John M. Ford. The Final Reflection. Star Trek Series No. 16. New York: Pocket Books, 1999.

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GENE RODDENBERRY
Star Trek

Star Trek began in 1966 as a science fiction television show created by Gene Roddenberry, a retired police officer. More than thirty years, four TV series, and eight movies later, Star Trek is the most popular series in the history of television.

In addition to its entertainment value, Star Trek may attribute its longevity and popularity to an optimistic vision of a future in which humankind not only prospers, but also fosters a world of peace and equality for all – a universal utopia.

Movies with such titles as The Undiscovered Country and The Final Frontier borrow their language from utopian sources, as do television episodes like The Way to Eden in which space-hippies search for the planet Eden, Paradise Syndrome, and Plato’s Stepchildren, which included the first interracial kiss on television.

The influence of Star Trek has reached into the realm of serious space exploration: in 1976, NASA named the first U.S. Space Shuttle "Enterprise," after receiving 400,000 requests from Star Trek fans, while a 1993 study from Purdue University found that children learn more about science from Star Trek than from any other source. In syndication in over 100 countries, Star Trek’s utopian mantra is perhaps more famous than any other:

Space - the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Their ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life forms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.