Summary
- Star Trek: The Original Series, despite being canceled in 1969, has remained popular for 57 years, spawning a multi-million dollar movie franchise and continuing to resonate with viewers today.
- The success of the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies revitalized the franchise on the big screen and led to the creation of Star Trek: Discovery, laying the groundwork for the expansive franchise that exists today.
- The exact date when Star Trek: The Original Series received the "TOS" subtitle is unclear, but it is believed to have been officially adopted in the early 1990s with the creation of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as a way to differentiate the 1960s show from newer iterations.
From its debut in 1966, Star Trek: The Original Series was just plain Star Trek, until the TOS label was later added to distinguish William Shatner's show from the wider franchise. 57 years later, it's incredible that Star Trek has lasted as long as it has, spawning a huge entertainment franchise across multiple media forms. TOS was canceled in 1969, and it wouldn't be for another decade that the USS Enterprise would take flight once again, in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The success of those movies revitalized the Star Trek franchise and led to a hugely successful TV revival, spawning three other spinoff series and a new movie franchise.
In a neat bit of symmetry, the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies reinvigorated the franchise on the big screen by rebooting the Star Trek: The Original Series universe. The success of those movies inarguably led to an interest in resurrecting Trek on TV with Star Trek: Discovery in 2017 laying the groundwork for the expansive franchise that viewers enjoy to this day. So, with Star Trek now being the umbrella title for shows in the franchise rather than the title of William Shatner's original show, when did 60s Trek get the TOS subtitle?
