In the great galactic series challenge, Star Wars is celebrated on May 4, when the Force is with us, but not to be outdone by Jedi-wannabes everywhere, Trekkies will be coming out to celebrate the fourth annual Star Trek Day on September 8. That is the day the original series arrived in TV-land in 1966. And the universe that Gene Roddenberry created has gone where no sci-fi franchise had gone before, living forever.
Trekkies of all ages can get involved in celebrating the landmark series that, ahead of its time, championed equality, diversity, inclusion, acceptance and hope for the future. There will be everything from programming produced by Paramount that will show on Paramount Plus and CBS to smaller celebrations on a more local level.
Everyone who grew up with Star Trek has a strong memory of something that touched their lives, from playing “Star Trek” on the monkey bars made to look like a spaceship with school friends when a child to going to a convention and meeting some of the actors who have played various roles to seeing that first Star Trek movie on the giant screen and having chills run down your spine as the camera panned across the top of the Enterprise and you see the NCC-1701.
This is a day to nerd-out. Here are 10 ways to get involved in the celebrations of one of the most powerful sci-fi franchises in history.
Binge watch the original series: That’s just 79 episodes at 50 minutes each for a total of 3,950 minutes or two and three quarter days, according to waywardnerd.com.
Watch the Paramount Special: The “Star Trek Day” special will be available to watch for free globally on StarTrek.com/Day, YouTube (Paramount+ and STAR TREK Official pages), Twitch (ParamountPlus) and Facebook (@StarTrekOnPPlus and @StarTrek). In the U.S., the special will be available to stream on Paramount+, Pluto TV (Paramount+ Picks, STAR TREK, More STAR TREK, and Pluto TV Sci-Fi channels), and Mixable and will air on select local CBS affiliates, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, Pop TV, Fave TV, and Smithsonian.com, according to nerdsandbeyond.com.
Have a Watch Party of the New Series, “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds”: It will be debuting on CBS with two back-to-back episodes beginning at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Make Star Trek Cookies and Take Them to Work: A set of eight Star Trek cookie cutters can be purchased on etsy for about $40.
Get a Starfleet Email Address: Fans can choose to be a Starfleet officer, be stationed on the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 or explore the final frontier at ToBoldlyGo.com with an officially licensed email address.
Learn to Speak Klingon: One of the fastest growing languages in the world, it can be learned through the Klingon Language Institute.
Listen to One of William Shatner’s Records on Vinyl: Start with the first one, “The Transformed Man,” which can be found on amazon.com. His rendition of “Mr. Tambourine Man” is legendary.
Read Leonard Nimoy’s Book, I am Spock: The second volume of Nimoy’s autobiography, it was published in 1996. By then he had come to embrace his iconic role, but in 1975, when he wrote “I Am Not Spock,” he didn’t feel the same way.
Buy a Tribble Online: The tribble of your choice can be found at tribbletoys.com. Large tribbles respond to sound or touch with a soft “coo” and excited wiggle. But if you continue to pet them, they’ll emit an annoyed chirp!
Watch the 1997 documentary “Trekkies”: Directed by Roger Nygard, the film is about people who are hard core fans of the entire Star Trek universe and its founder, Gene Roddenberry. A follow-up was made in 2004. Check out this clip.
