There’s an old phrase that says if you sit in one place in New York City long enough the whole world will walk by.  When it does, you can then say, “Well, now I’ve seen everything.”

In the same vein, fiction becomes reality as William Shatner, most famous for purposes of this blog for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise, in what has become to be known as Star Trek: The Original Series, will be going into space (for real).  The original series and I are the same age (you can look it up for yourself), which is why most people thought something like this would never happen!  Man hadn’t even walked on the moon yet when the original series was canceled. 

It was fortunate for Shatner that Lucille Ball, co-founder of Desilu Productions, the original producer of Star Trek, thought the show was about a group of touring actors when she green-lit it.  History might have been very different if she’d actually read the script.  It’s also a good thing that NBC hated the pilot episode and had series creator, Gene Rodenberry, re-work it, getting a new Captain and Shatner a job that would turn into a lifetime. 

Calling it “Star Trek: The Original Series” reminds me of World War I or what they called “The Great War” or “The War to End All Wars” until World War II came along.  To me it will always be just Star Trek.  

I guess it’s also fortunate for Shatner that Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos amassed hundreds of billions of dollars and doesn’t pay his fair share of taxes, so instead of giving his employees a living wage and healthcare, he can fund trips for civilians to go into space.  If it really happens, who will Scotty be beaming up next?