Kate Mulgrew Wishes You a Happy Star Trek Day!
September 8, 2024
Happy Star Trek Day! In celebration, we’re thrilled to share a special message from Kate Mulgrew, who played Captain Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager. Join us as she honors and celebrates the legacy of Star Trek with all of you. 🖖
Now, What Does This Greeting Really Mean?
Happy Star Trek Day!
Now, what does that greeting really mean? Simply that Trekkies and Trekkers alike – once a year, on this day – can sum up all their feels for their favorite future-leaning, diversity-laden, science-celebrating sci-fi saga all in one phrase: on Star Trek’s birthday!
For on Sept. 8, 1966, smack in the middle of the ’60s original space race to the moon, American TV viewers got their first glimpse of this “fascinating” new series set in outer space- but with very human characters and dilemmas (well, human with one exception!).
The show’s formal Sept. 8 NBC premiere date became the simplest date fans and historians could settle on for a “birthday,” even though of course two pilot episodes had been produced since 1964- and creator Gene Roddenberry’s original pitch memo for Star Trek was finalized on March 11 that same year. (Fun fact: Our Canadian fan friends love to point out how, through a quirk of scheduling in a far-less-connected world, “Star Trek” actually first aired on the CTV network there two days earlier, on Sept. 6!)
But Sept. 8 has always been the date celebrated – even if not always called that. In the early years, fans used to mark the day by wishing each other “happy Star Trek birthday” or “happy Star Trek anniversary”-all in a definitely lower-case mood, and definitely not on a broad scale. Then in 1986, with Star Trek IV about to be a hit and The Next Generation on the eve of being announced, the studio for the first time ever talked about the premiere date with a big 20th anniversary campaign. And then a 25th, and then a 30th…
Then “the geeks won” and made everything Starfleet mainstream-and by 2017, the new small-screen revival of Star Trek was promoted by CBS with a joyous, star-filled “Happy Star Trek Day!” promo spot on Sept. 8. It’s been a spotlight day for special events, big-news announcements, and good Trek cheer ever since.
So “Star Trek Day” it is- and best of all, the whole world knows! How will you celebrate?
-Larry Nemecek