Captain Slog

I cannot remember everything that happened on the 6th April 1970 but thanks to the extensive archives of the internet there are plenty of memory joggers to assist.

I was nearly 7 years old at the time and that particular day was likely to have been a school day- a monday, the worst.

However, the day was salvageable upon returning home with a snack provided by our Mother, my favourite being diluted orange squash, Marmite sandwich and a handful of Custard Cream biscuits and then the afternoon schedule of television on the BBC.

Of course other channels were available, well, only two in that era but first choice in the Thomson house for after school relaxation was BBC 1.

The ITV schedule was a bit limited anyway with for that day with only "Lost in Space" worth seeing at 4.55pm but when clashing with "Blue Peter" there was really no chance for it. After Valerie Singleton, John Noakes and Peter Purves had done their stuff with sticky back plastic and empty washing up bottles it was time for the dubbed Belle and Sebastian, an atmospheric tale of a boy and his dog in the French Alps.

Most families had just one television and as this was, in our house, in the  living room we had to frequently frustrate our Mother who was calling for us to come through to the kitchen to eat our tea by not making a move until the "Adventures of Parsley" had finished at 5.50pm.

We would quite happily migrate to the table when the boring National News came on.

The evening BBC schedule resumed with proper programmes at 6.20pm with "A Question of Sport" and on 6th April 1970 the quiz panel included two of my favourite footballers, Peter Bonetti and Alan Hudson from Chelsea.

It was probably a good thing that, at age 6, I had no homework to do. It is obvious that I had square eyes as, at 6.45pm, it was time for "Z Cars", the police drama, and I was an avid young viewer of crime stories even though I was not exposed to such things in my own life.

It was still early evening but with an 8pm bedtime looming the TV offering leading up to that parentally imposed curfew was critical.

In the previous weeks to early april it had been a series of "The Andy Williams Show," an American import with that great crooner although all I remember about the programme was a Grizzly Bear asking for a cookie.

Being prone to worrying about everything, including changes in routine and TV scheduling I was not at age 6, sure about a brand new replacement for that evenings' slot , something called Star Trek.

The pedigree of the Sci-Fi adventure was questionable and it could be a case of yet another US ratings flop being syndicated to the UK with the BBC being the first run broadcaster. Stateside the show had been launched some 4 years earlier on the 8th September 1966.

The idea of a space based series in that era was quite rare but the timing was right building on the public interest in the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. It would of course be another 3 years before the first Apollo Moon Landing.

After only 79 episodes in three years Stateside and in spite of a strong, loyal and vocal core of fans, Trekkies, the  broadcaster NBC cancelled the show because of a collapse in ratings.

Commercial sponsors, the money-men of US TV had expressed concerns right from the initial pilot shows about the characters and themes portrayed.

Mr Spock had originally been intended to be bright red with pointed ears and forked tail. There would be an obvious opposition to this demonic appearance from a conservative and Evangelistic Christian sponsor base. Fortunately the ears and Vulcan heritage survived the censorship.

Emotions were explored including friendship, loss and other human traits. There were pioneering and contentious topics also written in to the scripts with a first inter-racial kiss and in the depths of the Cold War, a Russian crew member in Mr Chekov.

These two issues may have been just too bold for the American audience, a final frontier too far and the axe fell.

I was too young (5 years old)  to appreciate the first Star Trek broadcasts on the BBC which had occupied a saturday afternoon slot in July 1969 just after the day's extensive sports coverage in Grandstand. That series seemed to have been poorly advertised and consequently did not catch the attention of the British viewing public.

I need not have fretted about the potential viewing disturbance in my young life as I was transfixed by Star Trek from the first few notes of the opening theme on that April Monday.

I had seen nothing like it before and although seen first on the family black and white television set I can clearly recall the vivid colours in full technicolor although this is more likely down to re-runs in the colour television era.

There may have been simpler expectations of the viewing public in what could be portrayed on screen in the pre- CGi technology era but I had no complaints about shaky spaceship models and obvious overlaid images, you know the type with a sharp and bright edge between images.

The cast, writing and production was, to my young mind, brilliant.

The series has persisted with an animated series, a movie franchise and spin-off programmes with a new one scheduled for 2017.

You cannot however beat the original 1960's episodes and even now, aged 53, I relish the opportunity to revisit the sights, sounds and images of that iconic era in the company of Kirk and crew.