was originally used in the "Star Trek" episode "The Savage Curtain." -u/Ryan_Holman
8.
When brainstorming the time travel plot for Star Trek: First Contact, they considered sending the crew back to the Renaissance, befriending Leonardo da Vinci, and having sword fights alongside phaser fights. The idea was scrapped for being too campy and Patrick Stewart refused to wear tights. -u/WouldbeWanderer
10.
The cover of the Carpenters' single "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" was designed by Andrew Probert, who, among other things, would go on to design Star Trek's Enterprise 1701-D. -u/psycholepzy
11.
Majel Barrett, the voice of the Starfleet computer on Star Trek, recorded an entire library of phonetic sounds before she died which allowed her voice to be used as the computer for future generations. -deleted user
12.
The first black woman to travel to space was Mae Jemison, who was a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Endeavor in 1992. She later appeared on "Star Trek: The Next Generation", making her the first person to have been on Star Trek and in space IRL. -u/Mike_ZzZzZ
13.
Star Trek: The Next Generation was to include dolphins and whales as crewmembers but the idea proved too expensive to film and was stopped except for mentions of Cetacean Operations. -u/AShellfishLover
14.
As Spock became popular on Star Trek, William Shatner became jealous and would hide the bicycle Nimoy rode to get around at work. Shatner also felt, as Captain, his intellect should be greater than anyone on the show, even a Vulcan with superior knowledge. So, he began stealing Nimoy’s lines. -u/WhileFalseRepeat
15.
More than 10 years before the original airing of Star Trek, James Doohan and William Shatner appeared on a Canadian TV series about space exploration called Space Command. -u/aerostotle
16.
Gene Roddenberry created the Star Trek TNG character Geordi La Forge in honor of George La Forge, a quadriplegic fan of the original Star Trek series, who died in 1975. -u/CyberSibey
17.
An extra on the set of Star Trek IV ad-libbed a line that made it into the final movie. Since she wasn't an actor, she then had to be registered to the Screen Actors Guild since membership was required for anyone with speaking lines in a movie. -u/nCRedditor-21
18.
Paul Stamets, the character on Star Trek Discovery that helps transport the ship anywhere in the universe by accessing the “mycelium network,” is a homage to the real-life mycologist of the same name. -u/flaskman
19.
Star Trek had links to the aerospace industry. A 1960 proposal from Douglas Aircraft for extendable space stations has an odd shape. The shape was adopted in “The Trouble with Tribbles” episode, forming the basis of the Space Station overrun by furries with a fondness for eating and reproducing. -u/SingLikeTinaTurner
20.
Today I learned of "Spocking Fives," where Canadians would alter five-dollar notes to make Prime Minister Laurier's features resemble Spock from Star Trek. "Spocking Fives" was so prevalent that later releases of the five-dollar note had a different image of Laurier with less resemblance to the famous Vulcan. -u/SettyDub
21.
George Lindsey (Goober Pyle in “The Andy Griffith Show”) was originally cast as Spock in “Star Trek” but turned it down, letting the part go to Leonard Nimoy. -u/statsjedi
22.
James Doohan (i.e. Scotty in the Original Star Trek) helped a suicidal fan by personally requesting her attendance to a convention, after 8 years of silence he received a letter from her thanking him for what he did and stating she had earned her Masters degree in Electronic Engineering. -u/SilentBandit
23.
King Abdullah bin al-Hussien of Jordan, is a MASSIVE Star Trek fan. So much so that during a visit to the US. His aides arranged a walk on part in Star Trek: Voyager. The then Prince appeared as a nonspeaking Science officer interacting with Harry Kim. -deleted user
24.
The phrase "Beam me up Scotty" has never appeared in a single episode of Star Trek. -u/zachar3
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