"It speaks to some basic human needs, that there is a tomorrow - it's not all going to be over in a big flash and a bomb, that the human race is improving, that we have things to be proud of as humans. No, ancient astronauts did not build the pyramids - human beings built them because they're clever and they work hard. And 'Star Trek' is about those things." Gene Roddenberry, from the "Star Trek" 25th Anniversary special, 1991
Fortunately, the bulk of Star Trek fans are well-balance individuals attracted by Roddenberry's message of a hopeful, positive future, in many cases highly trained professional people, and not the handful of unrepresentative, deranged basked cases that have just been discussed. - James Van Hise, "The Unauthorized History of Trek"
"In the annals of science fiction, where dystopias rule the imaginative roost, Star Trek stood nearly alone in telling us that our future would be better than our past, that our common problems would be solved, that we, as a species, were fundamentally good, and that the universe would reward us for our goodness." Charles Shaar Murray and Mike Marqusee in "Prospect Magazine"
The original Star Trek was the best critique of late-20th-century American foreign policy ever broadcast on TV. - AA Gill, "The Times"
"Sitting in the captain's chair of the Enterprise is rather like sitting on the throne of England and probably marginally more important." - Patrick Stewart
An Irishman who fought with the Canadians against the Germans became a Scotsman who fought with the Americans against the Klingons. - Mark Steyn, from his obituary for James Doohan (Scotty), "The Atlantic Monthly"
It could only happen in America: where else could a son of Russian immigrants become a television star with pointed ears? - A 1967 TV Guide issue profile of Leonard Nimoy
Genevieve Bujold has resigned as Captain of the new series of Star Trek (hisses from audience). Rumor has it she stormed off the set. I guess that proves one thing: even in the 24th century, the French will be obnoxious. - Conan O'Brien, on the casting for "Voyager" on his "Late Night with Conan O'Brien"
After pornography, Star Trek information is probably one of the easiest things there is to find on the net. - Faith J. Cormier
While most science fiction of the 1960s and much of it now shows us a glum, dismal, postholocaust future where people wear rags and are reduced to ratlike behaviour, Star Trek gave us a clean, bright future with crisp military panache melded into the dyanmism of individuality... Jim Kirk was the individual who set the design, and without him there would be no Star Trek today, but not because he was perfect or charismatic, though he was certainly the latter. Jim Kirk provided a magnetic compass for us because he was charismatic and yet deeply flawed. Yes, as classical heroic drama has always shown us, the hero's imperfections and how he handles them are the real barometers of heroism. - Diane Carey, Star Trek novellist
Most science fiction concentrates on the differences. Kirk and his crew had the idea that there would be, had to be, something in common even with the oddest creature, and all we had to do was find that thing, that common desire, goal, passion, no matter how small. Jim Kirk looked at women much the same way the ultimate alien, of course. He saw not only face or hair or figure, or how different women were from one another, but how much they were the same. He saw not females, but femininity... Jim Kirk wasn't a hound after all. He was an appreciator. He appreciated women for the poetic loveliness he saw in all of them, human or otherwise, and he appreciated aliens for the relationship that could be built out of a vacuum. - Diane Carey, Star Trek novellist