S Making ‘TrekS’

Enterprising celebration of iconic show’s 50th anniversary

INCE late June, visitors to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum who walk through the Milestones of Flight hall have been able to see a new object on permanent display.

Right next to the Apollo Lunar Module, Charles Lindbergh’s Spirit of St. Louis monoplane and the Mercury capsule from John Glenn’s first orbital spaceflight is something from another world: A model of the USS Enterprise.

Trekkies know it as the homebase of “Star Trek,” and the restoration of the original 11-ft, 250-lb. prop is one of the projects featured on the two-hour Smithsonian Channel special “Building Star Trek” (premiering Sunday at 8 p.m.).

“It’s placement there really shows that as far as the Smithsonian’s concerned, ‘Star Trek’ really matters. ‘Star Trek’ is at the same level as the actual, real-world things,” says executive producer Tim Evans.

Plenty of networks are rolling out special programming timed to the 50th anniversary of the original “Star Trek” TV series (see sidebar), but Smithsonian Channel’s focus, in addition to the Enterprise and a set piece exhibit at Seattle’s EMP Museum, are the engineers and scientists making the technology from the science fiction show — like warp drives, cloaking devices, phasers and universal translators — a reality today.

“We found … we had an entire generation or two of scientists driven by what they saw on the air in the ’60s,” he says.

That includes NYU physics professor Dr. David Grier, whose “tractor beam” may not be able to move something the size of a shuttlecraft, but it can use light to push, pull and make particles dance in the lab — technology that could be developed to sample microscopic matter in space. There’s also Dr. Sonny Kohli, who grew up watching reruns of “Star Trek” in the ’70s and who dreams of diagnosing illnesses with a handheld device like the tricorder on the series. He’s developing one that can detect electrical impulses from the heart, oxygen levels in the blood, breathing rate and blood pressure. It’s now undergoing clinical testing and could be used to provide critical medical care in Third World countries.

The special interviews screenwriters from the original series, who shed light on the inspiration for some of the technology they wrote (mainly as plot devices to work around a limited budget). Actress Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed Lieutenant Uhura, talks about the show’s controversial (for the time) depiction of an African-American female assuming a leadership role on the Starship Enterprise, as well as her historic smooch with Captain Kirk (William Shatner) — the first and perhaps most famous interracial kiss on TV.

“For the first time she told the public that ‘By the way, my grandparents were an interracial couple.’ She’d never said that before,” Evans says. “It was such a delight to be able to get that story from her and to get her take on it.”