Celebrate Star Trek’s 50th Anniversary With This Wonderful Tribute Video

A longtime friend of the site has sent us a beautiful video tribute to The Original Series on its 50th anniversary,  and we want to share it with you.

The immensely talented Paul Sibbald (known as Spockboy to longtime readers) has gifted all of us with this wonderful homage to Gene Roddenberry’s optimistic view of the future.  We dare you not to get a bit misty-eyed.  Enjoy.

52 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Very Awesome! Cant believe it has been this long.. Here is to another 50 years of Trek.

Paul, that was pretty damned good, my boy. You have genuine talent and an eye for the proper aesthetics. Nicely done.

True story, in a live feed: when I met my current wife 18 years ago, she didn’t wanna know from Star Trek. At this moment, she’s in the living room in her favorite chair and ottoman, munching on a cheese steak and watching First Contact. Trek offers a little something to everyone, you just have to look for it.

That’s not a tribute video. It’s just some… video.

Was your comment necessary? If you didn’t like it…fine. But why be negative? Remember the old adage? If you don’t have anything nice to say…then don’t say anything at all.

Don’t feed the trolls. Otherwise, you’ll get more of the same.

Fair point.

Eagerly awaiting to see your tribute video and what you come up with, Schultz.

Wow Schultz. Go back to your Hogans Heroes fan page. That was awesome and needs to be appreciated.

*sigh*

Just awesome.

Well done with the tribute! To 50 more to come!

That’s freakin’ AWESOME!!!

Why can’t we see this type of stuff BEFORE a Star Trek movie, instead of car commercials?

That’s actually an awesome idea. Give up 2 minutes for fan-work like this.

Of course, they’d just add more car commercials…

I cannot say enough how much I agree!

Wish Paramount’s “publicity” department had clued to this … oh, about six months ago.

Nice

Happy 50th Anniversary.

Awsome job!

Happy Birthday Star Trek!

Not bad, not bad.

;)

Paul, you know I think this is the best tribute video around, and not because of my meager contribution. This little film captures the essence and spirit of Star Trek. Well done. 8-)

Happy Birthday Trek! I just came from the 50th Anniversary celebration at the National Air and Space Museum. In attendance: Rod Roddenberry, The Trimbles, and our beloved Enterprise… never lookin’ better.

Thanks Spockboy/Paul… this labor of love capped off an awesome night.

I wish 2016 had been a better year for Trek. The 50th anniversary was the year the franchise film series lost big money, and the fans were distracted way too much by the fiasco created by a fan production. Here’s to hoping ST:DSC gets us back next year to where we belong: Good Star Trek on TV.

The film hasn’t “lost big money” yet – it’s made $300 million gross worldwide and counting (it’s just opened in China and is doing pretty well). It did get lost a bit here among a bunch of summer releases:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2016/09/08/star-trek-beyond-should-have-opened-in-theaters-today/#12b262d71679

And I suspect a lot of fans don’t actually care about Axanar, one way or the other. Although, yeah, that lawsuit got way too much David vs. Goliath news coverage.

Recognizing the song (as much as I love it) kinda ruined the video for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_UFawnJwOc

Nicely done. :-)

Can’t believe paramount/CBS haven’t dome ANYTHING for the 50th Anniversary- like the 20th, 25th, 30th anniversary specials. I kind of understood them doing nothing for the 40th as they had nothing in production or to promote but they do this year & they should be celebrating anyway because they are celebrating the past 50 year- $$$Whores.

Who watches TV specials anymore? And they’ve been doing a bunch. Gimme a break.

Wonderful. Well done, as always Spockboy.

If I might, I’d like to also mention that I have a “50 Years of Star Trek” video over on YouTube. I did it for a party we held in celebration of the new movie/anniversary of Trek. You can find it on my comedy4cast channel. Be warned, it’s almost 40 minutes long, because it touches on all incarnations of Trek and speaks to what Trek means to us.

Hard to believe it’s been 50 years. Here’s to 50 more!

Ok people, can we try to find another word besides “awesome”? Thanks.

Awesome. Beautiful edit. An instant classic!

This is Star Trek.

This doesn’t need to be reimagined by Fuller, or plagiarised by Bad Robot. DS9 got it right when they did ‘Trials & Tribulations’. You can honour, even revisit the past, while not rewriting it and messing with iconic classics. Just move on, stop looking back. I hope some day we’ll explore the prime universe post Nemesis. Although I’m not a fan of the bland Berman style, Fuller should have picked up the baton dropped after the TNG movies ended, not instead of going back to contradict a style that is celebrated worldwide, preserved in the Smithsonian. I wish Star Trek fans were as brave and uncompromising as Star Wars fan, can you imagine if Star Wars was thrown about like our beloved Trek is? If JJ had rewritten, rebooted Star Wars? But Trek fans have a stigma and a vocal minority shames people who could possibly emotionally connected to a 50 year franchise. Move forward, not back.

I agree. It’s my impression that fans/audience/producers who insist the “dated” (their words) look of the 1960s TOS era must be totally changed are lacking in imagination. I’ve seen several very talented amateur CGI artists, who, with minor tweaks, make the TOS era ships and technology look amazing, realistic and current without throwing out the whole design aesthetic or retro-actively changing the look of the TOS era completely as if it never happened. Heck, even Enterprise’s “In a Mirror Darkly” did it pretty well.

Let’s face it – any Star Trek produced today will look ridiculously dated as well in ten or twenty years. We need to stop designing current trek using our own 21st century mindset.

explorer,
Each Trek has been a product of its time, and TOS certainly captures the bright, forward-looking, “we can change the world” zeitgeist and aesthetic. And even though Bill Theiss and the hair designer[s] thought ahead, we can see the ’60s, too.

TNG reflects the ’80s and ’90s with its worldview as well: a reluctance to interfere in other cultures — more awareness of the value of differences — and the ’80s/’90s cultural values in the US [watching the counseling sessions for family issues is particularly specific to the times]; DS9 reflects some of the darkness in our cultural mood, mixed with the tightness we feel with our friend-families and the strength we get from them and [for some] from spirituality; it also reflects the acceptance among many for a vastly different culture [Klingons] and the lingering prejudices from some in multi-cultural contexts [such as Dukat and many Cardassians]; VOY reflects the family-against-all, and unfortunate technobabble [which may reflect some of us in our reaction to fast-moving technology we don’t quite understand, heh-heh, and how we trust the “experts” to see us through; ENT reflects our wanting to get back to basics, our wanting cooperation with others, tentatively establishing working and cultural relationships with them [Andorians and Vulcans, for example], and again, our sense of family and acceptance of “other” [being Seven of Nine, mostly].

Agree. Appreciate the past for what it is and don’t make any more attempts to revise TV history. Lets go forward because that’s what Star /trek is all about… well except for the occasional trip back in time.

” I wish Star Trek fans were as brave and uncompromising as Star Wars fan”

Wait… what?

Of all the fandoms to compare Star Trek fandom too for being “brave and uncompromising,” you picked STAR WARS fans? Really? Because they’re so “brave and uncompromising” that they turned out in droves to watch “The Phantom Menace?” Say what you will about the JJ Universe, but nothing released by Bad Robot ever approached the God-awfulness of that pile of dreck! And those same “brave and uncompromising” fans turned out, yet again, for “The Clone Wars,” and ate up some of the most poorly written dialogue ever to grace a major release. Romance scene between Padme and Anakin, anyone?

And those same Star Wars fans turned out, yet again, to make “The Force Awakens” one of the biggest movie releases, EVER. You know, that movie that just came out that is basically a re-telling of “A New Hope,” just with better special effects, the senseless killing of a major character, and the whiniest, “Beverly Hills 90210” bad guy with daddy issues we’ve ever seen. You want to, “move forward, not back,” and yet that is exactly what was done with “The Force Awakens,” and it made a fortune!

“Imagine if Star Wars was thrown about like our beloved Trek is?”

You mean thinks like “The Ewok Christmas special” (or Ewoks at ALL?) My goodness… could you imagine the vitriol on this very site of one of the JJ movies had the Romulan Empire utterly defeated by a bunch of 2-foot tall walking Teddy Bears with spears? Or all the other bastardization of Star Wars that Disney will happily feed to the Star Wars fans, and that they eat up in droves?

No… I would say that Star Wars fans are the OPPOSITE of “brave and uncompromising,” and will turn out and watch or buy ANYTHING with the Star Wars tag on it. “Move forward, not back?” And yet the next incarnation of Star Wars is a tale that is a prequel / side story to “A New Hope,” it “Rogue Squadron?” And you KNOW it will make a fortune!

Nope, in deference to your point, the reason Star Wars films, shows, and merchandise keeps making tons of dough is because its core fans, and the public at large, will suck up ANYTHING with the “Star Wars” name on it, no matter how poor! Star Wars fans look forward to anything that Lucas used to, and now that Disney will, feed them. And they do so openly, with great anticipation, that spreads the feeling that this is a much-see event that spreads to the general public and turns these movies into great successes.

Trek fans, on the other hand, aren’t afraid to post opinions, and even fight with each other, over the tiniest little details. And, unfortunately, I think that spreads into the general public and creates the perception that Star Trek is stilted, boring, all-to-serious, and un-fun. If anything, I’d say it is Star TREK fans who are “uncompromising,” and unwilling to enjoy anything that is outside their narrow perception of what Star Trek IS.

So… I get what you are trying to say. But you couldn’t have picked a worse comparison. Star Wars fans will pack the theaters for ANYTHING that Disney will affix the “Star Wars” tag to and make it a great success. And these are the people you want to say are “brave and uncompromising.” I’m sorry, I just don’t see it.

Super cool.

And, Trekmovie is doing a pretty incredible job at covering the anniversary (and Beyond, Discovery and conventions).

I’m pretty proud to be a Star Trek fan right now.

Awesomely awesome. Thanks, Spockbot!

Live Long and Prosper, Trek!

Wow. That was really really good.

wow! Loved it, great job!

Agreed, the Trekmovie Staff is doing the 50th proud. Well done, folks.

Agreed. I wish you guys could help Paramount publicize movies ….

I’ve also grown to like the 50th anniversary design of the new header for TrekMovie!

I hope that Paramount doesn’t sue him. ; )

Great montage, Spockboy. Honestly, it almost had me a bit teary eyed.
Keep up the great work!

Much better than the lackluster and underwhelming video that CBS released on the 50th Anniversary.

Great stuff. All of it – Star Trek has been such a huge part of my life, I love it with a passion and it’s given me so much – hope, intellectual curiosity, role models, friends, music….
I glad that the SyFy channel is giving us a great Trek 50 time, with TNG shown at it’s best in seasons 5 and 6, all the movies (except Nemesis for some reason)… and of course TOS is on CBS Action.
It is a shame that the big Trek movie didn’t resonate (at least with me) the way it ought to have done – the way that Dr Who’s 50th did, or the way that TNG’s final episode did.
Ah well, let’s hope for the adventure to continue…

Winkie, Thank goodness Netflix has most of the series too. Spockboy has inspired me to rewatch my fave TOS episodes!

Oh! Lovely, Spockboy. I only wish the “wipes” had been a bit slower. My brain can’t register visual information that fast!

Great Job Spock Boy!!

Why has this not been mentioned on this site yet?

Holy shit. Why isn’t he working for a major studio, or better yet CBS and Discovery?

From your lips to God’s ear. :)

On the weekend I came across this. It is the beginning of a homily given by Father Tony Dunn, St Michaels Church, Remuera, Auckland, NZ. He said –

“Last Thursday (8 September 2016), the Church celebrated… The same day saw a birthday of lesser importance, yet *STILL SIGNIFICANT; the 50th birthday of the TV/Movie science fiction series, Star Trek…”

* My emphasis

Apparently, throughout the years, this is not the first time that various priests have mentioned Star Trek in their homilies (according to my husband) and always in a positive light. They use a character and/or some other aspect to demonstrate a particular idea or personality trait to give people greater understanding of themselves (emotionally, spiritually). Also, as far as I am aware, it is about the only TV programme that’s been mentioned at all.

Afterward, when I went up to Fr Dunn to talk to him about his homily and his (he’s not alone) take on the Spock character, he laughed heartily and was glad to have met a (Trek) “purist”, as he described me. I do wonder though – could the good priest also be a closet Trekkie?

Just thought I would mention it… kinda cool, I think.