Takei headlined a 60th anniversary celebration of Star Trek at Comic-Con, drawing a standing ovation. The franchise has generated nearly 1,000 episodes since 1966.
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SAN DIEGO – George Takei headlined a 60th anniversary celebration of "Star Trek" at Comic-Con on Saturday. The 89-year-old actor, who played helmsman Hikaru Sulu on the original series and in multiple films, drew a standing ovation from fans in the convention's Hall H.
Takei joked about feeling young marking the milestone. He turned serious describing the franchise's arc from low-rated 1966 debut to cultural institution. "It's an extraordinary phenomenon," he said.
He credited the show's endurance to "all the people like you and your parents and your grandparents, because of their intelligence and their sensitivity and their vision" in supporting Gene Roddenberry's concept. "We have lived long and endured for 60 years and going," he said, evoking Leonard Nimoy's Mr. Spock motto.
The original series aired from 1966 to 1969. It depicted the voyages of the Enterprise captained by James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and his multiracial crew, taking on major moral and social issues against the backdrop of outer space. Shatner and Nichelle Nichols, a Black actress who played Lieutenant Uhura, made history in 1968 with one of the first interracial kisses ever seen on US television.
Since then, the franchise has generated nearly 1,000 episodes across more than a dozen spin-offs. It has a major presence at Comic-Con, with panels devoted to the series and fans roaming the halls dressed as their favorite characters.
The panel also featured Michael Dorn ("The Next Generation"), Jerry O'Connell (the animated "Lower Decks"), Robert Picardo ("Voyager") and Karim Diane, who plays the franchise's first openly gay Klingon in "Starfleet Academy."
Rod Roddenberry, the creator's son and head of Roddenberry Entertainment, opened the tribute. "It had spaceships. It had a laser gun, had strange planets, even had weird-looking aliens. But that was never really the point, was it?" he told the audience. "This show wasn't about science fiction. This show was about us."
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