'Star Trek' legend George Takei talks Nimoy's directing, the future of exploration, and his sad plastic umbrella (interview)

Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek as a 'Wagon Train to the stars,' deliberately drawing from the Western genre that was popular in 1960s television. However, unlike traditional space colonization narratives, Roddenberry's vision prioritized peaceful exploration and respect for indigenous alien species rather than territorial expansion. The show presented an optimistic future where humanity had overcome war, poverty, and pollution, with characters defined by their curiosity and dedication to science rather than conflict. This was notably counter-cultural for Cold War-era American television, as it featured a diverse bridge crew of different races, nationalities, and species working together without internal conflict—a deliberate creative choice by Roddenberry to explore themes of human potential and moral philosophy rather than typical science fiction action.

Star Trek has had measurable impact on technological innovation and public interest in space exploration. Most notably, computer engineer and entrepreneur Steve Wozniak credited watching Star Trek and attending Star Trek conventions during his youth as a source of inspiration for co-founding Apple Inc. in 1976, which became the world's largest technology company by revenue. More broadly, the series greatly influenced public interest in the United States Space Program and education related to space exploration. The show's opening line 'to boldly go where no man has gone before' was drawn almost verbatim from a U.S. White House booklet on space produced after the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 launch in 1957, demonstrating how the series aligned with and reinforced national space exploration ambitions.