On Thursday September 8, 1966 at 8:30 PM, American television audiences were first introduced to Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and the crew of the Starship Enterprise. Star Trek is now a worldwide phenomenon, a cultural touchstone that has the power to unite the most disparate of people with a single phrase such as “Beam me up” or “Make it so” or even a hand gesture—palm raised, fingers splayed in a V shape.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, the Lilly Library is exhibiting some of our rare and (as Spock would say) fascinating collections, including scripts from the original series and Star Trek: The Next Generation, the original prospectus for the show created by Gene Roddenberry in 1966, and items showing the development of episodes from the papers of Jeri Taylor, writer and executive producer on The Next Generation and Voyager. Beam over to see what else—from comic books to Tribbles—there is to discover!