By Josh Renaud • jrenaud@post-dispatch.com

When "Star Trek" premiered Sept. 8, 1966, it promised a five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations. But after just three years, the starship Enterprise ran aground, canceled by NBC.

That should have been the end of that, but "Star Trek" found unexpected success in syndication. The number of devoted "Trekkies" grew at warp factor nine. Before long, these fervent fans were organizing Trek conventions and keeping Gene Roddenberry's optimistic sci-fi vision alive.

Fifty years, six TV series, 716 episodes and 12 movies later, the franchise has lived long and prospered.

The latest reboot film, "Star Trek Beyond," opened July 22. And a new "Star Trek" series is in development, scheduled to premiere in January on CBS All Access, the network's subscription streaming service.

In recognition of "Trek's" titanic contributions to popular culture over the last half-century, here are 50 of our favorite things about the franchise.

SERIES ABBREVIATIONS

TOS : "Star Trek" (The original series), 1966-68

: "Star Trek" (The original series), 1966-68 TAS : "Star Trek" (The animated series), 1973-74

: "Star Trek" (The animated series), 1973-74 TNG : "Star Trek: The Next Generation," 1987-94

: "Star Trek: The Next Generation," 1987-94 DS9 : "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," 1993-99

: "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," 1993-99 VOY : "Star Trek: Voyager," 1995-2001

: "Star Trek: Voyager," 1995-2001 ENT: "Star Trek: Enterprise," 2001-05

Sources: memory-alpha.wikia.com, wikipedia.org, joereiss.net/sos, StarTrek.com, CBS.com, treknews.net, gizmodo.com, ign.com, allthetropes.wikia.com