Star Trek: It All Began... Today in 1966

Star Trek: The Original Series boldly began going 48 years ago today: September 8, 1966. It took a couple of years, lots of blood, sweat and tears, not to mention two pilots, but Star Trek finally debuted with the episode “The Man Trap,” also known as the one with the vampire monster. Though the episode – as written by George Clayton Johnson and directed by Marc Daniels – tells a powerful story of loneliness, survival and a symbiotic relationship – it is, in many ways, not representative of the Star Trek that fans came to know and love. Kirk, furious that the shape-shifting M-113 creature killed members of his crew, really only wants to chase it down and destroy it. The last of its kind? A species worth studying. None of that really crosses Kirk’s mind until it’s too late, when he admits to Spock “I was thinking about the buffalo” just before the credits roll.

-- Anyone remember the statue in Spock’s quarters in “Amok Time?” Take a close look at “The Man Trap,” as that same statue stands close by the entrance of the Crater home