I’d never heard until now of the 1966 German sci-fi TV series Raumpatrouille Orion, which debuted within a couple of weeks of Star Trek debuting in the U.S. (rather like The Munsters and The Adams Family debuting simultaneously a couple of years before).

While Star Trek made it through three seasons, just barely long enough to generate enough episodes for the show to later flourish in syndication, the German series, even with French co-production, proved so expensive that only seven episodes were ever produced. (This hints at the advantages in market scale that have allowed America to become so culturally dominant.)

Still, it remained a big enough cult sensation in Germany over the decades that the cast regularly made Galaxy Quest-style personal appearances.

By way of comparison, here’s a preview for an October 1966 episode of Star Trek:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu2VYYv5WVI

I wonder if Star Trek actually saved money by being shot in color? The fuzzy color of the time would have allowed the Americans to get away with cheesier sets, while the Germans obviously spent a lot on their shiny sets to be filmed in crisp b&w.

That American sci-fi would come to dominate the world was probably not obvious in the 1920s, especially in Germany, where Fritz Lang was already making big budget sci-fi movies. A lot of cultural developments depend upon who wins the wars. And Star Trek was very much a product of America winning the Big One, especially the now largely forgotten Pacific War, in which Gene Roddenberry flew 89 combat missions.