I got reminded by George Takei’s BlueSky account that this week marks 60 years since Star Trek debuted. I haven’t done much regarding Trek in recent years. I read both DC Comics’ series, re-watched the original crew novels and read the novelizations, and Gene Hendricks and I talked about our Trek stories on episode 112 of the podcast.

One thing I mentioned on that episode was the 25th Anniversary special. It aired September 28, 1991 in the middle of a big celebration year for the franchise. The Next Generation was going strong, novels and comics were coming out on the regular and were successful, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country would be released on December 6.

I watched the show when it aired on WPIX, and the station preceded it with a marathon of original series episodes, packaged as a top ten of all-time. I caught a few of them and taped them, especially “Space Seed” (ranked #2) and “The Trouble With Tribbles” (ranked #1). And I also taped the special, which was two hours (with commercials).

That tape, believe it or not, was still in my basement among the other VHS tapes I’d held onto over the years. I’d thought about popping it in and watching it, but there was an excellent, crisp transfer from LaserDisc on YouTube.

I had forgotten it was as long as it was, and while I knew that it was hosted by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy from a TV control room, I couldn’t remember much else. I was also a little wary. These specials can sometimes be too short and skip over a lot; sometimes, they are cheesy and don’t take the material seriously. So I was pleasantly surprised at how well it was done.

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