Star Trek's Influence on Culture

The Star Trek media franchise, owned by Paramount Global, is a multibillion-dollar industry. Gene Roddenberry created the show and pitched it to NBC as a classic adventure drama, describing it as "Wagon Train to the Stars" and "Horatio Hornblower in Space." The iconic opening line, "to boldly go where no man has gone before," was borrowed almost verbatim from a U.S. government booklet on space produced after the Sputnik launch in 1957. The show has been highly popular in syndication and has been broadcast worldwide. The cultural impact of Star Trek goes beyond its longevity and profitability, with conventions, a dedicated fan base called "trekkies" or "trekkers," and an entire subculture featured in the documentary film Trekkies. The franchise has been ranked as the most popular cult show by TV Guide and has inspired the development of technologies like the Palm PDA and handheld mobile phone. It has also inspired the Tricorder X Prize, a contest to build a medical tricorder device, and has brought the concept of teleportation to popular attention through the famous phrase "Beam me up, Scotty." The replicator from Star Trek has been credited in the scientific literature with inspiring the field of diatom nanotechnology. The show's diverse, multicultural cast was groundbreaking for the time and led to actress Nichelle Nichols using her public platform to advocate for the inclusion of people of color and women in the U.S. space program. In 2020, the U.S. effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Operation Warp Speed, was suggested by a Star Trek fan, Dr. Peter Marks, who leads the unit at the Food and Drug Administration responsible for approving vaccines and therapies.