The show’s impact on the breadth of scientific imagination has proved as fathomless as space itself. James Tiberius Kirk-and many scientists trace their spacefaring curiosities back to this fantasy. Today devoted fans speak the Klingon language and the residents of Riverside, Iowa, claim dibs on the future birthplace of Capt. Fifty years ago Star Trek beamed into television sets for the first time, igniting an international passion for an imagined future that has played out in movies, books and conventions ever since.
