America first saw a program that would later become legendary on September 8, 1966 at 8:30 pm on NBC. America was never the same after Star Trek debuted that night. The series didn't receive the recognition it deserved until it was canceled after just three years and subsequently returned to syndication. However, Star Trek was never a normal science fiction show to begin with. Comparison with other shows in this genre is difficult because Star Trek is certainly not an unconventional science fiction program: it is a science fiction program that shows America in the 1960s. In fact, Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek, said during an interview: "I don't think Star Trek represents the real future, it describes to us, now, things that we need to understand about it." David Gerrold, a writer on the series, also writes in his book that "[t]he stories are about the attitudes of 20th century man in a future universe. The stories are about us." Of course each episode does not make a social commentary, but throughout the program, the characters, the themes and, of course, the individual episodes make strong reflections on sexism, feminism, as well as racism and improving race relations, all social affairs crucial during the late 1960s and, to some extent, social affairs today. Star Trek has made remarkable progress when it comes to minorities. The civil rights movement was already thriving in the late 1960s. By the time the pilot episode aired in 1966, Congress had already passed countless civil rights laws, the Voting Rights Act in 1965, and constitutional amendments that prohibited the poll tax and increased the right to vote in presidential elections for citizens of the District of Columbia, where a better par...... middle of paper ......ket Books, 1986. Cited as Compendium. (All episode air dates were taken from this book.) Asherman, Allan. The Star Trek Interview Book. New York: Pocket Books, 1988. Cited as Interview.Blair, Karen. "Sex and Star Trek." Science Fiction Studies, 10 (1983), 292-297. Editor, "Talk of the Town." The New Yorker, 64 (12 December 1988), 37-38. Greenberg, Harvey R. "In Search of Spock: A Psychoanalytic Investigation." Journal of Popular Film and Television, 12 (1984), 52-65. Gerrold, David. The world of Star Trek. New York: Bluejay Books, 1984. Stine, G. Harry. State of the Art: Star Trek Revisited. 108 (November 1988), 158-166. Tyrell, William Blake. "Star Trek as myth and television as mythmaker." Journal of Popular Culture, 10 (Spring 1977), 711-719.Wortland, Rick. "Captain Kirk: Cold Warrior." Journal of Popular Film and Television, 16 (Fall 1988), 109-117.