Star Trek is an
American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the eponymous 1960s television
series and quickly became a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon. The
franchise has expanded into various films, television
series, video games, novels, and comic books. With an
estimated $10.6 billion in revenue, it is one of the most recognizable
and highest-grossing
media franchises of all time. The franchise began with Star
Trek: The Original Series, which debuted in the US on September 8, 1966 and
aired for three seasons on NBC. It was first broadcast on September
6, 1966 on Canada's CTV network. It followed the voyages of the starship USS Enterprise,
a space exploration vessel built by the United Federation of
Planets in the 23rd century, on a mission "to explore
strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go
where no man has gone before". In creating Star Trek,
Roddenberry was inspired by C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower series
of novels, Jonathan Swift's 1726
novel Gulliver's Travels,
the 1956 film Forbidden Planet, and
television westerns such
as Wagon Train. The Star Trek canon includes
the Original Series, nine spin-off television series, and a film franchise; further
adaptations also exist in several media. After the conclusion of the Original
Series, the adventures of its characters continued in the 22-episode Star Trek: The Animated
Series and six feature films. A television revival
beginning in the 1980s saw three sequel series and a prequel: Star Trek: The Next
Generation, following the crew of a new starship Enterprise a
century after the original series; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager,
set in the same era as the Next Generation; and Enterprise, set before
the original series in the early days of human interstellar travel. The
adventures of the Next Generation crew continued in four
additional feature films. In 2009, the film franchise underwent a reboot, creating an alternate continuity known as the Kelvin timeline;
three films have been set in this continuity. The newest Star Trek television
revival, beginning in 2017, includes the series Star Trek: Discovery, Picard, Short Treks, Lower Decks, Prodigy, and Strange New Worlds, streaming exclusively
on digital platforms. Star Trek has been a cult phenomenon for decades. Fans of the franchise are called "Trekkies" or "Trekkers". The franchise spans a
wide range of spin-offs including games, figurines, novels, toys, and comics. From 1998 to 2008
there was a Star Trek–themed
attraction in Las Vegas. At least two museum exhibits of props travel the
world. The constructed language Klingon was created for the franchise. Several Star
Trek parodies have been made, and viewers have produced several fan productions. Star
Trek is noted for its cultural influence beyond
works of science fiction. The franchise is also noted for its progressive
civil-rights stances. The Original Series included one of
the first multiracial casts on US television.