‘Sixty-Year Mission’ Brings Star Trek’s Legacy to a New Generation

This documentary shows how Star Trek’s stances on everything from race to artificial intelligence were far ahead of their time.

"You might like it, you might not," the 95-year-old star said when she took the stage at the Regal Times Square Theater for her New York premiere of The Sixty-Year Mission: How Star Trek Changed Television and the World. But, the Captain Kirk actor declared, "You're going to see a lovely movie made by people who care."

Focusing on the original Star Trek series that ran from 1966 to 1969, The Sixty-Year Mission is written and directed by Mark A. Altman, creator of the Inglorious Trekpersts podcast. The documentary, which premiered during New York Comic-Con and opens in select theaters this weekend, examines the show's impact and cultural legacy, as well as how much it was a product of the political climate of the era in which it was made.

"I think audiences are going to be surprised by how the sixty-year mission shows how the '60s shaped Star Trek," Altman explains. For the film, Altman interviewed dozens of famous fans and stars, from Shatner and Simon Pegg to Star Trek: The Next Generation's Jonathan Freaks and Brent Spiner. The president's niece—and Trek fan—Mary L. Trump praises the show's groundbreaking cast, particularly Uhura's lieutenant, Nicole Nichols. George Takei, who played Solo, gives a harrowing account of his time in a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II. Others discuss how characters like Spock became heroes to queer fans.

As is well documented, these considerations were important to Gene Roddenberry, the show's creator, who died in 1991. A World War II veteran, he had a progressive bent despite years spent in traditionally conservative spaces such as the US Army and the Los Angeles Police Department. Altman insists that "Captain Kirk was 'JFK: Space Captain,'" and that President Kennedy's idea of a new frontier was the last frontier Trek sought to explore.

However, Shatner didn't see the show that way at first. "When I was offered the role, I didn't think about those terms," says Shatner, who served as an executive producer on the sixty-year-old mission. "I thought, 'I got a regular paying job.' Only later did the magic of Star Trek happen.

Shatner adds that part of the magic is how "Star Trek touched people's lives." Altman explains that these people come from a variety of backgrounds, and the show remains accessible because of the very specific tension in its politics. "Roddenberry was liberal on social issues, but tough on defense, and that's very Star Trek," he says. "We need our phasers to defeat the Klingons, but we believe in a diverse crew."

Kareem Dayan, who plays J. Dan Kraug in Star Trek: Starfleet Academy, notes that as someone who plays the first openly gay Klingon character in the series, he plays someone who means a lot to viewers. "I wish I could post the DMs because the love I've gotten is overwhelming," says Diane.

Trek even had a vision of artificial intelligence as relevant in 2026 as Trump and silicon. Valley leaders talk about a new age of "cloud information." The franchise's best-known AI – the next-gen Android Data – was the perfect version of this technology. In that series, Data constantly struggled to be seen as more intelligent than humans and lacking in emotional intelligence. One episode, "The Size of a Man," even addresses the issue of whether Data is its own existence or merely property.

For Spinner, who played Data, the modern incarnation of AI is a far cry from the thinking machine he portrayed. "If only AI could be what Data is: responsible, genuinely concerned about humanity, considering what best serves humans versus what is most profitable," he says.