“Star Trek” debuted on NBC in September 1966, and nothing quite like it had been seen before. Created by Gene Roddenberry, who’d flown B-17 bombers in WWII and worked as a pilot and a cop before becoming a TV writer, the show took the old trope of a multiethnic military unit and spliced it into the most optimistic science-fiction scenario imaginable.

　　“Star Trek” posited that by the 23rd century, mankind would put aside warfare. The human race would band together to form an interstellar “Federation,” exploring planets on humanitarian missions in giant conveyances called starships.

　　“Star Trek” finally limped off the air in 1969 after just 79 episodes. Now let's beam ourselves forward four decades—through five subsequent “Trek” TV series, past 10 theatrical movies, beyond all the Trekkie jokes—and here we are, at the latest fan-boy fixation. Next week the 11th movie in the franchise, called plain old "Star Trek," lands in theaters. The film is directed by J. J. Abrams, who owes his cool factor primarily to being a cocreator of “Alias” and “Lost”. Paramount commissioned him to take "Trek" back to ground zero with an origin story detailing how the first Enterprise crew—Kirk, Spock, ship's doctor McCoy, linguist Uhura, Ensign Chekov, navigator Sulu and engineer Scotty—all meet each other.