Star Trek turns 60 today: the party spans 750 theaters, a Guinness record and the ISS
On September 8, 1966, "The Man Trap" opened a series NBC would cancel within three years. Sixty years on, the franchise is marking the date with 4K screenings across the country, a world record attempt in London — and a badge from the show flying on the ISS.
On September 8, 1966, NBC aired "The Man Trap," an episode about a salt-draining shapeshifter, and introduced America to a space western it would cancel three seasons later over soft ratings. That show turns 60 today, and the birthday it is getting is not the kind cancelled shows usually receive.
The celebration, mapped out by Variety and running all day, is deliberately everywhere at once: 750 movie theaters across the US, two CBS game shows, a London museum after dark, a German theme park — and, because this is Star Trek, the actual International Space Station.
A series NBC dropped in 1969 is spending its 60th birthday on two continents and in orbit. Live long and prosper is no longer a wish; it is a status report.
Where the party actually is
The official Star Trek Day slate for tonight, sorted by how far you would have to travel:
- 750+ US theaters — 4K restorations of the classic films, each paired with an original series episode making its theatrical debut, running September 4–8. With limited-edition Enterprise popcorn vessels, naturally.
- Los Angeles — a free outdoor screening at the Autry Museum: "The Man Trap" plus an advance look at the Strange New Worlds episode "Orders of Magnitude."
- London — the Science Museum hosts an official Guinness World Records attempt for the most people performing the Vulcan salute simultaneously.
- On TV — The Price Is Right and Let's Make a Deal air Trek-themed episodes with Rebecca Romijn and Ethan Peck, and Nick at Nite runs a Big Bang Theory Trek marathon from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. ET.
- Low Earth orbit — ESA astronaut Sophie Adenot marks the day aboard the ISS wearing the Captain's Delta badge originally worn by Anson Mount, with content from orbit dropping today.
The ground-level details are just as carefully nerdy. Gene Roddenberry's 1985 star on Hollywood Boulevard has been restored for the occasion, the Royal Mint has struck two collectable 50p coins, and the new LEGO set recreating the Enterprise bridge contains exactly 1,701 pieces — the ship's registry number, NCC-1701, in brick form.
What the franchise does after the cake
The anniversary also came with something new to watch for: the trailer for The Sixty-Year Mission: How Star Trek Changed Television and the World, a documentary executive produced by William Shatner and headed to Regal theaters on October 9. Director Mark A. Altman describes it as:
"The film that goes beyond the mythology and asks why this unlikely television series survived, evolved, thrived and ultimately became an icon of popular culture."
The rest of the calendar is already set. Strange New Worlds wraps its fourth season on September 24, with a fifth and final season due in 2027. Starfleet Academy gets previewed at New York Comic Con on October 10. And on September 29 the franchise collects a Franchise of the Year award at the Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame — a trophy that did not exist as a concept when NBC decided this whole thing was not worth a fourth season.
Sixty years and one salt monster later, the math is simple: the network was wrong, and tonight 750 theaters, a museum full of raised hands and one astronaut are the proof.
Previously we wrote: Nintendo's Zelda movie is just called The Legend of Zelda, and the missing subtitle is deliberate
