1st Episode of ‘Star Trek’ Premiered in Canada Before US

EveryStar Trek fan is aware of that the primary episode of Star Trek: The Original Series aired on September 8, 1966, on NBC. The premiere date is so necessary to Trek followers that it is commemorated every year with Star Trek Day, a celebration of all issues Trek.

Though September eighth is broadly acknowledged because the “birthday” of theStar Trek franchise, it is trulynot the date that Star Trek was seen for the very first time. The first episode of The Original Series premiered in a distinct nationtwo days earlier thanit premiered in the United States.

Which Country Did ‘Star Trek’ Premiere in First?

The September 6, 1966 challenge of theMontreal Gazette revealed thatStar Trekpremiered in Canada two days earlier than it premiered in the United States. The Television and Radio part of the paper included a small, black and white advert for the brand new show.

The advert proclaimed that Star Trek, starring William Shatner, would take viewers “by means of the universe and past in tv’s most fun journey!” The advert additionally boasted that the show would play “in astral coloration.” A small black and white sketch of Shatner’s face accompanied the textual content advert.

The episode aired on CTV, the Canadian Television Network.

Why Was the Canadian Premiere First?

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Star Trek was scheduled to air a brand new episode each Thursday in the United States. So, as evidenced by theMontreal Gazette’sadvert, Canada selected to air the weekly episodes on Tuesday.

According to the Canadian Communications Foundation, Canadian tv viewers, particularly those that lived close to the border, had been usually in a position to entry American tv networks. So, Canadian networks usually competed with American networks for viewers.

One of the ways in which Canadian networks handled this competitors was by airing American tv reveals on their very own networks earlier than the American networks. The hope was that by airing the show first, they’d be capable of snag Canadian viewers who may need in any other case watched the show on the American community.

At the time, it was widespread for networks to distribute their programming to different enterprise companions. So, NBC distributed the primary episode ofStar Trek to CTV, and in an try and get a leap on Candian viewership, they aired it two days earlier than it aired in the United States.

‘Star Trek’s’ Real Birthday and Star Trek Day

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For greater than 50 years, Trekkies have been celebratingStar Trek’sbirthday on September eighth, apparently unaware that the franchise’s true birthday was two days earlier than. According toSyfy,the reality aboutStar Trek’strue birthday did not begin circulating in the U.S. till just a few years in the past, when the U.S. premiere was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary.

Larry Nemecek, the host ofThe Trek Files podcast and aStar Trek historian, instructedSyFy that he was “shocked that it took 50 years to penetrate us [Americans]!” He then confirmed that he’d seen scans of Canadian newspapers that marketed the sooner broadcast date.

Though the reality is now identified, it is unlikely that Trek followers might be altering the date of their Star Trek Day plans. The September eighth date has change into a lot greater than only a celebration of the airing ofStar Trek’s first episode. It’s a celebration of all of the methods the Trek franchise has modified the world and all of the issues Trek represents. Whether followers select to have fun Star Trek Day or Star Trek’s official birthday they’re celebrating the identical issues.