Star Trek is in the midst of a golden age, with multiple series in production, and more on the way. But back in the ’70s, it seemed like Star Trek might never return. It might have gone down in history as a show that ran three years in the ’60s, got canceled, and got a cartoon. During that time, the Star Trek Convention was born. These cons kept the fans entertained during the “lost years” of the franchise. Before Star Trek: The Motion Picture relaunched the series. Often, the highlight of those cons, and the only “new” Star Trek material shown at them, was an 8MM reel of bloopers from the original show. Which you can watch right here:
These The Original Series gag reels showed William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, and the rest of the Enterprise crew walking into doors and flubbing technobabble lines. And, of course, cursing up a storm and cracking each other up at any given moment. They’re both goofy and hilarious. Now you can watch a full twenty minutes of these classic bloopers from Star Trek in their entirety, thanks to the YouTube channel Pop Culture Curator.
Although these The Original Series blooper reels were popular at cons, not every Star Trek cast member was happy about them. Someone originally edited them together for the cast and crew for wrap parties at the end of a season. They were never intended for public consumption. According to William Shatner’s memoir Movie Memories, Leonard Nimoy was particularly unhappy about this—especially as Trek creator Gene Roddenberry took these reels to conventions and made money from them.
Nimoy, in a very non-Vulcan move, wrote an impassioned letter to Roddenberry asking him to please stop showing the blooper reels at conventions. It put a rift in their relationship for years. Some believe it’s why Nimoy was the sole hold-out for the proposed 1977 continuation series, Star Trek: Phase II. But, once the blooper cat was out of the bag, it was too late. But as true Star Trek fans, we can’t lie. These The Original Series Star Trek bloopers are fun to watch now and a wonderful time capsule of the franchise’s early years.